Literature and Censorship in Modern China

This innovative study examines literary censorship in China from 1900 to present. Literature and Censorship in Modern China offers invaluable insights into the study of censorship, and the study of China.

New Censorship Studies shows us that, when it comes to literature and culture, censorship is the norm rather than the exception, and that censorship is a global phenomenon. By engaging with New Censorship Studies in the case of modern China, leading scholar Michel Hockx identifies the connections between censorship before and after the communist victory of 1949, between political censorship and moral (obscenity) censorship, and between print censorship and internet censorship. He assesses the oversimplified representation of Chinese censorship in American and European discourses, showing that it is a form of censorship in itself, which discredits or silences Chinese writers and artists who refuse to be dissidents. Hockx features interactions between authors, publishers, and censors, capturing the “gray zone” in which creativity and control converge in ways that are more complex than usually imagined.

By placing censorship of Chinese literature in relation to recent censorship theory, this book offers readers a more informed understanding of censorship as an “imposition of form,” not only in China but around the world. This study is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of literature and censorship theory.