Chinese police are arresting ‘boys’ love’ writers

Chinese authorities have arrested dozens of gay romance writers in recent weeks, escalating the country’s crackdown against the “boys’ love” genre amid efforts to improve its falling birth rates.

The latest: Police in the northwestern province of Gansu reportedly apprehended as many as 50 individuals who have posted gay stories on Haitang Literature City, a Taiwan-hosted website, in recent weeks. Other estimates say at least 100 have been affected. The writers, most of whom are young women, now face obscenity charges for allegedly producing and distributing illegal content. China’s regulations classify material with more than 5,000 views as criminal distribution, while earnings above approximately $34,500 can trigger life sentences.

What they’re saying: Among those recently caught is a graduate student who earned less than $400 from her novel spanning 75 chapters. Her lawyer, Mr. Wu, told The New York Times, “The police asked her during the interrogation, ‘Did you know that writing this could be a crime?’ She answered that she didn’t know until the police contacted her.” Another summoned in May expressed the same shock, writing in a Weibo post, “I’d never expected this day to come, to be hit in the face with every word I’ve written in the past.”

The big picture: “Boys’ love,” also known as “danmei,” centers on male romantic relationships and draws a predominantly female readership. The genre has grown from Japanese manga origins in the 1990s into a major cultural force in China, with adaptation rights for some works selling for millions of dollars. Government officials, however, increasingly see it as conflicting with efforts to boost China’s falling birth rates. “The Chinese government wants to promote traditional family values and liking danmei novels is seen as a factor in making women less willing to have children,” Liang Ge, who teaches digital sociology at University College London, told the BBC.