Time Collage

Author: Mu Guozheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: Only because we have lived, even lived a plain life, we have entered history and culture. Each generation has its own strengths and weaknesses, individuals are clustered within the group, yet they lose themselves. When they realize it, there is only a sigh, and this sigh is so long. Do not mock their foolishness back then, do not despise their cowardice. No matter how great a figure is, they cannot transcend history. As long as you read from these scattered fragments the evolutionary trajectory of life from blindness to clarity, that is enough. We are accustomed to following the rules. At work, let alone, if anyone dares to be unconventional, they are sure to face the scorn of colleagues and the reprimand of superiors. Life is the same. "Clothes and hats, each to their liking," has been the case since ancient times, yet we have no chance to enjoy this negligible freedom. We wear the same hats, wear the same blue uniforms, and have the same hairstyles. If anyone is vain, leaving a big hairdo or wearing jeans, they are in trouble! First, they are labeled as "having a delinquent tendency," followed by the side glances of everyone. Conforming to the rules weakens our thinking ability, and creative thinking is simply out of the question. We can only face the vast world with simple ways of thinking—everything is either one, either up or down, either left or right, either right or wrong, either good or bad—"to be a docile tool of the Party," to be bricks, to be screws, and there is no need for an original mind. Our personal ideals, personal desires, personal interests, even if they ever existed, gradually merge into the group with age, and eventually vanish into thin air—included are personal emotions and habits. As individuals, we are all lost. This is the tragedy of the times, and we cannot escape it. Now that we realize it, there is only a sigh. This little book roughly outlines the traces of my half-century of life, scattered fragments, bit by bit. Although they are just traces, they can also reveal the era we went through and, especially after the "Anti-Rightist Campaign," the character of our intellectual group in that era.