Offshore Danmei: State Censorship and the Transnational Reorganization of Chinese Queer Audiovisual Production

Over the past decades, the Chinese audiovisual industry has established itself as one of the largest in the world, yet productions addressing queer themes and same‑sex relationships face growing state censorship. This article analyzes how regulatory tightening — especially after 2021 — reshaped production strategies within the danmei genre, leading to the emergence of a phenomenon conceptualized here as offshore danmei: productions that retain predominantly Chinese cultural, creative, and economic ties, but relocate their production, legal registration, or distribution outside mainland China. Drawing on a literature review, case studies, and market data from 2024 to 2026, four production models are identified: Domestic‑Adaptive, Sinophonic‑Peripheral, Legal‑Offshore, and Hybrid‑Regional. It is argued that censorship does not merely repress cultural production but restructures it, stimulating transnational strategies that allow the preservation of the genre’s narrative integrity and generate significantly higher economic returns than the domestic model. This study contributes an original concept and an analytical typology for understanding the relationship between state regulation, territory, and media circulation in contemporary Asia.