xili's Things

If you haven't heard, in the past year, the Chinese government has launched an incredibly aggressive literary crackdown. Over 30 danmei authors—mostly women in their 20s—have been arrested, fined, and imprisoned simply for writing and distributing queer fiction online. Many published through Haitang Literature City, a Taiwan-based site, to avoid mainland censorship. Some are facing up to five years in prison, with one author fined more than the equivalent of $40,000 USD. One of them, Ci Xi, was sentenced to 66 months behind bars. Another, Yun Jian, got 4.5 years. Some made only a few hundred dollars off their writing. This is not “obscenity” enforcement. This is a targeted, ideological attack on women, on queerness, on fiction, and on creative freedom. This is also an economic attack. Chinese officials have coined it "fishing in distant seas," whereby public security officials from one province or city cross into another to pursue “major cases” (with lucrative outcomes) with no clear jurisdictional authority or public safety imperative. They fine these women extraordinary amounts of money that then go into the pockets of corrupt officials. This is the exploitation of vulnerable groups of people and the authoritarian policing of morality. These women, for publishing mostly unprofitable queer stories, are having their futures DESTROYED and their images decimated. There is a very big community and reputation-centered value system in Chinese culture. Now. Imagine. Even after being released, who is to say these women will have a job or family to go back to?

Obviously, we should care. On a base level because of brutal censorship, but also because most of us are avid consumers of BL. We are part of the same ecosystem these authors are being punished for.

The Chinese state is criminalizing artistic expression because it dares to imagine something freer than the current order. And let’s be honest: this isn’t just happening in China. Across the world, we are watching governments police books, criminalize drag, erase trans people, censor art, and surveil fandom spaces under the guise of “morality.” Queer stories have always been political. So has fanfiction. What we’re witnessing is a war on imagination, especially when that imagination belongs to marginalized people.

And where is the Western media? Failing us. Articles from BBC and the New York Times treat danmei like a strange niche, or worse, frame BL as “problematic,” “pornographic,” or “exploitative." These narratives distract from the real issue: state violence against creators. Instead of standing up for freedom of expression, they’ve defaulted to tone-deaf cultural judgment.

What do we do? I'll be honest, even I'm not sure. I'm scrambling for resources. In China, online efforts at protesting are being erased and censored, as well as legal advice provided on social networking sites. Here are some ways I've thought of that might help.
- Spread awareness. If you have a platform, if you don't have a platform, say something. Let more people know about this. On Tiktok, Instagram, Bluesky, etc etc.
- Groups like PEN America and Chinese Human Rights Defenders are tracking these cases. Support them, donate, or help amplify their work.
- If you know danmei authors writing online today—especially in or near China—check in with them. A lot of lawyers in China are offering pro bono to these women. If you know any of them, offer money, legal assistance if you're qualified.

If I'm missing anything or said anything incorrect, please correct me. But this matters. Artistic liberty and freedom is under attack. Don't look away.

hey so. im looking to make friends lowkey anyone who lives on the east coast of the US. age range being 18-25 for the most part. could go older, likely won't go younger. i got laid off two months ago and need time to pass. im funny i promise and im emotionally intelligent (i hope). lets play.......

drop ur discord or instagram or something idk!

i just need to get my thoughts out somewhere. many yaois revolve around themes that echo hallmarks of psychological thrillers: surveillance, secrecy, stalking, deception, emotional entrapment, and sexual assault. however, they're reinterpreted through a romantic lens. sex is a way of exerting power, control, obedience, and subjugation of (very often) more feminine persons, all while presenting it as desirable and a source of pleasure when in fact actual good, safe sex is far from what bl usually depicts it to be. bl then often makes the audience complicit, seduced into rooting for problematic characters or relationships. lack of communication, consent, and ideas of toxic masculinity are used to further relationships and are brushed past as something attractive and loving rather than abusive and creepy. sex becomes less a mutual act of connection and more a mechanism for asserting power, obedience, and subjugation - most often toward the more feminized character. i am talking very specifically about yaoi, and not shounen ai here, by the way, when i say that romantic tension often is indistinguishable from an undeveloped and forced sexual attraction. lack of communication, skewed power imabalnces, and rigid ideas of masculinity are not only central to the development of many yaoi pairings - they are portrayed as the very conditions under which love can flourish. romance is often merely the aesthetic of stories that are, at their core, about the commodification of vulnerability. scenes of non/dubcon are very common and are often depicted as the turning point where a resistant character (USUALLY the 'bottom') 'realizes' they want it after all. they are often pivotal to the 'romance' or narrative. it teaches a young or more impressionable audience that love can begin in violence, that no can mean yes, and that consent is a hurdle to be overcome rather than a foundation to be honored. the 'bottom' is watched, stalked, worn down, and remade—and we are asked to feel satisfaction when they finally submit. this is not just problematic—it is the architecture of a thriller. violence becomes tenderness and manipulation becomes love. predation and excessive possessiveness and controlling behavior becomes protection. this IS a psychological horror and thriller. there are very few BLs that lean into this to portray these dynamics as they truly are. the problem isn't that bl can be dark, or violent or messy - queer narratives, like all ones, should be allowed the complexity. HOWEVER, the issue is when violence is romanticized without interrogation and when dominance becomes the sole framework for intimacy. to say that much of yaoi is a masked psychological thriller isnt to dismiss the genre, but to call attention to the structures and patterns that underlie it, and to ask: what are we (as WOMEN especially, being the target audience) being made to desire? who does the story want us to root for, and why?
i also understand that BL/yaoi can be a reprieve from the objectification experienced in explicitly heterosexual media, and in no way am i trying to bash on anyone who enjoys or frequents yaoi. especially since for most women, theyre socialized in environments where sexuality is either policed or hyper exposed, so through yaoi readers can explore desire without the immediate personal identification or fear of violence that may accompany hetero narratives. yaoi also prioritizes emotional intensity, longing, and interiority. it destigmatizes sexual relations. the very reason this critique matters is bc readers care deeply about the stories they consume. they're not just escapist fantasies - they're maps of longing, identity, and emotional experimentation. in talking about yaoi, i just want to ask - 'what is this doing, and why does it feel so compelling?' how can we improves narratives from objectifying and commodifying vulnerability and femininity and queerness into something more empowering and outright critical of patriarchal norms? yeah sorry this was rly long.

i know this might be like an exhausted topic, but in my opinion (again, OPINION - don't threaten me or anything) there are no genuine merits to the omegaverse genre. its simply glorified rape fantasies, and characters all fit into this one sex-driven role that dictates their behavior and relationships. it's weirdly predatory and almost pedophilic to me because the omegas are always like weirdly infantilized and childlike. imo it's also a way in which to completely exclude women from the universe because cis men can give birth through their asshole or whatever. in almost every omegaverse ive unfortunately read, ive always found that the romance and development of the relationship is heavily reliant on or would not exist without the "base" instinct of a dominant, lustful alpha creeping upon an innocently seductive omega. it reinforces these weird heteronormative gender roles while still somehow getting rid of women, and maybe once in a million years do i ever actually find a good story (and only ever in fanfiction too - never in original works). feel free to disagree with me, but i guess im just curious as to what draws people into this genre.

anyone here get severely weirded out when like the stories on this site feature a romance where this older more dominant man is like creepily lusting after some twink they think is a minor bc they "can't help it he's so pretty" but like they don't act on it bc obviously despite their internal horniness they're the paragon of virtue since the twink isn't legal. only to find out that the twink is actually legal or barely legal, but yay, because omg so pretty he looks like a kid lets fuck rnnnn despite the fact that the buff creepy dude is like. thirty.