Censorship and Circumvention in China: How Danmei Writers ‘Drive a Car’ on Jinjiang

Danmei, aka Boys Love or BL, denotes a literature genre featuring malemale romantic or erotic relationships, predominantly created by and for heterosexual women who are referred to as 'rotten girls'. This subculture is characterised by explicit depiction of sexual encounters and erotic spectacles, which is metaphorically represented by a newly coined Internet neologism kaiche 'to drive a car' in China. As a consequence of its dual connection with homosexuality and pornography, as well as its accused transgression of traditional norms, danmei is subject to severe moral scrutiny and state censorship in China. As a leading danmei website with the largest readership and prominent commercial success, Jinjiang has been sensitive to government policy shifts and anti-pornography campaigns, and hence has enforced strict self-censorship standards comprising both automatic detection of transgressive keywords and multiple rounds of manual review. Consequently, writers at Jinjiang adopt a variety of circumvention tactics, including metaphor, codeswitching and satire strategies, so as to accommodate readers' requirement for homoerotic depictions. More significantly, erotic representations illustrate writers' sexual desires and identity as 'rotten girls', as well as illuminate writers' rebellion against online censorship and restriction on freedom of creation imposed by authorities.