China Arrests Adult Fanfiction And Gay Erotica Writers

Over 50 writers in China have been arrested for their creation of erotic and gay fiction as part of the country’s ongoing crackdown on pornographic content. 

Online fiction in China has become a huge industry in recent years, and is now estimated to be worth an estimated 40 billion yuan (or about AUD$8.8 billion). However, despite the popularity of genres like “danmei”, which is about romantic and sexual relationships between men, China is taking steps to curb how much of this content is available in the country. 

As reported in Radio Free Asia, a number of writers were arrested after posting to Haitang Literature, a Taiwanese website specifically for adult fiction where writers can earn money from tips and subscriptions.

One top writer on the site with the pen-name Yuan Shang Bai Yun Jian, was hit with a four-and-a-half year prison sentence, while other writers Ci Xi and Yi Xie were given five-and-a-half years and one year, five months sentences respectively. Ten writers that had explicitly written danmei were also sentenced, but most charges laid haven’t been made public yet.

According to the South China Morning Post, a woman using the name Yuanjin online had been reported missing since mid-June by her sister. Later, her husband shared that she had been arrested, and asked for donations to help pay off a fine and reduce her sentence, though she still thanked her readers for their support. 

Pornographic content completely forbidden in China

Creating pornographic material has been outright forbidden in China since 1997, and is considered a “social evil” by the government. In fact, writers who make more than 250,000 yuan creating “pornographic material” can potentially receive life in prison as their maximum punishment, depending on if they can pay back the money they made. 

This current wave of crackdowns isn’t the first time China has heavily punished the creation of pornographic materials – back in 2018, a woman posting under the pseudonym Tianyi was jailed for over a decade for selling a novel that contained “graphic depictions of male homosexual sex.”

The country is also known for its censoring of LGBTQI+ content, such as with blockbuster releases or the latest season of Arcane.