Fire & Fury: When China banned 'Alice in Wonderland' & India stopped Naipaul's book (2024)

FAQs

Why was the book Alice in Wonderland banned in China? ›

The book was reprinted and re-released in 1866. By 1884, 100,000 copies had been printed. In 1931, the work was banned in China by the Governor of Hunan Province on the grounds that “Animals should not use human language, and…it [is] disastrous to put animals and human beings on the same level.”

And roughly a decade after Disney's 1951 animated production of the film Alice in Wonderland, the book was again met with dismay—this time by parents in culture-changing America during the 1960s, as they believed that it, along with the movie, encouraged the evolving drug culture with its “overt” allusions to ...

1931: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was banned by the governor of Hunan province in China because, he said, animals should not use human language and it was disastrous to put animals and humans on the same level.

Books of allegorical fiction that obliquely criticize the Chinese government. Censorship in mainland China also extends from political topics into social taboos. The CCP has made strict regulations on books that have explicit descriptions of sex, like extramarital sex.

A book review committee jointly made up of Flagler Palm Coast High School and Matanzas High School representatives on Tuesday voted unanimously to keep The Truth About Alice in circulation at both schools' libraries. The book was challenged on claims that it contained “p*rnography.”

Is Lewis Carroll's tale really about sex, drugs, and colonialism? Some say yes. Others argue it's about eating disorders or the Wars of the Roses.

What Is the Most Banned Book in America? For all time, the most frequently banned book is 1984 by George Orwell. (How very Orwellian!) The most banned and challenged book for 2020 was George by Alex Gino.

This is the list of the most banned books in the first part of the 2022-2023 school year, according to the PEN America Index of School Book Bans. Gender Queer: A Memoir remained at the top of the list, as it was in the 2021-2022 school year, joined this time by Flamer.

Some school districts aimed to ban the book from schools because they believed the book has unsuitable topics for children to read about. One major complaints was that the story portrayed talking animals that can communicate and act just like humans.

Alleged racist content has been the reason most often cited for banning or challenging Huck Finn, particularly since 1957 and the rise of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Why was Winnie the Pooh banned in America? ›

Midwestern Ban

In 2006, school districts in the Midwest, especially in Kansas, have also banned Winnie the Pooh for religious reasons. They considered talking animals to be an insult to God, so they also banned any clothing with its characters on them.

There were concerns over the violence and increasingly dark tone of the later books but most of the censorship attempts were for religious reasons. It was also banned in some Christian schools in the UK.

Several books, such as Gender Queer, This Book Is Gay, and The Bluest Eye continue to be targets of censorship, while books such as Flamer, Push, and Milk and Honey were more frequently banned this school year than last.

Note that there is no legal penalty for publishing a book, or a child or adult owning it, or reading it, in PEN's definition. No one is being punished for selling it. The “banning” is removal from a public institution, or restricting minors' access in that institution.

America is deeply divided on many issues, so of course, book ban trends vary dramatically by state. Some states ban hundreds of books in one semester, while many others ban none at all. In the fall semester of 2022, there were 1,477 total book bans involving 874 unique titles.

The novels were banned in China in 1931, on the grounds that “animals should not use human language”.

In 1931, a government censor, General Ho Chien, banned books from Alice in Wonderland in China's Huan Province. The reason for his ban was that the animals depicted in the book were too humane.

The novel is most often challenged for its alleged promotion of drug use. The most controversial scene takes place after Alice enters Wonderland and meets the philosophic caterpillar. The caterpillar sits atop a mushroom, smoking a hookah, offering Alice advice on how to find the white rabbit.

01 - Alice in Wonderland (Traditional Chinese): 愛麗絲夢遊仙境(繁體)