My long-ass analysis of 19 Days and China’s censorship
Disclaimer: I’m not Chinese and have only an outsider’s perspective on this topic. But I want to talk about issues facing Old Xian and the plot of 19 Days caused by the precarious balancing act of writing a hugely popular BL webcomic in China in 2020. It affects the story much more than we appreciate.
I think a few readers of 19 Days in English (or translated from English) are only vaguely aware of the cultural and governmental pressures Old Xian faces. Those romantic things we hope for, things we write about wanting to see, things we insist must be imminent, things that would already be a done deal in, say, Japan, or Europe, or the US — I sadly believe aren’t in the future of 19 Days any time soon, if ever.
The first reason: the Chinese government’s ever-changing treatment of homosexuality and gay topics, what the New York Times describes as “the unpredictable and shifting tides of relaxation and control.”
Most of us know about the Great Firewall, China’s ban on many internet sites. Some blocked sites include big names like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Discord, Wikipedia, Netflix, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, DeviantArt, Tiktok, and most recently, Archive of our Own (in case you were wondering what happened to the Chinese authors who were posting 19 Days fanfic until March). China not only blocks most international sites, but keeps a tight grip on the content of its own sites like Weibo.
The rules for the tolerability of online gay content, and of BL, are ever changing. Authors are never sure what will fly from year to year. Some examples:
- BL became noticeably popular in China in the late 1990s. The media were accepting at first, but around 2006, they began to attack BL content as threatening underage girls and perverting their sexual development. The media focus on BL popularity among minors remains a common warning and reason to call to ban it altogether.
- In 2018, a popular Chinese yaoi novelist, Tianyi, received a 10 year prison sentence for selling her erotic yaoi novels online. The illustrator who made the covers for her books was given 4 years. Others who sold the novels got shorter sentences.
- Also in April, 2018, Weibo attempted self-censorship and began removing almost all gay content, sexually explicit or not. Weibo’s users erupted with such a visible online backlash that Weibo quickly backtracked on its decision. (Chinese LGBTQ and supporters are clearly not the sheep that the West presumes).
- A new censorship law taking effect in March of 2020, orders content providers (like Old Xian) to “resist making, publishing, or creating… negative information,” including anything with “sexual innuendo” or that is “readily associated with sex,” gore or horror, or things that would push minors towards behaviors that are unsafe or “violate social mores.” This law is broad enough to include nearly any BL content, and echoes the earlier fears that BL corrupts the sexual development of young girls.
The second reason is tied to the first: the 19 Days boys are 15 years old. With all the attacks on BL because it’s supposedly harmful to minors, Old Xian showing homosexual relationships among underage boys in a positive light is, in my opinion, not going to fly with the censors. And so we see Old Xian back off just when thing should be progressing. No one is sure where the “too far” line is or what crossing it looks like. I happen to think that Old Xian is a big fan of 19 Days, too, so it must be painful to have to back off this way. But they’re risking a lot more than we are: at the very least, 19 Days is tied to Mosspaca Studio, a commercial venture, that could be shut down with no warning.
The more popular 19 Days becomes, the more the censors will be watching. So in a way, I think Old Xian is content leaving the boys at 15 so that there’s no real temptation to write “sexual innuendo” that “violates social mores.” If the guys were 21, the absence of sexual content would be harder to justify.
We’re left with fanfiction to fill that void. And luckily, the fandom is blessed with some terrific writers!
reference links:
http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/liu.htm
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/magazine/blued-china-gay-dating-app.html
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/1/21159275/china-ao3-archive-of-our-own-banned-censorship
https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2019/02/chinese-yaoi-novelist-tianyi-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison-along-with-four-others/76203/
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