CHINA — The ancient and venerable nation of China has an equally historic tradition of appreciating and indulging in the pleasures of the senses. Modern history has been hard on Chinese sensualists, however, and although things have come a long way since the brutal oppressions of the Cultural Revolution, there are still serious limits on speech, including what is permitted online.Chen Hui is in the process of finding out precisely what that means as he and eight other creators and organizers of the Qingseliuyuetian website face a northern Chinese judge to defend the results of their hard work.

At issue is the content of Chen’s website, which is believed to be the most popular in the nation, with a current registered member count of 600,000 and features erotic material. The site’s name means “pornographic summer” and its fate and that of its creators await the opinion of Shanxi Province’s Taiyuan Intermediate People’s Court.

Details of the case are spotty at this point, but the site launched in May of 2004 and appears to have done its best to elude authorities by having its contents hosted on overseas servers and its domain name, servers, and IP address changed frequently.