Article

The Haitang Incident 2024 and the ugliness of danmei culture/industry Liang Ge Open access | Research article https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494251326775 First published online March 19, 2025 Abstract The Haitang Incident of 2024 exposed the precariousness of danmei (boys’ love) culture and its creators in China under the dual pressures of state surveillance and platform capitalism. I critically interrogate the Chinese danmei cultural ecology through ugliness – not as a state-imposed stigma but as a critical lens and a generative conceptual tool....