Ma Jian quotes

Ma Jian is a Chinese writer and dissident, acclaimed for his bold exploration of personal and political themes. His works often confront issues of censorship and human rights in modern China. He continues to be an outspoken critic of the Chinese government through his literature and activism. Here are 37 of his quotes:

When history is erased, people's moral values are also erased.

Ma Jian

I left Beijing in 1987, shortly before my books were banned there, but have returned continually.

Ma Jian

Only when you are aware of the uniqueness of everyone's individual body will you begin to have a sense of your own self-worth.

Ma Jian

Everything I was I carry with me, everything I will be lies waiting on the road ahead.

Ma Jian

The Beijing Olympics represent China's grand entrance onto the world stage and confirmation of its new superpower status.

Ma Jian

My hope is that the Chinese government will come to realise that it is futile to repress free speech, and that contrary to what they believe a regime's strength rests not its suppression of a plurality of opinions and ideas, but in its capacity and willingness to encourage them.

Ma Jian

I believe that the power of literature is stronger than the power of tyranny.

Ma Jian

I meant that the Chinese people are not aware of their own entrapment. They believe they live in a free society, but don't realize how much they are being monitored and controlled, how much the information they receive is restricted and warped, until they step out of line, that is, and feel the heavy hand of the state fall on them.

Ma Jian

Tyrannies not only want to control your mind and thoughts but your flesh as well.

Ma Jian

In 1989, I was on Tiananmen Square with the students, living in their makeshift tents and joining their jubilant singing of the Internationale. In the two decades since, each time that I have gone back, visions from those days seem to return with increasing persistence.

Ma Jian

Living in London is like being on a luxury cruise liner.

Ma Jian

I wanted to analyse and understand how the Chinese people could have their lives so crushed by fear.

Ma Jian

In February of this year I returned to China to research my next book. The authorities know about the novels of mine that have been published in the west, including the latest one, Beijing Coma, about a student shot in Tiananmen Square, but so far have allowed me to return.

Ma Jian

It is vitally important for me, both personally and for my writing, to be able to return to China freely, so being barred entry has caused me deep concern and distress.

Ma Jian

After the Tiananmen Massacre, I felt compelled not only to continue writing but to actively resist the restrictions placed on freedom of speech. I set up the publishing company in Hong Kong, with offices in Shenzhen in mainland China, and managed to publish works of fiction, philosophy, and politics by unapproved authors.

Ma Jian

I am trying to persuade my family to spend more time in China. It's no fun to be in exile. I can't even figure out the basic 26 letters, let alone operate, in English. I often feel that although I've found the sky of freedom above my head, I've lost the soil I stand on. I need to be back in my motherland, where I can find inspirations.

Ma Jian

The Chinese people have been forced to forget the Tiananmen massacre. There has been no public debate about the event, no official apology. The media aren't allowed to mention it. Still today people are being persecuted and imprisoned for disseminating information about it.

Ma Jian

I left Beijing in the late 1980s to live in Hong Kong because, having been blacklisted by the government, I couldn't publish my works on the mainland.

Ma Jian

I will not let a political party tell me how to live, when to die or what to believe in. Our souls are linked to the universe, but we can never see heaven, because our flesh ties us to the earth and the people around us. But when the people around you have lost their will to be free, then earth becomes a hell.

Ma Jian

Beijing Coma took me 10 years to finish.

Ma Jian

Red Dust was about the late 1980s; it was a time of burgeoning hopes and opening up and people searching for new ways.

Ma Jian

'Three Kingdoms' gives you a panoply of different routes; everyone can find their own path. It shows that sometimes the route to fulfilment or success is not the obvious one. You must take twists and turns to achieve a goal.

Ma Jian