Strange Beasts of China

by Yan Ge

My mother would say, ‘The beasts all want to eat people, just as people eat them.’ Mutual destruction is the only way to survive. That’s the circle of life. That’s truth.

We have barely any knowledge, but are conceited enough to fill books with our ignorance anyway. Countless people make a living in this way, bluffing their way into wealth and respectability.

Children are like that. They think life is as beautiful as a flower. But Lucia would grow up, and come to understand that sometimes living feels like chewing on wax. And so you let go.

‘It’s natural selection, survival of the fittest. Anyway, they’re just beasts, not humans.’ ‘Yes, but their faces are the same as ours.’ This was my Achilles heel, the reason I hadn’t been able to complete my training as a zoologist, the reason I had ended up with the laughable, shameful profession of a novelist instead.

Humans could be so simple-minded, I thought to myself. Sometimes it’s necessary to deceive them so they can survive.