Brave New Beijing? Dystopian Novel Looks Into China’s Future

The Wall Street Journal

Life and Style

February 11, 2012, 4:00 PM ET

By Dean Napolitano

In Chan Koonchung’s dystopian novel “The Fat Years,” which takes place in 2013, a month of history has been wiped out from China’s memory. During that month in 2011, the world went through a tremendous economic, political and social upheaval, far greater than the global financial crisis three years earlier. To maintain stability, China’s government ordered a massive crackdown.

Now, China has emerged as the world’s dominant power, and its citizens enjoy prosperous lives. But in exchange for a wealthy and stable country, the public has accepted a totalitarian regime without question. The story focuses on a handful of friends in Beijing as they try to uncover the events of those 28 days and why China’s people have embraced a collective amnesia.

Mr. Chan’s novel is a minefield of sensitive subjects in China, touching on the government’s relationship with the U.S., economy and trade, religion, martial law, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang, and more.

“The Fat Years” was first published in Chinese in Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2009, with reviewers comparing it with Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” It hasn’t been published in mainland China, but that hasn’t stopped it from circulating among certain circles in the country. An English translation was recently published in the U.S.

Mr. Chan was born in Shanghai in 1952 and moved to Hong Kong at the age of four. In 1992, he relocated to Beijing, where he spoke to the Journal by phone.

The book proposes that the people and the government are co-conspirators in China’s authoritarian system.

I am not trying to be soft on either side. It’s not a one-sided criticism. When it comes to the people, they are involved by forgetting willingly. But it’s purely allegorical. It’s not a blanket criticism or a condemnation of a people. It’s a cautionary fable about China. When I was writing the story in the early months of 2009, I was essentially inspired by what was happening in 2008.

You write that the people fear chaos more than they fear dictatorship.

The Communist Party tried to use this idea for the justification of its existence — that without it there would be chaos, because they are the only power that can hold the country together and provide stability. They have the resources and the power to push China into a national revival and further economic growth. The party puts this forward in a way that has been quite successful, and the people are echoing these reasons when they talk about China: “We need the stability, and we need someone powerful enough to make major decisions so China can continue its growth.” So I think I’m reflecting the view of the party and a sizeable portion of the population.

The novel touches on nearly every sensitive political and social topic confronting China today.

This is my intention — to put as many issues into one relatively short novel so that people can have a more holistic meaning of what China is now. I need to do that within the context of a novel.

Why did you make the main character, Lao Chen from Taiwan, an outsider?

Part of it was a literary consideration. I wanted to have a protagonist that I am very familiar with so that his voice could be more authentic. I could come up with a believable character because I know people like Lao Chen very well. He is not a very political person. And it helped to bring out the story in a way I wanted: Because he’s an outsider, he can comment on things [in ways that a mainland Chinese character couldn’t].

Did you intend to write a thriller?

It has some elements of a thriller, but I don’t think it’s a pure thriller. People will be disappointed if they want to read a thriller, but I am aware that I need to have an interesting story that can push the narrative.

Some reviewers have described it as science fiction.

I put the events in the not-too-distant future so I could come up with some fictional events to help me to explain what I felt about China in 2009. It’s a guise that I use to write the story. But almost as a second thought or inadvertently it became science fiction along the lines of a dystopian novel in the tradition of “1984” and “Brave New World.”

You weren’t surprised that the book wasn’t published in mainland China.

I always knew it wouldn’t be published. It’s a sensitive book. No publisher would go near it. They won’t even waste their time, so I didn’t even try. If I wanted it to be published, I would have written it differently. I would have self-censored myself.

Even though it wasn’t published in China, it still got attention in the country. How did that happen?

When the book was published in Hong Kong, I hand carried 20 copies to Beijing and gave them to my intellectual friends. Some of them started to write about it on their blogs, and then mainstream dailies and news journals reported on the publication of my book in Hong Kong. Some wrote reviews of the book in mainland China. The book was not available in the mainland, but they wrote about it. They do that all the time. They try to rush through the yellow light before the censors put up the red light. That aroused interest among many people. And then people put it on the Internet — people either scanned it typed it. That’s how it got started.

What happened next?

Someone put it on the Internet within the Chinese firewall. That is how most of my mainland readers accessed the book. It’s not a Chinese best-seller type, but it’s a little more than something read just by the literary circle in Beijing. I have the sense that more people are reading it, but there’s no way to check it.

Do you see China as a utopia or dystopia?

It’s always something in between. As I said in the book, China now has 90% freedom when it comes to consumer choices and some personal decisions. Now it’s easier than 20 years ago. But since 2008, there are more crackdowns on dissidents and more intolerance on freedom of expression. It’s not a utopia for sure. Without political freedom, all other freedoms can be taken back by the state at a moment’s notice.

Where do you think China is headed?

In the medium term China’s rise is unstoppable. This year there is lot of talk about how China should move forward — even within the party, those close to the party and the ruling elite. They have different views on how China should move on.

In the long run I am quite pessimistic. I am not optimistic that China will be more tolerant of dissidents or that it will reform its political system to accommodate more liberal elements.

Is there any loosening of artistic freedom?

Compared to 20 years ago, yes. But there are certain areas — 5% or 10% of areas — that most artists know to avoid. Sometimes it’s not that you are for or against any subject, but the very mentioning of certain words will get you into trouble. If you mention “Tiananmen incident,” for instance, your book will be banned.

Those operating within the system know how to get around it. Sometimes they manage to get around it because they avoid using those sensitive words while still touching on certain sensibilities.

Most of the artists working in the system know where the so-called base line is, and most would not touch it because they want their work to appear inside China — and the market inside China is potentially huge.

What’s the view within the artistic community?

In the last few years, particularly after 2008, those who are getting more recognition from the system are becoming more aggressive. They are not only defensive, they play down the other side. I heard writers putting down other “politically critical” writers, saying they are trying to write for foreigners. That didn’t happen before. They want to justify their own stand. They are not only reluctant conformists, now they are trying to say they made the right choice [by working in the system] and that those outside the system are inferior, even in the artistic sense.

Is there any justification for that?

Most of the writers who write in Chinese are not in that category. There are writers who write in English — that’s another story. But for Chinese writers who are writing inside China and trying to get published in China — they are writing for Chinese readers.

What the origin of this reaction within the artistic community?

There are “politically critical” writers inside China, who have not yet been labeled as “dissident” writers. Their works were often acclaimed by equally politically critical readers in China. Their books, therefore, sell well inside China (although some of them were eventually banned). That made other writers look bad. So the more docile writers often disparaged the more courageous ones, saying that the latters’ works were political cants or they were hooking for praises from foreigners. Both accusations are not true. Admittedly, there are good writers on both sides of the political divide whose target readers are all primarily Chinese. My feeling is in China, a novelist who writes only about politics could be called too obsessive, but if a serious novelist who writes about present-day China and does not touch upon politics at all, he is either a hypocrite or an escapist.

Have you had any contact with authorities over the subject of your book?

After the book was published, there were people holding official titles who said to me that they read my book — and they are not saying I got it wrong. As a matter of fact, a relatively high official told me as a compliment: “Wow. You Taiwanese” — he thought I was from Taiwan — “can understand China now.” But he wasn’t speaking in an official capacity.

Has there been any official contact?

The authorities have never come to me. I am still living as I was before the book was published. The book was only published in Hong Kong and Taiwan. When it was published, mainland publishers came to me and I told them to read the book first and then we’d talk — and they never came back. So officially the book was not published in China at all.

Do you have concerns of official action against you?

Of course I have my worries, but there is nothing I can do. Whether you are a dissident or not is really up to the state. I just try to live a normal life.

Do you plan to stay in China?

Yes, I would like to continue living in Beijing. The whole point of my moving here was to write something about China. I have no thoughts of moving to other places. I think the saga of China’s rise has just begun.