As far as I know the Chinese book market is heavily censored.
I'd be curious about how this affects Chinese authors, and if and how they have to limit the topics and the creativity of their writing due to this.
I'd be curious about how this affects Chinese authors, and if and how they have to limit the topics and the creativity of their writing due to this.
It's still possible to read banned books on the mainland if you know the right sites, but most consumers of banned literature are probably just looking for porn, so you might need to do some digging to find something more high-brow.
I'm not sure what lesser-known authors do, but I guess they try to keep their fiction as fictional as possible.
And redistribution of porn materials is a crime that can send committers to prison, depends generally on how much money they've earned from it or/and how many redistribution has been made etc.
But personal consumption is not illegal.
To put it simple, if you want to be a 100% law obeying person in China, then you can watch porn, but you cannot produce it, you cannot copy it and send to others, you cannot recommend it to others. The real life situation is bit different of course.
Sci-fi allows more freedoms for writers and good sci-fi flourishes.