Inside the Tongren World: Chinese Feminist Zine ‘Pubis’ Celebrates Queer Love

Originally published in NüVoices on 15 January 2026

On a clear autumn night, dozens of Chinese queers and feminists gather – aptly in London’s Vagina Museum – to celebrate the birth of a new subversive zine, ‘Pubis Magazine’.

Through words and illustrations, the zine is the first bilingual Chinese and English publication of its kind to explore tongren nü, a female fandom community that produce danmei, stories of gay romance and erotica that have set the internet ablaze on platforms like Baidu Tieba, Lofta, and AO3. 

“In tongren, women can finally reverse power relationships in love, redefine the power position of men, and sexualise men,” said Chinese student Yuka, founder of the magazine and the Pubis Project, a collective she launched in 2024.

“For example, ‘Grandma’ is a tongren term that means turning a dominant character into a subdominant. It disempowers men and rebels against patriarchy.”

Much like ‘Heated Rivalry’, a hit television series based on Rachel Reid’s steamy novel series about male Canadian hockey players, danmei tends to be written by women who use the medium to defy gender stereotypes and patriarchal norms. 

Yet as Boys’ Love (BL) stories bloom across China, the more censorship it attracts. 

Last June, the Chinese government arrested over 30 young authors for posting danmei on Taiwan-based platform Haitang Literature City, as part of Beijing’s longstanding campaign to promote traditional family values and boost birth rates. 

The writers have been accused of “producing and distributing obscene material” under China’s pornography law, and face up to 10 years in jail if they earn a profit from their works. 

Despite the sensitivities, Yuka says Pubis is about community, not politics; a space for Chinese queers and feminists from the diaspora to connect through its events and annual publication. 

NüVoices spoke to three tongren nü about their art and finding community through tongren:

Fox

I wrote tongren simply because I love the characters! Many people said we only love a non-existent cardboard person, but so what? The love is real. We should be proud of loving a cardboard person.

Like many tongren nü, I encountered tongren through Japanese anime. China in the 90s was freer than it is today.  There were many anime on TV – ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’, ‘Sailor Moon’ – and magazines collating tongren stories from different anime fandoms. 

A fanfiction on ‘The Prince of Tennis’ brought me into the tongren ‘pit’. Depicting two characters, Shusuke and Tezuka, as a couple (CP), it ends tragically where Shusuke dies of illness in Tezuka’s arms. This ending was so sad, and I was fascinated by how tongren can give the original plot a new life.  

I started reading and writing tongren in secondary school. When I like two characters, I write for them. It is an output of love, giving them unlimited possibilities with my imagination. In the world of tongren, nothing is impossible. There is love between boys and boys or non-human characters like Transformers. I learnt that in love, gender does not matter at all.

After a breakup in 2019, I wrote many tongren. I poured my feelings into the characters, and tongren fulfilled my desire for love. 

Now I mainly write about ‘Transformers’ and ship Starscream and Megatron as a CP. While everyone thinks robots are for boys, why can’t adult women love them? We reject the stereotypical masculinity of robots. It sounds radical, but I fell in love with ‘Transformers’ simply because I like Bumblebee. I never noticed the sociological implications of the tongren until I learnt different theories at the university. 

Similarly, I did not know that tongren writing is political until a series of crackdowns.

When I studied at university, censorship worsened. One day, I suddenly could not access Google, or find any sexual, erotic tongren content online. 

At the Haitang incident, most of the arrested authors were students. Academic study is very stressful in China, and tongren let us escape from reality. The mass arrest trampled on our tiny world of happiness and fantasy. 

It’s simple – I love tongren, and I love the characters. I will continue writing. The more we write, the more powerful we are. 

Emily

I am a fandom researcher, a fanfiction writer, a danmei writer…how should I introduce myself? 

As a contributing writer of Pubis, my tongren journey began when I wrote about Sherlock and Watson as CP at 12. But I started writing tongren stories professionally after watching ‘Super Vocal’, a 2019 Chinese singing show. 

My relationships with university tutors or friends were not great, and everything went wrong at that time. I wrote tongren almost automatically probably as an emotional outpouring. I needed an outlet for my loneliness and desire for recognition. 

Unexpectedly, my writing got very popular on Lofter! I was always one of the top three writers in the fandom rankings, and three of us became friends. We have met in person and still keep in touch. Our friendship has lasted till now.

Four years later, my master’s study taught me to view the world through a social science lens, including fandom. I then switched to investigating fandom and the relationship between the artists or characters. 

One of my Substack writings is about Seventeen, a K-pop boy band that I love. The 13 members are very close and openly affectionate with one another, which is rare under the East Asian patriarchy. What soft masculinity do they represent? Is their partnership romantic love, friendship, or anything beyond? 

Through tongren, I have learnt about different possibilities of love. I learnt that I want this vocal, present love. I learnt that this kind of love exists, and it changes how I love others. Last weekend, I watched Seventeen’s concert in the US. I found that it clashed with my friend’s wedding in London after I bought the ticket, but I wanted to show my love and wishes to her. Therefore, I slept for three hours after the concert, took the plane, and arrived in London at 6am.

Starting from this year, I have spoken more English than Chinese in my life. As a Chinese living abroad, I often feel misplaced between the two languages. Sometimes I cannot understand the fandom jargon in China, and I have lost interest in Chinese dramas. Is my tongren writing journey ending?

Cas

I am a tongren illustrator. During the ‘Pubis’ launch party, we queued at a little table to buy the magazine. It stirred memories of attending Japanese anime fairs in China where people queued to buy tongren products. I used to distribute the postcards I designed, and I really like sharing my work with others. Queuing for Pubis made up for missing those fairs back home.   

I was also surprised by the number of tongren nü there because I am always the only one in my social circle.

I came to the UK to study in 2014. Sometimes my flatmates cried and missed home, but I was never homesick. I keep myself occupied with tongren – watching anime, drawing, learning drawing, looking at gossip, and chatting with friends about our CP. I am always very busy! 

When I watched the anime ‘Black Butler’ in my sixth form (or college), I thought the storyline between the two main characters was not rich enough. Then, I looked for their tongren drawings online, and entered the tongren world. 

I have been drawing for video games like ‘Idolish7’, and I draw when I disagree with how the original plot illustrates my CP. I especially like ‘muscle bottom and twink top’ (gay relationships where the masculine person takes the receptive role and the more feminine one is penetrating). It feels balanced. A muscle top is like adding butter to full milk – icky, not delicious. 

When I studied in secondary school, Britain was an anime desert. Nobody knew what tongren was, so I never told my friends that I drew tongren.

We never learn to express our love in China, but our CPs teach us about it. Tongren also encourages me to learn something new and create content in return. It makes my life full. 

People think we are weird, but I do not care. I want to be a tongren nü forever. I want to bring my drawing to anime fairs at 80!