Liberal Japan

Will we ever learn one of history’s more obvious lessons — to be especially on guard against those who lie to us by appealing to the welfare of children? How many Jews were murdered to save Christian children from being turned into matzo? —Thomas Szasz

Recently children in China have a new hobby, at least some of them. They’re keeping notebooks of death. In them, they list the names of all the people they want to die. Mostly this consists of disliked teachers and classmates.

The idea for this comes from the popular Japanese movie Death Note (デスノート). Literally, Notebook of Death.

Before becoming a movie, Death Note was first a comic and then an animated series. This should give anyone an idea of just how popular the story is.

Wikipedia sums up the plot this way:

The series primarily centers around a high school student who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it.

As far as I know, no version of Death Note has been legally distributed in China, however illegal copies a DVD version flourish alongside other popular J-Horror items.

The authorities in China don’t like J-Horror or the supposed influence it has on children. (In terms of influence, I’m referring to the notebooks of death that some of the students are carrying around with them.)

Reuters recently reported:

China’s capital is seizing ghost and horror books from shops to protect the “physical and mental health” of its youngsters, local media said on Tuesday. Authorities have been scouring bookstores, newsstands and shops near schools, known for their orthodox and conformist teaching but where youth subcultures have flourished with an increasingly diverse society, the Beijing News said.
“The illegal publications are quite popular among students and are apt to harm the physical and mental health of young people,” the newspaper quoted a government circular as saying. … Among the blacklisted stories are adaptations of “Death Note”, a Japanese manga comic series about a high school student who has a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it, the Beijing News said.

This morning the Yomiuri also ran a story about this:

China deems ‘Death Note’ manga bad influence
Chinese authorities have begun cracking down on pirated products featuring the popular Japanese manga “Death Note,” which they say is adversely affecting the mental and physical health of young people. The products in question include books, notebooks and DVDs featuring movie adaptations of the manga.
“Death Note” is popular among middle school students in urban areas in China.
… A popular student game is to write parents’ and teachers’ names on the notebooks that imitate “Death Note,” and educators consider this a problem.
… The organ of the Chinese Communist Party, the People’s Daily newspaper, carried an expert’s comment saying that sources of bad publications should be cut to reduce stress and the burden on students. The daily also warned against the invasion of foreign culture.
… Meanwhile, objections by children against the crackdown have been reported. According to the Legal Daily newspaper, when the Lanzhou city authorities in northwestern China’s Gansu Province inspected and confiscated 48 pirate editions of the DVDs on May 29, there were reportedly many threatening calls to the city the next day from angry middle school students.

Is it really true that horror movies can warp the minds of the young and innocent? Probably not.

But what is true is that children, especially teens, don’t respond well to authority. So they have apparently used the idea of a notebook of death as a means to rebel against the authorities in China. I would be hard pressed to encourage anyone to keep a notebook of death, but I must admit that the subversive nature of the movie had previously escaped me. I’ll certainly have to take a second look at the movie which I’d unfairly discounted as being … well … a bit juvenile. In fact, I’d better take a second look at the entire genre.

In a society with too much authoritarianism, a little subversion can’t be all that bad.

Link:
Japan Probe: Chinese Authorities Crack Down On ‘Death Note’

Movie reviews:
Dream Logic: Death Note (aka: Desu Noto)
Variety Asia Online: “Death Note” & “Death Note: The Last Name”
Love HK film: Death Note

Humorous Death Note spoof, Debu Note: