ComiPress has a fascinating article about how the international phenomenon Death Note – manga, anime and live-action movies — has been received in China, where in 2005 some schools banned the use of a stationery notebook because students apparently were using it to write “death notes.”
But it doesn’t end there. ComiPress reports that, for months, stores in Shenzhen, China, sold a “Death Note” notebook, based on the one in the manga. It quickly became wildly popular among students, causing concern with parents and teachers.
And now, just last week, a newspaper article about the notebooks circulated, triggering the Cultural Market Administrative enforcement department to confiscate more than 187 “Death Notes” from toy and school-supply stores in Shenzhen.
The website has a summary of the article, in which calls for a ban from parents and teachers are met with a suggestion from psychologists that they “focus on properly educating the students.”
But what do the students say?
“‘Death Note sounds a little scary, but that’s why it’s so cool.’ So do any of the students write people’s name in the ‘Death Note’? The answer is no. Most students are simply buying the notebook as a ‘collector’s item,’ some even use it for school work, writing their own names in the notebook. ‘The whole killing thing is fake, everyone knows it’s not real,’ said a student.”
February 5th, 2011 at 5:23 am
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