Imagine you pen an erotic short story that involves two handsome men falling in love and into bed — some of your best work yet — and you publish it on a website that caters to that type of subgenre.
But instead of getting kudos and gushing comments from readers, the cops haul you up to the police station for some dramatic questioning in a barren room, a process that may eventually land you in prison.
That's exactly what's been happening to erotica writers in China who have run afoul of law enforcement, according to the Economist. The police are targeting people who write danmei, a steamy and very popular subgenre of online self-published fiction that features men in intimate relationships, which is mostly written by and for women.
Late last year, police in the northeast province of Anhui threw the book at a popular danmei writer, ordering her to pay over a quarter million dollars in fines, plus about the same sum again from her profits publishing the erotic short stories in the first place. In addition, she has to serve four years behind bars — which seems unbelievably draconian for a bunch of naughty words that aren't hurting anybody.
Four other danmei writers were also approached by cops for questioning, according to the Economist. A source told Radio Free Asia that they suspect 200 to 300 erotic writers have been swept up in this dragnet, which has a cast a pall over writers and readers who just want to enjoy their smut in peace.
"Why are some people who commit sexual assaults in real life not punished so severely?" one writer is quoted saying by the Economist.
It seems that the real goal is not combating online decadence; instead, the targeting of erotic writers seems to be motivated by money. Some danmei writers and attorneys told the Economist that they think that cops have been trying to raise their coffers because of the recent economic downturn in China, and they see the danmei writers as low-hanging fruit.
This scenario seems especially likely because these writers are being called to visit police stations in locales they had never visited — a corrupt practice known in China as "fishing in distant seas," in which cops in another jurisdiction try to nab business people in another, according to the Economist's reporting. Chinese officials have called for a halt to this practice, but danmei writers are still being singled out.
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