Hong Kong criminology student talks about his Deep Web books, declared indecent

Johnny Li takes a detective’s perspective on the deep web: a hidden area of the internet where guns, illegal drugs and child prostitutes are bought and sold anonymously

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Johnny Li‘s book Deep Web was declared indecent. Photos: Bruce Yan

Published: 6:46am, 15 Jun 2016Updated: 6:45am, 15 Jun 2016

Having written books with gory details about how to cook a girl alive and other shocking crimes such as paedophilia and human trafficking, City University criminology student Johnny Li Chung-yan recently saw them declared indecent by the Obscene Articles Tribunal.

The time something like this happened in Hong Kong was in 1995 whenThe Complete Manual of Suicide, written by Japanese author Wataru Tsurumi ended up being banned. The guide controversially listed various ways to commit suicide in different ways and rating their level of pain and possibility of failure.

Like the suicide manual, Deep Web – a two-volume, Chinese-language series written by Li, shows a morbid fascination with the dark.

“I am interested in crimes and why people commit crimes. While movies often depict intentional killings like premeditated murders, such crimes constitute less than 10 per cent of overall murder cases. Most murders in real life are committed by impetuous perpetrators who kill spouses and friends [in a rage].”

The title of the book refers to a dark universe on the internet hidden from the general public.

Johnny Li with Deep Web 2.0, the second volume in the series.

“The topic of the deep web hasn’t caught on in Chinese society. But it’s a popular topic in Japan, Korea, Europe and America. Even US TV series House of Cards mentioned it. I stumbled upon it after reading overseas forums. People on the deep web use pseudonyms. While ordinary people use browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer, deep web users have to download a browser called Tor [for anonymous communication].