I will add a little cultural factor here, in many Asian cultures women and men still do not interact too freely, many have arranged marriages and little contact with opposite gender before that. Heterosexual male friendship and brotherhoods are highly celebrated and can include hand holding, embracing, light or even heavy cuddles in public no issue and not seen as 'gay' and the concept of 'gay' is complete hush hush. It is very common more so in rural areas to see men holding hands and walking as a sign of brotherhood, there are many more insights but I won't drag it now. It is also a common theme to honor friendship and loyalty, the act of choosing friendship and loyalty over say romantic love with a woman is cheered. Everything I mentioned is slowly changing though but I am trying to give an idea.

Anyway, with that perspective, this show can come across as bromance for a lot of people who are not reading between the lines and Hannibal is quite difficult to read between the lines. I can add on to OP's sample - My family is from Asia and the two men I know who have seen it ( I threatened them to see it ;) ...) see the relationship as loyalty and partnership in a friendly way and they have liked the show. The senior amongst them saw Hannibal more like a father and this a dysfunctional father-son. Like it was common to have a detective and their assistant being very close but not questioned what it is ... Sherlock TV series brought in some questionable angle. Those who have read Tintin comics must have seen the bromance between Haddock and Tintin.