China is cracking down on young women who write gay erotica

“I’m warned I’m not talking about it,” the woman wrote, before she discovered a distortion of the day, says she was arrested for issuing Gay Erotics.

“I will never forget him – to fully follow in the full view, lasting a bare bare for testing before foreigners, putting a vest for photographs, sitting in a stool, shaking with fear, my heart beats.”

Handle, Pingping Anan Yongfu, is among at least eight in recent months who shared the accounts in the Chinese Social Media Media Platform for the arrest for the publication of gay erotic fiction. As the authors recount their experiences, dozens of lawyers offered Pro Bono help.

At least 30 writers, almost all of them in their 20s, was arrested throughout February, a lawyer who defended one said BBC. Many are out of the bail or await the trial, but some are still in custody. The second lawyer told the BBC that many more associates were invited for questioning.

They published their work on Haitang Literature City, platform in Taiwanese household known for their “Danmei”, the genre of so-called boys of love and erotic fiction.

Think like a gay version fifty shades gray: a BDSM relationship that leads to happily-ever after. It is a common tropace, via historical, fantastic or sci-fi settings. Over the years, it has grabbed fiercely dedicated, especially among young Chinese women.

These authors are accused of violating the Chinese Pornographic Law for “production and distribution of obscene material”. Writers earning earn can be closed for more than 10 years.

The law of the goal “explicit descriptions of gay sex or other sex perversions”. Heterosexual views often have more free work on reviewing Chinese authors, including Nobel Laureate Mo Ian, have graphical sexual scenes, but are widely available.

Although the authors of heterosexual erotica are closed in China, observers say that the genre is subjected far less censorship. Gai Erotica, which is more subversive, seems to bother the authorities. Volunteers in Haitang Writers Support Group said that the BBC police even examined some readers.

Those who reported that arrested refused to be interviewed, fearing the consequences. Police in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, who is accused of driving this crack, did not respond to the BBC.

It is online that the crack has released the discussion – and lessened respect against the law.

“Has sex really shy something?” The USER user asked, claiming that the laws against the obscurity of China without contact were. Another one wrote that women can never decide what is rude because they do not control narrative. Even legal scientists expressed concern that only 5,000 views considered anything “obscene” qualifies as a criminal “distribution”, lowering the tape to arrest creators.

He did Beijing uneasily that the discussions were missing: # Haitangauthorsarrested attracted more than 30 million opinions on Veibo before it was censored. Messages offered legal advice do not have. The highlighted story of the Chinese news is demolished. Accounts of writers and some handles, also disappear.

After pinging Post Anan Yongfu went the virus, she erased and wrote another, thanks to supporters and admitted that her writing violated the law. She then erased her handle.

Before that last post, she wrote, “I’ve always been a good girl in my parents’ eyes. But that day I brought them nothing but embarrassment. He would never raise his heads again.”

These women worked in the shadows in China for a long time, where homosexuality and eroticism are stigmatized. They are now poured with police investigations, face social consequences that are brutal as well as legal.

“At that moment, everything I felt was embarrassment,” said the writer whose veibo handle translations on “the world is a huge psychiatric hospital”. She said that the police pulled her out of class in college – and her classmates looked at her as they followed her to look for her bedroom.

“I deserve my money in the word word on the keyboard. But once it went south, it was like nothing of it. I was acting like I ever worked for me like I ever worked.”

Another one wrote the police that it was kind, counseling to talk to a lawyer and returned her “illegal earnings” to reduce the sentence. “I’m only 20 years old. So young, I’ve already ruined my life so early.”

The third third is, “I never imagined the day would come if every word used to write to chase me.”

One author written by Romanes Danmey was 20 years old not questionable, but he says tightening will not stop. “This is how I find happiness. And I can’t let the links I made with the community.”

Inspired by Japanese boy’s love manga, Danmey was created as a subhead online during the 1990s. He became extremely successful, and some appear on international bestseller lists.

In 2021. years 60 of them were sufficiently adapted for film and TV adaptations. The most expensive IP was reportedly sold for 40 million Yuan ($ 5.6 million; 4.1 million pounds). Some of the largest Chinese stars, like Xiao Zhan and Wang IIBA, began a career on streaming shows based on Danmei novels.

In short, it is a rebellious royal pop culture – too popular to ignore, too much controversial for honor.

And that is a signature on Hailang, who, in Mandarin, a flower that blooms in every pink shade.

Haitang and Danmey flourished as unique women’s spaces, although they are in the center of male protagonists. In a culture in which women’s sexual desire is routinely polished, Danmei Beceme coded, creative opening – a space where women can write about women’s wife for other women.

This is exactly what Danmey makes “Subversive,” says Dr Liang Ge, who teaches digital sociology at the University of London. It allows women to “separate from gender realities”, which often socialize with marriage and motherhood.

For example, in Danmei stories, men can pregnate and are easy to be vulnerable – Stark contrast from often unequal relations with many Chinese women fighting in real life.

“Danmei releases me to think about all these potential dangers in relations in traditional heterosexual romance,” one writer explains in the world of Danmei for a decade.

The novels of Danmey are not without their critics, because some contain extreme and violent scenes. “Like a parent, how many of us can accept our children reading novels like this, let alone writing them?” He asked one Weibo user.

The authors’ time was also a handful of those who the BBC said that they said that they all started reading and writing Gay erotica before they reached 18 years, some young people.

This is a problem that the community should admit and address, Ma, DanMey writer who shared only his last name, adding that this is a problem for all the content of adults, because China does not limit the content by age.

But Danmei was especially attacked in the last decade while Beijing launched a series of campaigns for “cleaning” internet. By 2018. The author of Danmei was closed 10 years for sale 7,000 copies of his book called Occupy.

As marriage and birth rate, and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping encourages national rejuvenation, so DanMei’s state surveillance separated, Dr. Ge says.

“The Chinese government wants to promote traditional family values ​​and like Danmei novels are considered the factor that women are less prepared to have children,” explains Dr. Ge.

This is the second wave of mass arrests in less than a year – at the end of last year, about 50 Haitanga writers were processed. The famous author who earned about 1.85 million Yuan was closed for almost five years.

Two complies are similar, according to a lawyer who presented some of the accused last year, “but that way, even those with minor participation were not spared.”

A lawyer offered by free legal advice said more than 150 people asked consultations in just two days. Many of those who are contacted are not yet accused – they are still terrified of opportunity.

“This is a classic fishing on the coast,” says a lawyer who wrote a “practical guide” to help haitang writers. The term refers to overly by local police – those in Lanzhou summarized writers in various places, probably outside their competence.

Several was reported to pay out of his pocket to fly in Lanzhou. One announced that 2,000 yuan earned from two books on Haitang paid for the flight.

Last year, all the arrests of the police in Jiki County in East China.

In charge of local governments, they made it before the income generated fines, sometimes forcing the warning from the Central Government. Cyber ​​crimes are especially prone to that “as long as they claim that the local reader is corrupt,” says the lawyer.

Danmey writers know the tolerance can be overturning. That is why the skirt is censorship with metaphors. “Making dinner” means sex; “Kitchen tool” is the code for male genitals.

Still, he recently remembered them. “The phone call smashed my dreams,” as a writer described the police call.

They accused the police to search the phone without an order. They said that the crime was assessed by adding attitudes for each chapter – the method they claimed is wrong, as it is probably overly overly overly it is overly overly overly.

Another author Jenny Danmei has published: “I wrote on Haitang for years, with just a handful of readers. Then over 300,000 clicks and 4,000 yuan in the copyrighted sitting in my account became evidence of my account.”

It’s hard to know if it ends the end of your career on Hayiang.

“If I could come back, I’d still decide to write. And I’ll continue to write,” Sijin de Sijin wrote.

“Currently, they can only hope that the law will see the words on the page – and see the girl who saunches the money, who sold the hair, who believed that she could make the mind of the mind.” I hope all of us to make his destiny. “

Additional Reporting Grace TSOI in Hong Kong