Fans of Danmei same-sex romance stories in China say the government is cracking down harder than ever on the popular genre.
to the best of my knowledge, AP News is now the first (only?) western journalistic outlet to confirm that 袁依楣 Yuan Yimei (MXTX) was detained in 2019 for "tax evasion" ("非法經營罪"), imprisoned for 3 years, and paroled in 2021—there were sinophone reports but with dubious sources. i think we can now take this to be factual.
Yuan Yimei was also (according to 港聞 Hong Kong News) fined 400k RMB, and as always when accosted with this information I have to put my face in my hands and dwell on the unutterably vast amount of capital her IP has been generating (in the United States alone) since June 2019, and ask myself: has she seen even one cent of it.
and, like. far be it from me in these unprecedented times to harsh the global danmei buzz. i can only hold these facts in one hand, and gesture towards @penguinrandomhouse and @sevenseasentertainment with the other, and ask them how well they sleep at night without ever making a single official statement.
anyway here's a petition you can sign! thanks to @elizabethminkel for pointing out this article, and I hope all our beloved and unfathomably nervy writers are safe tonight, at home with people they love.
Creators are being imprisoned. Where is Seven Seas Entertainment?
