On August 31st, a mainland blogger named “Forest of Emotion” posted that their account had been banned from posting on Douban for 15 days due to “violating community guidelines”. However, Douban later reduced the ban to just 1 day. This incident has drawn widespread attention.
On the evening of August 31st, “Forest of Emotion” expressed gratitude to the online friends who stood up for them, announcing that their account had been reinstated. Nonetheless, some of their blocked posts still remained visible only to themselves. “Forest of Emotion” jokingly stated, “I have decided to add another 14 days of silence to show my special love to the special Dou County (Douban).”
Many netizens speculated that this ban may be related to “Forest of Emotion” questioning the alleged plagiarism in the master’s thesis of writer Sun Pin.
Since June 2025, “Forest of Emotion” has been continuously comparing texts on social platforms, pointing out high similarities between some passages in Sun Pin’s novels and works of various other writers like Flaubert, Yan Ge Ling, and Qian Zhongshu, with Sun Pin’s works being published after those of the other writers.
According to reports from Red Star News and “Sanlian Life Weekly”, initially, Sun Pin explained that as a novice writer back then, he was extremely obsessed with masters like Flaubert, and in the early stages of his writing, he may have consciously or unconsciously incorporated some sentences he liked into his novel. He expressed gratitude to the blogger for pointing out the issue.
However, “Forest of Emotion” was not convinced, insisting that Sun Pin only admitted to plagiarizing Flaubert’s works and did not mention the parts where he plagiarized other authors. “Do you want to apologize one by one, or say, ‘I like every writer so much that I inadvertently use their sentences in my own works’?”
As the conflict escalated, on the morning of July 31st, a statement believed to be from Sun Pin himself was published on a public platform, fiercely declaring that “Forest of Emotion” had engaged in serious infringement such as inciting online bullying, and legal proceedings had been formally initiated with the help of lawyers.
On the same day, “Forest of Emotion” also issued a statement on social media, reserving the right to hold Sun Pin accountable for his baseless speculations, personal attacks, and other infringement actions made publicly online, accompanied by a police report receipt.
On August 4th, “Forest of Emotion” once again raised doubts, claiming that Sun Pin’s novella “Sailors to Australia” was strikingly similar to early poems by poet Yu Xiuhua. Subsequently, Yu Xiuhua commented in the forum saying, “I see it, wait for me,” further fuelling the controversy.
Currently, there has been no official report from authorities regarding whether Sun Pin’s works constitute plagiarism.
The real name of “Forest of Emotion” is Wang Hao. Since October 2024, they have been continuously calling out dozens of writers on social media for allegedly plagiarizing, causing widespread public attention. This list includes many renowned writers such as Jia Qianqian, Jiang Fangzhou, and Yang Benfen.
Impacted by these events, on February 25th of this year, 86-year-old Yang Benfen publicly acknowledged that using others’ phrases in her writing violated the ethics of writing, and apologized to the concerned individuals.
On July 13th, Renmin University of China announced that Jiang Fangzhou had engaged in academic misconduct and revoked her master’s degree.
On July 15th, Northwest University announced that Jia Qianqian’s academic misconduct had been confirmed, leading to the revocation of her master’s degree.