The novel upon which Lan Yu is based was published on the internet. The first of three installments appeared in 1996. Each installment was given a different title; the final, unifying title for the ten-chapter work was Beijing Gushi (Beijing Story). The author adopted the pseudonym 'Beijing Tongzhi' - literally 'Beijing Comrade', but the word Tongzhi, the traditional form of greeting between communists, has latterly picked up the slang meaning of 'gay'. The novel was the first frank exploration of gay lives and loves to appear in mainland China, and it very quickly became hugely popular throughout the country's vast underground gay community. Beijing Story pioneered the idea of publishing 'illicit' Chinese fiction on the internet, setting a precedent since copied by several other authors.