Found a whole row of Chinese language books in this library, usually only libraries in universities have this many Chinese books. Took a close look, only one or two of these hundreds really caught my eye, like this one.
First of all, they are all books with simplified Chinese characters, therefore I suspect this library most probably had received these books as donations. Secondly, the first printing time of these books is fairly not too long ago, most of them had been written in the past 20 years or so.
There are rarely Chinese classics neither translation of English or other languages' classics. What composes this row mostly is chicken soup kind of literature soap opera or daily life topics that easily fall under pragmatism.
There is no history (only some Chinese ancient history about different dynasties and emperors' gossips), especially no history of modern China or the modern world, no religion, no philosophy, no modern politics, no other countries' history and cultures.
And there are a full 10-20 of them about how China is rising as a superpower in the world, mainly propaganda-style with not much content or logic.
You know when I am looking for Chinese books outside China, I automatically scan for forbidden books, books that are banned by the government. There is not even one book in this library that is banned in China, it's surprising considering the volume of the collection.
I always remember every time when I landed in China from other countries, in the custom at the airport, they would order me to open up my suitcases, take out the books that they found in the scanning image, and check earnestly if those were in the list of forbidden books, or if the book titles were provoking or containing sensitive words. If the officers were not happy about the books, they would throw them away so quickly like killing viruses and preventing the spread.
As long as you didn't bring back books like Xi or Mao and their mistresses, if it were just about Cultural Revolution, Great Leap Forward or Dalai Lama (well, I can't say about Dalai Lama books for sure) most probably the books would just be seized right away and they would let you go without further prosecutions. It was back then, I don't know about the situations now, maybe your pads and phones would be asked to be scanned and searched too, maybe you wouldn't be allowed to go so soon anymore.
Well, I never got caught because I usually read forbidden books after downloading them online or directly on the webpage, and I don't keep them on the devices that came with me to China.
If any paper prints of such forbidden books are found in bookstores or libraries while traveling outside China, that surely is the high point of the month/year. The other reason that I don't possess forbidden books is that they were only sold in HK or Taiwan, now only in Taiwan.
Books like this one were allowed and popular in China across the board, especially during my college years. At that time Chinese were still looking up to democratic societies and trying to understand them. Now what I heard was libraries and bookstores all over China have been going through cleansing efforts led by the government, a significant amount of books have been seized and thrown out.
I'm pretty sure books like this are categorized as "too western" and could inflict "traitorous thoughts". And it could even easily fall under the list of forbidden books or at least "unwanted books", considering what's been happening.
How things changed too fast too soon....
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