In mid-April, the German publishing house Hoffmann und Campe and the Anglo-Saxon HarperCollins announced their intention to publish the diary later this summer. The Deutsche Welle international broadcaster now says that the original cover of the German edition of the “Diary” has been withdrawn.
Hoffmann has a glorious history and had Heinrich Heine and Karl Ludwig Börne among its early authors.
The cover that circulated on the publisher's website and on Amazon was originally a red background with black and yellow characters and the bold design of a black mask. The subtitle read: “Das verbotene Tagebuch aus der Stadt, inder die Corona-Krise begann” - "The forbidden diary from the city where the coronavirus’ crisis originated."
Criticism from Chinese social media had rained down on the publishing house, according to which the cover echoed Western prejudice against China. To date, the cover has disappeared from the website of the publishing house and from Amazon, and we are waiting for the new one to appear.
The publisher told Deutsche Welle that it had not consulted with the author during the design of the cover. And the publishing house admitted that it was necessary for it to be more cautious.
There are about twenty journalists, bloggers, activists, university professors and doctors who have disappeared in the past three months, all have told of what was going on in Wuhan.
What a sinister joke it will be if Western self-censorship follows Chinese censorship.
