The distributor of the magazine Duchangtuan, or Party, founded by bestselling author Han Han, has denied that authorities have banned its further publication.

The cover of Duchangtuan

The distributor made the comment yesterday after a reporter from Guangdong-based Dongguan Times said the second issue of the magazine will not be released, citing publication regulations as the reason.

The reporter, Liang Jian, said in his microblog that an application for an international standard serial number (ISSN), which is required by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) for magazines, has not succeeded.

An official surnamed Wang from Tianjin Chinese-World Books, the magazine's distributor, told the Global Times yesterday that it has not received any orders to cease publication.

However, the distributor does not know when the second issue will be published because "there are a lot of issues that need to be discussed."

The editors' office of the magazine's publisher, Shuhai Publishing House, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Calls to Han went unanswered.

The first issue of the magazine was published in July, selling at least 800,000 copies and hitting the No. 1 spot in Amazon China. The literary magazine includes articles written by a variety of authors, including TV program host Cai Kangyong.

Han, 27, announced his concept for the bimonthly magazine last May. He is known for making subtle criticisms of authorities and officials in his novels and blog entries.

Despite the strong market reception to Party, the publication is legally considered a book and not a magazine.

After failing to receive an ISSN, the publisher was only able to obtain an international standard book number (ISBN).

Having an ISSN means a magazine does not require approval from authorities for its subsequent issues. Publications with an ISBN need to be approved each time.

Han faced similar problems when he tried to get the first issue off the ground.

In one of his blog entries, he chided publishers for being over-cautious in deciding what content to allow, but eventually bowed to their pressure and pulled out some of the stories not approved by them.

An industry insider surnamed Zhao told the Global Times that she thought the problems Han's magazine faced were due to the fact it contains some radical content and words, such as rape.

"I personally believe some of this kind of content may not be well accepted by the public. This could be the reason for its failure to get an ISSN," Zhao said.