Murakami’s
newest novel, Killing Commendatore, has been classified as
"Class 2” indecent material by the Hong Kong Obscene Articles
Tribunal. Indecent material is defined as including “violence, depravity
and repulsiveness.” The Tribunal’s decision means that Killing
Commendatore was removed from the Hong Kong Book Fair last week.
It can now only be sold in bookstores if the cover is wrapped and
features a notice warning about its contents, with access restricted to those
over the age of 18. The same is true of libraries — no
readers under 18 may borrow the book.
The decision
was made public on July 12. Since then articles have appeared in the Japanese
press by people puzzled by the decision. Readers have commented that some
Murakami books were “much worse” in terms of sex scenes, asking
why this one should be restricted. One might also ask why the decision is
coming only now, when the book came out in Taiwan in December 2017 and in China
in March 2018.
Here are links
to articles in Yomiuri and Nikkei. The
story was also featured in yesterday’s Guardian and South China Morning Post.
On the surface
of it, this seems pretty outrageous: censoring a book in this day and age?
But in fact, this is not the first time this has happened to a Murakami
book. In 2011, after “multiple" complaints from parents, Norwegian
Wood was taken off a reading list at a high school in New Jersey, as
reported by the Guardian in this article. The sex scene between
Reiko and her student was described as a “drug-fueled homosexual
orgy.”
Of course this
was just one school, as opposed to a whole “Special Administrative Region,”
with a population of 7.4 million. One can imagine that the decision will
probably greatly help the book’s sales China and elsewhere!
The picture above
comes from the Nikkei article quoted above, apparently showing the Hong
Kong censor's warning sticker on the wrapped edition of Commendatore.
Observant followers of this blog will recognize the cover as that of the
Taiwan edition of the book, in Lai Ming Chu's translation. I have looked
around the internet for pictures showing the sticker on the mainland
translation by Lin Shaohua, but so far have not found any. I suspect this
is because the Chinese edition published in Taiwan is more widely available: it
seems that most Hong Kong readers prefer Lai's to Lin's renditions. 
