Made in Censorship is a highly-engaging study of the ways in which the almost unmentionable June Fourth (1989) democracy movement and its violent suppression have been productive of a variety of meaningful literary and cinematic discourses. Made in Censorship is also a reconsideration of censorship and how it works, often paradoxically, in the People's Republic of China, as a productive endeavor: “This book's central argument is that censorship does not merely cross out or strike through; it also forms and fashions, molds and manipulates” (2). The way in which Chen flips the script on censorship, which we usually think in terms of suppression and elision, is indicative of a refreshing intellectual boldness and confidence on the author's part. As Chen himself points out, a significant portion of the academic community also participates in the censorship of June Fourth by consciously or unconsciously evading it ourselves. June Fourth, for many, continues...
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