Jordan Peterson finds an unlikely readership in China, even after censors stripped away entire sections of his book GlobeArts
Jordan Peterson, a University of Toronto psychology professor turned influential YouTube philosopher, at home in Toronto, May 2, 2018.The censors have gouged out Jordan Peterson’s criticism of Mao Zedong and Communism, but his latest book has nonetheless arrived in China where it has established a foothold on the country’s bestseller lists after its publication in Mandarin this fall.
Others say Mr. Peterson offers answers amid a broader search for significance in a country whose rapid embrace of a market economy has elevated living standards but, for many, failed to satisfy deeper desires. People in China have long been loathe to seek help for mental-health issues. Last year, 7.5 million people graduated from Chinese colleges and universities, but fewer than 20,000 with psychology-related degrees. But there are signs of change.Sales of self-help books, for example, are expanding, from 3.3 per cent of all 2015 book-spending to 6 per cent in the first 10 months of this year, according to OpenBook, the primary source for Chinese book sales statistics.
Some elements of Mr. Peterson’s writing were considered unacceptable for a Chinese audience. Censors stripped away entire sections of the book in which he criticizes authoritarian Communism. In the original, Mr. Peterson writes: “It is deceit that produces the terrible suffering of mankind: the death camps of the Nazis; the torture chambers and genocides of Stalin and that even greater monster, Mao.
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