Smouldering pornographies on the Chinese internet

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mainland Chinese pornographies on the internet and social media platforms have emerged amidst hardline strategies of government surveillance and censorship. This article examines a new tide of government-sponsored surveillance technologies regarding how they affect new sex and porn industries, which are systematically being closed down and leave the industry, on the whole, in a perpetually ‘smouldering’ state. The Chinese Communist Party has, since its inception, involved a ‘Mass Line’ [qunzhong luxian, 群众路线] style of governance, or ordered ‘the masses’ and peer communities to set up mechanisms to report on sexual behaviours and underground porn circuits. Steyerl predicted in 2013 that online peer surveillance globally would encourage a new era of ‘invisibility politics’ or a paradoxical thrust towards sexual self-expressivity and self-annihilation. To query this point, the article highlights the impact of peer surveillance on Chinese pornographies and erotica since 2009. It includes a discussion of contemporary live-streaming sex industries and features an interview with an employee from a tech company closed down in 2017. The article ends with a discussion with queer artist and pornographer Fan Popo about the crackdown on his own work and the difficulties in producing and defending pornography under mainland Chinese surveillance.