Taiwan author hits back over book ban, saying she is proud to be banned in China
-
Loading... - Adika Lestari
- 13 Oct 2022
- 70 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Taiwanese author Lung Yingtai has responded to the banning of her books in Chinese schools, saying she is honored to have been targeted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s ever-widening program of censorship.
"I am honored to have been banned by you," the former Taiwanese culture minister and long-term critic of authoritarian rule wrote on her Facebook page after schools in the eastern Chinese provinces of Shandong and Jiangsu, among other locations, issued notices to parents that all of her works were no longer considered suitable reading matter for children.
"Actually, I have been banned for a long time," she wrote, adding that "Big River, Big Sea 1949" and "Please Use Civilization to Convince Me" have been banned in China for more than 10 years now.
Other works including "Watching You Go" and "Dear Andreas" have also been targeted, Lung wrote.
"They were removed from the shelves in a lot of places after I spoke out on behalf of Hong Kong in 2019," Lung wrote.
She added: "The basic prerequisite for the existence of any government is that it safeguard individual freedoms."
Her comments came after parents at schools in the eastern port city of Qingdao received notification that a slew of titles were now no longer considered appropriate reading matter for children, and that parents should "archive" such titles.
Also on the list were popular works about classical Chinese thinkers like Confucius, Mencius and Zhuangzi by Yi Zhongtian, and works by children's history book authors Bei Mao and Chen Lihua. Read More…
