I was born in late 1980 in North Vietnam, at that time the society and education system was still under the heavy influence of the Soviet-era propaganda. Other

I was born in late 1980 in North Vietnam, at that time the society and education system was still under the heavy influence of the Soviet-era propaganda. Other than the USSR, Vietnam at the time was also under some influence from the communist China as well. For fictional novels, we had Russian books such as Nought the Seafarer, Dr. Aibolit, The Copper Jar of Old Khottabych, The Adventures of Dunno and his Friends, and many other books translated to Vietnamese. They were printed in the USSR in beautiful, high-quality paper hardcovers, and were a joy to read and was the inspiration for my destitute childhood. Even Vietnamese children literature were also quite enjoyable. For instance, De Men Phieu Luu Ky (Diary of a cricket) were about adventures of a cricket that found the traditional life boring, broke through and went exploring new places. I mostly find them inspiring and non-offensive even now (I am currently living in the US and had a liberal college and post-graduate education in the US). Adult literature was much more blatantly brainwashing. I don't know about what happened in China and Russia, but I don't feel that western children literature books were under scrutiny in Vietnam, I still remember vividly my dad has a stash full of children's books such as Tom Sawyer, Alice in Wonderland, Oliver Twist, Robinson Crusoe, 1001 Arabian nights,... they were all available in Vietnamese under the mainstream publication, although the books looked awful cosmetically, because they were printed and bound domestically. For non-fictional books, I can recall several excellent children books that were published in Russian that were my inspiration when I was young. In the Russian side, Physics for Entertainment by Yakov Perelman was the one book that I would read and read again. On the Chinese side, One Hundred Thousand Whys is another series of books that were surprisingly well written. They have many of those on different topics such as Maths, Physics, Literature, Biology, Medicine, Astrology,... each book has several hundreds of answers to basic and advanced topics written in an accessible manner. It was kinda my childhood Wikipedia. That was my anecdotal experience. Maybe it wasn't offensive, maybe I was used to it, or maybe I was romanticizing my uneventful, brainwashed childhood.