How to Buy Banned Chinese Books on Alibaba

On Oct. 10, rumors began to circulate on Weibo, China’s Twitter, that a new group of scholars had been banned from publishing their books in the mainland, while booksellers there would be prohibited from selling works by those authors. The list of victims included writers like liberal economist Mao Yushi and Hong Kong writer Leung Wen Dao. Authorities have not yet commented on the rumor, but it’s possible the ban, if true, traces to those authors’ criticism of China and support for Hong Kong’s ongoing pro-democracy movement. Dangdang.com, one of China’s largest online booksellers, responded with a promotion called "Books we soon will not be able to buy."

That’s a bit misleading, at least for book lovers experienced in finding and purchasing banned books via Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant that recently concluded a historic $25 billion IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

For years, mainlanders resorted to Taobao, Alibaba’s consumer-to-consumer online platform, to buy banned books. Most have been published outside of the Chinese mainland, in Taiwan and Hong Kong. They include both uncensored versions of books that have been published in the mainland, like Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, which preserves mention of the former Chinese leader’s role in the crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, as well as books that have been banned there outright, like the traditional Chinese version of Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones, an account of modern Chinese life that contains several chapters about Tiananmen. But in August 2012, Taobao tightened a policy that required sellers to receive government certification to sell new books, and also began to delete the links to some censored or banned books. Many booksellers plying the forbidden trade have since closed shop.

But netizens like me have adapted. Say I want to buy this banned book, one unsearchable on Taobao’s site: Big River, Big Sea — Untold Stories of 1949, an account of the Chinese civil war that describes many wrongdoings by China’s People’s Liberation Army. The seller, who happens to have one at hand, might generate a temporary product link for the purchase that shows up like this: "In stock: Big River ****". Even if Taobao censors could see this transaction, they could not be sure what book it referred to.

On Douban, China’s online platform for literature and art lovers, there’s also a list of Taobao shops that continue to sell banned books. These sellers accomplish the feat either by ordering books directly from Taiwan and Hong Kong publishers, or sending someone to buy books and bring them back into the mainland. Not surprisingly, given the potential to be detained by Chinese customs officials, these books can be quite expensive. The traditional Chinese version of Oracle Bones (from Taiwan, running over 550 pages) costs about $14 on Taobao. In a country where readers generally pay $2 for a 200-page book of literature, this counts as a luxury item.

The most direct way of purchasing a banned book is to search for sellers, not the books (which may be unsearchable). Then, users can reach them on the instant chat platform for Taobao sellers and buyers to inquire and bargain, unfortunately named Aliwangwang. A seller may have the forbidden books in stock but won’t dare generate product links that would just get deleted and score them demerits on Taobao’s system. Instead, I just ask them what they’re selling, then close the chat window and go about my business.

Some sellers’ reputations precede them. One of the largest Taobao sellers of Taiwan and Hong Kong books (including banned ones) is "Dong Dong Hao Du," who often posts his book information on Douban. His Taobao bookshop was shut down in 2012 — probably because of its wide popularity among censored book-hunters like me. The shop was then turned into a place to buy bike equipment. But the proprietor opened a new shop on Taobao under a different name in October 2013, still selling books published in Taiwan and Hong Kong, but this time a bit more surreptitiously.

The process of buying a banned book is surely involved. But for some buyers, that’s part of the fun. Finding a trustworthy bookseller; inquiring about books; bargaining for a better price; then waiting for weeks, even months, to get it delivered — after all that work, reading the book line by line, sometimes deep into the night, is even more of a pleasure. It feels as if I just stole something, right from under Big Brother’s nose.