An erotic writer in China has been handed a prison sentence of ten years after she included a gay sex scene in one of her novels.

The writer, whose last name is Liu but is better known by her pen-name Tianyi, was sentenced to jail in the eastern province of Anhui last month for “producing and selling pornographic materials”.

The court found that her novel Occupy featured “graphic depictions of male homosexual sex scenes”. Occupy tracks the sexual relationship between a teacher and his student.

Pornography is illegal in China, and Liu’s extensive sentence was based on a pre-internet law that stipulated that any person who sells over 5,000 copies of erotic literature should receive a minimum ten-year prison term.

Additionally, making a profit of over 10,000 yuan (€1,259) off erotica is considered a serious crime according to a Chinese law issued in 1998. One user added that, due to the influence of the internet, times have changed and to sell over 5,000 copies of erotica would have been much more difficult in the 1990’s:

“It might have been difficult to sell 5,000 copies in 1998 – there was no internet back then. But now it is almost effortless.”

Liu’s sentencing has prompted an outcry among members of the Chinese public, many of whom have pointed out that some rapists receive lighter sentences.

One person took to social media to share the case of a man in China’s Yunnan province who received a five-year prison sentence for abducting and raping a four year-old girl. Another user highlighted how a man in Beijing was sentenced to just six and a half years in prison for beating his wife to death.

Deng Xueping, a lawyer in Shanghai, criticised the laws that sentenced the author:

“It’s out of touch with all the changes that have taken place in society. The social harm of pornographic books might not be as grave as the legislators had thought initially. Nowadays, pornography is ubiquitous. There is no need to treat it like flash floods or savage beasts that might corrupt an innocent mind.”