From NBC News World Blog:
It wasn’t until moving permanently to Beijing that I realized how much of a “shu daizi” the Chinese might consider me. “Shu daizi” literally means “book idiot,” and is the Mandarin-language phrase for bookworm.
When the shippers came to take my belongings from my apartment in London before moving to Beijing, one of the first things they did was count the number of books I own – all 998 of them. When I asked why, they told me it was required by Chinese customs.
I immediately sent an email to our Beijing bureau chief, Eric Baculinao, “When was the last time you heard of any one getting their books impounded by the Chinese?”
Not that I thought I had reason to be overly concerned. Of the China-related books, only a handful – a few Tibet history texts – elicit interest from the authorities. None advocate Tibetan independence.
