An Examination of China’s Censorship System

In this chapter, Yan Lianke, an influential Chinese novelist, reflects on China’s censorship system, particularly as it applies to literary publications. He argues that in recent years there has been a major shift in China’s literary and cultural policy, involving a turn from a hard censorship regime to one grounded on what may be characterized as soft censorship. Whereas hard censorship uses a direct and forceful approach to control speech, publication, and other forms of artistic production, soft censorship instead relies on what might appear to be more tolerant methods, but which operate by encouraging authors and publishers to internalize the regime’s censorship objectives.