'Every word has come back to haunt me': China cracks down on women who write gay erotica
“每个字都回来困扰着我”：中国打扰写同性恋的女性
4 days ago Share Save Yi Ma BBC News Reporting from London Eunice Yang BBC Chinese Reporting from Hong Kong Share Save
4天之前
X / errslance Several women say they have been arrested for writing gay erotica, or"danmei"
X / Errslance几位妇女说，她们因撰写同性恋色情或“ Danmei”而被捕
"I've been warned not to talk about it," the woman wrote, before revealing snippets of the day she says she was arrested for publishing gay erotica."I'll never forget it - being escorted to the car in full view, enduring the humiliation of stripping naked for examination in front of strangers, putting on a vest for photos, sitting in the chair, shaking with fear, my heart pounding." The handle, Pingping Anan Yongfu, is among at least eight in recent months which have shared accounts on Chinese social media platform Weibo of being arrested for publishing gay erotic fiction. As authors recounted their experiences, dozens of lawyers offered pro bono help. At least 30 writers, nearly all of them women in their 20s, have been arrested across the country since February, a lawyer defending one told the BBC. Many are out on bail or awaiting trial, but some are still in custody. Another lawyer told the BBC that many more contributors were summoned for questioning. They had published their work on Haitang Literature City, a Taiwan-hosted platform known for its"danmei", the genre of so-called boys' love and erotic fiction. Think of it as a gay version of Fifty Shades of Grey: a BDSM relationship that leads to a happily-ever-after. That's a frequent trope, across historical, fantasy or sci-fi settings. Over the years it has cultivated a fiercely devoted following, especially among young Chinese women. These authors are being accused of breaking China's pornography law for"producing and distributing obscene material". Writers who earn a profit could be jailed for more than 10 years. The law targets"explicit descriptions of gay sex or other sexual perversions". Heterosexual depictions often have more leeway - works by acclaimed Chinese authors, including Nobel Laureate Mo Yan, have graphic sexual scenes, but are widely available.
这位女士写道：“我被警告不要谈论它。“我永远不会忘记它 - 被陪同到汽车上，忍受着裸露的裸露的屈辱，在陌生人面前检查，穿上照相背心，坐在椅子上，害怕，我的心在猛地颤抖。”该手柄是pinging anan yongfu，最近几个月至少八个，他们在中国社交媒体平台上分享了有关出版同性恋色情小说被捕的账户。正如作者讲述了他们的经验时，数十名律师提供了无偿帮助。自2月份以来，至少有30名作家，几乎所有20多岁的妇女都在全国范围内被捕。许多人正在保释或等待审判，但有些仍在拘留中。另一位律师告诉英国广播公司（BBC），召集了更多的贡献者来询问。他们发表了他们在海坦文学城（Haitang Morthantation City）上发表的作品，这是一个以其“ danmei”而闻名的台湾托管平台，这是所谓的男孩的爱与色情小说的类型。可以将其视为五十种灰色阴影的同性恋：BDSM的关系，导致了任何幸福的事后。在历史，幻想或科幻设置中，这是一个经常出现的。多年来，它培养了一个热烈的追随者，尤其是在年轻的中国妇女中。这些作者被指控违反了中国色情法，以“生产和分发淫秽的材料”。赚取利润的作家可以被判入狱十多年。该法律针对“同性恋或其他性变态的明确描述”。异性恋的描述通常会有更多的余地 - 著名的中国作家的作品，包括诺贝尔奖获得者莫·扬（Nobel Laureate Mo Yan），有图形性的性场景，但广泛可用。
Instagram / Freewritersofhaitang The crackdown has sparked support from the danmei community online
Instagram / freewritersofhaitang镇压激发了Danmei社区在线的支持
Although authors of heterosexual erotica have been jailed in China, observers say the genre is subjected to far less censorship. Gay erotica, which is more subversive, seems to bother authorities more. Volunteers in a support group for the Haitang writers told the BBC police even questioned some readers. Those who reported being arrested declined to be interviewed, fearing repercussions. Police in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, who are accused of driving this crackdown, have not responded to the BBC. Online, the crackdown has unleashed a debate - and a rarer pushback against the law."Is sex really something to be ashamed of?" a Weibo user asked, arguing that China's anti-obscenity laws are out of touch. Another wrote that women never get to decide what is obscene because they don't control the narrative. Even legal scholars have expressed concern that just 5,000 views for anything deemed"obscene" qualifies as criminal"distribution", lowering the bar to arrest creators. It made Beijing uneasy enough that discussions have been vanishing: #HaitangAuthorsArrested drew more than 30 million views on Weibo before it was censored. Posts offering legal advice are gone. A prominent Chinese news site's story has been taken down. Writers' accounts, and some of the handles, are also disappearing. After Pingping Anan Yongfu's post went viral, she deleted it and wrote another, thanking supporters and admitting her writing had violated the law. She then deleted her handle. Before that last post, she had written:"I was always the good girl in my parents' eyes. But that day, I brought them nothing but shame. They'll never hold their heads up again."
尽管观察家说，尽管异性色情的作者已在中国被判入狱，但这种类型的审查制度要少得多。同性恋者更具颠覆性，似乎更困扰当局。海坦作家支持小组的志愿者告诉英国广播公司警方，甚至对一些读者提出了质疑。那些被捕的人拒绝接受采访，担心会产生影响。被指控驾驶这种镇压的西北城市兰州的警察没有对英国广播公司做出回应。在线上，镇压释放了辩论 - 违反法律的急剧推翻。“性真的要为此感到羞耻吗？”一位微博用户问，认为中国的反侵入法是遥不可及的。另一个人写道，妇女永远不会决定什么是淫秽的，因为她们无法控制叙事。即使是法律学者也表示关注，只有5,000次被认为“淫秽”的事物的观点符合“犯罪分子”的资格，从而降低了逮捕创作者的标准。它使北京的讨论消失了，这使北京不安：#haitangauthorsarrested在对其进行审查之前吸引了超过3000万个微博观看。提供法律建议的帖子已经消失。一个著名的中国新闻网站的故事已被删除。作家的帐户和一些手柄也正在消失。在Pinging Anan Yongfu的职位传播开来之后，她删除了它并写了另一篇文章，感谢支持者，并承认她的写作违反了法律。然后，她删除了手柄。在最后一篇文章之前，她写道：“我一直是父母眼中的好女孩。但是那天，我除了羞耻之外什么也没带。他们永远不会再抬起头。”
Danmei: The uncrowned royal of pop culture
Danmei：流行文化未冠的皇家
These women have long worked in the shadows in China, where homosexuality and eroticism are stigmatised. Now outed by police investigations, they face social consequences that are as brutal as the legal ones.
这些妇女长期以来一直在中国的阴影中工作，在中国，同性恋和色情受到污名化。如今，在警方调查中，他们面临的社会后果与法人一样残酷。
X / errslance Chinese gay erotica is inspired by Japanese boys' love manga
x / errslance中国同性恋情色的灵感来自日本男孩的爱漫画
"In that moment, all I felt was shame," posted a writer whose Weibo handle translates to"the world is a huge psychiatric hospital". She said the police pulled her out of class in college - and her classmates watched as they followed her to search her dorm."I earned my money word by word at a keyboard. But once it went south, it was as if none of that mattered. People treated me like I'd made money without ever working for it." Another wrote the police had been kind, advising her to speak to a lawyer and return her"illegal earnings" to reduce her sentence."I'm only 20. So young, and I've already ruined my life so early." A third said:"I never imagined a day would come when every word I once wrote would come back to haunt me." One author who has been writing danmei novels for 20 years was not questioned but she says the crackdown won't stop her."This is how I find happiness. And I can't let go of the connections I have made with the community." Inspired by Japanese boys' love manga, danmei emerged as a sub-genre online in the 1990s. It has become hugely successful, with some of the novels appearing on international bestseller lists. In 2021, 60 of them were optioned for film and TV adaptations. The most expensive IP reportedly sold for 40 million yuan ($5.6 million; £4.1 million). Some of China's biggest stars, such as Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, began their careers on streaming shows based on danmei novels.
“在那一刻，我感到羞耻。”一位作家说，其微博的手柄转化为“世界是一家巨大的精神病医院”。她说，警察在大学里把她拉出了课 - 她的同学跟着她搜查她的宿舍时看着他们。“我在键盘上用言语赚了我的钱。但是，一旦它向南，好像这都不重要。人们像我赚钱一样对待我，从来没有工作过。”另一位警察一直很友善，建议她与律师交谈，并归还她的“非法收入”以减少刑期。“我只有20岁。太年轻了，我已经这么早就毁了我的生活。”三分之一说：“我从来没有想过我曾经写过的每个字都回来困扰我的一天会到来。”一位撰写Danmei小说已有20年的作家没有受到质疑，但她说镇压不会阻止她。“这就是我找到幸福的方式。我无法放弃与社区建立的联系。”受日本男孩的爱漫画的启发，Danmei在1990年代在线出现了一个子类型。它已经取得了巨大的成功，其中一些小说出现在国际畅销书名单上。在2021年，其中60个被选中进行电影和电视改编。据报道，最昂贵的IP售出了4000万元人民币（560万美元； 410万英镑）。中国一些最大的明星，例如小Zhan和王Yibo，在基于Danmei小说的流媒体节目中开始了他们的职业生涯。
Getty Images Chinese stars Wang Yibo (L) and Sean Xiao Zhan (R) in 2019, when their show, The Untamed, inspired by a danmei novel, was released
Getty Images中国明星Wang Yibo（L）和Sean Xiao Zhan（R）在2019年，当时他们的表演（不受丹麦小说的启发）发行了
In short, it's the rebellious royal of pop culture - too popular to ignore, too controversial to honour. And it is a signature offering on Haitang, which, in Mandarin, is a flower that blooms in every shade of pink. Fittingly, Haitang and danmei have flourished as uniquely female spaces, although they centre male protagonists. In a culture where female sexual desire is routinely policed, danmei became a coded, creative outlet - a space where women can write about female desire for other women. That is exactly what makes danmei so"subversive", says Dr Liang Ge, who teaches digital sociology at University College London. It allows women to"detach from gendered realities", which they often associate with marriage and motherhood. For instance, in danmei stories, men can get pregnant and are at ease with being vulnerable – a stark contrast from the often unequal relationships many Chinese women struggle with in real life."Danmei frees me from thinking about all those potential dangers in relationships in traditional heterosexual romance," explains one writer who has been active in the danmei world for a decade. Danmei novels are not without their critics, because some do contain extreme and violent scenes."As a parent, how many of us can accept our children reading novels like this, let alone writing them?" asked one Weibo user. The age of authors has also been a concern: a handful of those the BBC spoke to said they all started reading and writing gay erotica before they turned 18, some as young as 11.
简而言之，这是流行文化的叛逆王室 - 太流行了，无法忽略，太引起争议，无法尊重。这是海塔（Haitang）上的标志性产品，在普通话中，这是一朵花在每种粉红色阴影中盛开的花朵。合适的是，海坦和丹麦以独特的女性空间为中心，尽管它们以男性主角为中心。在一种经常监管女性性欲的文化中，Danmei成为了一个编码，创造性的渠道 - 女性可以写女性对其他女性的渴望。在伦敦大学学院教授数字社会学的Liang Ge博士说，这正是使Danmei如此“颠覆性”的原因。它允许妇女“脱离性别现实”，她们经常与婚姻和孕产相关联。例如，在丹麦（Danmei）的故事中，男人可以怀孕，并放心变得脆弱 - 与现实生活中许多中国妇女挣扎的经常不平等的关系形成了鲜明的对比。一位活跃于Danmei世界十年来的作家解释说：“ Danmei使我摆脱了传统异性恋浪漫关系中所有潜在的关系的所有潜在危险。”Danmei小说并非没有批评家，因为有些小说确实包含极端和暴力的场景。“作为父母，我们当中有多少人可以接受像这样阅读小说的孩子，更不用说写它们了？”问一个微博用户。作者时代也是一个关注的时代：英国广播公司（BBC）与之交谈的少数人说，他们都开始阅读和写同性恋色情，然后才18岁，有些年轻，年仅11岁。
Getty Images Based on a danmei novel, the 2021 Chinese TV drama Word of Honor had a huge following
2021年中国电视剧《荣誉词》基于丹麦小说的盖蒂图像有很大的追随者
It's a problem the community should acknowledge and address, said Ma, a danmei writer who only shared her surname, adding that this is a problem for all adult content because China does not restrict content by age. But danmei in particular has increasingly come under attack in the last decade as Beijing launched a series of campaigns to"clean up" the internet. In 2018 a danmei author was jailed for 10 years for selling 7,000 copies of her book titled Occupy.
Danmei作家Ma说，社区应该承认和解决这个问题，她只分享了她的姓氏，并补充说，这是所有成人内容的问题，因为中国不限制按年龄限制内容。但是，在过去的十年中，北京尤其越来越受到攻击，因为北京发起了一系列“清理”互联网的运动。2018年，一位Danmei作家因出售了7,000张名为《占领》的书而被判入狱10年。
'My earnings were evidence of my crime'
“我的收入是我犯罪的证据”
As marriage and birth rates plummet, and China's leader Xi Jinping encourages a national rejuvenation, so state scrutiny of danmei has ratcheted up, Dr Ge says."The Chinese government wants to promote traditional family values and liking danmei novels is seen as a factor in making women less willing to have children," Dr Ge explains. This is the second wave of mass arrests in less than a year - late last year, some 50 Haitang writers were prosecuted. A famous author who earned about 1.85 million yuan was jailed for nearly five years. The two crackdowns are similar, according to a lawyer who had represented some of the defendants last year,"but this time, even those with minor involvement weren't spared". A lawyer offering free legal advice said more than 150 people requested consultations in just two days. Many of those contacting her had not been charged yet - they were terrified about the possibility though."This is classic offshore fishing," says a lawyer who authored a"practical guide" to assist Haitang writers. The term refers to overreach by local police - those in Lanzhou summoned writers in various places, arguably beyond their jurisdiction. Several reported paying out of pocket to fly to Lanzhou. One posted that the 2,000 yuan earned from two books on Haitang paid for the flight. Last year too all the arrests were by police in Jixi County in eastern China. Indebted local governments have done this before to earn revenue through fines, sometimes forcing a warning from the central government. Cyber crimes are particularly prone to this"as long as they claim a local reader was corrupted", the lawyer says.
GE博士说，随着婚姻和出生率的下降，中国的领导人习近平鼓励了民族复兴，因此对丹美的州审查已经累积了。Ge博士解释说：“中国政府希望促进传统的家庭价值观，并喜欢Danmei小说被视为使女性不愿生育的一个因素。”这是不到一年的第二波大规模逮捕浪潮 - 去年年底，大约50名海顿作家被起诉。一位赢得约185万元人民币的著名作家被判入狱近五年。一位代表某些被告去年的律师说：“但是这次，即使是那些少量参与的律师也没有幸免”。提供免费法律建议的律师说，仅仅两天内，有150多人要求咨询。许多与她联系的人尚未被指控 - 他们对这种可能性感到恐惧。律师说：“这是经典的海上捕鱼。”该词指的是当地警察的过度 - 兰州的那些人在各个地方召唤作家，可以说是超出其管辖权的。据报道，有几个人掏腰包飞往兰州。一个人张贴说，2000元人民币从Haitang上的两本书中获得了赚钱。去年，所有的逮捕都是在中国东部的吉克西县被警方逮捕。欠债的地方政府在此之前已经这样做是通过罚款来赚取收入，有时会迫使中央政府发出警告。律师说，网络犯罪特别容易出现这种“只要当地读者被腐败了”。
Getty Images Young Chinese women are opting out of marriage and motherhood - and Beijing hopes to change that by promoting traditional family values
年轻的中国妇女正在选择退出婚姻和孕产 - 北京希望通过促进传统家庭价值观改变这种情况
