Police release Chinese author after online storm

BEIJING (Reuters) - Police in southern China have released on bail the author of a popular Internet novel they deemed pornographic, state media said, following an on-line uproar about official abuse of power.

Chinese language teacher Yuan Lei, 29, published "In Dongguan" on the popular portal tianya.com between August 2009 and February of this year, Xinhua news agency said late Thursday. The novel was about prostitution in bathhouses in Dongguan.

The booming manufacturing hub in Guangdong province, close to Hong Kong, has long had a reputation for its racy nightlife and anything-goes attitude.

The novel attracted two million hits, but incensed the authorities.

"Dongguan police concluded the novel is pornographic. The judgment was recognized by the provincial public security department," Xinhua quoted an unnamed police official as saying.

"But we faced great pressure from the media, especially the Internet," the policeman added.

Yuan's wife Ruan Fang defended the book.

"The novel is not porn. It only criticizes reality," she was quoted as saying.

Yuan's detention on Sunday caused anger online, with many people believing he had run afoul of the law "because his novel exposed an unsavory aspect of Dongguan," Xinhua said.

"The detention is a clumsy denial and further harms Dongguan's reputation," it quoted one Internet user as saying.

China has a thriving literary scene increasingly pushing the boundaries. Many books about sensitive subjects do succeed in getting published and sell well before being banned. They then often re-appear online.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, editing by Jonathan Thatcher)