China is ramping up arrests and prosecutions of writers of “danmei,” the popular Boys’ Love genre, which was once the source of dozens of popular television shows and films in the Communist nation.
Now it’s the target of a government crusade to “clean up” the internet.
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At least 30 writers, nearly all of them women in their 20s, have been arrested across the country since February, the defense lawyer for one detained author told the BBC.
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As many as 50 writers have been arrested in Gansu province in central China alone, according to one Chinese news outlet.
Another lawyer said he was contacted by at least 150 writers over just two days who had been interrogated, summoned for questioning, or feared that they would be.
“A phone call shattered my dreams,” said one author after being contacted by police.
Boys’ Love erotic fiction is written and read almost exclusively by young women in China and is considered subversive by the government. The male characters are seen as liberated stand-ins for women in a country where gender roles are strictly enforced, and women are almost universally subservient to men.
The writers are being accused of breaking China’s pornography law for “producing and distributing obscene material.” That law targets “explicit descriptions of gay sex or other sexual perversions.”
Heterosexual depictions don’t receive the same scrutiny, the writers say.
With domestic distribution of the material shut down over the last several years, the writers of Boys’ Love stories have turned to offshore distributors, who have gained access to the Chinese market with technology that bypasses Chinese censors.
Many writers publish on the Taiwan-based adult fiction website Haitang Literature City, which authorities have scoured to identify Boys’ Love authors.
At least 30 writers published on the platform have been arrested this year and accused of breaking China’s law over obscene material.
Volunteers in a support group for the Haitang writers said police have even questioned some readers.
A wave of arrests late last year inspired protests online, with social media users questioning the government’s motives in the crackdown.
“Is sex really something to be ashamed of?” asked one Weibo user, arguing that China’s anti-obscenity laws are out of touch with society almost 30 years after they were enacted.
Another commenter wrote that women haven’t been allowed to decide what is obscene because it’s men who make the rules in a patriarchal society.
Like the gay characters substituting for women in the Boys’ Love genre, obscenity violations are being used as a stand-in to justify the repression of women in China, online critics say.
That conjecture has spooked Chinese authorities, who are doubling down on censorship of government criticism around the latest wave of arrests.
The hashtag #HaitangAuthorsArrested earned more than 30 million views on Weibo before it was censored. Posts offering legal advice have disappeared, a prominent Chinese news site’s story on the subject was removed, and writers’ accounts and handles are vanishing overnight.
Exacerbating the crackdown are local authorities’ motives in carrying out the government’s internet “clean-up.” Writers and their families report local police are extorting cash from them based on earnings from selling the Boys’ Love stories; an equivalent amount or more paid in fines can earn the writers’ release before prosecution.
The government’s own formula for punishment also takes into account the amount earned from stories, as well as views. A popular story can earn a writer a life sentence in prison.
It’s a dramatic turn in the authors’ fortunes since just a few years ago. In 2021, at least 60 Boys’ Love stories were optioned for film and TV adaptations, according to The New York Times.
But with the genre’s rise in popularity, Chinese state media began to denounce it as “vulgar.” The gay story lines distorted young minds, authorities maintained, so films were shelved, shows were canceled, and television regulators banned Boys’ Love adaptations and gay-themed content more broadly.
One popular Boys’ Love author was sentenced to 10 years in prison, a warning other “danmei” authors refused to heed.
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