Serve the People!

Serve the People! is a novel by Yan Lianke. Banned for "slandering Mao Zedong", and depicting images of sex.

The surviving record is interesting because it shows how even ordinary-looking books can acquire a charged political afterlife. As a novel, it can be read not only for subject matter but for the way form, tone, and circulation make a text feel dangerous, intimate, or politically usable to anxious officials.

It also matters as part of a wider censorship history in China. The present page is a dossier starter built from source-tracked ban records; the surviving note currently says: Banned for "slandering Mao Zedong", and depicting images of sex. More publication history, translations, and close reading can be added later.

Serve the People! entered censorship debates as a novel associated with controversy, publication history, and state scrutiny. In the current dossier, the main state objections cluster around political sensitivity.

The earliest event currently captured here is 20th-21st century in China, where Chinese state censors and party authorities banned or suppressed publication. Banned for "slandering Mao Zedong", and depicting images of sex. Banned for "slandering Mao Zedong", and depicting images of sex.

This entry is still incomplete: more jurisdictions, court orders, and translated justifications should be added over time.

This page is intentionally incomplete. The ban history is a starter dataset, not a final census of every jurisdiction or decree.

• 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald, and Dawn B. Sova

  A compact reference on how censorship systems moved across states, churches, and courts.

• Banned Books: 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D. Anne Lyon Haight

  Useful for comparing older obscenity, heresy, and political bans with modern free-speech disputes.

• Wikipedia: Book censorship in China reference partial
• Wikipedia REST summary API database partial
• 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature book partial
• Banned Books: 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D. book partial