Foshan teacher detained over online 'porn' novel
A Foshan high school teacher was detained on Sunday for 'spreading pornographic articles' after posting an online novel about the so-called post-1980s generation in Dongguan, Guangdong, where saunas and brothels thrive.
Yuan Lei, who teaches Chinese literature at Beijiao High School in Foshan's Shunde district, was taken from his school office by plain-clothes police from the Houjie district in Dongguan, and detained at Dongguan's No 2 detention house.
Yuan, using his pen name Tianya Blue Pharmacist, updated his 390,000-word novel In Dongguan on Tianya.cn, the most popular online forum on the mainland, from last June to October. The novel has received more than two million hits.
Born in Yiyang , Hunan province, 29-year-old Yuan said in the introduction that the novel 'depicted a hidden, unknown world with love stories of the post-80s generation, Dongguan sauna massages and adult life'. The mushrooming sauna business is mostly a front for brothels in Dongguan.
The detention receipt given to Yuan's wife, Ruan Haimei , says that based on Article 61 of the Criminal Law, Yuan was detained for disseminating pornographic articles, with the detention authorised by the Dongguan police station. 'I was really confused about how they assess it. It's merely a novel criticising the reality,' Ruan said.
'Although it's about the Dongguan sauna massage industry, Yuan has never been to such a venue ... '
When Yuan was writing the novel, he was aware that it contained many sensitive words, Ruan said. 'Yuan was known as a talented and childish person, and a good teacher,' she said
She was told by police yesterday to bring some of Yuan's clothes to the station today. Phone calls to Yuan's lawyer, Rao Yi , went unanswered.
Internet users were outraged by Yuan's detention, saying his novel was nothing compared to works by Jia Pingwa and Chen Zhongshi . Jia and Chen are renowned writers of fiction about peasants' lives.
Spider 1, the moderator of the Tianya forum's literature section, said it was very common to describe sex in fiction and Yuan was not as explicit as Jia or Chen.
The police were quoted by Nanfang Daily as saying that the novel had a hugely negative impact on Dongguan and its author could be penalised.
Neither Dongguan nor Foshan police would comment yesterday.
Zhou Ze, a partner at the Beijing Wentian Law Firm, which champions journalists' rights on the mainland, said the cross-city detention suggested a case of revenge by the Dongguan police. He said there was no legal basis for who should assess whether it was pornographic. 'It's definitely not reasonable for the police to evaluate a literary work.'
