Danmei scholar Liang Ge talks about Chinese Censorship in a podcast interview with Fansplaining. I will summarize and organize his sharing for your convenience in this post!
What is Chinese Censorship? When did it start? How do people respond to censorship? Find out all through this post!
What is Chinese Censorship?
In China, because of societal stigma, gay couples are not allowed to be directly represented in mainstream media (movies, celebrities, shows, etc.). Due to that stigma, the gay representation is then 'censored' and turned into anything but a romantic relationship between men.
What is Danmei?
Danmei is a genre of literature and other fictional media that features romantic relationships between male characters. (Definition from Wikipedia) The word 'danmei' comes from the Japanese meaning "addicted to beauty."
There are two general danmei genres:
Ones with explicit sex scenes
Those without graphic sex scenes (called qingshui/pure water)
China didn't always have censorship. It began long ago and has been slowly evolving with every significant event up until this day. Now, we are faced with censorship so thorough and secure that it even changed China's online culture.
Let's slowly go through the History of Chinese Censorship laws and learn about its evolution!
The Beginning of Danmei
The danmei genre emerged in mainland china in the 90s, and there was barely any censorship at the time.
At the beginning of the 21st China's, China's censorship of homoerotic fiction was not as today's today's. Writers of danmei were paid, and their commercialized works didn't have official copyright from the government, which aided in their publication.
The papers were primarily published in Taiwan and Hong Kong for readers from Mainland China to buy. Back then, we see the same simple censorship today, wherein China would delete any scenes considered 'bad' according to their "Chinese socialist core values."
The deletion of scenes became the origin of censorship. Back then, the three levels of censorship began:
Chinese Party-State
At this level, they will censor all the content which is not heteronormative. They will delete all the sexually explicit scenes. They will delete all the male/male kissing descriptions and sex scenes in the novels.
Website Level
The website administrators will do the censorship and delete explicit scenes.
Self-Censor
Writers and readers will do the self-censorship. This means they'll incorporate the censorship into their works without waiting for the website to flag them. The writers themselves will refrain from writing sexually explicit scenes.
The 2010 Commercialized Era
The commercialized era in 2010 created two levels of danmei culture:
Commercialized - has to obey all the applicable censorship laws
Non-Commercialized - given more freedom (but not entirely free from censorship)
The 2014 Anti-Porn Movement
In 2014, the Chinese government initiated the anti-porn movement, an anti-porn war initiation across the Chinese internet. From then on, they arrested several danmei writers, signaling the increased strictness on censorship for online websites.
This birthed 'underground' Chinese websites made independently by danmei consumers so they can consume the genre without worrying about censorship. Of course, if they're caught, they'll still be punished.
There were chances of people infiltrating the underground websites and exposing their content. To protect their website, they set up a test for anyone who wanted to enter. To consume their content, they first had to pass a thorough test.
The 2021 Banning of Danmei Live-Action Adaptations and Effeminate Men
Due to the rising popularity of Bromance dramas like The Untamed and Word of Honor, many danmei novels were slated for live-action productions. However, due to extreme events in 2021, China issued new laws that banned the live-action adaptations of danmei novels and the display of effeminate men.
This cut off the production of around 50 danmei novels in talks for live-action dramas. To 'bring back the strength of manly men,' features like pierced earrings and dyed hair were discouraged on men, especially if they were being shown on mainstream media.
The Effects of Chinese Censorship
In China, censorship of heterosexual representation is normalized in their everyday lives. M|M relationships aren't considered 'normal' due to this normalization.
Interestingly enough, there's sometimes a conflict between the consumers of the two levels of danmei culture (commercialized and non-commercialized.
A conflict that most likely stems from heteronormativity and homophobia. Commercialized consumers dislike non-com due to its blatant displays of M|M descriptions, preferring their lowkey romances like The Untamed.
The drama The Untamed gained popularity, but at the same time, its leading actor Xiao Zhan gained lots of negative comments, urging him to move towards heteronormal media instead of M|M. Such pressure can be applied to many actors who participated in Bromance live-action dramas.
It's to the point where they do not acknowledge danmei fiction as gay stories and instead just "handsome men who love each other," A very... roundabout way of pushing away M|M representation.
2021 was a great year for China in terms of Bromance production, and many fans were thrilled to see how censorship was lessening (as shown in Word of Honor), but the recent restrictions on censorship only worsened at the end year. Fans wonder if there will ever be hope for China to lift censorship.
That was all for the History of Chinese Censorship, as explained by Danmei Scholar Liang Ge! Just a note, but the 2021 section was my contribution.
Go ahead and follow Liang Ge on Twitter @LiangGe96
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