My eyewitness account of book confiscation in Shanghai

[wushijiao]

Earlier tonight in Shanghai, my wife and I ate a simple meal of noodles and dumplings at the local Dongbei restaurant. After that, we walked around a bit and bought some DVD’s- (“The Devil Wears Prada” and “Beerfest”, both quality films).

Anyway, on the streets they often have vendors selling pirated books out of their bicycles. I sometimes like to go see what books they are selling (although I generally prefer to buy non-pirated books, usually). I think you can find out a lot about what people are actually reading/buying by looking at these book stalls.

Recently I’ve seen a bunch of magazines talking about the corruption of Chen Liangyu (the former Shanghai Party Secretary who was sacked for corruption) and other stuff. Some of the books and magazines seem to be from Hong Kong or Taiwan, and other seem to be compilations of rumors (from the Internet or whatever) complied into books. In the last month or so, I’ve bought 中共第五代 (a pirated version from HK)　上海风云 (a pirated/unofficial book about the sex lives and corruption of the CCP officials in Shanghai).

Anyway, I was at this book stall, looking around. I was looking at a few books, one about Mao, one an unofficial copy of Jin Yong. Just about at the time I was going to move on and not buy anything, a guy in dark clothes about 40 years old came next to me. A minute or two later, a mini-van pulled up right behind the book stall. A dark clothed middle-aged man quickly jumped out of the van. Then three plain-clothed guys quickly flashed their ID’s to the book stall vendor. One of the guys quickly confiscated all the magazines about Chen Liangyu, all the political books from HK/Taiwan (including中共第五代) and a few other sensitive books.

Within a few seconds, they had taken away all the books that were foreign or possibly damaging to the CCP.

A few interesting observations about this incident:

1) The cops were very polite to the book stall owner. They didn’t overthrow his cart or anything.

2) They didn’t confiscate all the books, even though, technically, all the books that they didn’t confiscate (pirated versions of books legally available in to buy in the PRC) were in direct violation of intellectual property laws.

3) I had just predicted to my wife that it was just a matter of time before they started to crack down on these books and magazines. After Chen Liangyu and his cronies were found to have had corruption on a massive scale, I bet the authorities were hesitant to crack down too hard on books or magazines about Chen because they didn’t want to give the impression that they were for him. But it seemed to me, from reading the headlines of these books, that they had started to venture into other areas beyond just Chen Liangyu, and thus were unacceptable.

[gato]

You troublemaker.

[wushijiao]

You troublemaker

It was that old SOB Chen Lianyu who was 闹ing up some 事, not me!

[skylee]

Talking about book confiscation, a friend of mine has written this in his blog (he uses some Cantonese in his blog) ->

我常在國內網站購書(都是文革類收藏書籍).早兩天一個店主告訴我,我買的幾本文革書在速遞過來香港時,被深圳海關扣了.

我經常來往深圳,為的主要就是買文革畫,文革書,而且要定期到深圳銀行匯款.由於很多traders都不懂把書寄過來香港(時代雖進步了,但部分內地偏遠地區的郵政服務還很落後),而且目前還存在寄書時須由郵務員即時檢查所寄物品的規矩(如認為物品可疑或”政治不正確”可拒寄;在香港則相信除了危險品或易碎物品之外,不會有拒寄問題),所以我有不少書畫都寄到深圳一個朋友的店裡,有時間才去取回.

年多前,我把書從深圳帶回港時,遭深圳海關截查,仲要我逐件郵件(書都是用信袋,信封郵寄的)拆開俾佢地檢查.最令人啼笑皆非的,是截查我個位低級關員(20剛出頭的小伙子),看到我帶過來的一件毛主席瓷像時(約8吋高的白瓷半身像,70年代的常見東東,值200元),好像發現一起重大文物走私案一般,嚴肅認真地問我,這是什麼年代的東西,我老實不客氣的用普通話還他一句:「你連毛主席都不認了?難道會是清朝的古玩嗎?」他搭不上咀,唯有繼續檢查.當他看到其中幾本有”打倒公賊劉xx”字樣的書時,更自信立了大功.我告訴他們,這是地攤上幾塊錢買來的爛書,不明白你們緊張什麼.我是做研究的,我以前到北京,上海買書,海關看了也從未說有問題,還尊重我是學者,你們這是存心留難我嗎?我也是香港的官員,你若找我麻煩,我會叫部門跟你們交涉.(不得不撻朶).那小的被我唬住了,即時客氣了許多,但仍拿不定主意,說要請示上級.結果麻,他的上級不賣帳,堅持書不能出口,但可在國內取回(即可在我下次入境過關時取回).前後折騰了我2.5小時.xyz!!!

我在下一個周末取回了書(仲收左我每日兩元寄存費,xyz!!!),又重新帶回來香港,當然今次沒被檢查,不然我都唔知會發生乜事!話說回來,今次扣書的理由仲離譜,話係”反動”所以要沒收.直頭是倒退到文革時期,荒天下之大謬!結果如何?要交涉一輪先知勒…

[wushijiao]

你連毛主席都不認了?難道會是清朝的古玩嗎?

That's pretty funny.

What does 仲 mean in Cantonese?

[self-taught-mba]

wushijiao,

Have you considered the fact that it might have been your presence (I am assuming you are a foreigner) that contributed to the officials' politeness?

[roddy]

And where's the mobile phone video to go on Youtube? Era of citizen journalists and all that!

[wushijiao]

Hehe. I am a white American. Maybe that had something to do with it.

Although, I think their impressive speed and stealthness is the main reason why they were able to confiscate the books so easily. It seemed like their goal was to collect as many books that might mislead the masses as quick as possible.

Actually, the main people who are supposed to enforce getting illegal street vendors off the street are the 城市管理 (城管队), and these people have uniforms and are part of the government, but have less authority compared to cops. (Recently there was a famous case of a Hebei-er in Beijing getting angry and stabbing one of these guys to death).

http://www.xhby.net/xhby/content/2006-12/13/content_1490706.htm

It is quite common to see street vendors pack up their stuff and run away quickly when they get word that one of these guys are coming. I don't know, but it seems like the vendors have a pretty tight network to warn them if any uniformed authorities are coming by.

Anyway, the cops who took away these political books seemed much higher up in the totem pole. Maybe the fact that they had three plain-clothed cops (one with a driver and a van) making a coordinated swoop on one vendor shows that stopping the sale of these books get a higher priority than just letting one or two brown-uniformed old fats guy run around yelling at the fleeing vendors who can easily escape.

On our way home, I noticed that another book vendor was missing the political books that she had out earlier this week.

I didn't think fast enough to get out my phone! It was all over before I realized what had happened.

[skylee]

What does 仲 mean in Cantonese?

Usually it means 還; 仲有 = 還有; 仲要 = 還要.

[gougou]

It is quite common to see street vendors pack up their stuff and run away quickly when they get word that one of these guys are coming. I don't know, but it seems like the vendors have a pretty tight network to warn them if any uniformed authorities are coming by.

I'm not sure whether it functions about a real network. I think the first to spot one hollers, and the rest packs up their stuff (as for most vendors, the blanket they present their goods on serves as sack as well, that goes pretty quickly).

Reminds me of a scene I witnessed near the Beijing Zoo, where two cops (or not; not sure of the differences in uniform) cracked down on a couple of food vendors. There was a guy selling dates who fumbled his sack but managed to free it out of the cop's grasp, then managed to escape with about half of his stock, the rest having been spilled on the street. I thought that this must be quite a significant loss for him, but when he saw that the woman next to him had lost her whole box of corncobs, he started laughing and didn't stop as long as I sticked around. I guess even if your glass is half empty, the sight of an empty glass can make you feel mighty good...

[wushijiao]

I'm not sure whether it functions about a real network. I think the first to spot one hollers, and the rest packs up their stuff (as for most vendors, the blanket they present their goods on serves as sack as well, that goes pretty quickly).

You are probably right gougou. I don't know.

In nay case, I walked past the same book vendor (and three others in the neighborhood). All of them had books about Chen Liangyu.

In a way it reminds me of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Sex scandals sell.