China Targets Online Gay Erotica, Impacting LGBTQ+ Voices
China Intensifies Censorship of Online LGBTQ+ Fiction
LGBTQ+ Authors Facing Legal Threats Amid Online Content Crackdown
BEIJING, China — Writers of LGBTQ+ themed fiction in China are increasingly reporting harassment from authorities, including threats of heavy fines and possible imprisonment, as state-led censorship continues to tighten its grip on online spaces. Citing broad and loosely defined obscenity laws, Chinese officials are targeting one of the few digital outlets where queer and feminist voices have found relative freedom.
Several authors recently wrote that they’ve been detained by police for publishing on Haitang Literature City, a Taiwan-based online platform known for serializing Boys’ Love (BL) fiction — stories of romantic relationships between men, a genre that’s largely written and read by straight women.
Boys’ Love: A Genre of Resistance Amid Rising Surveillance
With its roots in Japanese yaoi manga from the 1960s, the Boys’ Love genre now boasts an expansive global fanbase, inspiring popular web series and films across Asia.
“It feels like a quiet rebellion against patriarchal norms,” said Miu Miu, a 22-year-old author who asked to remain anonymous when speaking with AFP.
This latest round of censorship focuses strongly on amateur creators — many of whom earn next to nothing for their work.
Under Chinese law, distributing “obscene material” for profit is a criminal offense punishable by both fines and imprisonment. Content that earns more than 10,000 yuan (roughly $1,400), or garners over 10,000 online views, may be labeled “serious,” possibly carrying sentences of up to a decade in prison.
Technically, the law makes exceptions for “artistic works,” but these determinations are left to the subjective judgment of local law enforcement.
Outdated Laws and Ambiguous Boundaries
“The legal framework simply hasn’t evolved to match societal changes,” said a defense lawyer representing one of the prosecuted writers, who chose to stay anonymous for safety reasons. “Public understandings of gender and sexuality have shifted dramatically over time.”
One novelist shared that she had earned only 2,000 yuan for two novels with a combined 72 chapters and over 100,000 views. She took to Weibo to question the crackdown, writing, “Did 100,000 people really read it? Are they really going to sentence me to three to five years?”
Controversial Policing Practices Expand Crackdown’s Reach
The enforcement campaign has also reignited scrutiny of the widely criticized approach known as "cross-regional policing", or "distant water fishing", where authorities pursue suspects outside their assigned jurisdiction, often motivated by asset seizures.
This tactic allows police departments in economically struggling regions to claim the property of those residing elsewhere. “They’ve realized such cases can generate revenue,” said Liang Ge, a digital sociology lecturer at University College London.
In one reported case, an officer from Lanzhou traveled over 2,000 kilometers to detain and interrogate a writer living on the eastern coast. Detained for hours, the author was later placed under supervised release, a status that imperils any future employment in public sector jobs, including healthcare and civil service roles.
Another case involved a 20-year-old woman from Chongqing who was summoned to Lanzhou. There, authorities urged her to “hand over illegal profits” as a condition for more lenient treatment.
“It’s a deeply problematic policy,” said the defense attorney, noting that national guidelines have already called for an end to such jurisdictional overreach.
Mounting Pressure on LGBTQ+ Visibility and Rights
Advocates say these developments are part of a broader state-led initiative to suppress LGBTQ+ content and communities, a trend that has deepened under President Xi Jinping.
While homosexuality was decriminalized in 1997 and declassified as a mental illness in 2001, same-sex marriage is still not recognized in China, and widespread stigma remains persistent.
Although Boys’ Love narratives vary in their level of explicitness, their growing popularity has drawn increased scrutiny from government regulators. Chinese television dramas adapted from BL novels often undergo significant censorship, with romantic subplots rewritten or removed entirely to appease broadcast censors.
In a notable case from 2018, author Tianyi was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison after reportedly earning $21,000 from a homoerotic novel involving a teacher-student dynamic. More recently, 12 court cases in Anhui Province have addressed the alleged commercial distribution of obscene material — although case outcomes remain undisclosed in public records.
"It’s not just about writing anymore — it's about the right to read privately,” said Liang Ge, who is also a fan of BL fiction. “Many in China feel their avenues for self-expression are vanishing.”
Defiance and Resilience in the Face of Repression
In reaction to the targeted crackdown, many users have deactivated their accounts on Haitang. However, Miu Miu is resolved to continue. “I still hope to finish the stories I love,” she remarked.
“Sexual knowledge is being turned into a taboo,” she added. “But that only shows just how far we still have to go — this is the beginning of a societal awakening.”
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