The Book and its culture often define a society. The Chinese saying goes that “inside the book are houses full of gold and gorgeous women.” This utilitarian reading culture has led to what the contemporary Chinese educator Feng Enhong calls China’s lack of emphasis on “cultivating the ability of students to ask questions about value.”
My favorite quote from the West about books is from 17th-century English poet John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, who says, “A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.” In other words, it should be a transcending gem of value and spirit.
As books have the power to inspire, they are inseparable from politics and violence in history. As a carrier of knowledge and a tool of expression for intellectuals, books never exist beyond the realm of politics, to which authors and readers may fall victim. We as Chinese have learned from studying Chinese history the phrase “fen shu keng ru (burning books and burying Confucian scholars),” which took place in the Qin Dynasty, an early dynasty of China, indicating that violence against books and knowledge has been there for thousands of years.
When British-Indian author Salman Rushdie’s 1988 novel The Satanic Verses was deemed to have blasphemed the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the following year Iranian spiritual leader Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the author’s assassination, an order that is still in effect today.
Unimaginable years ago, banned books are now part of life in Hong Kong. Books written by democrats have been taken off library shelves. In other words, universal values are now seen as incitement to violence by the Hong Kong regime. Of course, this can only be a joke.
During the Cultural Revolution, Quotations from Chairman Mao, of which five billion copies were distributed during the Revolution, were the very tool of armed struggles; every time when the Red Guards needed to struggle against their enemies, they would hold up the booklet, chant part of it, and fight. Therefore, if “incitement to violence” is a crime, this booklet should be the most inciting one in the history of China.
Books banned by authoritarian regimes tend to shed some wisdom. As a Hongkonger, I recommend “The Moon is Down” by American author John Steinbeck, a novel that was banned in the German occupation zone during the Second World War. It is an anti-fascist novel and is generally believed to take place in Norway, which was occupied by the Germans then.
This novel had a great impact on occupied France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, inspiring the people to continue their resistance. Steinbeck was regarded as a hero after the War and was honored by the king of Norway with the Haakon VII Freedom Cross.
This book describes the story of a small Norwegian town occupied by the Germans, who demand the local government to submit to cooperation, to which the people resist. The story is quite a straightforward one, but the dialogues and texts are very inspiring.
When the invading army asked Mayor Orden to think for the people of the town and not to resist, the mayor proudly said, “My people don’t like to have others think for them. Maybe they are different from your people.” He explained that he could not do whatever he wanted: “authority is in the town. I don’t know how or why, but it is so.”
He added, “Defeat is a momentary thing. A defeat doesn’t last. We were defeated and now we attack. Defeat means nothing.”
In the novel, the German army compared to counter-attacking people as flies, and the German army as flypaper. In the end, the Germans had to admit that the flies had conquered the flypaper because they were “deeper and deeper into molasses.”
The ending is thought-provoking. The mayor of the city is not spared by the invading army’s mass killings. Before he was executed, he told his friend that he still owed another friend a cock and asked him to do him a favor. The friend said, “A debt shall be paid.” The mayor put his hand on the arm of the German soldier beside him and said, “I remembered that one. I didn’t forget that one.” The friend concluded by saying, “Yes, you remembered. The debt shall be paid.”
