Redacted Fantasy: China’s Dystopian Censorship of Online Fiction

November 28, 2023

China’s crackdown on fantasy literature and video games poses a critical obstacle to readers, authors, and those who seek to make these works accessible. Why restrict these apparently innocuous stories? Eric R Stone relays accounts from censored writers who describe how censorship and outright banning of certain concepts, words, and allusions render works of fiction unintelligible.

Eric R Stone

Eric R Stone is an American journalist and translator living in Taipei, Taiwan. He specializes in politics, history, philosophy, and ancient Chinese literature. He's translated four books: Happiness & Suffering, Tao Te Ching: Wondrous Revelations, The Secret of Chan, and Emptiness Energy. In his free time, he boulders, dances Lindy Hop, and runs Dungeons & Dragons adventures in Mandarin for his Taiwanese friends.

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