In the January/Febrary 2005 issue of the literary bimonthly magazine Hua Cheng (花城), the novel Serve the People (为人民服务) by Yan Lianke (阎连科) was published. However, the issue got censured and all copies were confiscated, because the novel contains descriptions of Mao Zedong's portrait being defaced. The novel soon found its way to the Internet, where it was distributed and discussed.
We have scanned Serve the People from an actual copy of the banned Hua Cheng issue and saved the images in the DACHS archive. To browse through the scanned pages online, please click on the button below. A new full-screen viewing pane will open.
The scanned article is also available in PDF-format. Please click on the button below to open the file in a new window, or download the file to your local computer.
(18.65 MB)
Click on the button below to open the novel as it was published on www.huanghuagang.org (see also below) in PDF-format. To view the original, you can also follow the link to the archived webpage.
Article on LateLineNews (夜光新闻) about the censured novel, from 6 March 2005: '祂的為人民服務為何被禁？' Please note that the 20 'related articles' at the bottom of the page are also in the archive.
English article on EastSouthWestNorth (東南西北) about the censured novel, from 10 March 2005: 'Serve the People'. Please note that the three links in the article are also in the archive.
Discussion thread on WenxueCity (文學城) about the censured novel, from 8 March 2005. Please note that only the 7 messages belonging to this particular thread are in the archive.
Discussion thread on the 沉心斋 forum on 什么网 about the censured novel, from 14 March 2005: '转个被禁了的小说,是花城上的.' The complete novel is included in the threads, as well as comments from readers.
Article by Jiang Xun (江迅) on Boxun (博讯), from 19 March 2005: '《为人民服务》：中国二零零五年“第一禁书”.' Please note that the four 'related articles' at the bottom (about banned books) are also in the archive.
English article by Antoaneta Bezlova on the website of Inter Press Service News Agency: 'Sexually Charged Political Satire Slips Into Internet' (15 April 2005). Also contains a link to a discussion thread on the Angry Chinese Blogger at the bottom of the article.
(18.65 MB)