Strange Beasts of China

by Yan Ge

‘You can’t be sure that beasts aren’t people, or that people aren’t just another type of beast.’

When that time came, surely all novelists would have hormone injections to turn us into computer programmers, and all zoologists would undergo surgery to become bus conductors. Everyone would give up their hollow pursuits, and there’d be no myths, no beasts, no history, no fantasy. The government would rattle along, printing money. Yong’an would truly become an international metropolis.

We have barely any knowledge, but are conceited enough to fill books with our ignorance anyway.

‘Do you know what fate is? Fate is nine o’clock. Eight o’clock is over, and poof, it’s nine o’clock. No matter what you do, or how slowly you move, you’ll still get to nine.’

I understood now that his innocence didn’t come from not knowing anything, but rather from having seen everything there was to see, understanding it, and setting it down.