Over the last 2,000 years, the books that have disappeared in China because of prohibition are countless. There is no trace of them anymore, all I have found is a small fraction. All of these old paper stacks, these silent books, consist of thoughts and discourses. These invisible and shapeless things and the stories behind them - the

complicated contexts of philosophical, religious, political, historical, social, ethical and racial issues - are gone. The history of banning books is a process of challenging repeated oppression and control, and challenging it again. It is alongside this back-and-forth repetition, I think, that history slowly marches on.

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- Xiaoze Xie