Beijing Coma took me 10 years to finish. Ma Jian More Quotes by Ma Jian More Quotes From Ma Jian To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons. Ma Jian expression self writing When history is erased, people's moral values are also erased. Ma Jian moral-values moral people Everything I was I carry with me, everything I will belies waiting on the road ahead. Ma Jian inspiring-travel waiting travel I believe that the power of literature is stronger than the power of tyranny. Ma Jian stronger literature believe The Chinese people have been forced to forget the Tiananmen massacre. There has been no public debate about the event, no official apology. The media aren't allowed to mention it. Still today people are being persecuted and imprisoned for disseminating information about it. Ma Jian apology media people My hope is that the Chinese government will come to realise that it is futile to repress free speech, and that contrary to what they believe a regime's strength rests not its suppression of a plurality of opinions and ideas, but in its capacity and willingness to encourage them. Ma Jian government believe ideas 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. Ma Jian responsibility self writing Only when you are aware of the uniqueness of everyones individual body will you begin to have a sense of your own self-worth. Ma Jian individual self-worth body I meant that the Chinese people are not aware of their own entrapment. They believe they live in a free society, but don't realize how much they are being monitored and controlled, how much the information they receive is restricted and warped, until they step out of line, that is, and feel the heavy hand of the state fall on them. Ma Jian believe hands fall The literal meaning of the Chinese characters for revolution is elimination of life Ma Jian chinese revolution character 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. Ma Jian party ties believe Tyrannies not only want to control your mind and thoughts but your flesh as well. Ma Jian flesh mind want 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. Ma Jian persistence squares two I left Beijing in 1987, shortly before my books were banned there, but have returned continually. Ma Jian banned beijing book 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. Ma Jian counter-culture cutting thinking Red Dust was about the late 1980s; it was a time of burgeoning hopes and opening up and people searching for new ways. Ma Jian opening-up dust people The Beijing Olympics represent China's grand entrance onto the world stage and confirmation of its new superpower status. Ma Jian confirmation olympics world I wanted to analyse and understand how the Chinese people could have their lives so crushed by fear. Ma Jian crushed chinese people 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. Ma Jian squares book years 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. Ma Jian able important writing
