A History of the Wave of Censorship in China

In China, there is the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which does not have a direct political apparatus to enforce censorship but can propose legislation to politicians. Members of the CCP sit on the council

The popular writer Zhang Wei, formerly known as the author of Douluo Dalu (or Soul Land), joined this organization. He proposed standardizing the release of written content and insisted on strict adherence to rules. Depending on how closely websites publishing web novels followed these guidelines, they faced sanctions — from being blacklisted and fined to other punitive measures. The rules, however, were vaguely worded, leaving room for various interpretations

The reason for these proposals was that Zhang Wei noticed a large number of novels containing vulgar, deviant, or pirated content. Many opposed this, as it was unclear how many innocent works would be affected. China does not support superstitions, LGBT themes, or ideas it considers potentially disruptive to social stability

In May 2019, following Zhang Wei’s proposal, a massive literary purge began. On the Qidian site alone, 1.2 million works were removed. The total number of works deleted across the country was likely much higher

As a result, some works, like The Lord of Mysteries, had so much content removed that the remaining text became almost incomprehensible. The author complained about this, but then all complaints were deleted without explanation, forcing him to rewrite and soften the plot. Other authors had so much material removed that it was easier for them to start a new novel than edit the old one

Some works, such as Reverend Insanity, were completely banned

Interestingly, Zhang Wei is sometimes called the "Dead Wife Demon Venerable" because he allegedly used his wife’s death for self-promotion — for example, in posts where he defended Qidian taking authors’ copyrights or even in chapters of his own novels. That is, in cases where the post’s topic had nothing to do with his wife