An aesthetics professor released analyses of world-famous nudes to test if the city's media and publishing watchdog has learnt from a very public past mistake.
Compared with pseudo-models' photo albums, which excited and revolted many, the book by Professor Eva Man Kit-wah, Hong Kong Baptist University's head of humanities programme, has even more flesh. But she said: 'It's not just about career lines' - popular Cantonese slang for cleavage. 'They teach us a lot in many ways.'
The book, Nudity and Nakedness: Representation of Nude Art in Chinese and Western Contexts, contains analyses of 15 visual artworks whose subjects' nudity is central to them.
The works include Edouard Manet's Olympia and Gustave Courbet's L'origine du monde, which is a close-up view of the genitals and abdomen of a naked woman, lying on a bed.
'The naked body can be interpreted in many ways, and all paintings and photographs I've included in the book are all established works in world art history,' Man said.
At the 2007 book fair, the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority advised banning the sale of a book on Greek mythology, whose cover depicted French artist Francois Gerard's 1798 painting, Cupid and Psyche. The decision caused an outcry.
The next day the authority made an embarrassing about-face and told the Trade Development Council, the fair's organiser, that the book was cleared
