Sheng jia first came across danmei fiction five years ago when she was a journalism student at Shanghai University. She was looking for escapism; a friend recommended "Silk Trousers", a story about a handsome, womanising nobleman who falls in love with a male celebrity of Chinese folklore, the fox king, who can swap between human and animal forms (the book's cover is pictured). It ends in heartbreak. Ms Sheng became instantly hooked on the homoerotic tale with its subtle portrayal of a form of sexual desire that is rarely discussed openly in China (homosexuality was considered a mental illness until 2001). She found the novel more appealing than the saccharine love stories popular among other heterosexual Chinese women like her.
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