Nanny Nonsense 1

There's more on the current crackdown on Internet forums on the ESWN blog, which has translations of "a number of announcements and letters by various organizations and individuals".

Former CNN Beijing bureau chief Rebecca MacKinnon has posted an email interview of Shanghai blogger Isaac Mao about the crackdown on the Global Voices website.

Nanny Nonsense 2

Reuters and the Sydney Morning Herald have published articles about the banning of Serve the People, a novella by Yan Lianke (阎连科). The story was published in literary magazine Huacheng (花城). Soon after publication, the Central Propaganda Bureau issued an order to recall all copies and have them pulped.

What is all the fuss about?

In the words of the blogger ESWN, who was all over the story ten days before Reuters and the Sydney Morning Herald, the novella's plot can be summarized thusly: "Lovers achieve sexual ecstasy while smashing Chairman Mao statue."

LINKS:
ESWN on Serve the People (including plot summary)
Reuters story
Sydney Morning Herald story

UPDATE:
ESWN translates various documents about the BBS crackdown and asks Does China need an internet Nanny?
Article in the Baltimore Sun: Censors still rule in fast-changing China