A Fandom can feel like a small world while also being huge one, and that hit home to me this morning on my walk as I listened to AvenueX’s recap of the AO3/Xiao Zhan catastrophe happening in China.
If that seems distant from you, and an odd thing to listen to during my morning walk, I sympathize. But it has hit communities I am a part of very hard and it is so disturbing that I can’t even process it well.
In short, a fanfic site (AO3) has been firewalled in China. Not particularly news, I suppose, given how many international sites are banned there (facebook, pinterest, etc.). But there is a huge swell of drama behind that (maybe related, maybe not) and it is painful to watch.
As I listened and walked and, yes, cried, I realized how fragile communities like fandom are, and how many times marginalized groups have (sometimes literally) taken the hit for the sake of normalization of society.
The Cultural Revolution in China, of course, and its current incarnation; but here in the USA we are no strangers to “reporting deviancy to the authorities”. From arresting homosexuals for immorality to the Black List of the McCarthy era to, these days, reporting social media accounts and doxxing those who dare to live outside the lines…we are prone to this, too. That’s not even factoring in lives annihilated due to systemic racism and misogyny.
We often forget that for most of human history, destroying the happiness and even the entire lives of innocent people is just another Monday, walking around the park.