What gets me is, if they were going to have a hissy fit about a confession, just what exactly did they think they were publishing in the first place?
I wonder if it's a case of publishers being sensitive to government regulation - or fear of what may soon be government regulations - and trying to mitigate risk in that sense. Given that recently we've seen a crackdown on suggestive character designs in online games, they may be a bit gunshy about stuff like this.
The chilling effect goes well beyond the actual limits of government interference, and companies will often self-censor even further than the actual censorship is designed to cover, just in case.
I could be wrong but i believe the new law about representation of LGBT+ in Chinese media may have come into affect after a publishing deal was already made?
According to Tan Jiu, the second volume entered publication, but publication was halted due to the earlier ban. Later, her publisher came to her and said that publication would resume if she censored the confession scene -- the publisher saying that at the very least, Tan Jiu could make some money off of her work. I would assume that the publisher was pressured not to publish the work, and offered Tan Jiu the only option they could. If the publisher was against LGBT content, they wouldn't have published the first volume and started publication on the second volume. The publisher isn't throwing a "hissy fit", this is a reaction to a government ban that carries the possibility of severe repercussions if not followed.
As to the first comment in the quote, I'm certain that they were quite aware of what was to be published hence the decision not to publish Their Story without censorship.
The original ban was only meant to cover online visual/audio media, and I doubt the government included grandfather clauses which wouldn't have mattered anyway as publication of the second volume began after the ban. What I find interesting is that the ban itself is not well enforced as Weibo continues to allow the postings of LGBT content. When Weibo refused at first, their stocks dropped, and so they capitulated. But they seem to be just fine now.
Knowing how these governments work, and how easy it is to twist bans of this kind to extend them, it's quite likely that since Their Story has an online version, the entire product can be considered online visual/audio media, thus physical publication can be, and has been, impacted by the ban.
last edited at Feb 5, 2018 2:33AM