Houston Community News >> China Cracks Down on Kids Comic Books
5/26/2007 BEIJING (AP) - China
has launched a crackdown on scary children's stories including the popular
Japanese "Death Note" comic book series, state media said Saturday.
Authorities are ordered to seize "illegal terrifying publications" from vendors
ahead of China's Children's Day on June 1, the Xinhua News Agency and China
Daily newspaper reported.
Communist authorities regularly launch sweeps to seize publications deemed
pornographic or socially harmful. They are especially concerned about the
influence of foreign books, movies and other pop culture on Chinese children.
One target in the latest crackdown is "Death Note," a Japanese series of comic
books about a notebook that can kill people whose names are written in it.
The story "misleads innocent children and distorts their mind and spirit," said
Wang Song, an official of the National Anti-piracy and Anti-pornography Working
Committee, quoted by the China Daily.
"Death Note" publications have been seized in Shanghai and areas across central
and southern China, the newspaper said.
(Contributed by AP)