“I have been warned not to talk about it,” the woman wrote, Before revealing the snippets of that day, she says that she was arrested for publishing gay irritica.

“I will never forget it – survived the car in full scene, tolerating the humiliation of naked stripping for the exam in front of strangers, put on a vest for photos, sitting on the chair, moving with fear, my heart is getting faster.”

Handle, pinging Anan Yongfu, is one of at least eight in recent months who shared accounts on the Chinese social media platform Weibo arrested to publish gay erotic imagination. As authors recalled their experiences, dozens of lawyers offered pro bono help.

At least 30 authors, almost all of them have been arrested across the country in their 20s, in their 20s, a lawyer told the BBC. Many people are on bail or are waiting for the trial, but some are still in custody. Another lawyer told the BBC that many more contributors were called for questioning.

He published his work on Hatang Literature City, a Taiwan-Hosted platform, known for “Danmy”, the style of love and sensual imagination of the so-called boys.

Think of it as a gay version of the Fifty Shades of Gray: a BDSM relationship that occurs after a pleasure. It is a frequent trop in historical, fantasy or science-fi settings. Over the years, it has especially dedicated a fiercely among young Chinese women.

These authors are being accused of breaking China’s pornography law for “production and distribution of pornographic materials”. Profit authors can be put in jail for more than 10 years.

The law targets “a clear description of gay sex or other sexual deformities”. Heterosexual illustration often features more leve – works by acclaimed Chinese writers, including the Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan, there are graphic sexual scenes, but widely available.

Although authors from heterosexual irritica have been imprisoned in China, observers say the style has been subjected to low censorship. Gay Erotica, which is more destroyer, harasses authorities more. In a support group for Hatang writers, volunteers told the BBC police that some readers were also questioned.

Those who reported the arrest refused to interview the results for fear of the results. Answer -Police of Lanzhou, a western city, who is accused of running this crack, has not responded to the BBC.

Online, Crackdown has removed a debate – and a rare pushback against the law.

“Is sex really something to be embarrassed?” A Weibo user asked, arguing that China’s anti -ambiguity is out of law contact. Another has written that women never get to decide what is vulgar because they do not control the story. Even legal scholars have expressed concern that only 5,000 views for anything to be considered “porn” are qualified as criminal “distribution”, which has reduced the bar to arrest the creators.

This made Beijing so uncomfortable that the discussion disappeared: #haitangauthorsarded saw more than 30 million times on Weibo, before this censor was done. Posts that give legal advice have gone. The story of a major Chinese news site has been taken down. Authors’ accounts, and some handles are also disappearing.

Anan went viral after pinging the post of Yongfu, he removed it and wrote another, thanked the supporters, and admitted that his writing violated the law. He then removed his handle.

Prior to that last post, she wrote: “I was always a good girl in my parents’ eyes. But that day, I was nothing but shame. They would not be able to catch their head again.”

These women have long worked in the shade in China, where homosexuality and sexuality are tarnished. Now out of police investigation, they face social consequences that are cruel like legal people.

“At that moment, I felt all shame,” posted by a writer, whose Weibo handle translates into “The World is a huge psychiatric hospital”. He said that the police took him out of the classroom in college – and his classmates noticed that they follow him to find her dom.

“I earned my money word by word on a keyboard. But once it went to the south, it was as if no one matters. People treated me as if I earned money without working for it.”

Another wrote that the police was kind, advised him to talk to a lawyer and return his “illegal earning” to reduce his punishment. “I am only 20 years old. So I am young, and I have already ruined my life so soon.”

One third said: “I never thought that one day would come when whatever word I wrote, it would come back to harass me.”

A writer who has been writing a Danmei novel for 20 years was not questioned, but he says that the rift would not stop him. “This is that I get pleasure. And I can’t let the connections made with the community go.”

Inspired by the love manga of Japanese boys, Danmei emerged as a sub-style online in the 1990s. It has become extremely successful, some novels are seen in international bestseller lists.

In 2021, 60 of them were given the option for film and TV optimization. The most expensive IP was reportedly sold for 40 million yuan ($ 5.6 million; £ 4.1 million). Some of China’s biggest stars, such as Jio Zan and Wang Yibo, made their debut on Danmi novels based on streaming shows.

In short, it is the rebellious royal of pop culture – very popular, very controversial for ignoring, very controversial for respect.

And it is a signature offering on Hatang, which is in Mandarin, a flower that blooms in every shade of pink.

Appropriately, Hatang and Danmy have specificly flourished as female spaces, although they keep the male hero at the center. In a culture where female sexual desire is regularly polished, Danmei is a coded, creative outlet – a place where women can write about female desire for other women.

Dr. Liang ji says, this is what makes Danmy “destructive”, which teaches Digital Sociology at University College London. This allows women to “separate from gender realities”, which they often combine with marriage and maternity.

For example, in danmei stories, men can become pregnant and relax with being unsafe – often with unequal relationships many Chinese struggle in real life with women.

“Danmy freed me from thinking about all the possible threats in relationships in traditional heterosexual romance,” a writer who has been active in the Danmy world since a decade.

Danmei novels are not without his critics, as some have extreme and violent views. “As a parents, how many of us can accept their children to read novels like this, let them write alone?” Asked a Weibo user.

The age of authors has also been a concern: The BBC spoke to one of the people they said that they started reading and writing to all, before they turned 18, some at the age of 11.

This is a problem that the community should accept and address, MA said, a Danmi writer who only shared his surname, saying that it is a problem for all adult materials because China does not restrict the material until age.

But Danmei has especially come into a rapid attack in the last decade as Beijing started a series of campaigns to “clean” the Internet. In 2018, a Danmei writer was jailed for 10 years to sell 7,000 copies of his book called OCP.

Dr. Gay says that in the form of marriage and birth rate, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping encouraged a national rejuvenation, so Danmi’s state investigation racket, Dr. Gay says.

“The Chinese government wants to promote traditional family values ​​and like danmi novels is seen as a factor to prepare women to reduce children,” Dr. Gay tells.

This is the second wave of large -scale arrest in less than a year – at the end of last year, some 50 hatang writers were prosecuted. A famous writer who earned around 1.85 million yuan was put in jail for about five years.

The two cracks are the same, according to a lawyer, who represented some defendants last year, “but this time, even those with minor participation were not spared”.

A lawyer, who gave free legal advice, said that more than 150 people requested counseling in just two days. Many of those who contacted him were not yet charged – though they were nervous with the possibility.

“It is a classic offshore fishing,” says a lawyer who has written a “practical guide” to help Hetang authors. The term refers to Overch by the local police – the authors in Lanzou were called to various places, which are of course beyond their jurisdiction.

Many people reported to be paid out of pockets to fly to Lanzo. One posted that 2,000 yuan earned two books on Hatang paid for the flight.

Last year too, all the arrests were made by the police in Gixi County in Eastern China.

Independent local governments have done this before earning revenue through fine, sometimes forced to warned the central government. Says a lawyer, “Cyber ​​crimes are particularly in danger that” as long as they claim that a local reader had become corrupt “, the lawyer says.

Danmei writers know that tolerance can be fickle. This is why they skirt the sensorship with metaphors. “Dinner making” means sex; “Kitchen tool” is a code for male genitals.

Nevertheless, the recent cracks shocked him. “A phone call shattered my dreams,” how a writer described the call from the police.

He accused the police of finding his phone without a warrant. He said that his crime was evaluated by connecting ideas for each chapter – a method he argued was misleading, because it exaggerated the readers.

Another Danmei writer posted: “I wrote on Hatang for years, only a few with readers. Then, ignored stories that were more than 300,000 clicks, and 4,000 yuan became proof of my crime in the royalty sitting in my account.”

It is difficult to know if it is at the end of his career on Hatang.

“If I could go back, I would still choose to write. And I will keep writing,” the handle Sijin D Sijin wrote.

“Right now, I can only hope that the law will look beyond the words on the page – and will see the girl who left the food to save the money, the girl who sold her hair to buy the pen, the girl who believed that her brain could make a way through fate. I hope that it will give us all a right chance.

Additional reporting by Grace Tsoi in Hong Kong