“To help achieve the goal of eradicating any teaching content with religious overtones, the CCP is now altering the books written by international authors that are read by primary and secondary school students. According to a parent of a student in north Hebei Province, the content of some books was deleted or changed in the new version of the grade six Chinese language textbook, published by the People’s Education Press in January 2019. The original version of English writer Daniel Defoe’s (1660-1731) novel Robinson Crusoe contains the following passage: ‘also, I found three very good Bibles, some Portuguese books also; and among them two or three Popish prayer-books, and several other books all which I carefully secured.’ In the new version of the textbook, the content related to the Bible and prayer books was deleted. The short story Vanka by Russian writer Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) has also been altered beyond recognition. Religious terms in the original version–such as ‘attend Sunday service,’ ‘hope God will send you his blessings,’ ‘I will pray for you,’ and ‘I beg you for Christ’s sake’–have been deleted, and ‘for the dear Lord’s sake’ has also been altered to ‘for goodness’ sake.’ Hans Christian Andersen’s (1805-1875) The Little Match Girl has also been altered: the passage, ‘when a star falls, a soul was going up to God,’ has been changed into ‘when a star falls, a person is leaving.’”
“In China, Even ‘Robinson Crusoe’ Is Censored,” Bitter Winter, May 26, 2019