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.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
RSS