Thoughts Towards Haitang and Danmei Writers Arrest Situation
After the last breakout back around April I wanted to write a follow up post about Haitang, see below:
I couldn't gather the right words and left it in my draft until I saw it trending on Weibo again today (6.1). A bit of background before I go into it, Haitang Literature is a website that hosts novels. In short, it's almost if not all smut/explicit novels, whether it's bg/bl/gl. I still don't fully understand how Haitang operates, but it's safe to say it's running in a grey area, making profits possibly outside of China while hosting Chinese content written by people in China. Last year, around July/August, it was shut down for an indefinite amount of time. Everyone thought it was never coming back online, but...
Turns out Haitang actually came back from the dead, it is still live and running as of today, their gmail account is listed on their website and people can make transactions through it. Nevertheless profiting of the bloods of the authors despite this whole ordeal.
While authors have deactivated their accounts on Haitang, the police force are continuously tracking and arresting authors across multiple regions (in China) for writing explicit novels, regardless if they were charging for their novels. I've seen a post of a 'lawyer' saying that the authors who are easily intimidated and vulnerable tend to get heavier sentencing. In particular, the ones who are struggling financially and are writing for the extra penny to support themselves and their family, since they can not afford bail money or extensive legal support.
The majority of them write explicit novels as their last choice for income and choose to write on the platform to cash in quickly. The posts I've read of them describing the humiliating interrogations are heartbreaking. The helplessness through their words revealing their life how they ended up there trying to write to pay their medical bill, to eat, to survive.
I say 'author' throughout this, but it's very obvious that the ones getting arrested are all women. Which isn't a surprise since it's always women writing for women. There is little space left for women on Chinese internet spaces for their needs. They have to resort to a grey website, and even then, they are getting caught. Since the last AO3 situation, a lot of people have been reluctant to return to AO3 as well and/or write or interact with the platform in fears what might happen to them.
As many have already pointed out, they have the money and energy to track all of these women for writing explicit novels but put a blind eye to other serious crimes that involve real people, the sentencing for sexual crimes involving minors could go as low as 2 years, yet writing some BL could potentially land authors 10 years in prison. The charges are unreasonable for text p*rnography, especially since some of them are not profiting and writing it for free.
Not to mention the questionable procedures with arrests across regions, whether they align with the law or banking on these young women complying without knowing their rights during interrogation. Phone and personal item searches without warrant, getting stripped bare for body search, asking inappropriate questions such as if they are pervs for writing smut, if they have boyfriends, if they are sexually active.
This isn't really about the law side of it since I'm in no place to comment on the criminal charges or laws I'm unfamiliar with. I don't know what I can achieve with writing this post. This whole thing is unsettling, and I couldn't take it out of my mind. Did I unintentionally contribute to this by reading these danmei? Are the danmei we are reading ethical? What is going to happen to all the authors that started from Haitang have licensed their works to be published? (This isn't just about danmei, but danmei is part of it)
Even the landscape of non-explicit novel have shifted massively in the last decade, authors constantly have to find new ways to censor their writing for it to be reviewed and then published.
It's easy for us readers out here to just open and close the web tab whenever it's convenient for us. What about the people behind these words? What can we even do? I tried to see if I could tip them through Weibo, but it's no use since the accounts are deactivated so quickly. What else can we do? Who will be there for the women at the end of the day?
