For years Chinese authors in China have been writing books that get banned, with no dramatic repercussions. Yan Lianke’s examinations of the cult of Mao and tragic episodes from China’s Communist history are given a wide berth by publishers on the mainland, appearing in Taiwan and Hong Kong instead. But his novels do get published here, he goes about unmolested, and he has a prestigious position at one of China’s best universities. Sheng Keyi and Chan Koonchung have both written fiction touching on the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown without, by their own accounts, so much as a slap on the wrist.

多年来，中国作者一直在撰写会遭禁的书籍，但并没有引发激烈反应。阎连科对毛泽东受到的个人崇拜，以及中国共产党历史中的悲惨事件进行了检视，大陆出版商纷纷对这些内容敬而远之，于是这些作品后来在台湾和香港出版了。但他的小说还能在这里得到出版，他在生活中也没有受到骚扰，而且他还在中国最好的一所大学里拥有颇有声望的职位。盛可以和陈冠中都写过涉及天安门广场镇压事件后续情况的小说，但据他们自己的讲述，他们甚至没有收到任何警告。