Just Clarifying This For The AO3 Folks That Aren't Familiar With Chinese Fandom, But Tiffany G Misrepresented

Just clarifying this for the AO3 folks that aren't familiar with Chinese fandom, but Tiffany G misrepresented the reason for the AO3 ban in China. It was NOT because of "pedophilic content" like she claimed. AO3 was banned in late February 2020 after the fans of a Chinese idol named Xiao Zhan mass reported the site to the authorities. His fans found an RPF fic depicting him as a transgender sex worker, were pissed off by this, and then decided to take action by drawing the attention of the censors. His fans made detailed tutorials on how to report that AO3 fic to the government on grounds of pornography and pedophilic content and mobilized other fans to report it en masse. They were sucessful and the entire site was permanently banned. They also reported RPF content featuring Xiao Zhan on other Chinese sites like Lofter and Bilibili, and the result was even more stringent censorship for these already heavily censored platforms.

The reason their reports were honoured was not because the content they reported had any actual "pedophilic content" (The RPF fic did not have pedophilia), but because sexual intimacy 'below the neck' is banned in Chinese platforms, and LGBTQ content regardless of rating has been the target of increasingly strict state censorship for years. It was never about pedophilia like Tiffany G claims it is. I think a lot of people (including myself) think that censoring truly morally reprehensible content is a good thing, but from my experience with state censorship it always starts out that way, with things that we generally agree is abhorrent but then it never stops there. As of now, sexually intimate scenes are no longer allowed to be portrayed in stories, especially in LGBTQ centered stories, even though it was possible just a few years ago.

AO3 was able to exist as a gray area in Chinese internet for so long because of its niche existence. In the uncertain world within the 'Great Firewall', things like this can usually survive longer as long as it stays in its little niche corner, that's why minding your own business and being meticulous about tagging your content is such an important concept in Chinese fandom. It was generally agreed upon that no matter how bad things get in fandom disagreements, reporting content should never even be an option, because drawing mainstream attention is a surefire way to kill a free creative space within the firewall. Xiao Zhan's fans disrespected that and ruined everything for everyone, and since then rules like "No Xiao Zhan fans allowed" are common to see within Chinese online spaces.

This issue has made its way to weibo and plenty Chinese fans are pissed at that Tiffany person. Just look up 'Tiffany G' on weibo and read what people are saying. Although I have seen some genuinly hurtful and racist takes about Tiffany on international social media, I would also like to say that reducing the criticism against her as nothing more than 'white people being racist' isn't fair either because Chinese fans are just as worried and angry about this. I hope people can fight for this without unfairly misrepresenting Chinese fans, who were the biggest victims of the AO3 ban in China. It was the last bastion of creative freedom and uncensored LGBTQ content within the firewall and to have it taken away really brought so much pain to a lot of people. Tiffany G's views do NOT represent Chinese fans, and even though some people are painting her as possible representation for non-white fans on the OTW board, the reality is that her views are the exact opposite of what Chinese fans want.

Here's an excellent twitter post that explains this much better than I can. Please give it a read and share!

Thanks for reading and I apologize for the clumsy english 😂