Clio

A vessel for softness, strength, and things that take time.

Clio: I started writing in 2019. What got me into it? Honestly, I just saw other people doing it, and thought “I want to try too.” I guess it was part of having a strong urge to express myself. And now, writing has become such a big part of my life. It’s kind of amazing to think about.

Clio: Another reason I started was because there were some fan writers I really, really admired. I remember thinking, I want to be like them someday. So I began writing too. The writers I love usually create these fun, lighthearted worlds. But sometimes they also write these beautifully serious pieces, the ones that feel almost dreamlike when you read them. I’ve tried to write in a similar style, but over time I started to feel like...maybe I just don’t have the talent for it.

Cleo: Do you have a particular style or type of character you’re drawn to?

Clio: I think I’m drawn to characters who are, in some ways, similar to me, but fundamentally different. I’ve written a lot of fanfic about country humans, but what really moves me is writing about intense, real individual people. The characters that hit me the hardest are the ones who chase what they want, no matter what.

Clio: Or maybe to say it better—they have this passion that almost feels philosophical. They love things so deeply, and they grieve the randomness of fate. But even in the face of all that, they stay true to what they believe. That’s what moves me the most. For me, I’m the kind of person who gave up on a dream because I overthought it too much. So when I see characters like that, I just...I admire them. I want to run toward people like that.

Clio: I usually post my writing on LOFTER (one of the major fandom community sites in mainland China). But honestly, it’s gotten way too commercial in the past few years. Still, I use it the most, for now, just because there are more readers on there. That said, the censorship system is...beyond frustrating. One of my favorite pieces, something I wrote specifically as a National Day celebration post, got censored! Like, that was the one that got flagged? A holiday tribute? I was furious.

Clio: That whole story was really special to me. I especially loved the part where my original character imagines Wang Yao—as a national consciousness—moving through both the past and the future. The character’s thoughts drift across time and space, layered in parallel. That section meant a lot to me. Part of the inspiration came from the anime Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, where there’s this line that goes something like: believing in God is more about human longing than truth. That really stuck with me. I see national consciousness characters as born from people’s collective wishes. With that kind of presence, someone is always watching over us, during goodbyes, grief, struggle. That thought brings me real comfort.

Clio: But the story was taken down! So, my first reaction was just, Okay, it’s probably a keyword thing. This happens. Let me revise it and try again. And that kicked off my ten-round battle with the system. I kept editing and re-uploading, trying to sneak it through. At one point, it did go through! But then I tried to update it, after just trying to tweak a few lines…and that pushed it back into the censoring system. Boom. Gone. No chance to appeal. Still blocked.

Cleo: Wait…so it was live at one point? How did you figure out which parts were getting flagged?

Clio: Ah, that’s thanks to the ancestors! I mean, other writers before me. (laughs) You start to pick up patterns. Like, if a post has weird symbols or gaps in the middle of certain words, you know something got flagged. For example, I figured out that “Zhongguo” (China) might be a trigger word because someone had written it with a slash in the middle. So I tested it myself. If separating the characters doesn’t work, then I rewrite. If that doesn’t work, I delete. And I just keep adjusting until something finally gets through.

Clio: But in the end, the piece was still blocked. That definitely killed any chance of traction. Some people did manage to read it before it disappeared, but honestly? I gave up. I’d tried every trick I knew. And since it was a National Day piece, there’s no point re-uploading it now. I’ll just wait for next year—and maybe try a different platform then.

Cleo: That’s seriously so much work...

Clio: Yeah. It’s exhausting. And honestly, it was pretty depressing.
But if anything, it made me want to write more about this kind of thing. It lit up the little rebel in me.

Cleo: You’re unstoppable.

Clio: Totally. I’m not even planning to stop using LOFTER. I might just start translating sensitive terms into English and posting the translation in the comments. I’m not going to change my themes just because a system says no. Partly because these topics are my comfort zone. But also? Yeah, it’s the rebellion.

Clio: The more they try to stop me, the more I want to write it.