Online platforms clean up officialdom smear content

Major Chinese literary websites have removed the officialdom category as well as novels containing content that smear Chinese officialdom concealed in digital books under other categories, as a result of a recent clean-up campaign launched by the China Writers Association.



The campaign started on October 30 and lasted almost a month for the Chinese digital book industry aimed at developing an accurate understanding of Chinese socialist core values, according to a report released by the association on Tuesday.



The association targeted online novels with content depicting an unhealthy Chinese officialdom image, like using power in exchange for sex, from literature websites, an association member told the Global Times on condition of anonymity, on Wednesday.



He said that online novels are different from hard copy editions because of less restrictions and many readers prefer reading officialdom stories online, especially on gossip of civil servants.



"These novels were written by people who never served in government and based on false information," the association member said.



"Readers could get the wrong impression of Chinese public office,"he said.



China's main digital literature sites including qidian.com, are working together with the association by reviewing novels and removing fiction novels with such content, Zhejiang-based zjnewsw.com reported on Tuesday.



The report said book.tianya.cn, which has the most number of categories among Chinese literature websites, closed its search of officialdom.



Zhu Wei, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the campaign can purify the writing and reading environment.



The Global Times found that novels like Guandaowujiang and Guantu have a pattern, in which the protagonist, usually a man who begins his public service career from the bottom, beating others while attracting beautiful women and gathering fortune as he moves up.



"I read those stories online out of curiosity, but then I realized the contents were different from my true-to-life experiences," a public servant in North China's Shanxi Province, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

