Benedict Cumberbatch has become a heartthrob to Chinese fans of the BBC TV series Sherlock. Provided to China Daily

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Female fans who enjoy looking for clues of a homosexual relationship have earned the nickname "rotten women".

The interdependence, the lingering looks and even the intense arguments between Holmes and Watson are simply maifu - "teasing the audience with its 'rotten' details", while "rotten" serves as a self-mocking reference to the fans' "hopeless rotten taste". The term originated in Japan where fujoshi refers to women who look for a gay subtext in TV shows or films.

Of course, it is not just women who like to fantasize about the unspoken affection between the sleuth and his sidekick.

Since 2010, Cumberbatch has inspired a new wave of fan fiction, danmei in Chinese, on the Internet, where Holmes and Watson are depicted as a couple, giving birth to literary creations such as this rhyme (translated from Chinese): "Sherlock tortures Watson a thousand times, and Watson loves him like his first love."

In a recent interview about series three, Mark Gatiss, the co-writer of Sherlock, says "crazy fan mail" from China tops the fan mail he receives every day. "Normally there's a discussion of what's happened, and questions about how we could leave John in such a state, and so on."

The enthusiasm of Sherlock fans in China has even spilled over to mainstream politics. When United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron visited Beijing in December, the top request sent to his Sina Weibo account was "to speed up the release of the new series of Sherlock".

China is not alone though. In 2010, tabloids in London speculated on the "bromance" in Sherlock. And the rumors start whenever a new season is launched.

According to Cumberbatch's logic, "the man is too busy to have sex".

And Moffat has denied the idea from the beginning: "There's no indication in the original stories that he was asexual or gay. He actually says he declines the attention of women because he doesn't want the distraction. What does that tell you about him? Straightforward deduction. He wouldn't be living with a man if he thought men were interesting."

However, Moffat admits that he always wanted to play on the confusion of Holmes and Watson's relationship. "The ambiguity is fine." How rotten!

Related: Synchronous Sherlock excites Chinese fans