Recommended.
I must admit I often find it difficult to review foreign language political fiction, I find Satire as a genre is hindered by translation and cultural differences far more than most, and that can sometimes make it difficult to know if if I have a good grasp on the text or not.
What things do i not understand because they are poorly presented, and what things do
I not understand because it was written with a mind qualitatively different to my own I also had this problem with the Strugatsky brothers' 'Hard to be a God' and Zamyatin's 'We'.
Nonetheless, There comes a time to simply come clean, and say what I thought about the book,
In China Dream's case, it's nothing good, The book initially caught my attention with the blurb, proportioning to be focused on "plans for a microchip that will be implanted into the brain of every citizen to replace all painful recollections with a collective dream of national supremacy.
" As a Neuroscientist I am very interested in the ethical quandaries my field brings to the fore, and given China et, al are already using facetracking AI based on bioinspired artificial neural networks, an exploration into the collusion of neuroscience and authoritarianism seems like a timely topic, Unfortunately, China Dream has little if anything to do with this, The main character is the partyappointed head of the bureau funding the science of the 'China Dream' microchip, but his story has absolutely nothing to do with the development, implementation, or outcomes of the technology.
It's literally just his job description, and has nothing else to do with the book,
Rather, China Dream is more akin to a 'slice of life' following the corrupt exploits of the main character, as he goes about his day taking bribes, texting women, and seeing prostitutes.
There was more sex in this book than red flags, and some of it was quite graphic, if tepid, In my understanding, the point was to provide a portrayal of a Communist Party Official counter to the one favoured by the Chinese Government corrupt, libidinous, immoral, unsympathetic, and hypocritical.
On the one hand, this is certainly a brazen act of defiance and one that got the book and author banned from china , but on the other hand the overall statement 'party officials are corrupt' is hardly the cutting or interesting satire.
China Dream fails to take the satire a step further there is no real narrative here, no real plot, and not even any real character development It's a simple portrait and, although defiant, not a compelling one.
The narrative hardly contains the depth to warrant the backcover comparison to Orwell,
Throughout the main character's adventures in corruption, he suffers frequent flashbacks to his time as a soldier in the Red Guard, These flashbacks are titbits, and don't themselves contain a threading narrative that I could detect, but rather serve to contrast with the character's current way of life, or play on his current worries.
These flashbacks are sometimes rich in historical detail, but it often becomes difficult to follow along because not much is given context, For example, much is made of the violent Rivalry between two Red Guard factions the East is Red and the Million bold Warriors that have organised around different interpretations of Mao's ideals, however what their interpretations are, what their differences in interpretation or demography are, or any details aside from the name are left out.
I felt like I had to top reading and do extensive research in order to get a handle on what was going on who the players were, what they wanted, and what their power base was, and I quickly found my self searching for answers in the academic history literature.
As the novel progresses, bouts of flashbacks become more frequent and interfere with his life more, ultimately fuelling his entirely offscreen passion for the China Dream project, which will replace all citizen's memories with a collective memory of national supremacy whatever that is supposed to mean is not explored in the text.
Eventually, the main character realises he doesn't want to lose some of his memories and here it seems is the main convergence point of the book, but it's played like a cheap 'Got ya!' this party official seeking to force all citizens to lose their memories, doesn't want to lose his memory.
Again, it doesn't quite have the depth or cut I was after, especially given in the very next chapter there is an aboutface, and it's back to business as usual.
In the preface, the author notes that he wrote China Dream in a rage on a whim, reacting to the latest excess of the Chinese government, That's as noble a reason to write a novel as i've heard, but I don't think it absolves the need for drafting or outlining, China Dream reads like a Landry List of actions and sexting, and the text can often be difficult to penetrate, I'm not confident I haven't been entirely unfair in my appraisal of the book due to having missed something important about the forest while trying to navigate the trees, I often found myself having to reread sections to understand what was going on And sometimes, simply giving up and moving on, and mostly, I was just bored,
And that really sums up my experience with China Dream, Mostly, I was just bored, Noi che il sogno lo viviamo ogni giorno, Blending fact and fiction, this darkly comic fable “may be the purest distillation yet of Mr, Mas talent for probing the countrys darkest corners and exposing what he regards as the Communist Partys moral failings” Mike Ives, The New York Times,
Called “Red Guards meet Kurt Vonnegut, . . powerful!" by Margaret Atwood on Twitter, China Dream is an unflinching satire of totalitarianism, Ma Daode, a corrupt and lecherous party official, is feeling pleased with himself, He has an impressive office, three properties, and multiple mistresses who text him day and night, After decades of loyal service, he has been appointed director of the China Dream Bureau, charged with replacing people's private dreams with President Xi Jinping's great China Dream of national rejuvenation.
But just as he is about to present his plan for a mass golden wedding anniversary celebration, his sanity begins to unravel, Suddenly plagued by flashbacks of the Cultural Revolution, Ma Daode's nightmare visions from the past threaten to destroy his dream of a glorious future,
Exposing the damage inflicted on a nation's soul when authoritarian regimes, driven by an insatiable hunger for power, seek to erase memory, rewrite history, and falsify the truth, China Dream is a dystopian vision of repression, violence, and stateimposed amnesia that is set not in the future, but in China today.
Like the author notes in the preface, China Dream is written in a rage, and understandably so, as Xi Jinpings China, with its sitelinkChinese Dream, is beginning to resemble something potentially as dangerous as Maos Cultural Revolution in thes ands.
Unfortunately, for me, this rage does not quite turn into something “poetic” or “dreamlike” like the blurb suggests, This is rather coarse in language and violent in content, with more than a few scenes of unrealistic action and dialogue, This might, however, indicate a problem in translation or me being unaware of some culturerelated nuances or simply me misreading the novel, not quite buying that implausibility equals “dreamlike”, I appreciated the reading experience nonetheless, as it exposed me to Chinese history and reminded me of some bewildering things such as the Great Leap Forward, And Im glad the novel exists we need the voices of dissidents like Ma Jian, The novel borrows its name from Chinese president Xi Jingping's propaganda China Dream slogan, which is considered to be the embodiment of Chinese communist political ideology, The name takes a slightly sinister turn in the book though: This is the name of a programme meant to implant a chip in the head of every Chinese, a chip that will indoctrinate them with the official China "Dream" of the communist government, which will replace the individual dreams and desires of ordinary Chinese.
In the light of Jingping's mass digital surveillance policies and the awful Social Credit scheme, I understand that this is an important novel that draws attention to an enormous human rights problem, yet.
. . this still does not make China Dream a good book, It is supposed to be satire, but it is neither funny, nor absurdist, not even crude, It lacks the coldblooded smarts of Orwell, the surreal atmposherics of Vonnegut or the boisterous rowdiness of MarcUwe Kling,
There is no one to root for, no one to be affraid for, there is not even one remotely likeable character, Everyone is a sleazy bureaucratic sellout without values or redeeming qualities, The book does not scare you, does not make you laugh, and does not make you feel anything other than a dull feeling of revulsion,
Read this book, It is only aroundpages, it is a quick read, and it is important, But don't expect much. No, this is most certainly not the next Vonnegut as the blurb is trying to convince us,
Naravno da su uvijek te male knjige koje te natjeraju da ti mozak radi sto na sat, Kineski san je djelo pisca Ma Đijen koje predstavlja satiru političkog sistema Kine i ideje kineskog sna koja treba da predstavlja neki vid utopijskog sistema gdje bi svi imali jednako mišljenje.
Moram priznati da je knjiga bila teška za čitanje, Krenuo sam sa čitanjem, a onda sam nakon nekoliko stranica stao i otišao da istražujem o politici u Kini, Iako autor na samom početku piše predgovor koji treba da vam malo bolje objasni na šta to tačno ova knjiga udara, meni je i dalje na momente bila blago zbunjujuća.
Međutim, pozitivna stvar je ta što autor kroz fusnote objašnjava sve ono što je vezano za Kinu, a što inače nije baš poznato nekom ko nije izučavao tu kulturu.
Glavni lik je strašno privlačan u tom književnom smislu, zato što je baš neka dobra mješavina onog hladnog u čovjeku i njegove želje za dobrotom.
Ono što mi se nije dopalo jeste taj uljepšani stil pisanja, Ostavljam vam rečenicu ovdje kako bi mogli vidjeti na šta tačno mislim,
"Njegova žadna stabljika sada poskakuje među butinama Osmice, ali kada čuje kako Desetka stenje, on se oslobađa stiska, zabada ud pravo u njen božur i prstima širi latice.
"
Ovo je nešto kao scena seksa, ali ste na LSDu, Sav ton ove knjige je ovakav i nije nešto što mi se pretjerano dopalo,
Zanimljivo je to da je knjiga zabranjena u Kini zbog svojih tema, a Ma Đijen piše iz Londona gdje se trenutno nalazi, Kineski san je zanimljivo djelo koje je potrebno uzeti u ruke sa velikom pažnjom i zanimanjem, Tema je delikatna, a dosta često se ista može vidjeti u kontekstu naše vlastite političke vlasti koja u svojoj težnji za nekom harmonijom puca na više različitih dijelova.
Uzmite u ruke ukoliko volite kritiku politike, kinesku kulturu, ili možda sao čudnovato pisanje, When, I first read this book, I had a hard figuring out what genre this book exactly is, Is it dystopian Only if you count modern China as it, Is it SciFi Theres very little SciFi to it, In fact, its relegated to a few sentences in a couple of chapters, Is it satire Well, yes, but satire isnt really a genre though its usually literary or comedic, I forget the word, but it's literary with a few supernatural elements like Toni Morris or Paul Coelho,
Its hard to describe what I liked about the book is that I liked everything about it, The first chapter feels like SciFi, and it reminded me of the best parts of SciFi, especially the stuff I like from thes tos, What may be disappointing to some is how little SciFi there is in it, But thats kinda the point, A few other things like the daughter of the protagonist get a somewhat superficial treatment, but, again, that may be the point,
As Ive talked about in my other reviews, theres this push to be a decision to make up a plot, This plot has no decision, but I dont think that negatively impacts the character development, From the books on screen writing Ive read, theyd call this a nonplot, But thats not whats going on, Its a story, and its one Im happy I read,
I felt like this review should be a bit longer, The story is about the destruction of a mans psyche as he finds it harder by the day to separate the brutality and tragedies of his youth from he modern attitude of China to both literally and metaphorically pave over and ignore their history in theth century.
This strange, hallucinatory novella deals with the terrible legacy of Maos Cultural Revolution, through the eyes of a repellent bureaucrat named Ma Daode, Despite his attempts to forget, he is haunted by events of the past that sabotage his current success, The novella is episodic in structure and certain chapters worked much better for me than others, I disliked the extended sequence in the brothel, which made a point about corruption but neednt have been so lengthy and repulsive, Towards the end, though, the barriers between past and present seemed to collapse and events build to an almost apocalyptic battle between the living and the dead, In this fashion, Ma Jian conveys the horrific violence of the Cultural Revolution, an extraordinary civil war in which family members turned on one another while all claiming to be fighting for the same thing.
The Cultural Revolution, as I understand it, was an artificially manufactured conflict, intended to disrupt intergenerational solidarity, end respect for tradition, and undermine any possible opposition to the communist regime.
It did so at the cost of millions of lives,
Once Ma Daodes attempts to distract himself from intrusive memories fail, incendiary scenes like this ensue:
Director Ma raises his microphone again to say, “Let us thank the relevant leaders for allowing these parents to realise their China Dream, and thank our foreign sponsors for their generous support.
Fifty years ago this place was a mass grave filled with nameless bodies, but today it is a Garden Square on which we celebrate golden anniversaries! The China Dream eradicates all dreams of the past and replaces them with brandnew dreams! As I look out at your smiling faces, I cant help but think of my own mother and father who lie buried in the ground beneath us.
Sadly, the relentless struggle sessions they were subjected to proved too much for them to bear, so they are not able to join us today, ” As more tears fill his eyes, he tries to snap back to his senses, “Of course, the past must be buried before the future can be forged, Only then can our dreams come true, Only then can young people experience the beauty of love, . . ”
“Our daughter was murdered in the violent struggles of the Cultural Revolution,” the old man says, his voice ringing out like a bell,
The theme of reckoning with a brutal totalitarian past, while coping with a repressive authoritarian present day, reminded me of Svetlana Alexievich's sitelinkSecondHand Time, The chasm between the generation who committed atrocities during the Cultural Revolution and those who are too young to know what it was echoes the Russian experience, China Dream certainly isnt a systematic effort to collect a range of testimonies, rather it focuses on one fictional figure who represents a whole generation, The result is vivid, frightening, sometimes funny, and always visceral, Definitely not an easy read, but a striking one, Although I preferred Yan Liankes sitelinkThe Four Books, I think the two complement each other, Lianke considers the horrors of the Great Leap Forward, Jian those of the Cultural Revolution, Both authors are enthusiastically suppressed by the Chinese government, .