Why was "Alice in Wonderland" banned in 1930s China?

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (commonly shortened to "Alice in Wonderland") is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The story is of a young girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a subterranean fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.

Some may connect book-censorship in China with the single-party regime that has been in power since 1949. But censorship was also present in the 1930s. In 1931 "Alice in Wonderland" was banned in the province of Hunan, China for its portrayal of anthropomorphised animals acting on the same level of complexity as human beings. The censor General Ho Chien believed that attributing human language to animals was an insult to humans. He feared that the book would teach children to regard humans and animals on the same level, which would be "disastrous."