In one story Dr John Watson is a part-time porn star, in order to pay of his student loans. In another , "sexual desire coursed through Sherlock’s chest as his heart beat wildly," Foreign Policy reports.

A fascination with Bernard Cumberbatch is at the heart of the flood of creative writing, as is a devotion to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories. The TV show has received more than 24 million views since first becoming available on the Chinese video site Sohu TV in March 2011.

What?!

This... I... Why Bernard Cumberbatch?

Cumberbatch, 37, is enormously popular in China, where he is referred to as Curly Fu ("Curly" for his hairstyle and "Fu" a shortened Chinese transliteration of "Holmes").

One journalist with the Jinghua Times found most viewers of the 2013 blockbuster sci-fi movie Star Trek Into Darkness had gone to see Curly Fu, playing the villain Khan, who they declared "impossible to hate" because they had "never seen a bad guy so handsome before."

On the internet, Cumberbatch is an erotic god. In an online forum devoted to the actor, fans said they loved his hair, voice, height, eyes, physique, poise, nose, the speed at which he talks, and a certain ineffable charisma.

Some fans also paid tribute to his "cute wife" Watson, whom they call "Peanut,' due to the Chinese phoneticisation of Watson.

Amateur cartoon adaptations of Sherlock and Watson holding hands and composite images of Cumberbatch and Freeman kissing are available on Chinese websites.

Wow, Benedict Cumberbatch is so popular he could become an embassador to China!