The graduate student in southern China wrote the romance novel in her spare time, self-publishing it online. In 75 chapters, it followed two male protagonists through a love affair that included, at times, steamy sexual encounters. It earned her less than $400, from readers who paid to access it.

一名中国南方的研究生用业余时间创作了一部言情小说，并在网上发布。小说共有75章，讲述了两位男主角之间的一段恋情，其中包括一些情欲描写。读者需付费阅读，这部小说最终为她带来了不到3000元的收入。

Now, it could bring her a criminal conviction.

如今，这部小说可能会让她面临刑事定罪。

Across China, the authorities have been interrogating dozens of writers — many of them young women — who published gay erotic novels online, in what appears to be the largest police roundup of its kind to date.

在中国各地，政府正在审讯数十名曾在网上发布男同性恋题材情色小说的作者，其中许多是年轻女性。这似乎是迄今为止最大规模的此类警方抓捕行动。

At least 12 such authors were tried on obscenity charges in Anhui Province late last year, according to court records, and more investigations, including that of the student, were opened in Gansu Province this spring. Some of the writers have been fined heavily or sentenced to years in prison for producing and distributing obscene content.

根据法院记录，去年底，至少有12名此类作者在安徽省因淫秽内容指控被审判。今年春天，包括那名学生在内的更多案件在甘肃省被立案调查。一些作者因创作和传播淫秽内容被处以巨额罚款，或被判处数年监禁。

At the center of the crackdown is Boys’ Love, a genre of romance between men that is mostly written and read online, and mostly by heterosexual women. Originally from Japan, it has developed a fervent niche following in China and other Asian countries since the 1990s, offering fans an alternative to the stereotypes of passive, obedient women and macho men in many mainstream love stories.

此次打击行动针对的是耽美文学——描写男性间恋爱的浪漫题材，主要由异性恋女性创作并在网络传播。耽美源自日本，自1990年代以来在中国及其他亚洲国家发展出狂热的小众追随者，它为粉丝提供了不同于主流爱情故事中“被动顺从的女性”与“阳刚男性”这些刻板印象的叙事选择。

At its peak in the 2010s, Boys’ Love gave rise to some of China’s most popular television and web dramas, and it launched the careers of some of the country’s biggest male stars. But that has changed in recent years.

在2010年代的高峰时期，耽美题材催生了中国一些最受欢迎的电视剧和网剧，也成就了几位国内顶级男明星的演艺生涯。但近年来，这一情况已经发生了变化。

As the genre grew more popular, state media began to denounce it as “vulgar,” claiming that the gay story lines could distort young readers’ sexual orientations. Shows were canceled, and television regulators banned Boys’ Love adaptations and gay-themed content more broadly. In a 2018 case that angered many Chinese internet users, a popular author was sentenced to 10 years in prison on obscenity charges.

随着这一题材越来越受欢迎，官方媒体开始对其进行抨击，称其“低俗”，并声称其中的同性恋情节可能会“扭曲”青少年的性取向。一些节目被叫停，电视监管机构也全面禁止了耽美改编作品和同性题材内容。2018年，一位知名作者因被控传播淫秽内容而被判处10年徒刑，判决引发了众多中国网民的愤怒。

印有耽美角色的笔记本及其他周边商品。该题材曾在2010年代激发了中国热门电视剧的创作灵感，相关作品在中国仍有销售，但限制已趋严格。

Some Boys’ Love writers responded to the pressure by leaving out sex scenes or downplaying the stories’ gay overtones, casting the pairings as “bromances.” Such works are still available in China. But other authors, who wanted to write more explicit stories, sought refuge in overseas publishing platforms like Haitang Literature City, a Taiwanese website that readers in China can access only with software that circumvents the state’s internet firewall.

一些耽美作者在压力下选择删去性描写，或淡化故事中的同性恋色彩，将角色之间的关系描绘为“兄弟情”。这类作品目前在中国仍然可以看到。但也有一些希望创作更露骨内容的作者转而投向海外出版平台，例如台湾的网站“海棠文学城”。中国读者只有借助翻墙软件绕过国家的网络防火墙，才能访问该平台。

Now, even that platform is no longer safe. The authors who were detained by the police in Jixi County in Anhui and the city of Lanzhou in Gansu had been publishing on Haitang.

如今，即便海棠也不再安全。那些在安徽省绩溪县和甘肃省兰州市被警方拘留的作者都是在海棠文学城上发表作品的。

The crackdown has led to heated debate about creative freedom and the government’s efforts to police morality. Online commentators noted that some people convicted of rape or child abduction had received lighter sentences than Boys’ Love authors.

这场打击行动引发了关于创作自由和政府道德审查的激烈争论。有网友指出，一些强奸犯或拐卖儿童者所受到的判罚竟然比耽美作者还要轻。

Lao Dongyan, a law professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, wrote on social media that law enforcement seemed more preoccupied with “safeguarding social mores and sexual morality” than with protecting individuals’ rights. That post has since been removed.

位于北京的清华大学的法学教授劳东燕在社交媒体上写道，执法机关似乎更关心的是“对社会风化与性道德的保护”，而不是保护个体权益。这条帖文后来已被删除。

To many people, the arrests also show how much the space for female and L.G.B.T.Q. expression has shrunk in China.

在许多人看来，这些逮捕事件也反映了中国女性和LGBTQ群体的表达空间日益缩小。

The scale of the crackdown is not entirely clear, partly because many authors have been afraid to talk about it. Also, discussion of the topic online has been heavily censored. But some observers say it appears to be the first time that Boys’ Love writers have been charged with crimes en masse, rather than merely censored or targeted individually.

此次打击行动的规模尚不十分清楚，部分原因是许多作者害怕谈论此事。此外，网络上有关该话题的讨论也受到严格审查。但一些观察人士表示，这似乎是耽美作者首次以犯罪名义被大规模起诉，而不仅仅是遭到审查或被单独针对。

In Gansu, the police may have arrested as many as 50 writers in recent weeks, according to one Chinese news outlet. Two lawyers who spoke to The New York Times said each of them represented an author who had recently been detained. One of the lawyers, Wu Jie, whose client is the graduate student, said he had direct knowledge of at least six other cases.

据一家中国新闻媒体报道，甘肃警方近期可能已逮捕多达50名作家。两位接受《纽约时报》采访的律师表示，他们各自代理了一名最近被拘留的作者。其中一位律师吴杰（音）的委托人就是那名研究生，他表示自己直接知道的至少还有另外六起类似案件。

Scholars, lawyers and others have speculated that the police might be targeting the writers for financial reasons. Local governments in China are burdened with debt, and some have turned to extorting businesses in other provinces, on exaggerated or made-up charges, to fill their coffers. The police in both Gansu and Anhuihave detained Boys’ Love authors from other provinces.

学者、律师及其他人士推测，警方可能是出于经济原因而针对这些作家。中国地方政府负债累累，一些地方通过对外省企业以夸大或捏造的指控进行勒索，以填补财政缺口。甘肃和安徽的警方均曾拘留来自外省的耽美作家。

Reached by phone, a member of the Lanzhou police staff said that “some details aren’t convenient to disclose.” A staff member for the Jixi County police said she was not aware of the cases.

电话联系兰州警方，对方一名工作人员表示“有些细节不便透露”。安徽绩溪县警方的一名工作人员则称她并不了解这些案件。

宣传两部耽美漫画《人鱼陷落》和《再见，我的国王》的海报。

Chinese obscenity laws are vague, prohibiting works that “explicitly portray sexual behavior,” with exceptions for those with scientific or artistic value. Producing or distributing obscene material for profit can be punished with life imprisonment if the conditions are “especially serious,” a quality that officials have said can be measured in earnings or clicks.

中国的淫秽法条较为模糊，禁止“露骨描写性行为”的作品，但对具有科学或艺术价值的作品除外。如果以营利为目的制作或传播淫秽物品，且情节“特别严重”，可判处终身监禁。官方表示，是否“特别严重”可以通过收益或点击量来衡量。

The authorities have also targeted creators of heterosexual pornography and erotic fiction. But they have singled out gay content as especially forbidden. For example, a government-backed group of internet companies and research institutes has included “homosexuality and other sexual perversions” in its definition of obscenity.

当局也打击异性恋色情内容和情色小说的创作者，但将同性恋内容列为重点禁区。例如，一个由政府支持的互联网公司和研究机构组成的团体将“同性恋及其他性变态”纳入淫秽内容的定义之中。

Cassie Hu, a China-based academic who studies Boys’ Love, said targeting it was a way “to control and highly supervise straight women” and reinforce the traditional, heterosexual family structure amid concern about China’s plummeting birthrate.

在中国从事耽美研究的学者凯茜·胡（音）表示，打压耽美是一种“对异性恋女性进行控制和高度监管”的手段，同时也为了在中国出生率急剧下降的背景下，强化传统的异性恋家庭结构。

The authors who were detained last year, by the police in Jixi County, seemed to be among the most popular writers on the Haitang platform.

去年被绩溪县警方拘留的那些作者，似乎是海棠文学城平台上最受欢迎的一批作者。

One author, who used the pen name Yun Jian, had written 38 novels since 2018 on Haitang, making the equivalent of more than $250,000, according to a court ruling posted online by someone who said he was the writer’s husband. She was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and fined twice what she had earned on the platform, according to the ruling.

一位笔名为云间的作者自2018年以来在海棠文学城上创作了38部小说，据一位自称是她丈夫的人在网上发布的法院判决书显示，她在该平台共赚取了超过185万元。根据判决，她被判处四年半有期徒刑，并被处以通过平台所得两倍的罚款。

Ye Bin, a lawyer for four other authors who were arrested, said they were women in their 20s who had earned $27,000 to $56,000 from their writing. All were given suspended prison sentences and fined twice as much as they had earned, Mr. Ye said.

叶斌（音）是另外四名被捕作者的律师，他表示，这四人都是20多岁的女性，通过写作赚取了19万元到39万元不等。叶律师称，她们都被判了缓刑，并被处以收入两倍的罚款。

Mr. Ye declined to discuss details of the stories written by the authors he represents. He acknowledged an argument that many critics of the Boys’ Love writers have made: that artistic freedom should be weighed alongside other considerations, like protecting minors. But he said China’s obscenity standards, which were last updated in 2010, should reflect changing societal attitudes.

叶斌拒绝谈论他所代理的作者们作品的具体内容。他承认，许多批评耽美作者的人提出了一个值得讨论的观点：艺术自由应与其他因素一同权衡，比如保护未成年人。但他表示，中国的淫秽内容标准自2010年后就没有更新，它理应反映社会观念的变化。

“When moral standards have been revolutionized, I think it’s inappropriate to still be using the sentencing standards from 20 years ago,” he said.

“当道德标准已经发生了巨大变化时，我认为仍在使用20年前的量刑标准是不合适的，”他说道。

日本耽美漫画《远方的家》的宣传海报。耽美题材起源于日本。

More writers were arrested this spring, by the police in Lanzhou. This time, the authors were less well known, according to interviews with two lawyers involved in the cases, as well as social media posts. They included university students and a writer who had earned less than $30, according to a post by one lawyer, Zhao Yijie.

今年春天，更多作者被兰州警方逮捕。据两位参与相关案件的律师以及社交媒体上的帖子透露，这次被捕的作者知名度较低，其中包括一些大学生，根据律师赵一杰的帖文所述，还有一位作者仅赚了不到200元。

Mr. Wu, the lawyer defending the graduate student who earned about $400, said his client was caught off guard by her detention.

为那位赚了大约3000元的研究生辩护的吴律师表示，他的当事人对自己被拘留一事完全措手不及。

“The police asked her during the interrogation, ‘Did you know that writing this could be a crime?’ She answered that she didn’t know until the police contacted her,” Mr. Wu said. (His client declined an interview request through Mr. Wu.)

“警方在审讯时问她：‘你知道写这种东西可能构成犯罪吗？’她回答说，直到警方联系她，她才知道，”吴律师说。（他的当事人通过他婉拒了采访请求。）

Even though the crackdown seems to have primarily targeted writers of explicit gay romances, the arrests are a warning sign about freedom of expression in general, said Liang Ge, a lecturer at University College London who studies Boys’ Love.

尽管此次打压行动主要针对的是描写露骨同性恋情节的作家，但也是对整体言论自由发出的一个警示信号，伦敦大学学院研究耽美的讲师梁歌（音）表示。

“It’s not just about writing obscenity, pornography, erotic or queer romances,” Dr. Ge said. “Social media users feel that there is increasingly little space for them to breathe freely.”

“这不仅仅是关于写作淫秽、色情、情色或酷儿恋爱作品的问题，”梁歌表示，“社交媒体用户普遍感到，他们可以自由呼吸的空间正变得越来越小。”