China's Cross-Dressing "Red Uncle" Secretly Films Explicit Videos With Over "1000" Men

Police in China's Jiangning district arrested a middle-aged man who cross-dressed as a woman to allegedly engage in intimate acts with over 1,000 people and shared the videos of their "hookups" on social media. The man dubbed "the Red Old Man" reportedly lured heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he filmed and distributed. 

The case shook China's social media after unverified posts claimed a 60-year-old "uncle" had filmed his sexual encounters with 1,691 men, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag "red uncle" was the top trending item on China's popular microblog Weibo on Tuesday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock.

Police in Jiangning's Nanjing area confirmed that a cross-dressing man, surnamed Jiao, was detained on Sunday on suspicion of spreading obscene material.

However, police clarified that Jiao was aged 38, not 60, as social media posts had stated. They also denied reports claiming that he had intimate meetings with more than 1,000 men, but did not give a figure.

Investigations are still underway into the matter, police said.

'Privacy Fears'

Same-sex relations are not illegal in China, but dissemination of images of sexual acts is punishable by law. Taking pictures of sexual activities in a private setting and sharing them also violates privacy rights and could be deemed a criminal offence.

After the "Red Uncle" was exposed, some people on the internet also circulated a montage of headshots of nearly 100 men supposed to have met the Jiao, asking women to check if their fiancés or husbands featured in the photos.

People also called for action against social media users who released the images of Jiao's victims, stating that it was also an invasion of privacy.

"The invasion of personal privacy is a no-no," said one user, warning that it was irresponsible to publish such a compilation.