Top Chinese blogger Han Han confirmed on his blog Tuesday that his magazine Party, of which only one issue has been printed, has stopped “indefinitely.”
“I hereby announce the dismissal of the team of Party,” wrote Mr. Han, a race car driver and novelist known for being outspoken about social reform. Shedding new light on statements from his lead editor Monday, Mr. Han said he tried and failed to work with publishing houses around China but could not find a publisher for his second issue. “After serious consideration, I decided to freeze all Party operations indefinitely, because of my limited capability,” he said, adding that he didn’t want people to waste their time “waiting hopelessly.”
In a text message to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Han said he didn’t know “where the pressure came from that led almost all publishers and magazines to suddenly express that they couldn’t cooperate with me.” But given the situation, “we had to stop,” he said. Mr. Han, 28, is known for writing bold social commentary from when he was just a teen, including a novel called “Triple Door” that was seen as being critical of China’s education system.
The first issue of Party, a 128-page collection of essays, poetry and art from outside contributors, sold 1.5 million copies over a period of six months, Han said on his blog. It was praised by readers. On retail website Dangdang, one reviewer under the name KFC Uncle said Party “should be viewed more like required reading for citizens. It teaches young people public awareness and human values.”
Media is strictly controlled in China, and all publications must be approved by the government, which makes it difficult for cutting-edge publications to flourish. In addition to regulatory approvals, pressures to limit or focus content on certain areas can come from various arms of the government and influential businesses.
This dynamic has often led the public to challenge official reports of certain incidents. When a journalist known for his efforts to expose corruption in northwestern Xinjiang, Sun Hongjie, was reportedly beaten “to brain-death” earlier this month, speculation spread on the Internet saying he was attacked because of reports he wrote about forced relocations in the region.
A colleague at Mr. Sun’s newspaper, the North Xinjiang Morning Post, who declined to give her name, said Mr. Sun died on Tuesday morning, and a local police investigation found that the attack had “nothing to do with his work.”
A local news website published the results of the police investigation, which said a dispute with Internet friends was the cause. Wang Yilong, of the domestic department of the China Journalist Association, said the organization paid great attention to the issue, and that “We respect the results of the police investigation.”
As for Mr. Han’s troubles, he had hoped to publish Party regularly as a magazine full of “wild and free” writing and art from the beginning, but couldn’t obtain the rights to do so. The government rarely provides authorization for new magazines, so publishers have to partner with existing state-owned magazines and use borrowed issue numbers in order to publish.
Mr. Han released the first issue as a book instead, through Shanxi People’s Publishing House and Tianjin Zhiji Books Co., but later learned that publishing a magazine in book form to get around regulatory hurdles was frowned upon. In order to avoid doing something against publishing regulations, Party applied for magazine issue authorization, but many partners said they couldn’t go through with negotiations, he said.
Mr. Han said he was just as mystified as his readers as to why all of his attempts to negotiate with authorized magazine publishers fell through, because his attempts to get answers from “relevant departments” were never answered. “I don’t know what’s going on either. I don’t know whom I offended,” he wrote. Then, addressing that unknown person, he said: “I am under the spotlight and you are in the dark. I won’t hate you if we encounter each other and I know who you are. But please tell me what’s going on.”
China’s General Administration of Press and Publication, which oversees licensing for periodicals and books, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Han didn’t give any details about what was to be included in the planned second issue, but after warning readers about issues of Party, he promised it would have been much better than the first. “Unfortunately, you can’t read it,” he said.