“I’ve been warned not to talk about it,” the woman wrote, before revealing snippets of the day she says she was arrested for publishing gay erotica.

“I’ll never forget it - being escorted to the car in full view, enduring the humiliation of stripping naked for examination in front of strangers, putting on a vest for photos, sitting in the chair, shaking with fear, my heart pounding.”

The handle, Pingping Anan Yongfu, is among at least 8 in recent months which have shared accounts on Chinese social media platform Weibo of being arrested for publishing gay erotic fiction. As authors recounted their experiences, dozens of lawyers offered pro bono help.

At least 30 writers, nearly all of them women in their 20s, have been arrested across the country since February, a lawyer defending one told the BBC. Many are out on bail or awaiting trial, but some are still in custody. Another lawyer told the BBC that many more contributors were summoned for questioning.

    • Rose@slrpnk.net
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      Antarctica
      Data unavailable

      Why am I reminded of one old comic? It went like this:

      (Scientists on an Antarctic base)
      Scientist 1: (Finishes talking about something normal)
      Scientist 2: (Disheveled and visibly unhinged) “Well none of that shit matters. Do you know what happened to my stack of Playboy magazines?”
      Scientist 1: (Now also suddenly disheveled and visibly unhinged, whips out a knife) “They’re mine now!”
      Scientist 2: (Also whips out a knife) “Oh yeah?”
      Scientist 1: “Yeah! What are you gonna do about it?”
      (Altercation ensues)

      • Corn@lemmy.ml
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        Applying nuance and researching more context instead of jerking off while grunting “china bad authoritarianism” isnt defending or excusing. You’re just annoyed they dont join your circlejerk.

        • SourGumGum@lemmy.world
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          Most upvoted comment: Attacking the source - Defending

          2nd: No proof, but it’s serious so people wouldn’t lie - Benefit of the Doubt

          3rd: “Rare China L” - Criticizing

          4th: Attacking source, attacking extent - Defending

          5th: “If it is happening it’s probably because of taxes or some legit reason” - Defending

          6th: “Making porn is illegal” - Defending

          7th: “The whole thing smells a little fishy” - Defending

          8th: Attacking source, ‘not inclined to believe it’ - Defending

          9th: An author in another country wrote some pedophilic, this is probably the same - Defending

          10th: Boo - Criticizing

          11th: ‘porn struggle session’ - Unknown what way the comment leans.

          12th: A quote from another article - Looks Criticizing

          13th and least upvoted: “Hexbear users claim to unconditionally support queer rights and then try to run defence for this shit.” - Criticizing

          Defending: 7
          Critic: 4 (maybe +2)

          Where are you getting 95% from?

    • PolydoreSmith@lemmy.world
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      You don’t even have to be charged with anything before ICE grabs you off the street and throws you in a van in the US…

    • Corn@lemmy.ml
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      To be clear, writing and posting erotica isn’t illegal, its profiting off it that was illegal, which is still fucked, but less of a free speech issue.

        • Corn@lemmy.ml
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          Correct. But at the same time, once you understand your speech is limited by your reach, which is determined by how big of a megaphone the capitalists will let you have, it becomes more murky. You can say whatever you want in America, and if the government doesnt like it, you will be silenced and ignored. The same applies in China, but there is a greater record of the government actually listening, though often to the worst groups, such as nimbys protesting the expansion of the Shangai maglev and assholes protesting even limited lockdowns in the city with the most covid that keeps infecting the rest of the country.

    • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
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      Che Guevara, from Desalinas PFP, was also rather homophonic. I wouldn’t make it a point of purity testing. People in the past did things according to their time (not saying its justified).

      The .ml crew has enought to criticize today. Big part them being a different flavor of impiralism

  • oh_@lemmy.world
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    This will eventually be the U.S. if we don’t stop the erosion. Right now they are going after trans, brown people. They will turn attention after to others.

    • Scrollone@feddit.it
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      Which is funny because I think most conservative and religious politicians are actually into gay sex.

  • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.world
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    These authors are being accused of breaking China’s pornography law for “producing and distributing obscene material”. Writers who earn a profit could be jailed for more than 10 years.

    The law targets “explicit descriptions of gay sex or other sexual perversions”.

    Jesus I thought there might have been some bullshit pretense, but apparently it’s just straight-up illegal there.

    • ProvableGecko@lemmy.world
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      Don’t be silly, democracy is only when private companies do all encompassing AI powered surveillance.

      If you’ve left a comment on a YouTube video, a new website claims it might be able to find every comment you’ve ever left on any video you’ve ever watched. Then an AI can build a profile of the commenter and guess where you live, what languages you speak, and what your politics might be.

      According to the developer, they’ve provided the tool to cops in Portugal, Belgium, and “other countries in Europe.” They told 404 Media that the website is meant for private investigators, journalists, and cops.

      https://archive.md/buuA6

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          Chinese corporations do only what government allows them to do, any more and the CEO “takes an extended vacation”.

          • RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz
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            Well yeah and the government really wants to pry into every aspect of your life. So you’ll have the same shit

      • Kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        Now we only need to find a source of how many lgbtq+ fiction writers have been arrested in those same countries and we can proceed with the comparison.

  • Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    As much as I like to stan China for how they treat their billionaires and corporations, this is wrong. Sex work, in all its forms, is a valid, lucrative, and old line of work across the world. China is one of the most developed nations on Earth. They should also be the most progressive when it comes to this. Smh

    • 🍉 Albert 🍉@lemmy.world
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      it’s valid to support some policies in some places without it making you a fervant supporter of everything that state does.

      like I love how china actually invests in infrastructure, including housing and public transit and walkable cities.

      I dont like what they do in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

    • Corn@lemmy.ml
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      Weirdly they are more progressive when it comes to prostitution; prostitution isnt illegal, but soliciting it is.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    “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,” Dr Ge explains.

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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      I generally want to have sex with my husband after reading erotica. You know, because it’s arousing. How did this not occur to them?

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      It’s the same among “Conservatives” in the US, Russia, and now apparently China.

      They all say that we’d need “high birth rates”, which is just not true.

      Think about it: Automation and AI have the potential to put lots of people into unemployment in the next 20 years. For the sake of preventing that unemployment, it’d be good if people had fewer kids. Yet for some reason, governments struggle really hard to comprehend that simple connection.

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        Automation and AI have the potential to put lots of people into unemployment in the next 20 years. For the sake of preventing that unemployment, it’d be good if people had fewer kids. Yet for some reason, governments struggle really hard to comprehend that simple connection.

        Because they assume all people will be consumers of goods. So if they have more people, there will be more consumers to buy things.

        Now the assumption falls apart in any rigor since automation means that less people are needed for labor and would have money to buy gods. But that requires a government that thinks beyond the limited lifetimes of those running the government.

  • bob@lemmy.world
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    The background of the matter transcends conflicts over gender concepts. In recent years, many local governments have been unable to cover their expenses, resulting in a phenomenon known as “distant sea fishing” (远洋捕捞), which refers to “profit-driven law enforcement,” aimed at plundering money from other places. These female writers are just a tiny fraction of the victims. There are also well-known entrepreneurs who have lost their lives due to such extortion.

    • Scrollone@feddit.it
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      The future of our countries, if we don’t act and stop conservativism.

  • stepan@lemmy.ca
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    Weird. I was told state atheism was the hallmark of human rights.

    • breecher@sh.itjust.works
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      Weird focus. How about you considering that a one-party authoritarian regime isn’t exactly the hallmark of human rights, atheist or theist?

  • Berserker@lemmy.world
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    Yeah well you support a genocide, so you are the last to point fingers at China and anyone else.