Chinese authorities have arrested dozens of authors who posted their fanfiction on a Taiwan-based website.
According to Radio Free Asia, a “special task force” arrested the individuals in an operation targeting users of the Taiwan-based adult fiction website Haitang Literature. China is infamous for its draconian censorship laws, targeting not just political speech, but also media portraying same-sex relationships. While most reports have been of Boys’ Love/Yaoi authors, we think it’s safe to assume Girls’ Love/Yuri authors are also being targeted.
Over 50 writers of BL/Yaoi/Danmei fiction have been arrested in China and facing up to 5 years in prison.
Source: South China Morning Post, HaitangNo comment. I am not allowed to. pic.twitter.com/7eAj7DCCln
— minicooly大粒露 (@minicooly) January 7, 2025
Most recently, a Chinese-approved version of League of Legends: Arcane was spotted by fans, which awkwardly edited Vi and Caitlyn so they kept a CCP-approved distance from one another. Just two gal pals chilling five feet apart ’cause they’re not gay.
These arrests carry stiff penalties, with the CCP seemingly trying to shake down authors for money and giving longer jail sentences for those who can’t pay:
Top Haitang Literature author Yuan Shang Bai Yun Jian, a pen-name, was sentenced to four years and six months’ imprisonment, according to a Dec. 17 post on the WeChat account Age of Aquarius, Singapore’s Lianhua Zaobao reported.
Another Haitang author with the pen name Yi Xie was handed a one-year, five-month suspended sentence, while a writer with the pen name Ci Xi was jailed for five years and six months.
The reports said some writers had been given harsher sentences because they had been unable to return the money they had earned from their writings.
Western payment processors such as Visa are similarly attacking the livelihoods of authors and artists with nebulous content standards. Even in Japan, content creators are being forced to tone down their content for fear of being cut off from their source of income.
