[lit-ideas] Re: How the West Could Lose

I'm reading Zhu Wen's book.
It's a collection of short stories. He is a Mainland Chinese, writing for other Chinese. 

These aren't romantic stories of an emperor's harem.
After working for five years in a power plant, Wen began writing in the mid-90s. He describes life in China. After the death of Mao and the crushing of the Tianamen demonstrators, Chinese focused their attention on making money. They also learned to avoid politics. As long as you don't discuss politics, you can do literally whatever you like in China.
The result is a deeply cynical country, with a meaningless public ideology, fake political system, and massive corruption. Everyone knows the leaders are liars. The young pass the time with random sex and exploiting each other to get a bit of money or whatever momentary advantage. Years of ideological campaigns have destroyed all tradition, all ideals of respect for parents, education, and self-identity. Yes, this sounds like the USA. It's Communist China.
Are you ready for the title? The book is entitled "I Love Dollars." That's Wen's style: he smacks you between the eyes. No subtlety, no metaphorical language, no poetic allusions. I love dollars. His characters grope their way to grab "beautiful dollars". In one story, he and his father walk around town, chasing women, following high school students, picking up girls for furtive sex in movie houses, and haggling with prostitutes over money. Finally, he convinces his girlfriend to sleep with his father.
Seventy years of Great Leap Forwards, the Red Youth, the Cultural Revolution, and Deng's "Glorious to Get Rich" has sandblasted China clean of their 5,000 years of culture. Chinese don't give a shit about classical literature, poetry, or painting. They don't care about each other or themselves. How much money do you have? How can you help me to get money? Donald Trump is so incredible.
It's not communism or Islam that is the threat to the West. It's our inner decay. Politicians who lie, the massive corruption that masquerades as patriotism, fake wars to make profits, and a media that idolizes scandal and crime. 

yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com

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