religious books?

[zhuangzi#8]

Hi, I am hoping to study in China this summer, but I have something I need to clarify. I have an interest in religious literature of all varieties, but am not sure what I am allowed to take into the country. I assume the Tibetan Book of the Dead would be an obvious example of proscribed religious literature? What about religious texts in general?

[kdavid]

Generally, you can bring any type of literature into the country that you want as long as it's not accompanied by hundreds of leaflets that you'll be distributing to the masses.

Now, what's available here is a bit of a trickier question. Though I myself am not relgious, I was able to track down a Catholic Bible (entirely in Chinese) as a Christmas gift to my grandparents. I bought this from the huge church down the street. However, I wouldn't expect to find a wide variety of English translations for any type of religion, but this may depend largely on where you will be (Harbin doesn't have much of a selection of anything).

I order off amazon to my State-side address, and then have my mom ship them to me over here.

[roddy]

If it's in English, you are only bringing in one copy and you don't carry it in a carton marked 'Banned Literature for Distribution' you'll probably be fine. Just don't draw attention to yourself and its very unlikely anyone will bother you.

Why would the Tibetan Book of the Dead be banned?

[1on1Mandarin]

I would have to agree that virtually any book that you bring in the country is alright,

as long as it's not accompanied by hundreds of leaflets that you'll be distributing to the masses.

In fact, The Beijing International Christian Fellowship (BICF), a Christian Church for foreign passport holders only, often sells many different types of Christian literature within the confines of the the church. There are also some companies in Beijing that are legally translating similar texts from English to Chinese. Obviously, they are working very close with the Religious Affairs Bureau, but you will be surprised of how many different types of texts are allowed in China.

Furthermore, there are also some small privately owned Christian book stores around Beijing that carry hundreds of titles.

As a general rule of thumb, as long as you're not trying to spread religious views upon the masses, you will be ok.