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