North Korean complaints get a Chinese book banned

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Ye Yonglie on the border

Ye Yonglie, a prolific biographer, science writer, and popular historian, visited North Korea (the DPRK) and wrote a book about the country. Titled The Real DPRK (真实的朝鲜), the book was immediately popular when it was released to bookstores and Internet portals in March.

In July, it was pulled from bookstores and wiped from the web.

In the September issue of Open Magazine (开放杂志), Ye explains why: the DPRK’s embassy in China complained to the Foreign Ministry about the book’s portrayal of the country, and as a result, GAPP issued a ban order for the sake of preserving “international harmony” during the Olympics.

Ye makes a number of interesting points in his article. He notes that banning a book is a process — in this case, The Real DPRK was initially taken out of major bookstores and removed from web portals but could still be found in many places, drawing a second letter of complaint from the North Korean embassy. Smaller literary websites escaped the ban entirely, and Ye’s article has driven traffic to them: Pashu‘s serialization, for example, currently has more than three times the traffic of the next highest-ranking title in its category.

Ye also discusses the difficulty he had in getting the book published in the first place. He’s a well-known author whose name drives book sales, so he found lots of interest from publishers — until they actually read the manuscript, that is. When he finally found a publisher to take it on, he was told to keep quiet about it. He comments,

It’s impossible to “keep things low-key” in the Internet era. The three web portals serialized it, and Beijing Radio aired a complete audio version.

Ye closes his piece by lashing out at the government for capitulating to foreign pressure and turning on one of its own citizens.

The Real DPRK was quite the success during the four months it was on sale. Although the readership numbers Ye mentions in his article might sound like hype, the online serialization really was popular. But not, it appears, with the people who counted.

How The Real DPRK Became a Banned Book

by Ye Yonglie / Open

The Real DPRK, by Shanghai author Ye Yonglie, was published with sensitive chapters cut out, but after interference from two letters from the DPRK ambassador, the book was taken off the market just prior to the Olympics.

As Beijing was hosting the Olympics, I couldn’t help remembering back to 24 September, 1993, and the 101st IOC session in Monte Carlo, Monaco*. Beijing and Sydney were the main candidates to host the Games of the 27th Olympiad. The voting was quite close. At the critical moment, it was North Korea who voted against Beijing, defeating its bid for host city! When the news came out, the Chinese people were shocked and infuriated by this “brother country” and “friendly neighbor.”

A Ban on the Eve of the Olympics

However, right on the eve of the Beijing Olympics, on 11 July, 2008, GAPP issued an order banning the sale of my new book, The Real DPRK. From that day forth, The Real DPRK was taken off the shelves of mainland bookstores. The book had originally been serialized on major web portals — Sina, Sohu, and QQ — but everything was deleted on that day. All online promotional material blotted out. Reportedly, this was done to create an atmosphere of “international harmony” during the Olympics! The Urgent Notice Concerning Strengthening Internet Information Security During the Olympics issued by the General Office of the State Council specifically mentioned that “Ye Yonglie’s The Real DPRK is a problem.”

My new book, The Real DPRK was published in March, 2008, and was banned in July, not even four months later. The book is one of a series, “Ye Yonglie’s World Outlook,” which contains eight titles in all and is published by the Beijing Xinhua Lipin Book Company [part of Sichuan’s Xinhua Winshare Publishers] in association with the Tianjin Education Press. The Real DPRK generated the strongest response out of the books in the series. Online serializations by Sina, Sohu, and QQ set off great reverberations on the web. Sina’s serialization alone received upwards of 800,000 hits in just three days, and Sohu’s eventually reached 3 million. Netizen comments started a huge debate; Sina’s comments section grew to 5,000 messages! The book sold well at bookstores across the country. According to a friend of mine in Guangzhou, the display copy at the Guangzhou Book Center had been read so much its cover was already ragged.

From strong sales to a ban, from boiling to freezing — what really happened to The Real DPRK?

Entering the Mysterious DPRK as a Tourist

I had been watching our “peculiar” neighbor North Korea for a long time. My decision to travel there was inspired by Zhang Jianya, a Shanghai film director. He had come back from the DPRK and advised me that I needed to go see that “living fossil of a communist world” by any means I could find. He stressed that if I delayed, there might not be anything to see!

At first, I planned to apply for a visa together with my wife. I hoped to spend a month gathering information in the DPRK, or at least two weeks’ time. I supposed that it would not be too difficult to get a visa, so on a business trip to Beijing, I took the opportunity to go to the DPRK embassy outside of Jianguomen. Unlike the American embassy visa office, which is always swarming with visitors, the DPRK visa office was practically deserted. It was still early, and apart from one other gentleman, my wife and I were the only ones waiting. As I talked to that man, I learned that he had been to the DPRK a number of times on a business visa. When he heard that I wanted to go to the DPRK to gather information, his eyes widened in surprise. He told me that I should find a way to get a visa for business investigation, or something similar, because there was no way that I’d be getting a visa under my identity as a writer. The DPRK was exceptionally careful about reporters and writers.

And sure enough, when the visa officer saw my documentation and my Application for an Entry Visa to the DPRK, he shook his head. Without authorization from the DPRK, it’s very difficult for a writer to get a visa to collect material in the country. So that was the end of it. The only thing I could do was to retreat and try again: as an ordinary tourist, apply for a visa with an ordinary tour group. This was the simplest and most convenient solution. Of course, it would also put limitations on my reporting, but I had no other recourse…

Ever since the missile crisis, the nuclear crisis, and the six-party talks to resolve those crises, the DPRK has been in the world’s eye. However, it remains a mysterious country, sealed off from the outside and autocratic on the inside. Just as the “missile crisis” was taking place, I entered the DPRK as an ordinary tourist. As soon as I crossed the Yalu River I was observed by the DPRK’s national security officers. From then on, as long as I was in the country I was under their surveillance. But I had made it inside, so I could record the real situation in the DPRK with my camera and notebook.

Roadblocks Everywhere on the Way to Publication

Even though I had to undergo a stringent, half-hour “focused inspection” before leaving the country, I still was able emerge with all of my notes. When I returned to Shanghai, I wrote up The Real DPRK as a piece of long-form reportage.

A number of mainland publishers got wind of my new book and were quite eager to publish it. An editor at a Shanghai-based publisher asked for a copy of the manuscript, and was “blown away” after reading it. However, one of the people in charge at that publisher told me that another Shanghai publisher had once been sternly criticized by the “higher ups” for publishing Castro: A Biography (whose contents had upset a “brother party”) — he remembered this quite vividly. I understood: he was “looking to the right and left, and speaking of other matters,”* implying that my manuscript was being returned. The news circulated quickly. Another Shanghai editor learned of the book and excitedly sought a summary and table of contents. But in less than a day, I got a call telling me that the subject matter was “sensitive” and the publisher’s leadership felt they couldn’t bring it out.

At this point, the magazine Tongzhou Gongjin (同舟共进) showed enormous courage in selecting excerpts from The Real DPRK to run under the title “Let me tell you about the real DPRK” in two separate issues. Although the magazine did not have a very wide circulation, it was immediately inundated with calls from people looking to buy those issues. A major literary publication told me after it heard the news that it wanted to print an even larger excerpt of The Real DPRK. As the manuscript was about to go to press, the leadership wanted to see a copy of Tongzhou Gongjin. I scanned in “Let me tell you about the real DPRK,” and sent it off by email. They were still nervous and wanted to see the original, so I sent off a copy of the magazine by courier. Ultimately, they balked and did not end up publishing it.

When it did come out, I signed an agreement with the publisher to “keep things low-key.” However, it’s impossible to “keep things low-key” in the Internet era. The three portals serialized it, and Beijing Radio aired a complete audio version.

The attention given to The Real DPRK by the reading public came about because North Korea is a “hot country,” and because its national conditions are largely unknown. As a writer, I am deeply disappointed that only an expurgated edition was able to be published on the mainland. A publisher in South Korea is interested in publishing an unexpurgated Korean-language edition, and in that way, the complete text of The Real DPRK will break out of its restraints and might find a wider audience.

The North Korean Embassy Contacts the Foreign Ministry Twice

The trouble finally started after The Real DPRK was published.

The first “trouble” it ran into was when a retired Chinese Foreign Ministry official called up the Foreign Ministry to report that The Real DPRK had “problems.” This individual had not read the book and did not go online; he had heard the audio version on Beijing Radio. When the Foreign Ministry received this old cadre’s report, it immediately telephoned Xinhua Lipin Book Co. to request a copy of the book for review. Xinhua Lipin couldn’t ignore this request, so it sent off a copy of The Real DPRK by courier to the Foreign Ministry. The company was quite nervous at the time, but then more than a month passed without the Foreign Ministry making any movements. This indicated that the book had its approval.

The real “trouble” for The Real DPRK began in the first part of July, 2008. The embassy of the DPRK in China sent a letter to the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanding that it halt circulation of The Real DPRK. The Foreign Ministry handed this matter over to GAPP, which issued an order banning the book.

However, “banning a book” is ultimately a process. At first, The Real DPRK was only taken off the shelves of major book stores. On 17 July, the DPRK embassy sent another letter to the Foreign Ministry, under the impression that many places in China were still selling The Real DPRK. So GAPP pressed bookstores across the country to remove book from their shelves.

The Real DPRK is actually a book that accurately reflects North Korea, a book that tells the truth. But like someone who smashes a mirror when it reflects their own pock-marked face instead of blaming the pockmarks, the DPRK blamed The Real DPRK for showing blemishes, when it actually presented a true reflection of the state of the country.

A netizen going by the name of Kanas Shadow wrote up the following response after reading The Real DPRK:

I’ve just read Ye Yonglie’s The Real DPRK, and it feels like a trip into the past. Without the last three decades of reform and opening up, today’s China would definitely be like today’s DPRK: The whole world envies us! We have Mao Zedong Thought, a socialist system, no taxes, no prostitutes, no drugs, no corruption…in short, we have none of the ugliness of humanity, particularly the ugliness of capitalism! The entire world envies us! Unfortunately, they go hungry, the refrigerators in their hotels are empty, and night-time in the capital is pitch-black.

Everything is free in the DPRK: school, medical care, and housing; clothing is provided, as are all daily necessities. The details in this book are worth noticing, like how the guide wouldn’t let photos be taken because “we weren’t allowed to photograph the negative side of things.” People with bad backgrounds, like those with relatives in South Korea, aren’t allowed to live in Pyongyang, nor can the disabled. Face is everything, and everything is done for the sake of face.

The leader is worshipped like a god. His birthday is called “the day of the sun.” I’ve discovered that lots of dictators like comparing themselves to the sun. Very interesting.

The difference between South and North Korea is like comparing heaven and hell, yet the North Korean people unfortunately still believe that the South Koreans live in extreme misery. Their hotels for foreigners don’t air South Korean programs, and they check tourists’ luggage for any South Korean written materials.

In a UN resolution on the DPRK, there’s a line that reads, “enforce a ban on the sale of luxury goods to the DPRK.” You can imagine the ordinary people’s starvation; who’s enjoying those luxury goods?

I don’t know if whether or not I’ll be able to witness the North Korean people “wake up” in my lifetime. Sometimes I think that they’re better off living in a dream of someone else’s making. If one day they discover that the world is actually upside-down, what then? Will they be like us? Weren’t we blissful in our ignorance? After waking up, there are too many problems, too many ideas. That’s why there’s so much dissatisfaction.

The banning of The Real DPRK brings to mind the Indian-British author Salman Rushdie. When his novel The Satanic Verses drew protests from Iran, the Queen of England issued an order protecting him, and the book circulated normally in the UK. China’s GAPP lacks the resolution of the Queen, and it yielded to its “brother country” for fear of “wrecking” the Olympic mood. Why didn’t they remember the critical vote cast against them by that same “brother country” back in 1993? Why didn’t they think about how that “brother country” changes its tune as soon as it receives aid? Why didn’t they think about how the foreign minister of that “brother country” went to America and announced, “China has no influence on us at all. All decisions during the six-party talks are made by our country alone!” Why didn’t they think about how that country’s soldier killed an innocent South Korean tourist at Mt. Kumgang yet was praised for “vigilance”?

2008.08.04


Notes

  1. Ye Yonglie’s original has “Montreal, Canada” []
  2. 王顾左右而言他, a quotation from Mencius, “King Hui of Liang” []
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