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The China Dream is another beautiful lie concocted by the state to remove dark memories from Chinese brains and replace them with happy thoughts.
And despite everything, I have not yet surrendered completely to pessimism. I still believe that truth and beauty are transcendental forces that will outlive man-made tyrannies. I hope that perhaps by the time my children reach my age, one or two of my novels might be found in a bookshop in China. More importantly, I hope that the Chinese Communist Party, that has imprisoned the minds and brutalised the bodies of the Chinese people for almost seventy years, and whose growing influence is beginning to corrupt democracies around the world, will be consigned to dusty exhibition rooms of the
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‘We must conquer the fortress of dreams, eradicate all past dreams and promote the new national dream. All dreams must comply, all dreams must be thoroughly inspect—’
‘From now on, every individual, irrespective of rank, must submit their dreams and nightmares to me for examination and approval. If they fail to comply, every dream they have ever had, and every dream they ever will have, will be deemed an illegal dream!’
‘Mistress’, ‘lover’, ‘concubine’ – these are words often heard during the trials of corrupt officials. If any of his mistresses report him to the authorities, he will lose his job and privileges, and return to square one. He usually handles situations like this with ease, but the disturbing memories that have intruded into his thoughts recently have left him so confused that even this small problem seems insurmountable.
As far as I know, only the dead are able to permanently forget the past, when they drink Old Lady Dream’s Broth of Amnesia in the netherworld, before they are reincarnated in a new body. Of course! That’s what I need. I must get the recipe at once …
When he looks at the ancient willow basking in the October sunlight, he feels his heart grow as cold as the roots clawing into the earth.
