The College Fix

When imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize in early October, Chinese state media immediately blacked out the news.

But the censorship of Liu, who was involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, does not mark the first time censorship issues have arisen in the country. As Duke expands its academic and service programs abroad, such censorship issues are increasingly relevant to American academia.

Regarding limitations on the curriculum taught to students in China, Yan Li, program director at the Asian Pacific Studies Institute and an administrator of Duke’s study abroad programs in China, explained that although faculty members are not restricted in the content of their lectures, they understand that there are certain limitations to what they can discuss.

“Faculty organize their classes as they see fit, but we do occasionally have to remind them that China has restrictions, and they have to be aware of how far they can go on certain topics,” Li wrote in an e-mail.

Read the full story at the Duke Chronicle.

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