BLACK mobile logo

international

Hundreds of women writers arrested as China extends crackdown on ‘Boys’ Love’ fantasies

June 25, 2025

China has launched a nationwide crackdown on erotica writers who published content on "Haitang Literature City," a Taiwan-based adult platform primarily featuring Boys' Love fiction. The censorship operation began in early 2024 with Jixi County police arresting over 50 writers, then expanded when Lanzhou City authorities revived the campaign, resulting in approximately 300 arrests, mostly of educated young women aged 20-30. Writers face charges of disseminating pornographic materials under Article 363 of China's criminal law, with sentences ranging from probation to over five years in prison, often accompanied by heavy fines and asset confiscation.

Who is affected

  • Approximately 300 writers on the "Haitang Literature City" platform, most being educated young women aged 20-30
  • Popular writers like Yunjian and Cijiu who received sentences of 4.5 and 5.5 years respectively
  • University students from provinces including Sichuan and Jiangsu
  • Writers from relatively poor families with few resources to defend their rights
  • Some writers who have lost opportunities to pursue post-graduate education
  • Female audiences of Boys' Love (BL) fiction
  • The LGBTQ+ community and those supporting feminist values

What action is being taken

  • Police authorities from Lanzhou City, Gansu Province are conducting cross-provincial arrests of erotica writers
  • "Haitang Literature City" has temporarily suspended its platform and removed content and user accounts upon request
  • Some lawyers are criticizing the heavy-handed enforcement and offering legal aid to the arrested writers
  • Authorities are calculating punishments based on earnings (in the Anhui crackdown) or view counts (in the Lanzhou operation)
  • Police are charging writers under Article 363 of China's criminal law regardless of profit, with some facing potential sentences of more than 10 years if their work reached 250,000 views

Why it matters

  • The crackdown represents an escalation in China's enforcement of censorship under Xi Jinping's "socialist core values" initiative
  • It targets Boys' Love fiction, a genre considered by feminists like Li Yinhe as a way for women to explore sexuality beyond gender stereotypes
  • The arrests disproportionately impact young educated women from less privileged backgrounds
  • The operation highlights tensions between evolving social attitudes toward homoerotic expression and conservative government policies
  • The severe legal consequences (including jail terms of 4-5 years for popular writers) demonstrate the government's strict stance on content deemed obscene
  • The crackdown is connected to broader concerns about China's declining birth rate and represents part of a larger suppression of feminist values and LGBTQ+ identities

What's next

  • No explicit next steps stated in the article

Read full article from source: Global Voices