She was known as China’s clickbait queen, an irreverent blogger who prescribed shopping to combat sadness (“better than sex, orgasms, strawberry cake”) and makeovers to win back cheating husbands (“men are visual animals”). But late last month, Ma Ling, a blogger who commanded an audience of more than 16 million people, went conspicuously silent.
In the battle for control of the Chinese internet, the authorities had designated Ms. Ma a threat to social stability, pointing to an article she published about a young man with cancer whose talent and virtue were not enough to overcome problems like corruption and inequality. The state-run news media accused Ms. Ma of circulating false information, and her social media accounts were wiped from the internet.
