Recently, Lanzhou police in Gansu province launched a large-scale, cross-provincial operation, arresting several female online novelists who wrote danmei (danmei) and "restricted" themes. These authors ranged from university students to newly employed professionals, many of whom hadn't made a significant profit from their writing. According to sources familiar with the matter, the number of people implicated in the operation may reach two to three hundred. This incident has quickly sparked debate and controversy within the legal community and the public regarding the criteria for determining "profiting from obscene material," the scope of law enforcement jurisdiction, and the boundaries of creative freedom.
Since the Jixi police in Anhui Province launched a "Clear and Clean Online Environment" campaign in 2024, law enforcement actions targeting the female-oriented online fiction platform Haitang Wenxuecheng have continued to spread. On June 1st, the WeChat public account "Li Yuchen's Funny and Stupid Diary" revealed that in the first half of 2025, police in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, also launched an unprecedented cross-provincial arrest operation. The article, citing insiders, stated that the authors affected were mostly women writing danmei (danmei) and R18 (restricted) themes. Participating police units included the Chengguan Branch, Lanzhou New District Branch, and Forest Branch of the Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Unlike the Jixi case in Anhui, where criminal liability was determined based on the amount of profit, Lanzhou police are prosecuting authors who wrote for free or received only small rewards, alleging they were "driving traffic to the platform and contributing to overall profiteering." This move has sparked strong public questioning of the boundaries of what constitutes "profiteering."
The Lanzhou police operation has been described by industry insiders as a "distant-sea fishing" operation, following the Jixi case in Anhui Province. From June to December last year, Anhui police rounded up over 50 danmei writers across provinces for distributing pornographic materials for profit, and Lanzhou is carrying out a similar operation again this year.
Our station tried to contact the Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau and the Lanzhou New District Branch, but no one answered the phone.
Liu Yang, a veteran Lanzhou media personality, told our station in an interview on Tuesday (the 3rd) that he had heard about the news a month ago, but hadn't anticipated the impact on so many people. He said, "The cultural market has always been a key area of regulation, especially for works involving homosexuality. Last year, Anhui police conducted a round of 'distant-sea fishing,' and this time, it seems they've arrested another group, claiming the articles contained obscene content. I really don't understand them. Are they trying to emphasize political correctness or are they simply desperate for money? The Public Security Bureau is broke right now, and arresting people has become a way to make money."
Danmei (danmei) literature primarily depicts gay romance. Because it doesn't comply with China's strict content censorship, many authors choose to publish their works on Taiwanese adult paywall websites like Haitang Literature City. Last year, Anhui police determined that such activities constituted the crime of "producing and distributing obscene materials for profit." Starting June 20, 2024, police launched a large-scale arrest operation in Chongqing, Zhejiang, Fujian, Yunnan, and other provinces.
An article on the "Li Yuchen" WeChat account mentioned that an author who received only two Haitang coins in rewards was also investigated and transferred to the procuratorate. One author told their lawyer that "even if the article was published for free, it would still be considered evidence of distributing obscene material for profit." Law enforcement agencies were accused of "batch processing" cases and refusing bail pending trial.
Li Yuchen's Funny and Absurd Diary," run by renowned online cultural commentator Li Yuchen, is a public account known for its in-depth analysis of Chinese online culture and social hot topics, with a particular focus on content censorship and author rights in the online literature sector, making it a highly influential platform. Li Yuchen, through his ongoing interest in danmei (danmei) literature and female subcultures, has become a key source of information within the industry, sharing relevant law enforcement developments and the voices of affected authors online.
A female author from a 985 university shares her inner journey
In May of this year, several Weibo users shared their personal experiences. A female student at a top-tier university was taken into police custody for investigation shortly after receiving a notice of intended graduate school admission. The university then notified her family and rescinded her admission. She recalled, "I started writing just to save money to see the snow-capped mountains of western Sichuan, but I never expected the result would be a notice of expulsion."
Weibo user "似锦的似锦" admitted that he earned only a little over 4,000 yuan in royalties for his writing, but that this income has now become evidence in his conviction: "I can't believe that relying on writing for a living has led to this." Another author, "记记皮马甲," revealed that he had to sell his electronic devices to pay the fine, saying, "I'm only 20 years old, but I'm already rotten too early."
The author, "Bingbing Bangbang丷," described being taken away by police in her pajamas at home: "Every word I wrote in the past has now become an iron chain that binds me."
Light sentences are suspended, while heavy sentences are jailed. Top writers are sentenced to more than four years.
Media reports indicate that authors involved in cases involving less than 250,000 yuan and who actively return the stolen money are often given suspended sentences. Even though top writer "Yunjian" returned the stolen money, he was still sentenced to four years and six months. "Ci'ao," who failed to raise funds to return the stolen money, faces a five-and-a-half-year sentence.
Song Tao, a law lecturer at a Chinese university, told this station that this large-scale, cross-provincial crackdown on female danmei writers is the most extensive and controversial application of the crime of "producing, copying, publishing, and disseminating obscene materials for profit" in recent years. He emphasized: "Crackdowns on illegal profiteering cannot come at the expense of freedom of expression. The boundaries of law enforcement cannot be blurred, and fictional creation and dissemination must be treated differently."
Song Tao further pointed out that Article 363, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Law clearly states that producing and selling obscene materials for profit is a crime. However, Lanzhou police have classified "free publication" or "micro-rewards" as profiteering, significantly expanding the scope of the crime.
Legal scholar Lu Chenyuan commented that even Nobel Prize-winning author Mo Yan's literary works contain pornographic elements. Chinese classical novels like "Jin Ping Mei," "San Yan Liang Pai," and even "Dream of the Red Chamber" all contain pornographic descriptions, as do Western literature. "Literary works shouldn't be so strictly restricted. This isn't illegal at all."
Lawyers question the legality of police's excessive arrests
Jiangxi lawyer Ma Guoguang told this station that the Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that criminal cases should be filed and investigated by the public security organs at the place of the crime or the defendant's residence. He questioned why Lanzhou police are enforcing the law across thousands of miles, raising questions about the legality of "distant-sea fishing." He questioned, "Without open judicial cooperation and a unified identification platform, this non-local 'unified law enforcement' inevitably oversteps its authority."
Ma Guoguang went on to explain that China has yet to establish a legal definition of obscene expression in "fictional literary works." Whether danmei and R18 subculture texts are equivalent to obscene material, or under what circumstances they constitute "social harm," remains undetermined. Given legislative gaps and ambiguous standards, the heavy-handed intervention of criminal law could have a chilling effect, severely impacting the writing ecosystem.
Who draws the boundary between law and literature?
Legal scholars point out that the application of the "crime of profiting from obscene materials" has always been highly controversial. It should be applied with particular caution to online novels with fictional plots and literary expressions. Public opinion has questioned the breadth and severity of this campaign, suggesting it may be related to local authorities' efforts to "generate revenue" or enforce targeted targets.
Weibo user "Ni Cai Pi Gu Ban" lamented: "This time the law enforcement does not consider profitability, and those with low click-through rates and those who write purely for fun are also arrested." Many people are worried that the heavy pressure will bring psychological burden to young Chinese female creators and even trigger a chilling effect.
Last December, this station reported on the "literary crackdown" that spread from Jixi to Lanzhou. Its scope and severity surpassed traditional "anti-pornography and anti-illegal publication" crackdowns. The rise of female subculture writing on digital platforms is at a critical juncture of legal scrutiny. One author wrote desperately, "I only hope the law will see the girl who sold her hair for a pen and bring us justice."
