China's crackdown on gay erotica stifles rare outlet for LGBTQ expression
In recent months, Chinese police have detained dozens of writers on Haitang Literature City, a Taiwan-based website known for publishing serialised Boys' Love, a genre of erotic fiction mainly written and read by heterosexual women.
Originating as a strand of Japanese manga comics in the 1960s known as 'yaoi', the genre has attracted a cult following in Asia and beyond, leading to popular screen adaptations and web series.
The stories defy social stereotypes about the roles of men and women, a 22-year-old writer who asked to go by the pseudonym Miu Miu, told AFP.
'It's a kind of resistance… resisting a male-dominated society,' she said.
The latest crackdown ensnared mostly amateur writers who earned little to nothing for their work.
Under Chinese law, profiting from 'spreading obscene content' can lead to fines and prison. 'Serious' instances can carry jail terms of up to a decade.
The obscenity law applies when someone's work gets at least 10,000 clicks or is 'used' to collect fees exceeding 10,000 yuan (nearly $1,400).
While the law excludes 'artistic works or works of artistic value', that distinction is usually left to police.
Embed from Getty Images
'The rules are outdated,' said a lawyer representing one of the authors and who asked not to be named due to the risk of repercussions.
'The general public's attitude towards sex is no longer the same as it was 30 or 40 years ago,' the lawyer added.
One author phoned by police earned 2,000 yuan for two books with a total of 72 chapters that, combined, drew around 100,000 clicks.
'Are there really 100,000 people who have seen my work like they said? Are they really going to sentence me to three to five years?' the author wrote on Weibo.
'Don't they know how precious three to five years of life are?'
Censors without borders
The investigations have also renewed criticism of a practice known as 'distant water fishing', cross-provincial policing by cash-strapped local governments.
The profit-driven enforcement typically involves authorities travelling to another jurisdiction and seizing a suspect's assets.
Embed from Getty Images
'Police find this kind of stuff can make them money,' Liang Ge, a lecturer on digital sociology at University College London, said of the targeting of Boys' Love authors.
In one case, a policeman from northwestern Lanzhou travelled 2,000 kilometres (more than 1,200 miles) to investigate a writer in her coastal hometown.
She was driven to the police station and questioned for hours about her writing.
She is currently on bail but could face criminal charges, which would disqualify her from taking China's civil service exam and positions in some hospitals and schools.
Another 20-year-old author received a police summons which prompted her to travel hundreds of miles from the city of Chongqing to Lanzhou.
On arrival police urged her to 'return the illegal income' she had earned from her writing to reduce her sentence.
'It's a very dirty practice,' said the lawyer, noting the central government in Beijing has issued several directives against it.
'Social awakening'
Activists see the crackdown on alleged obscenity as part of a wider push to suppress LGBTQ expression — an effort that has expanded under President Xi Jinping.
Embed from Getty Images
China classified homosexuality as a crime until 1997 and a mental illness until 2001. Same-sex marriage is not legal and discrimination remains widespread.
The Boys' Love genre — often lightly erotic but sometimes overtly explicit — has become increasingly censored as its popularity has boomed.
Television adaptations have rewritten male lovers as friends, as same-sex relationships are banned from the screen.
In 2018, a writer known by her pseudonym Tianyi was sentenced to over a decade in prison for earning $21,000 from a homoerotic novel about a teacher and his student.
Last year, a court in Anhui province heard 12 cases involving spreading obscene content for profit, according to public records which do not give outcomes of the trials.
Many in China 'feel less and less space to express themselves freely', said Ge, the lecturer and a longtime reader of Boys' Love.
'It's not just about posting something on social media, it's about reading something in their private life.'
As news of the crackdown spread, Haitang users rushed to cancel their accounts.
But writer Miu Miu said she has not given up hope she might be able to finish her favourite stories.
'Sexual knowledge has become taboo,' she said.
'This is a social awakening.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AllAfrica
2 hours ago
- AllAfrica
Meet the women who study pole dancing in modern Shanghai
From outside, China is often portrayed as a demure, conservative country. But inside a Shanghai pole-dancing school tucked at the far end of the hall in an otherwise nondescript office building, a different side of the city is revealed. Only a wall of boots is visible beyond the door … although, amid the loud music playing at all hours, on occasion visitors on occasion might glimpse a scantily clad figure walking in high heels from one end of the hall to another. Tutu, originally from Hainan, is both a student at S-pole and an assistant manager, helping to teach classes alongside Hai Xiaohan, the school's founder. For her, and many other young women in Shanghai, pole dancing has been an important means of discovering herself. Tutu 'I saw a pole dancer abroad,' says Tutu. 'At that time, I thought that I also wanted to be as beautiful, sexy and powerful as her, so the first thing I did when I came back was find a school. Later I felt that I liked myself more and more, and every time I practiced, I felt like I was having a conversation with my body, that I had no physical limitations. Even in my normal life, I started to feel more confident when I went out, and it was the first time I really loved my body.' Lena, who works in marketing, is another student at S-pole. For her, pole dancing is the next in a long of sports – 10 years of karate, six of muai thai, two or three of weight lifting. But pole dancing has been the most transformative. 'You feel the spiritual changes after you start dancing,' she says. 'Right now I'm learning my feminine side. I'm a tomboy in my daily life, so when I first started pole-dancing I did it like martial arts, extremely brutal, dancing like I wanted to fight and kill people. My coach says I've got work to do, but I'm making progress.' That said, like millions of office workers studying dancing, yoga, boxing or rock climbing around China, Lena's greatest motivation is a practical one. 'Actually, I do it because I want to eat more food.' In America, pole dancing is generally associated with night clubs – but in China, strip clubs don't exist. Rather, S-pole feels similar to any other exercise studio, but one where students hang in seemingly impossible positions from rotating poles positioned on the floor. They flip in the air, bodies held at a 90 degree angle or testing the limits of human flexibility while energetic techno music throbs in the background. 'Pole dancing looks great but it's very difficult,' says Lena. 'A lot of people have bruises or injuries, and some have even gone to surgery. You need to be very firm as a person to do this. In Chinese we call this jianren [resilience].' Lena Yingying Why work so hard? Some of the most dedicated students are studying for competitions in Japan, Korea or Hong Kong, but a majority are there for different reasons. 'I'm under a lot of pressure at work,' says Yingying, 41, who works for a chemical company. 'I'm a typical person with kids at home. I just work all the time, and family is very stressful. Pole dancing is really interesting, and it helps me to balance my life.' 'Work is really stressful for me,' says Juzi, an employee of a state-owned company, 'and I need to dance to relieve the pressure. I guess most of the students here are company employees doing something like that.' Juzi. But pole dancing isn't just exercise. It's also erotic, seething with an edge of danger and occasional controversy. And for a special kind of person, that's also its appeal. 'Some of my peers, born in the 80s or 90s, might think pole dancing is a little too sexy, too non-mainstream,' says Yingying. 'But the ones born in the late 90s and 2000s—they want sexiness and there's nothing wrong with that.' In fact, says Hai Xiaohan, founder at S-pole and one of China's rare male pole-dancers, the students are part of a larger shift in China as a whole. 'People's minds are changing. It's not like before when we were limited to one thing. These days people just love themselves more, they pay more attention to themselves, and that's important.' Hai Xiaohan 'The people here are very open-minded,' says Tutu, who proudly posts videos on the internet for not just her friends but family. In previous years, this might have resulted in a wave of criticism – but, now, the students don't have to keep what they're doing a secret. 'We don't care about what others think. We're a group of people who love themselves very much.' In Lena's case, pole dancing has led to a connection in a very surprising place – the office. 'The owner of my company has been pole dancing for six years, and she's in her 40s. We take classes together; in thirty minutes we're practicing together for a competition.' 'There hasn't been any criticism,' says Juzi. 'My parents are conservative people, but when they see me dancing, they think it's cool and good.' But twenty years ago? 'No way,' says Yingying. 'Things are completely different now than they used to be.' While friends and family have been largely supportive, the strongest criticism has been directed towards students who post videos online. Fortunately, many of the responses have remained subdued. 'Some people might want to criticize me,' says Yingying, 'but a lot of the comments aren't made public, so I just ignore it. In other cases, the criticism can become more personal. 'Online,' says Lena, 'a lot of the best praise is from women but mostly the slut shaming is also from women. It feels bad when you're doing this impressive thing, then your own people are turning against you.' 'There's nothing wrong with my videos,' says Tutu with a laugh. 'I think I'm just too sexy! But sometimes the very sexy videos don't get much traffic or followers, because they can make people uncomfortable, or people might think what we're doing is something bad.'● Another problem, Lena says, is the male gaze itself, which has always been the perceived audience of pole dancing. 'The thing is, men watch and they assume you're doing it for them, but that isn't right. The way I see it – they can watch it, but their opinion isn't the one that matters. I dance for myself and if I want to post a video, that's for me too. That said, sometimes reaching the right audience can make it all worth it. 'My grandma really likes the videos I post,' says Tutu. 'That surprised me, but I think it really means something.'
RTHK
6 hours ago
- RTHK
UK police arrest scores of Palestine Action protesters
UK police arrest scores of Palestine Action protesters Lawmakers proscribed the group under an anti-terrorism law this month after some of its members damaged planes at an air force base. Photo: AFP British police arrested scores of supporters on Saturday of a pro-Palestinian protest group that was banned this month under anti-terrorism legislation. Police said they had arrested at least 41 people in London and 16 others in Manchester for showing support for the group Palestine Action. Campaign group Defend our Juries said 86 people had been arrested across the UK, with other protests held in Wales and Northern Ireland. British lawmakers proscribed the group under anti-terrorism legislation earlier this month after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain's support for Israel. "Officers have made 41 arrests for showing support for a proscribed organisation. One person has been arrested for common assault," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement on social media about the demonstration. After a similar protest in London last week, police arrested 29 people. Before Saturday's arrests in London, close to 50 protesters had gathered with placards saying "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action" near a statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela outside the British parliament. The International Court of Justice in the Hague is hearing a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war, which began after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023. Israel has repeatedly denied committing abuses. The British government's decision to classify Palestine Action as a terrorist group places it in the same category as Hamas, al-Qaeda and ISIS. Membership now carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years. Opponents of the ban say using anti-terrorism laws is inappropriate against a group accused mainly of damaging property rather than harming people, although some members have in the past been charged with violence in clashes with police. Palestine Action generally targeted Israeli and Israel-linked businesses in Britain such as defence company Elbit Systems, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances or damaging equipment. In an unsuccessful court appeal against the ban, a lawyer for Palestine Action said the government ban was the first time Britain had proscribed a group which undertook this type of direct action. (Reuters)
RTHK
a day ago
- RTHK
Police chief renews vigilance call over security risks
Police chief renews vigilance call over security risks Police commissioner Joe Chow speaks to reporters after attending a passing-out parade. Photo: RTHK Police commissioner Joe Chow on Saturday called for continued vigilance against national security threats even in times of peace, saying a recent case demonstrate such risks remain. Four men believed to be members of a Taiwan-based organisation that promotes Hong Kong independence were arrested on Wednesday. Three of them have been jointly charged with one count of conspiracy to commit secession. "This case shows that national security risks always exist. We shouldn't let our guard down just because things appeared to be relatively calm and peaceful," Chow said. "The police force has a primary responsibility to safeguard national security. But at the same time, safeguarding national security is every resident's responsibility." Chow, who spoke to reporters following a passing-out parade of officers, noted that there were more than 1,220 new recruits in the past financial year, up some 25 percent compared to the 2023-24 period. The police chief also said new arrangements were put in place on July 1 to fast-track the recruitment of officers, with the entire process expected to be cut down to around four months. Under the new policy, those who have scored at least level 4 in both Chinese and English in the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, and passed the aptitude test of the government's examination for recruiting civil servants, will be considered to have passed the probationary inspector written test.
