One of the UK’s leading museums has accepted demands by a Chinese firm that publishes its catalogues to remove images that fall foul of the country’s censorship laws.
The Victoria and Albert Museum has agreed to requests by the Chinese printing company to delete maps and images from at least two recent exhibition catalogues, according to documents released to the Guardian after freedom of information requests.
Like other prominent institutions, including the British Museum, Tate and the British Library, the V&A often uses Chinese printers because they can produce catalogues at half the cost of British or European companies.
But in doing so, they have to accede to censorship requests relating to any topics or images deemed sensitive by the Chinese government, such as Buddhism, Taiwan, Tibet, Tiananmen Square and pro-democracy activities.
The disclosures from the V&A lay bare the detailed scope of China’s censorship on museum publishers. They show how Beijing’s red pen even extends to historical maps and photographs on seemingly unrelated subjects such as Fabergé eggs and British Black music.