Frankfurter Rundschau, 13 October 2009

Two Chinas, all the fun at the book fair

Published on 13 October 2009 at 12:53
Frankfurter Rundschau, 13 October 2009

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“This bids fair to be a fun book fair,” says the German press sardonically on the eve of the 14 October opening of this year’s Frankfurt Buchmesse, the most important book fair in the world. China, this year’s guest of honour, has already caused the organisers plenty of aggravation: they are accused of giving in to pressure from the censors in Beijing.

So on the one hand, as the Frankfurter Rundschau views it, there will be the “regime-faithful scribblers” like Tie Ning, president of the Chinese Writers Association, who lords it over 8,920 writers, denies there is censorship of any kind in his country (where 600-odd books are banned annually), and will spearhead a delegation of a hundred authors and a thousand officials and editors. On the other hand, there will be dissident authors like Bei Ling, who has succeeded in dodging prison and was only invited under pressure from the German media. Their presence should make for the “best possible debating panel” – comprising “those in charge of censorship and representatives of the Chinese government, as well as their fiercest critics. And the world will get a chance to hear them and judge for itself.”

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