Aug. 6, 2019 | The Christian Post | Leah MarieAnn Klett
In efforts to bring Christianity further under government control, authorities in China have erased the words “Bible,” “God” and “Christ” from classic children’s stories, including Robinson Crusoe.
China’s Ministry of Education recently introduced a new school textbook to help fifth-grade students “understand other cultures,” according to Asia News. Included in the textbook are four popular stories by foreign writers, including Robinson Crusoe, The Little Match Girl, and Vanka. However, each story is censored to remove any religious reference.
In Daniel Defoe’s 18th century classic novel, castaway Robinson Crusoe discovers three Bibles inside a shipwreck, which he then uses as his moral compass while stranded on the island. However, the Chinese version eliminates the word “Bible,” instead noting that Crusoe happened upon “a few books.”
The original The Little Match Girl, written by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson, includes the line, “when a star falls, a soul goes to be with God.” The redacted Chinese version, however, reads, “when a star falls, a person leaves this world.”