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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS