Summary
China has intensified its crackdown on erotic fiction writers, particularly those creating danmei (gay romance/erotica), with over 50 arrests in Anhui province since June 2024.
At least 10 individuals have been sentenced, with penalties reaching up to 4.5 years in prison. Many writers published on Taiwan-based Haitang Literature, which has faced disruption.
Under China’s strict laws, earning over 250,000 yuan (~$34,500) from such works can result in a life sentence, though reduced sentences are possible if profits are repaid.
Critics argue the campaign undermines freedom of expression and inflates sales figures to justify harsh punishments.
It’s more than that. Denigration of homosexuality and transgender identity is inextricably linked with patriarchy. The means by which queer people are oppressed is tied very strongly to notions of gender hierarchy. They push biological gender essentialism and homosexuality as unnatural and dangerous specifically because it places heterosexual cisgender men in the highest social position possible. It allows them to benefit from the exploitation of women and queer people as much as possible. Queer people are less directly useful to them, and so they are generally very overtly violent and genocidal towards us. Trans people in particular are targeted as if one can change their gender, if gender is not innate, then it undermines the superiority of cisgender men over cisgender women. Men cannot biologically innately be superior if women could become men, in essence.