For Cindy Zhong, as for many young people Chinese women, a relaxing night out used to mean curling up with a thrilling tale of two men in love. Then her favorite authors and their fairy tales began to disappear.
Fans of the popular Danmei genre of same-sex romance, which is written and read mostly by heterosexual women, say the Chinese government is carrying out its biggest crackdown yet, effectively curtailing pleasure.
In the vast world of fantasy, Danmei is relatively simple: two men represent an idealized relationship, ranging from chaste to erotic. Some scholars believe these stories appeal to Chinese women as a way to circumvent the country's conservative gender values and imagine relationships on a more equal basis.
“Women turn to Danmei for pure love, especially when they face pressure from family, peers and society to get married and have children,” says Aiqing Wang, a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool who studies Chinese popular culture and internet literature.
The once niche Chinese literary subculture has boomed in recent years, with novels being adapted into blockbuster television series and translated into Western languages.
Danmei, also known as “Boys' Love” in English, has also attracted the attention of Chinese authorities. At least dozens of writers were questioned, arrested and charged with producing and selling obscene material in China last year, according to media reports and online witness accounts.
Some writers have stopped publishing or gone offline. Websites have closed or deleted many stories, leaving the most trivial ones behind.
“Chinese female readers can no longer find a safe, uncensored space to express their desires,” said Zhong, a 30-year-old educator.
Screenwriters say they enjoy directing other people's lives.
“When I wrote, I felt so powerful that I could create a world,” said Zou Xuan, a teacher who used to write Danmei for fun and had been reading them for a decade.
The Chinese government is tightening its grip on the LGBTQ+ community. closure of human rights groups And social media accountsdespite the removal of homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses in 2001. Same-sex relationships are not criminalized.
Although Chinese censors have long frowned on same-sex love stories, Danmei's most popular stories have become best-sellers and have been adapted into cartoons, video games and TV series. Adaptations often circumvent censorship by turning the characters into a heterosexual couple or presenting the relationship between the main men as an intense “friendship”.
The stories, usually published online by amateurs, are among the most widely read works of fiction in China. From floral to intensely erotic, they can include scenes of men fighting with sword and flute in ethereal ancient costumes, or sexy outdoor scenes after rain.
Danmei is a “utopian existence,” said Chen Xingyu, a 32-year-old freelance teacher living in the southwestern city of Kunming. “I would be less happy without it.”
Some of the most popular stories, such as “The Celestial Official's Blessing” and “The Master of Demonic Cultivation,” have been translated into English, creating a global fan base and landing on The New York Times paperback bestseller list.
The language in the stories is “very flowery and poetic, which I really like,” said Kayla McHenry, who works for a law firm in Pennsylvania and reads the stories in translation.
But their author, Yuan Yimei, better known by her pen name Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, was sentenced in 2020 to three years in prison for “illegal commercial activities” after selling her self-published Danmei books. She was released on parole in 2021.
It is difficult to say how many writers have been caught up in the persecution in China.
The danmei writers, mostly young women, claimed in social media posts that were later censored that they were detained and questioned by police in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, and expressed humiliation and fear that a criminal record could ruin their future.
A spokesman for the Lanzhou Public Security Bureau declined to comment, saying the cases were under investigation. Gansu provincial police did not respond to an AP request for comment.
The Associated Press could not independently confirm this information.
Even Taiwan, beyond the reach of Chinese censorship, is seeing the effects of the mainland's crackdown.
Haitang, a major short story platform headquartered in Taiwan, temporarily closed in June, warning writers not to continue writing “if the content does not comply with the laws and regulations of the place where the authors are located.”
The website recently returned with significantly fewer stories and authors. Readers noticed that stories saved in their accounts were deleted. It is unclear whether the authors or the website did this.
Another popular Danmei site, Sosad.fun, based outside China and with at least 400,000 registered readers, shut down in April.
Neither website responded to emails seeking comment.
Despite the crackdown, Danmei stories are still available in China, but fans say they are more subdued and lack erotic appeal. And since most of the best writers have left, they say what's left isn't that good anymore.
Some fans have said they've stopped reading Danmei stories, but others are chasing the juicy tidbits that brought them into the genre.
“The stories I read in high school were much more explicit than the ones I read now,” said Chen, from Kunming. “I need to spend more time and try harder to find them. I need this content to fill my life.”
Chen said some authors publish their works overseas, giving readers the opportunity to take them to China and distribute paper books or digital files informally.
Other readers said they turn to online comics translated from Japanese or Korean.
Despite the shrinking space for same-sex stories in China, experts say women and their desires have changed in ways that won't go away.
“The awakening of women's consciousness, the desire to read and not be ashamed of what they want to read, is irreversible,” said Xi Tian, an assistant professor of East Asian studies at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
