Article Sexualities 2025, Vol. 0(0) 1–26 © The Author(s) 2025 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/13634607251365712 journals.sagepub.com/home/sex Women engaging with huangwen: Women-oriented huangwen as an intimate counterpublic sphere Yijia Du  The University of Sydney, Australia Abstract This article focuses on women-oriented huangwen—sexually explicit online fiction created and circulated by women in China. While Chinese obscenity laws and state-led campaigns have increasingly targeted huangwen for its explicit content, this category remains a vital space where women explore desire, pleasure, and bodily autonomy beyond the constraints of mainstream sexual discourse. Drawing on virtual ethnography and semi-structured interviews, this paper traces how fans use both textual and para- textual practices to negotiate sexual meanings, challenge stigmas, and develop sexual knowledge around women’s sexuality, body and desire. The article conceptualizes these practices as part of an “intimate counterpublic,” a space of gendered and affective solidarity through which marginalized sexual experiences become visible and discussable. Keywords China, female sexual pleasure, online community, pornography, sex education Introduction In China’s increasingly restrictive digital environment, women-oriented huangwen—a category of sexually explicit online fiction written primarily by and for women—has emerged as both a target of intensified censorship and a vital site of gendered expression. Corresponding author: Yijia Du, Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Email: Yijia.du@sydney.edu.au