Bodyguards Unnecessary For Popular Authors

It's not unusual to see bodyguards being hired for authors at book launches.

Yan Chongnian, a popular TV historian, was slapped on the cheek by a young man who disagreed with Yan's views about the history of the Qing Dynasty at his book launch. After the incident, organizers hired bodyguards for him to prevent similar situations from occurring. Meanwhile, fans were told not to get too close to Yan.

Soon, other popular authors such as Guo Jingming and Yu Dan followed suit, hiring bodyguards to keep an eye on proceedings while they met their fans.

China Daily says it's understandable for Yan to have bodyguards since many people differ with his views on the Qing Dynasty. But for Yu Dan and Guo Jingming, it seems unnecessary to hire guards.

It says the fans of Guo are mostly teenage students who love and strongly support him despite allegations of plagiarism against him.

There's no reason for Yu Dan to feel threatened since all she does is talking on TV about how to strike a psychological balance in modern life, citing teachings from ancient Chinese books like the Analects of Confucius and Zhuangzi. Although some believe that Yu distorts the Analects of Confucius, and more than 10 doctoral candidates in renowned universities in China like Peking University and Tsinghua University have called for a boycott of her TV talk shows, the scope of the disputes is mainly intellectual.

The paper says as long as an author is not a controversial figure like Yan Chongnian, it's pointless to hire bodyguards for them.