Chinese censors have banned a steamy political satire in which an army officer's wife and her lover smash up images of Mao Zedong (
The novella, Serve the People -- named after Mao's most famous slogan -- has been rejected for publication and a magazine that had been serializing the contents has been pulled from the shelves.
Although it was written by one of China's most distinguished authors, Yan Lianke, propaganda ministry officials were reportedly apoplectic when they first read the tale of sexual revolution inside the People's Liberation Army.
Set in 1967 -- at the peak of the Mao cult during the Cultural Revolution -- the novel tells the story of the bored wife of a military commander who takes advantage of her husband's absence to seduce a young peasant soldier.
As a signal that the orderly's services are desired in the bedroom, she leaves the slogan Serve the People on the kitchen table.
Whenever the passion flags, they smash her husband's beloved Mao icons, rip up the Little Red book or urinate on the Great Helmsman's epigrams.
During the Cultural Revolution, defacing an image of Mao was punishable by death. Even today, the face of the founder of the republic remains a near-sacred object. A giant portrait stares out over Tiananmen Square, his face appears on every banknote, and many Beijing taxi drivers dangle it as a lucky charm for their cabs.
"This novella slanders Mao Zedong, the army and is overflowing with sex," said the edict by the propaganda department quoted in the South China Morning Post. "Do not distribute, pass around, comment on, excerpt from or report on it."
Although the entire print run of the Huacheng literary magazine has been confiscated, Serve the People has become a hit on the Internet. Commentators have praised it as a subversive critique of official corruption, leadership hypocrisy and the insanity of the Cultural Revolution.
Mao's sexual appetite is well known after the publication of a biography by his doctor Li Zhisui (
Yan has refused to comment on the work, saying he is concerned for his family's safety.
It is not the first time that he has had a work banned. An earlier novel, Shouhou (Feeling Good) -- the story of a rural official who rents Lenin's corpse to promote his town's tourism industry -- was pulled for its negative depiction of China's proto-capitalism.
Yan said he had not been given any reason why his latest novella was rejected.
"I didn't expect this would happen, but I am not very surprised either," he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not