View/Open - DukeSpace - Duke University

Corrects the Moral Character of Adolescents 11 is still in effect, enforcing that “any details
containing … pornography, sex, … sexual abnormalities, [and] homosexuality … should be cut
and corrected” (Mountford 2010, 10). Additionally, Article 68 of the “Penalties for
Administration of Public Security Law” adopted in 2005 states that persons guilty of
“produc[ing], duplicat[ing], … [or] disseminating any pornographic information, including
books … and pictures, … through computer information networks, telephones or other means of
communications” shall be detained and fined. These laws have been used to silence communities
the State finds undesirable, particularly when reinforced by strict censorship of all conventional
media outlets (Ruan 1991; Abbott 2004). Although the first Comrade novel was published
locally in 2004, books with homosexual content remain scarce on the Mainland (Cheng 2004; Li
2008). 12 China’s first internet connection was established in 1994 and proliferated at an
astounding rate, making the online circulation of Comrade narratives possible. Presently, China
has the largest population of netizens with approximately 564 million internet users (IWS 2012;
Van de Werff 2010). Studies reveal that online technologies have substantially increased the
amount young people read and write over the past two decades (Zhang 2003, 230-55; CINIC
2008, 29). 13 Cyberspace offers new possibilities for mass communication and interaction, of
which chat rooms and discussion boards have become especially popular (Zheng 2008). Through
11
广 播 影 视 加 强 和 改 进 未 成 年 人 思 想 道 德 建 设 的 实 施 方 案 通 知
12 The issue of finding books on queer topics frequently comes up at tongzhi book club discussions (Discussion1
2012). Many tongzhi lament the difficulty of finding books on homosexuality or other queer topics in local book
stores. Books printed in Chinese, particularly editions from Hong Kong or Taiwan, were the hardest to find. Tongzhi
in the PRC frequently get their books when they travel to Hong Kong or ask friends to bring specific titles back for
them (“Notes” 2012).
13 In 2003, a CNNIC study estimated that of the 420 million Internet users in China as of 2010, 70% of the users
were under 30, and more than 40% were university educated (Guo 2003). In the past few years, the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) has also estimated that more than 50 million internet users in China read blogs
daily (Qiang 2011). Members of this young and educated demographic are potential opinion leaders should they
choose to engage in online citizenship. More importantly, they are also the primary labor force and consumers of
China (Guo 2003; Qiang 2011).
Introduction | 12