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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.

From Ma Jian

To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons.

From Ma Jian

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

From 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.

From Ma Jian

When the written and spoken word is censored, the urban landscape becomes a nation's only physical link to the past.

From 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.

From 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.

From Ma Jian

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

From 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.

From Ma Jian

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

From Ma Jian

Ma Jian

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