Chinese censors crack down on webnovels/internet based fiction: Possible jailtime for boy's love, stay lighthearted, no corruption or sex

[patientzero]

Why do they have a problem with kissing and sex? Isn't this a country that prides itself on indoctrinating religious people to pledge themselves to worshipping the state instead?

Click to shrink...

Because all systems of control seek to define "proper" sexuality. People mistakenly attribute that solely to religious doctrines when religion is only a means for a far more basic form of control that can be enacted in any system. Completely secular societies still police behavior.

 

[Deleted member 888]

Why doesn't China just turn their citizens into robots. That's where they are heading with this shit.

Click to shrink...

Because you need to make your citizens feel as if they want to be robots. It's the boiling a frog in a pot scenario. The frog thinks you are doing it no harm or maybe even doing best by it, by providing it water and safety. Then it's too late.

If a country truly pulls it off you could interview someone from within the country and they'd tell you they are fine/the outside world is blowing things out of proportion. Complete indoctrination and subservience.

China is successfully socially engineering its population to appear to want to be robots. If a corrupt power running a country tries to force that, then that is when you get potential revolts or masses resisting. Often violently. Of course, censoring the internet helps, but that's because of how disruptive the digital information age has been to all cults/indoctrination.

 

[Ogodei]

Putting aside the fact that this is a moral atrocity, this censorship business is why China is so bad at soft power. A country of 1.3 billion shouldn't be this bad at making art that the whole world can enjoy, but authoritarianism chokes artistic expression in the cradle. It's going to hamper their ambitions to be a world respected power and they'll never understand that.

Click to shrink...

Yup. China's basically incapable of making real, exportable culture. Consider how elements of modern Japanese culture can be found in every corner of the world and in so many channels, while China beyond Hong Kong produces nearly nothing that is recognizable.

It's the sort of thing that ultimately keeps dictatorships from surpassing liberal systems. In a dictatorship, everything needs to be for the purpose of the ruling power. Anything that exists outside of that purpose is a threat because it is where power and influence can gather beyond government control. This is why modern dictatorships are generally more repressive than the old monarchies, the monarchies often did not understand the threat of a free society seeing no alternatives to themselves (which doesn't mean old monarchies couldn't get medieval as all hell).

 

[Mugsy]

Because all systems of control seek to define "proper" sexuality. People mistakenly attribute that solely to religious doctrines when religion is only a means for a far more basic form of control that can be enacted in any system. Completely secular societies still police behavior.

Click to shrink...

Old people are usually conservative and the higher up chinese government is filled with old men who give promotions to like minded people.

 

[NHarmonic.]

Some very kinky tongue kissing.

Also Avatar braidtail fucking.

Click to shrink...

Holy shit that Avatar mention lmao.

So, what happens with the few games that feature lgbtq characters? Like Overwatch, TLoU, or others?

 

[Cantaim]

Lol right as Chinese webcomics were starting to gain some traction in English speaking countries.

Anyway although people wanna focus a bit on the neck thing. Saddest part will be the continued suppression of LGBTQ+ people in China via these new rules.

 

[chrisPjelly]

China is gonna end up developing some pretty weird head fetishes aren't they...

Come on our China stans and defend this shit. The usual defenses you use are:
Whataboutism
False Equivalency
You haven't been there it's really quite nice
or
"Why do you hate Chinese people?" when critiques were clearly focused on government, not individuals subjected to that government.

Personally, I don't see how any of those work as a valid defense of an indefensible government, but if you can't defend this you may want to rethink your regular defense of all things PRC.

Click to shrink...

Don't forget only accusing people from the U.S. for having a "hate boner", while completely disregarding the opinions of Canada, several places in Europe, and pretty much every major country in Asia...

 

[chillichocolate]

Oh no, chinese web novels are my favourite! No wonder qidian had so many novels that disappeared when i searched them for a while and they removed the comments and reviews sections!

Is there a list of novels that got removed? I follow a lot of popular series both male and female sections and
滚开 had quite a few of his work removed!! He did the really dark and oppressive atmosphere novels well...at least 诡秘之主 which is the best recent chinese webnovel ive read in a while (highly recommend!) is still there but the plot was leaning towards overturning society, not sure if there will be a change in the direction. Seems like they are going to crackdown on fanfic(borrowed material from existing work) soon, another favourite 轮回乐园 has a lot of borrowed material in his worlds as well...

Military marriage is a very common genre in the female novels section. The typical structure depicts a female protaganist getting married to a military man sometime from the 60s to 90s. Usually the female protag comes from a poor family with ridiculous parents/relatives, ranging from chauvinistic parents who believe she should give all her husband's money to her brother to sisters/stepmom that try to ruin her life by burning her college acceptance letter/marry her off to a crippled widower in his 50s. There is also an additional plot device of someone (usually the protag) coming back from the future so she can do all those investment moves like starting a business in china in the 80-90s or buying land/property in the 80s. The fact that it's a military marriage means that the protag can't divorce from her husband easily so all the readers know the male protag from the start. The plot usually revolves around their extended family, ladies that wanted to marry the husband, husband training people in the military, protag dealing with life as a military wife with all her other military wives she has to hang out with at the base and how she earns money for their family. Honestly not a fan because of how boring/predictable most of them can be, but it seems the notice is talking about those more outrageous stories.

The current most popular 'military wives' web novel is actually where the protag is also training to be soldier, but it's more of a CEO type of novel. CEO novels are kinda where the male lead (aka future husband of protag) is smart, tall, handsome, powerful and a ceo of a world famous company at his late 20s-30s. So the military version of that is someone extremely capable (like general in his 20s) and that will start international conflicts over the protag. Basically a fairytale version of a prince in military that will do anything for his princess from a poor family. I have no idea why this genre is quite popular!

Edit: wow, they have removed every novel that has military marriage in the title! Some of those where it is not directly referred seemed to have escaped the censors.

 

[Akira86]

how young?

 

[Fergie]

Winnie The Pooh really going down the abyss.

This guy really can't help himself.

 

[Vilix]

Pfft. I got my Huawei phone. No way the Chinese government is listening into those. Right?

 

[asmith906]

This is so fucking stupid. China literally arresting people for fan fiction. I wonder when they are going to go too far that they receive significant backlash.

 

[giallo]

In a dictatorship, everything needs to be for the purpose of the ruling power. Anything that exists outside of that purpose is a threat because it is where power and influence can gather beyond government control.

Click to shrink...

This is 2019 China to a tee. Beijing would happily rule over China's ashes as long as it still retained power.

I've lived in China from 2005 until March of this year, and I've never fallen out of love with a place as quickly as I have with China. Almost 14 years of my life there. I had so many absolutely wonderful experiences and met some of the most incredible people, ones that I will consider friends until the day I die, and yet, I never want to return. The China I know, the one with so much optimism and hope is disappearing so fast, I can barely comprehend it.

It depresses me to no end.

 

[Karateka]

Why does china care so much about sex in media as a supposed irreligious coubtry?

 

[game-biz]

Why does china care so much about sex in media as a supposed irreligious coubtry?

Click to shrink...

Well, I think in basic terms, religion uses and controls sex as way to control their people. A secular government can do the same, for basically the same reasons. Instead of saying, "Because God says so...", it's: "Because the government says so... or simply our leader says it's obscene." Freedom of sexual expression for your people is a slippery slope if you're in the dictatorship business.

 

[Ogodei]

Why does china care so much about sex in media as a supposed irreligious coubtry?

Click to shrink...

Ostensibly it's about confucian values or the idea that free sexuality, especially homosexuality, is considered capitalist decadence. The Soviet system of Stalin onward was also prudish about sex and outlawed homosexuality, with their only positive sexual piece being unrestricted abortion access.

 

[Slowsonic]

That' what the Chinese text say "Military marriage". I don't know what kind of fetish is it. You can google and read the novels yourself.

Click to shrink...

"Military marriage" is a legal term in China. having an affair with a married person while considered immortal but is not a crime. however if one having an affair with a spouse of on-duty military personnel, it is a criminal offense.

 

[thetrin]

Winnie the Pooh has got to be smoking some good shit to think that suppressing culture is going to result in China having any soft power worldwide.

 

[RedSwirl]

Hold up, so, webnovels are like, the modern return of old serialized literature?

I did a quick google search and almost everything I come into contact with from just the word "webnovel" is Chinese. Did it start in China?

 

[Van Bur3n]

 

[HotHamBoy]

Everytime I need reminding that the US isn't actually the worst I read some news about China

 

[Skade]

Fan fictions without sex will be difficult to do now.

But Joking aside, it's another example of the totalitarism of the chinese government. Good luck to our fellow chinese friends.

 

[SquirrelSr]

Not even just fan fiction. It's original works as well.

 

[Pellaidh]

Just saw a post on r/anime about the current state of Chinese anime streaming that I'm guessing is related to this censorship crackdown.

Basically, a lot of shows on the biggest anime streaming platform either got removed outright, or heavily censored.

For example, Grand Blue (a series known for having a lot of sexual humour and naked men) looks like this now:

The linked post goes into more detail, including seemingly fine shows getting completely pulled, or having cut content (including shows that I don't remember having any explicit sexual content. Even hugging seems to be off limits).

So this seems to be hitting every media out there, including licenced anime. And while it might seem like a Chinese streaming site censoring things isn't something that will matter to the west, it's worth noting that China is a huge export market for anime, and said streaming site is actually on the production committee for a number of shows (i.e. it's providing part of the funding for these shows).

 

[Dekuman]

Why not just blank out the entire screen ?

 

[Josh378]

You can quote me on this but China is going to have a civil war in the next 10 years. No regime who tries to suppress human emotions can survive for long term. Is either Civil War within the country or Warfare with another country.

 

[ConanEd]

"Military marriage" is a legal term in China. having an affair with a married person while considered immortal but is not a crime. however if one having an affair with a spouse of on-duty military personnel, it is a criminal offense.

Click to shrink...

I thought that's also punishable in US military?

 

[Wackamole]

That's pretty inhumane and fucking stupid.

 

[Spork4000]

I thought that's also punishable in US military?

Click to shrink...

Punishable if the service member is the one having the affair, not the service member's spouse.

 

[Froli]

Man, I frequent /noveltranslations ... this is pretty shocking. It's a good thing I have litrpg as an alternative

 

[BigWinnie1]

This is why China is so fucking shit at soft power. They can't help but fall over their own dicks with censorship. If it aint Ancient china it aint shit to me.

 

[Seductivpancakes]

I should get a Huawei phone and use it only for porn. Peep that prc.

 

[Einchy]

Come on our China stans and defend this shit. The usual defenses you use are:
Whataboutism
False Equivalency
You haven't been there it's really quite nice
or
"Why do you hate Chinese people?" when critiques were clearly focused on government, not individuals subjected to that government.

Personally, I don't see how any of those work as a valid defense of an indefensible government, but if you can't defend this you may want to rethink your regular defense of all things PRC.

Click to shrink...

I'm actually surprised the defense force didn't show up this time, they always do.

 

[cosmicspooks]

I don't understand. You have people being arrested for writing stories that aren't...positive enough? while at the same time you also have extreme music/performance artists who are allowed to just kinda keep doing their thing. Like, god bless, I'm glad my precious noise kids aren't being arrested, but how on earth do they get away with it.

Anyway, this is insane and awful and I hope all those talented creators stay safe

 

[Kthulhu]

I'm sure suppressing erotic content in a country where there is a massive gender imbalence is gonna work out great in the long run /s

Feel awful for the people there.

 

[spookyghost]

Does China suffer from a lot of brain drain? They're not exactly cut off from the world and a lot of their affluent youth study abroad.

 

[Deleted member 907]

Come on our China stans and defend this shit. The usual defenses you use are:
Whataboutism
False Equivalency
You haven't been there it's really quite nice
or
"Why do you hate Chinese people?" when critiques were clearly focused on government, not individuals subjected to that government.

Personally, I don't see how any of those work as a valid defense of an indefensible government, but if you can't defend this you may want to rethink your regular defense of all things PRC.

Click to shrink...

I'm actually surprised the defense force didn't show up this time, they always do.

Click to shrink...

Have you ever considered that the people you consider "apologists" aren't actual apologists? And that maybe, you're using that pejorative as a way to disregard their arguments without actually engaging them?

 

[Dekuman]

Have you ever considered that the people you consider "apologists" aren't actual apologists? And that maybe, you're using that pejorative as a way to disregard their arguments without actually engaging them?

Click to shrink...

Maybe but.the point in the quotes your disagreeing is even the usual alleged apologists had a good sense not to argue the points they usually bring up in such a case because the Chinese govs action is indefensible trying it would not work.

Their silence is telling and the people you quoted are right to point it out.

 

[Chopchop]

Wow, isn't that almost everything?

 

[Deleted member 907]

Maybe but.the point in the quotes your disagreeing is even the usual alleged apologists had a good sense not to argue the points they usually bring up in such a case because the Chinese govs action is indefensible trying it would not work.

Their silence is telling and the people you quoted are right to point it out.

Click to shrink...

I'm very clear on what the point is. It's even more telling that they had nothing to say in the Trump/trade war thread and it's obvious that people aren't being critical of the US media as they should be. There's a concerted effort to maintain US hegemony and shitting on China is a big part of that plan as the biggest threat to that. Spreading domestic restrictions does not seem to be a part China's neo-colonialist plans and it's not because they don't have the ability to.

 

[Einchy]

Come on our China stans and defend this shit. The usual defenses you use are:
Whataboutism

Click to shrink...

Don't forget only accusing people from the U.S. for having a "hate boner", while completely disregarding the opinions of Canada, several places in Europe, and pretty much every major country in Asia...

Click to shrink...

hehe

 

[Plastic Shark]

Hey repression of art and the peoples lives won't totally screw them over eventually. /s

Not sure why they still believe this is a good idea at all, but I feel bad for the people still living there.

 

[Sun's Resting Place]

Hold up, so, webnovels are like, the modern return of old serialized literature?

I did a quick google search and almost everything I come into contact with from just the word "webnovel" is Chinese. Did it start in China?

Click to shrink...

It didn't start in China, but the most famous modern writer in China, Jin Yong, was serialized in newspapers. The modern martial arts stories are cribbing from him anyway, so the "per chapter update" model is especially successful in Chinese web circles. Even back during the flip phone days people read webnovels on them in China. Now it's becoming a worldwide phenomenon with the advent of Qidian creating their own official English website, Webnovel.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Ahhh...more examples of what the Chinese state really is.

Don't ever defend them. They are pure evil.

It doesn't matter if they are pitted against another pure evil shitheel in America named Trump in many current-day circumstances; that doesn't make them any less evil than they are.

 

[sphagnum]

You can quote me on this but China is going to have a civil war in the next 10 years. No regime who tries to suppress human emotions can survive for long term. Is either Civil War within the country or Warfare with another country.

Click to shrink...

Nobody is going to have a civil war over censorship. There will not be physical unrest in China unless the economy implodes.

 

[Inuhanyou]

authoritarian governments would be pretty hilarious if they werent so scary