Helen Huang's Blog: nuclear power nuclear game, page 6

Why is ‘Squid Game’ so popular?

1st, it’s a well-structured drama with realistic settings and a smart plot.
2nd, it’s released at the right time when people felt depressed under lockdown and desperately searching for something to stimulate the numb feeling
3rd, more importantly, viewers can easily relate to the characters. Unfortunately, the majority of us are game players, trying to hide behind others, hoping others can protect us. However, remember the game rule set by the elite: Only one could survive, and everyone else will be killed eventually. What would be the ending if the game players unite together and take over the game? Or we are all too greedy and coward?
Congratulations to the Korean’s cultural creativity. A nation continues reshaping itself.

Q & A

Reader F: How did you get into Institute1970?

Helen: When I finished university, Institute 1970 was still a secrete unit. However, my father was rehabilitated by then which meant I had a clean family background. Plus, I never had any bad political record during my education time according to the CCP standard, so I passed the political screen and was assigned to Institute 1970.

Q & A

Reader K: If your book is turned into a movie, who would you like to see playing the main characters?
Helen: When I started writing this book, I imagined Joan Chen suiting the role of Zoe. Both women have beautiful soft features with an undefeatable toughness underneath. Ideally, she would be played by an actress of Chinese ethnicity with the ability to interpret the terror experienced under the Chinese communist regime.
I imagined John could be played by George Clooney, who has a good combination of a clear mind and a tough but romantic exterior.

Q & A

Reader X: What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?
Helen: Life itself is a mystery, and everyone's life from birth to death could be a plot for a good mystery, of course depending on the writer individually value himself.
There are so many unanswerable things that happened in my life, and I regard them as fate, which makes me more tolerant. In Nuclear Power Nuclear Game, Zoe’s daughter Little Red’s life reflects most of my childhood and youth which mainly happened in China.
My experience in Australia is very different, but also very interesting, eg: being fooled by Chinese spies, being threatened by trades to bulldoze down my building site...etc, all could be plots for books, but I haven’t decided on my future writing plan yet. One thing is clear, Melbourne will be the location of my next plot if I write a new book.

Q & A

Reader A: Who-real or fictional in your debut?
Helen: All characters are fictional, but they’re the collectives of real people.
In many ways, the main character Zoe is written in memory of my father who was branded a black element during the Cultural Revolution. He was punished and indoctrinated by the communist regime so significantly that at one point, even after he had survived his suicide attempt, My siblings and ! were mandated to read propaganda works for one hour every night after dinner. However, through it all, he never lost his characteristic kindness.
By contrast, Zoe’s daughter Little Red reflects my life path and my generation of Chinese who starts rebelling and searching for freedom.

Best wishes to everyone

The current social upheaval globally reminds me of a famous Chinese poem Seven Steps Verse by Caozhi (220-280AD). Wishing everyone passing this period safely.

Lighting the beanstalk to boil the beans,
and of this the beans thus wailed:
Borne are we of the same root;
should you now burn me with such disregard?

I finally have the right to vote

The night before when I was able to vote after having become an Australian citizen, I was so excited that I didn’t sleep well, because I finally had the right to vote for a party to lead my country.

A democratic country should have free and fair elections, free speech and news. If the free world can’t hold these basic principles, then the CCP, which has been in power for 72 years and never held one election, will introduce its system to us…

Q & A

Reader L: When did you first decide to become an author?

Helen: When I was in primary school, I dreamed of being an author one day. I started to write stories that I called mini-novels. However, gradually I gave up the idea and chose to study architecture at the end because my father kept warning me not to study liberal arts, so I would not be like him getting into trouble for the rest of my life.

I wish I could tell him now: Baba, it’s okay to be a writer, because I’m in Australia.

China’s hostage diplomacy

Two Canadians were arrested in China in Dec 2018 shortly after the Huawei boss was arrested in Canada.
For over 1000 days, the Canadians were accused of espionage and held separately in prisons without evidence and visit from diplomats; By contrast, the Huawei boss admitted 4 pages of her illegal conduct, and she lived in her million-dollar mansion and enjoyed private painting lessons and shopping.

Once again China’s hostage diplomacy has displayed the CCP’s nature: A state terrorist group having no respect for human rights and international standards.

Reader V: Why wasn’t your father accepted by the CCP?

Helen: He applied a few times before the Cultural Revolution, but was only up to the stage of assessing and observing. During this period the applicant has to report to his party superior regularly, from his political view to his personal life. I guess at the end Baba never found two party members willing to be his referrers due to his outspoken personality.

The CCP has never been a political party serving for Chinese but a gang of terrorists, under a socialist banner, slavering Chinse and dreaming of being a world leader. Glad Baba didn’t become a CCP member.