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Yan Lianke Quotes

Yan Lianke is a Chinese writer of novels and short stories based in Beijing. His work is highly satirical, which has resulted in some of his most renowned works being banned in China.

He has admitted to self-censorship while writing his stories in order to avoid censorship.His novels include Serve the People!, Lenin's Kisses, and Dream of Ding Village. He has also published more than ten volumes of short stories.

Yan won the Franz Kafka Prize in 2014 and has been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize twice. His style is described as experimental and surreal, employing a self-described "mythorealism". Wikipedia  

✵ 24. August 1958
Yan Lianke photo
Yan Lianke: 6 quotes0 likes

Famous Yan Lianke Quotes

“Anything negative about the country or the regime will be rapidly erased from the collective memory. This memory deletion is being carried out by censoring newspapers, magazines, television news, the Internet and anything that preserves memories.”

Yan Lianke

"On China's State-Sponsored Amnesia"

“I used to assume history and memory would always triumph over temporary aberrations and return to their rightful place. It now appears the opposite is true.”

Yan Lianke

"On China's State-Sponsored Amnesia"

“Yet, just as in any kindergarten, there are always a few naughty children who don't like to be told what to do. There are always some people who refuse to be administered amnesia. They are always trying to speak in their own words, always spreading their creative wings to fly beyond the boundaries of official memory. Following their conscience, they are willing to fly anywhere, into the past, the present or the future, in order to produce works that can pass our memories onto younger generations.”

Yan Lianke

"On China's State-Sponsored Amnesia"

“Reality is much more absurd and complex than any fiction.”

Yan Lianke

"China on China, Culture for Billions" Documentary

“China's censorship is not as rigorous as everyone thinks. The self-censorship of the authors is much worse.”

Yan Lianke

"China on China, Culture for Billions" Documentary

“In March 2012 I met Torbjorn Loden, the Swedish professor of Chinese language and culture, in Hong Kong. He told me that while briefly teaching at Hong Kong's City University he asked the 40 students from China in his class what they knew about the June 4 Incident, the pro-democracy movement that ended in bloodshed in 1989, and if they were familiar with the names Liu Binyan and Fang Lizhi, two prominent democracy advocates of that era. All the students from China looked around at one another, mute and puzzled.
That reminded me of something another teacher told me. She had asked her students from China if they had heard about the death by starvation of 30 to 40 million people during the so-called "three years of natural disasters" in the early 1960s. Her students responded with stunned silence, as if she, a teacher in Hong Kong, was brazenly fabricating history to attack their mother country.”

Yan Lianke

"On China's State-Sponsored Amnesia"

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