Authorities have charged the women with “distributing obscene material” for writing danmei, gay male romance fiction popular among young female readers.
At least 30 women in their 20s have been arrested in China since February for publishing gay-themed erotica. They have been charged with “producing and distributing obscene material.”
Many of the women published their work on Haitang Literature City, a Taiwan-hosted platform known for “danmei,” a genre of gay male romance and erotica. According to The New York Times, the site is only accessible through software that bypasses China’s Internet firewall. Danmei has attracted a largely young, female audience.
Inspired by Japanese manga, danmei emerged online in the 1990s and quickly grew in popularity. Dozens of titles have topped bestseller lists, and in 2021, sixty were optioned for film or TV. Several major Chinese stars launched their careers in danmei-based dramas.
As the genre grew more popular, Chinese state media denounced it as “vulgar,” claiming gay storylines were influencing young people. Shows were canceled, content banned, and authors prosecuted. In 2018, a writer using the pen name “Tianyi” was sentenced to 10 years for selling 7,000 copies of a book authorities said contained “graphic depictions of homosexual sex.”
Many of the arrested writers have been released on bail pending trial, though some remain in custody. One defense lawyer told the BBC that additional contributors have been detained for questioning.
Under China’s anti-pornography law, writers who profit from such material can be jailed for more than 10 years. The law targets “explicit descriptions of gay sex or other sexual perversions.”
Some authors of heterosexual erotica have also been jailed, but others — like Nobel Laureate Mo Yan, whose books include graphic sex scenes — continue to publish freely.
Danmei is seen as more subversive because it lets women “detach from gendered realities” tied to marriage and motherhood, Dr. Liang Ge of University College London told the BBC. In these stories, men can become pregnant and express vulnerability — offering readers a genre that, while male-fronted, is female-coded.
“Danmei frees me from thinking about all those potential dangers in relationships in traditional heterosexual romance,” one writer told the BBC.
As marriage and birth rates decline in China, danmei has come under greater scrutiny. The drop is partly tied to fallout from the now-repealed one-child policy, which left the country with 34.9 million more men than women.
President Xi Jinping has urged women to have more children while cracking down on queer content. Officials fear that acknowledging same-sex attraction could promote gender nonconformity or rejection of traditional roles.
“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,” Ge told the BBC.
Cassie Hu, a China-based academic who studies the genre, said the crackdown is a way to “control and highly supervise straight women” and reinforce the traditional family structure.
The crackdown has been especially aggressive in some regions, where cash-strapped local governments generate revenue through fines. Police have even charged people outside their jurisdiction by claiming local readers accessed the content online.
The current wave of arrests includes multiple cases being prosecuted in Lanzhou, in China’s Gansu province. One Chinese news outlet reported that as many as 50 women have been taken into custody since authorities there launched their investigation.
A member of the Lanzhou police staff told the Times that “some details aren’t convenient to disclose.”
Under China’s obscenity law, any author whose work gets more than 5,000 views can be prosecuted for “distribution,” legal experts note.
Ye Bin, a lawyer representing four of the arrested authors — all women in their 20s who earned between $27,000 and $56,000 for their writing — told the New York Times that his clients received suspended prison sentences and were fined twice the amount they had earned.
While Ye acknowledged the need for age safeguards, he said China’s obscenity standards should be updated to reflect changing social attitudes.
“When moral standards have been revolutionized, I think it’s inappropriate to still be using the sentencing standards from 20 years ago,” he said.
It remains unclear how authors will respond to the arrests or whether the genre will disappear from Chinese online spaces. Some have expressed shame since being detained, while others are defiant.
One author, who has written danmei for over 20 years and has not been questioned or charged, says government pressure won’t stop her.
“This is how I find happiness,” wrote the user Sijin de Sijin. “And I can’t let go of the connections I have made with the community. If I could go back, I’d still choose to write. And I will keep writing.”
Support for same-sex marriage has decreased over the past three years, driven by a drastic drop in support from Republicans, according to a recent Gallup poll.
Overall support for same-sex marriage among American adults stands at 68%, down from a high of 71% in 2022.
While 88% of Democrats and 76% of independents support same-sex nuptials, Republican support has tumbled from a high of 55% in 2021 and 2022 to just 41% in 2025.
It’s unclear what’s driving the trend. It could be that Republicans are changing their minds on the issue or that more socially liberal individuals are refusing to identify as Republicans.
Police in Bogor, Indonesia, say they arrested 75 people for attending what they called a "gay party" at a villa in the Puncak area on June 22.
According to Amnesty International, 74 of those arrested were men and one was a woman.
Teguh Kumura, head of the Bogor Police's Criminal Investigation Unit, told the Jakarta Globe that a joint task force of Bogor and Megamendung police raided the villa after receiving public reports of “suspicious activity” at the gathering.
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