[lit-ideas] Re: How the West Could Lose
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 08:47:53 -0700
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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