List of Ma Jian Quotes

Red Dust Was About The Late 1980s; It Was A Time Of Burgeoning Hopes And Opening Up And People Searching For New Ways.

It Is Vitally Important For Me, Both Personally And For My Writing, To Be Able To Return To China Freely, So Being Barred Entry Has Caused Me Deep Concern And Distress.

In February Of This Year I Returned To China To Research My Next Book. The Authorities Know About The Novels Of Mine That Have Been Published In The West, Including The Latest One, Beijing Coma, About A Student Shot In Tiananmen Square, But So Far Have Allowed Me To Return.

Beijing Coma Took Me 10 Years To Finish.

I Wanted To Analyse And Understand How The Chinese People Could Have Their Lives So Crushed By Fear.

The Beijing Olympics Represent China's Grand Entrance Onto The World Stage And Confirmation Of Its New Superpower Status.

Living In London Is Like Being On A Luxury Cruise Liner.

I Left Beijing In 1987, Shortly Before My Books Were Banned There, But Have Returned Continually.

In 1989, I Was On Tiananmen Square With The Students, Living In Their Makeshift Tents And Joining Their Jubilant Singing Of The Internationale. In The Two Decades Since, Each Time That I Have Gone Back, Visions From Those Days Seem To Return With Increasing Persistence.

I Will Not Let A Political Party Tell Me How To Live, When To Die Or What To Believe In. Our Souls Are Linked To The Universe, But We Can Never See Heaven, Because Our Flesh Ties Us To The Earth And The People Around Us. But When The People Around You Have Lost Their Will To Be Free, Then Earth Becomes A Hell.

Before The Counter-culture Revolutionary Li Lian Was Executed In 1971 For Criticising The Cultural Revolution, Pour Policemen Pushed Her Face Against The Window Of A Truck, Lifted Her Shirt And Cut Out Her Kidneys With A Surgical Knife,’ Mau Sen Said, His Face Stony And White. ‘i Think That Removing The Organs Of Convicts While They Are Still Alive Is Too Much. It Completely Contravenes Medical Ethics.’ ‘this Is A Dissection Class, Not A Political Meeting,’ Sun Chunlin Said.

China Is Completely Lacking In Self-awareness And As Someone Who Has Stepped Outside That Society, I Have A Responsibility To Write About It As I See It.