Bruce Humes

First published in April 2010, Each Leaf a Bodhi Tree: My 15 Years at Dunhuang (一叶一菩提——我在敦煌十五年), a memoir detailing how Buddhist grottos in northwestern China were saved from marauding Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, has been formally banned from further publication and distribution in China. Reports the Global Times:

” A most cautionary example in the history of Dunhuang’s exploitation occurred when a 19th century Taoist priest named Wang Yuanlu, who after discovering thousands of ancient scrolls crammed in a small cave, sold them off to foreign adventurers, including British explorer Aurel Stein, French linguist and Sinologist Paul Pelliot and American art historian Langdon Warner. The scrolls were priceless translations attributed to the Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who traveled to India via the Silk Road in 629 AD to bring Buddhist scriptures to China.

Despite heads of the institutes suffering persecution for years, namely Chang Shuhong, the grottoes remained unscathed, according to 73-year-old Xiao Mo, a prestigious architectural scholar who spent 15 years in Dunhuang.

Xiao published “Each Leaf a Bodhi Tree: My Fifteen Years at Dunhuang” in April, which features Dunhuang during the Culture Revolution.

“I wanted to reflect on the truth and reveal a glorious act of humanity during a tragic period in history. Unfortunately, I was informed that the book was banned from being distributed, promoted or reprinted,” he told the Global Times yesterday. “I don’t understand why and am saddened.”

Managers from Wangfujing and Xinhua Bookstores in Beijing both commented that they received no official announcement of a ban on Xiao’s work. When asked as to why they have been off the shelves for two weeks, the managers explained they were simply “out of stock.”

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), author Xiao Mo (萧默) who worked at the Dunhuang Research Institute for Cultural Relics in Gansu from 1963 to 1978, seeks a publisher for the book—now available only in Chinese—in Hong Kong. Reports the SCMP:

“Early this month, Xiao was delighted to find out that his book, published in April, had almost sold out on online bookstores and requested a reprint from the publisher.

His publisher told him in e-mails on August 4 and 8 that the head of the publishing house was interrogated by officials of the Central Publicity Department as to why the book had been published and about the whole process of publishing. Some editors were forced to write self-criticisms. A few days later, they received the order from Gapp banning the reprint.

An editor at the publishing house confirmed the ban and said the order came in July after all 5,000 copies had been distributed.

“The feedback I received from readers was that the plot was very intriguing,” Xiao said. “I’m only focusing on positive humanity during the Cultural Revolution, when some grass-roots leaders tried their best to protect people with their power. “I tried very hard to avoid violence and even used my sense of humour. It’s a whole new angle and a breakthrough in covering the Cultural Revolution. I have no idea at all why it was banned.”

A fun item from HK’s South China Morning Post:

Censor Shows his soft side, with taste for banned books

NPC & CPPCC

Shi Jiangtao in Beijing

Mar 04, 2010 (South China Morning Post)

The mainland’s chief censor says he found a Taiwanese writer’s collection of civil war stories, recently banned by Beijing, to be an interesting read.

Liu Binjie , director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (Gapp), the mainland’s media and publishing watchdog, also said that its much-criticised book censorship regime should be reviewed.

It was the first time that a senior mainland official had commented on the book Da Jiang Da Hai 1949 (Big River, Big Sea – Untold Stories of 1949) [大江大海] by Lung Yingtai [龙应台], a Taiwanese-born University of Hong Kong professor.

The book, published in September last year, sold more than 100,000 copies in Taiwan and 10,000 in Hong Kong in its first month of release, but discussions about the book were deemed sensitive and banned on the mainland. There have been reports that mainland customs have confiscated numerous copies of the book at Beijing’s airport. Read the rest of this entry »

The South China Morning Post reports that “Snail House” (蜗居), a popular soap opera chronicling the misery of China’s newly christened “mortgage slaves” (房奴), has suddenly been “pulled from the airwaves.”  Intriguingly, China’s best-known international news digest, Cankao Xiaoxi (参考消息) repackaged the news for China readers just 48 hours later (December 4, 2009).  Censorship is generally not openly acknowledged by high-profile media here, especially where references to real-to-life “property magnates who hire thugs to throw people off the land they want to develop” are included in the report!

As always, the Chinese news item in Cankao Xiaoxi has been edited as you can see below—all words I have crossed out have been likewise stricken from the Chinese text. Typically, for instance, the unsavory fact that the Chinese government has “encouraged a US$1.3 trillion credit boom” has been deleted. But this time around, the Chinese text includes a handful of phrases that have been slightly rewritten or even added, not simply translated. I have rendered these phrases [in brackets].  One striking change in the text: The English refers to “priviliged and corrupt individuals,” while the Chinese alters “individuals” to “officials.”  

Are these reworked phrases just the result of a fatigued Cankao Xiaoxi translation editor working in the early hours of the morning, or a signal to corrupt officials in league with property developers that the good times are indeed over? Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the link between Kim Jong Il, a Nanjing orphan, and Korea’s recent nuclear test?

The answer to that conundrum lies buried deep within Kim Jong Il’s Godson Yang Bin: From Orphan to Sinuiju SAR Chief, a Chinese book just published in English by Fortune Gate (HK) Ltd.

If you’ve never heard of the “Yang Bin Affair” (杨斌事件) or the Sinuiju SAR (新义州特区), that’s not surprising.  The Chinese government might even to be pleased to learn that, since it would confirm that its arrest and imprisonment of Yang Bin—Number 2 on Forbes 2001 list of the richest Chinese—has been quite effective in keeping the Sinuiju SAR off the world map. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t let media in the West fool you—talking about sex in China is not taboo. But apparently references to female genitalia and orgasms are still big no-nos.

To see how such touchy subjects are handled in Chinese media, let’s take a look at what happened to the Guardian’s “China to Open First Sex Theme Park” (May 15, 2009) when it was translated and published in Cankao Xiaoxi.

As noted in my earlier updates on Cankao Xiaoxi, this daily newspaper is a respected Chinese-language digest of the world press with a long history, and in many cities across China it sells out every day before noon. Virtually no English is used and no content is added. But references deemed unbecoming to China’s image are often deleted. Read the rest of this entry »

Neat title for a 473-page tome about the far west of China by a gutsy, if sometimes over-heated Han Chinese who certainly did his fieldwork. The “West Land” of the title conjures up images of the Silk Road, the Taklamakan Desert and Turkic tribes, all part of the Chinese empire. “East Country,” however, is a taboo term in today’s PRC, the abbreviation for the short-lived East Turkestan Republic, whose legacy still gives Beijing splittist migraines. Both of these terms refer, of course, to what is known in the PRC as Xinjiang. 

The title implies an even-handed, and therefore very politically incorrect, stance on the “Xinjiang question.”  To the best of my knowledge, the book is only available in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and has not been translated from the Chinese. To avoid censorship of my piece here, I have not used the Chinese name of the book (wǒde xī yù, nǐ de dōng tǔ), nor have I provided a graphic of the cover. Sorry! 

 ”No one has ever . . . deciphered Xinjiang and the Uyghurs like this,” says the cover blurb.  Author Wang Li-Xiong did travel widely in Xinjiang on several long sojourns during 1999-2007, often in the company of local Uyghurs, but that is hardly impressive. Arguably, it is the time he spent in jail — being interrogated for photocopying secret government documents about Xinjiang, and the friendship he strikes up with his cellmate, a Uyghur political detainee — that sensitized him to the plight of the Turkic minorities in Xinjiang.

After a tough time in detention during which he almost killed himself, and at one point agreed to work as an informer in exchange for his freedom, Wang left jail and resolved to research Xinjiang and write a book about what he saw on the ground, as well as record his political discussions with Mokhtar, his former cellmate and an articulate spokesperson for Uyghur intellectuals.

Rather than writing a book review per se, I’ve translated a handful of excerpts:

•  It’s not illegal to be a practicing Muslim in Xinjiang. Well, not exactly. Check out the Student Regulations,  Mosque Etiquette Primer and  List of Illegal Religious Activities  just so you understand the challenges involved. 

The 23 Illegal Religious Activities

1. Forcing others to believe in religion
2. Forcing others to fast
3. Operating a madrassa on one’s own
4. Holding a traditional marriage ceremony
5. Condoning prayer by students
6. Using tradition to interfere in modern daily life
7. Organizing a hadj outside of the official channel
8. Exacting a traditional tithe from believers
9. Establishing a religious venue without permission
10. Hosting religious activities without a government certificate
11. Religious activities involving several districts
12. Printing and distributing materials for promotion of religion
13. Accepting foreign donations for religious end-uses
14. Going abroad to participate in religious activities
15. Proselytizing without permission
16. Criticizing patriotic religious devotees
17. Infiltration by foreign religions
18. Instigating disputes between different sects
19. Promoting a cult
20. Circulating statements that dispute official policy
21. Congregating to march or demonstrate
22. Establishing anti-revolutionary bodies
23. Other activities that damage social order.

These instructions were, according to author Wang Li-Xiong, posted at the entrance to a middle school in the countryside near Subashi, a “lost” city in the Taklamaken Desert near Kucha. He visited there during 2006. Drawings of the illegal activities were accompanied by text in both Chinese and Uyghur.

This text is my translation of an excerpt from the 473-page Chinese original, My West Land, Your East Country (Wǒ de xīyù, nǐ de dōng tǔ) by Wang Li-Xiong. Page 232. Published by Locus Publishing of Taiwan.

Xinjiang Student Regulations:

The 10 Don’ts

1. Do not say or do things that are harmful to unity among the different ethnic groups
2. Do not speak in a manner that is harmful to the unity of the nation
3. Do not refuse to accept Marxist atheism
4. Do not believe in religion, do not read religious books, and do not participate in religious and superstitious activities
5. Do not participate in activities aimed at creating divisions among ethnic groups
6. Do not read or publicize feudal superstitious materials
7. Do not wear clothing of a religious nature or engage in behavior of a religious nature
8. Do not copy other’s homework, cheat on tests or tell lies
9. Do not arrive in class late, leave early or skip class
10. Obey regulations and laws.

 These Student Regulations were, according to Wang Li-Xiong, found on the wall of a school in Aksu, Xinjiang, during his visit there in 2003. Written in the Arabic-inspired Uyghur script, they were translated for him by a bilingual Uyghur.

 This text is my translation of an excerpt from the 473-page Chinese book, My West Land, Your East Country (wo de xiyu, ni de dong tu) by Wang Li-Xiong. Page 121. Published by Locus Publishing, Taiwan.  

The 6 Don’ts & 3 Limitations

The 6 Don’ts:

1. Government cadres, students and youths under 18 are not permitted to take part in any religious activities in the Mosque
2. Do not promote jihad or instigate disputes among ethnic groups
3. Do not carry out propaganda aimed at dividing ethnic groups
4. Do not read or distribute books, magazines or printed matter promoting jihad
5. Do not interfere with normal administrative work
6. Do not engage in religious activities that involve other districts.

The 3 Limitations:

1. Friday prayers are limited to half an hour
2. Namaz [five daily prayers] should be performed according to the original style and format, and these should not be altered
3. Youths under 18 may not enter the mosque.

These instructions were, according to author Wang Li-Xiong, found at the entrance to the Aitika Mosque in Keriya, Xinjiang (克里雅的艾提卡清真寺) during a visit there in 2003. Written in the Arabic-inspired Uyghur script, they were translated for him by a bilingual Uyghur.

This text is my translation of an excerpt from the 473-page Chinese original, My West Land, Your East Country (Wǒ de xīyù, nǐ de dōng tǔ) by Wang Li-Xiong. Page 158. Published by Locus Publishing, Taiwan.