''Forbidden City'' is a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

based on the events of the

Tiananmen Square massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

in 1989. It is a story of maturation/coming of age.

Awards

The book is the winner of the Ruth Schwartz Award for Excellence, the Belgium Prize for Excellence and several other awards.

Curriculum

The book is often included in reading material for North American schools.{{cite web, last=Online, first=Teacher Resources, title=Online Resources for Students & Teachers, url=http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/teachers/onlineresources.html, work=Saskatoon Public School Division, publisher=Online Learning Centre, accessdate=11 June 2010, archive-date=9 May 2009, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090509211032/http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/teachers/onlineresources.html, url-status=dead

Censorship

The book is currently

banned A ban is a formal or informal prohibition of something. Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some bans in commerce are referred to as embargoes. ''Ban'' is also used as a verb similar in meaning ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

References

1990 novels Novels set in China Fiction set in 1989