China, año 2013. El país parece vivir al margen de la crisis económica que ha sumido al resto del mundo en una larga recesión y planta cara con orgullo a la situación de inestabilidad internacional. Sus ciudadanos desbordan felicidad y parecen estar totalmente satisfechos con su vida, encantados de disfrutar de los años de opulencia que les ha tocado en suerte disfrutar. Aunque, como pronto descubrirá Chen, un escritor taiwanés que vive en Pekín, hay algo que no encaja del todo en esa armonía. Dos viejos amigos de su época estudiantil con los que se reencuentra por casualidad le darán la clave de lo ocurrido: poco después de iniciarse la crisis internacional, un mes entero desapareció de los recuerdos de la población; un mes en el que el país experimentó rebeliones, saqueos, escasez de alimentos y una dura ley marcial. Poco a poco, Chen se deja convencer por sus dos amigos de que algo turbio se esconde tras ese olvido colectivo, quizá la mano negra de un gobierno empeñado en tapar con felicidad los peores recuerdos.

Via Writers and Company

This is an brilliant novel influenced by the 2008 economic downturn in the West. It contains 3 distinct parts:
1. Various diaries and first person narratives involving a mystery about 28 missing days from the collective people of China.
2. A third person narrated quest to find and save a missing woman.
3. A monologue by a party head, given to the dissidents who have kidnapped him in an effort to figure out why China's residents are so happy and how 28 days are missing from 99% of the population's memory.

This is an exploration of China's future, and ultimately, how Chinese citizens live today. The Chinese Party isn't under the Orwellian illusion of working for the "good of the people". In fact, this "Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power."

( )

Set in modern day China (kind of) and explores the lives of people who don’t quite see eye to eye with the ruling regime.

It is fiction but the kind of fiction that parallels the present in an uncanny way.

One of the more interesting parts is the explanation of the trade off between personal freedom and the greater good of everyone as a whole. This view is put across, quite convincingly, from the ruling regime that sacrifices have to be made if you want stability, progress, and a decent standard of living for everyone.

When you consider that in China a staggering 800m people have been lifted above the poverty line in 40 years and that includes 82.39 million people lifted out of poverty over the past six years.

I don’t know what it is like where you live but I can safely say that in New Zealand and England the absolute opposite is true.

In New Zealand In 1982, 14% of children lived in poverty. In 2016, 28% of children live in poverty.

If you had a choice between a place to live and means of earning a living in return for cameras on the streets what would you choose?

One the interesting things about the western concept of freedom is that it is entirely dependent on having money. If you are poor have a lot less freedom than those that are wealthy. The poorer you are the less freedom you have.

Many years ago I met a Czech film maker who had defected to the west. In his own country every film he made was shown in cinemas all over the Soviet bloc, but he was not allowed to make the films that he really wanted to make. He was in awe of the west where anyone could make any film they wanted without hindrance. What he never factored in was that you could make any film you liked but it was almost impossible to get it shown anywhere let alone in a cinema. Indeed he discovered that the film studios bore an uncanny resemblance to the Soviet film institute that he had run away from.

From that meeting I learned that freedom is a very strange thing. You can have it and not be able to do anything with it, you can be free but have less real freedom than those that are not free. In the Soviet bloc you could vote for one party with one ideology but in the west we have the freedom to vote for two parties but still only one ideology.

I was lucky to have grown up in a time of relative wealth but I would rather have cameras all along my street that have to see families sleeping in cars, which I do regularly.

Any book that makes you think in real terms about our lives is worth reading, this is one of them. ( )

This book was labelled, here and at my local library, as science fiction. It is not; it's set in a present-day China that is only distinguished from our reality by some economic and political events, and an unorthodox method of behavioural control. If you're interested in the workings of the Chinese authoritarian state, this is definitely an interesting book, but it's certainly not what some claim it to be! ( )