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The Chinese government believes that the popularity of Danmei literature is a risk to the traditional values of the family and has detained the authors.
“I was warned not to talk about it,” wrote a woman before telling about the day she says she was arrested for publishing gay erotic literature.
“I will never forget. To have been taken to the car in front of everyone, to endure the humiliation of naked to be searched In front of strangers, put on a vest for the photos, sitting in the chair, shaking with fear, my heart to fire. ”
The Pinging Anan Yongfu profile is among at least eight that, in recent months, have shared reports on the Chinese social network Weibo about prisons for publishing gay erotic fiction.
At least 30 writers, almost all women in their 20s, have been arrested in China since February, a lawyer who defends one of them told BBC. Many are free on bail or waiting for trial, but there are some in custody. Another lawyer told the BBC that many others were summoned to testify.
Published their work at Haitang Literature City, a platform hosted in Taiwan known by his Danmei contentgender of erotic fiction and gay novels.
The style is a kind of gay version of fifty shadows of Gray: A BDSM relationship – a term in English that relates practices of bondage power relations (strings), discipline or domination (discipline or domination), sadism or submission (sadism or submission) and masochism (masochism) – which ends in happily ever after.
These authors are being accused of Violate the Antipornography Law of China for “producing and distributing obscene materials”. Writers who profit from this type of content can catch more than 10 years in prison.
The law aims “explicit descriptions of gay sex or other sex perversions”. Heterosexual representations often have more freedom – works by acclaimed Chinese authors, including the winner of Nobel MO Yan, contain graphic sex scenes, but are widely available.
Although authors of heterosexual erotic content have already been arrested In China, analysts say the genre is less subject to censorship.
Gay eroticism, which is considered more subversive, seems to disturb the authorities more. Volunteers in a support group for haitang platform writers told BBC that police have even questioned even some readers.
Those who reported being arrested did not want to give interviews, with fear of reprisal. Police from the city of Lanzhou in the northwest of the country, which is accused of leading this repression, did not respond to the BBC.
On the internet, repression has generated debates – and a rare opposition to the law.
Even jurists have expressed concern that only 5000 views for something considered “obscene” qualify as a criminal “distribution”, reducing the limit to arrest creators.
This has left Beijing so uncomfortable that the discussions are disappearing. The hashtag #HaitangaUthorsarped (authors haitang prey, free translation to Portuguese) has achieved More than 30 million views No Weibo before being censored.
The publications that offer legal counseling also disappeared. The report of a prominent Chinese news site was taken down. The accounts of the writers, and some of their profiles, are also disappearing.
Danmei: the unprecedented royalty of pop culture
These women have been working in the shadows for a long time in China, where homosexuality and eroticism are stigmatized.
Now, exposed by police investigations, they face social consequences as brutal as legal.
One woman wrote that the police were “kind” and advised her to talk to a lawyer and return her “illegal gains” to reduce the penalty. “I’m only 20 years old. So new and I already ruined my life.”
Inspired by the Japanese sleeves of Boys’ Love, Danmei has emerged as an online subgenre in the 1990s. Since then, it has become a huge success, with some novels to appear on best selling international lists.
In a culture in which the female sexual desire is often policedDanmei has become a form of codified and creative expression-a space where women can write about female desires by other women.
This is precisely what makes Danmei so “subversive,” says Liang Ge, professor of digital sociology at University College London. Allows women to “ Discounts of gender realities“Often associated with marriage and motherhood.
For example, in Danmei stories, men can get pregnant and feel comfortable being vulnerable, a stark contrast to the often unequal relationships with which many Chinese women deal in real life.
But Danmei novels are not free of criticism, because some contain extreme and violent scenes.
A Age of the authors It has also been a concern: some of the people interviewed by the BBC said they started reading and writing gay erotic literature before turning 18, some, with only 11.
“Payments on my account have become the proof of my crime”
As marriage and birth rates plummeted and Chinese leader Xi Jinping promotes a “national rejuvenation”, state surveillance over Danmei has intensified, says Ge.
“The Chinese government wants Promote traditional values From the family, and enjoying Danmei novels is seen as a factor that makes women less willing to have children, ”he explains.
This is the Second wave of mass arrests In less than a year – last year, about 50 haitang platform writers were processed.
The two repressions are similar, according to a lawyer who represented some of the accused last year, “but this time, not even those who have a minimum participation were spared.”
Last year, all arrests were made by Jixi County Police in East China.
Indebted local governments have already resorted to this type of action before to raise money with fines, sometimes forcing central government warnings.
Cyber crimes are particularly vulnerable to this type of practice, says the lawyer: “ claim that a local reader has been corrupted“.
Danmei’s authors know that tolerance can be unstable. That’s why, Contour the censorship with metaphors. “Making Dinner” means sex; “Kitchen utensil” is code for male genitals.
Another author of Danmei published: “I wrote in haitang for years, with only a handful of readers. So those ignored stories accumulated over 300,000 clicks, and the 4000 yuans in payments on my account became the evidence of my crime.”
It’s hard to know if it means the end of your haitang careers.
“If I could go back, I would still choose to write. And I I will continue to write“Wrote the Sijin Sijin profile.
“Now, I can only expect the law See beyond the words on the page – And see the girl who jumped meals to save money, the girl who sold her hair to buy a pen, the girl who believed her mind could make way through destination. I hope you give us a fair opportunity to all of us. ”
