Unofficial history finds voice in Hong Kong

Last Wednesday, two Hong Kong publishers launched Decadence Mandchoue, a book of racy memoirs by a British nobleman who lived in Beijing from 1898 until 1943 and had an intimate knowledge of life in the Imperial Court.

Many companies on the mainland wanted to publish the book but could not because of a large amount of sexually explicit content, which the censors would not accept.

So the book will join the high pile of volumes aimed at the mainland market but which cannot be sold there. Instead, they sit on the shelves of bookshops and kiosks at Hong Kong airport and at rail stations waiting for mainland visitors to buy them. Last year, 22.7 million mainland tourists visited Hong Kong, an increase of 26.3 per cent over 2009; a majority were married, educated and between 25 and 44 - a good target audience.

Among the books they bought were a memoir and a biography of two senior figures in the People's Liberation Army, Qiu Huizuo and Huang Yongsheng, published in January by New Century Press, which is also publishing the Chinese version of Decadence Mandchoue.

Huang was head of the general staff of the PLA from 1968 to 1971 and Qiu commander of its General Logistics Department from 1960 to 1971, making them famous on the mainland - but almost unknown in Hong Kong. The books attempt to clear the name of the two, jailed for involvement with Lin Biao in his failed coup attempt in 1971, arguing they were in fact loyal and patriotic soldiers. Since the two died in 1983 and 2002, this may be the last chance to set the record straight.

This is the most common genre of 'forbidden book' - accounts of people and events in China that do not accord with official history and cannot be published on the mainland. Among the most famous are The Private Life of Chairman Mao, by his doctor Li Zhisui, published in 1994; the Chinese version of the biography of Mao Zedong by Jung Chang, in 2006; and Prisoner of the State, the memoirs of Zhao Ziyang, in 2009. Thousands of these books have been bought here and taken to the mainland.