[1] While danmei works and their adaptations have achieved widespread popularity in China and globally, their legal status remains unclear due to Chinese censorship policies.
Danmei novels are often adapted as manhua (comics), donghua (animation), audio dramas, and live action television series, which may or may not retain textual queer elements.
Live action web series adaptations of danmei have achieved major commercial success via both producers and audiences' negotiation with the demands of the Chinese government censorship and broader consumer culture.
[5] Despite its popularity, danmei media is constantly at risk of legal action by the Chinese government as it "breaks two social taboos in one shot: pornography and homosexuality.
Homosexuality itself has been decriminalized in China since 1997, but due to vague legal definitions of "obscenity" and "abnormal sexual behavior", even non-explicit queer literature may be subject to censorship.
[1][15] In October 2018, a female danmei author who wrote under the pen name Tianyi was sentenced to 10 years in prison after her self-published homoerotic novel featuring rape and teacher-student romance sold over 7,000 copies, violating laws regarding excessive commercial profit for unregistered books.
[16][17] The strict censorship policies cause some danmei communities to self-police, with sites such as Jinjiang Literature City asking its readers to report explicit works for deletion.
Under intensified governmental pressure, online literature platforms implemented stringent self-censorship measures, particularly affecting the danmei genre, which often includes male-male erotic depictions.
Jinjiang Literature City, adopted a different strategy by rebranding its danmei channel as "chun’ai" (literally "pure love") to distance itself from the genre's explicit associations.
The platform also introduced stricter content regulations, surpassing government mandates by prohibiting depictions of body parts below the neck and limiting intimate scenes to non-sexual acts like mouth-kissing and handholding.
[25] Also in 2021, a new regulatory approach targeting danmei adaptations emerged, combining state media criticism with authoritative measures to enforce self-censorship on digital platforms.
This marked a significant clampdown on danmei-inspired dramas, following a series of critical state media articles that framed them as "vulgar culture" in line with the "Internet Cleanup Campaign" launched in August 2021.
Editorials, such as those by Xinhua News Agency in March 2021, argued that danmei stories encouraged irrational fanaticism and consumerism among adolescents, necessitating regulation.
In August, the Guangming Daily criticized the perceived vulgarity of male-male flirting, the distortion of male aesthetics through femininity, and advocated for hyper-masculinity as the state-preferred standard.
[18] In September 2021, the Central Propaganda Department (CPD) released the "Article of Comprehensive Management of the Cultural and Entertainment Sector," highlighting concerns about "traffic and commercial dominance," "distorted aesthetics," "fandom chaos," and the detrimental social influence of danmei adaptations, particularly on teenagers.