Chinese authorities have launched a sweeping crackdown on 'Danmei' (Boys' Love) novels depicting male homosexuality. While they are officially citing the regulation of obscenity as the reason, the fact that the authorities are laser-focused on BL rather than heterosexual erotica suggests that the government is using the crackdown to police social values.

According to recent reports from local outlets like the Southern Metropolis Daily and Dahe Daily, public security officials in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, have initiated a nationwide crackdown this year targeting authors who publish BL works on novel submission platforms. These writers are being charged with the production, sale, and distribution of obscene materials, and reports suggest that some have already been taken into custody.

The targets of this operation are primarily authors who submitted their work to the adult-oriented site 'Haitang Literature City'. Reports indicate that over 200 individuals have been hauled in for police questioning. The majority of these authors are university students, with a handful of readers also caught in the dragnet. The revenue generated by the authors was reportedly modest, amounting to only a few thousand yuan at most.

At the heart of this crackdown is the Xi Jinping administration’s aggressive censorship agenda. Back in January, the government held a meeting to 'eradicate pornography and illegal publications,' demanding a thorough crackdown on 'issues with significant public repercussions.' There is a growing sense of crisis in Chinese society regarding the younger generation’s reluctance to marry or have children, which is seen as undermining traditional values. In this climate, BL content is being branded as anti-social simply because it fails to promote mainstream, heterosexual family structures or traditional social roles.

In fact, many Chinese netizens have pointed out that the BL novels hosted on these sites are not significantly different in terms of explicitness compared to standard adult literature. The discrepancy in enforcement—where only the most extreme heterosexual works are targeted while BL is subjected to a blanket crackdown—suggests that the government is sending a firm message that BL is not tolerated.

While Chinese authorities haven't explicitly banned 'Danmei' in its entirety, they are applying broad and vague concepts such as 'obscenity,' 'disturbing social order,' and 'damaging core socialist values' to justify these actions. Before 2020, there was a case where a BL author was sentenced to 10 years in prison for distributing obscene materials. While the recent growth of subculture had suggested a shift in tides—leading to the development of numerous BL games—this latest large-scale crackdown signals a return to a hardline stance. It serves as a stern warning to any game developers or distributors currently looking to produce or circulate BL games within China.