Jin Zhao writes about culture and politics in the U.S. and in China for English- and Chinese-speaking audiences. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, Alternet.org, and various publications in China. A former radio host with the English Service of China Radio International (CRI) based in Beijing, she earned her Master’s in Communication and Ph.D. in English from Georgia State University. Follow her @jinealogy
Millennials and younger Gen-Zers are having a feminist awakening in post–#MeToo China, despite a conservative backlash and a government increasingly hostile to the movement. Their unlikely hero is a 74-year-old Japanese provocateur.
China is producing and consuming the largest amount of web fiction in the world, with an estimated 20 million full-time, part-time, and dabbling writers. The grind is hard, and the conditions can be exploitative, but those who do it are on the vanguard of a reading revolution.
Centered around romantic and sexual relationships between men, "danmei" is wildly popular in China. It's been a hit abroad, too, with three books recently receiving an authorized English translation — and all three making it to the New York Times's bestsellers list.
In China, overt depictions of same-sex relationships are banned from mainstream media platforms. But there’s one space where these stories are allowed to be told.