When a person is unhappy, something must be wrong with either their material or spiritual life. When most people in an entire society are unhappy, that’s a sure sign of troubled times: natural disasters, human calamities, and social upheaval.
Throughout Chinese history, whenever most of society has been unhappy, many remarkable people have tried to change and save it in their own ways. Some succeeded, while others failed.
In my view, every reform, new policy, revolution, and change of government in Chinese history, along with all the different ideologies and schools of thought, has ultimately been about solving two fundamental problems: creating wealth and distributing it.
Today, many areas of production have already become automated and unmanned. It seems fair enough to distribute wealth according to how much people work and invest. But with the economy and productivity so highly developed, why do some young people still seem unhappy and under so much pressure?
I once asked an experienced older man about this. He said that although young people today seem to have better material conditions than people did in his day, they lack the most important thing of all!
I pressed him: What are they missing?! He said: Hope!
This novel is my own little utopian story, an attempt to find that hope in my own way. So no matter how it does, I’ll keep writing until I feel I’ve found it. The story is entirely fictional, so just enjoy the ride and have a laugh.
... Sigh [covers face][laughs awkwardly]