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I think the isolation in China also has to do with people's memories being wiped out, collective memories as well as individual memories, by the fact that the recent history has been constantly rewritten and revised.

Yiyun Li

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Yiyun Li
Age: 52
Born: 1972
Born: November 4
Journalist
Screenwriter
University Teacher
Writer
Peking
Thinking
China
People
Memories
Revised
Fact
Rewritten
Individual
Wiped
History
Recent
Also
Isolation
Well
Collective
Think
Constantly

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Only the smaller fish pay for the goverment's face-lift. The big ones - they just become bigger and fatter.
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Every place is a good place, only time goes wrong.
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Horrible that you could write in a language so well, but have nothing meaningful to say.
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But loneliness is as delusive a belief in the pertinence of the world as is love: in choosing to feel lonely, as in choosing to love, one carves a space next to oneself to be filled by others - a friend, a lover, a toy poodle, a violinist on the radio.
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You can write about a country without taking a stand, but you cannot write about a country without noting that there's history, and that there's politics going on. To me, that's the same if you write about America. You don't have to write about politics, but the politics have to be present in the characters.
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Why do I write about China? That is a very good question. I think there are questions about China that I haven't been able to answer. The reason I write is that there are questions to which I want to find answers - or I want to find questions beyond those questions.
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What is revolution except a systematic way for one species to eat another alive?
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