[Britain in the Nineties] The Sweetheart of English High School

In 1992, Su Que, a Chinese girl raised in London's Chinatown, finds a diary from 2026 in her family's attic. Hong Kong is about to return to China, and Westminster's lilies will eventually wither. John's songs still drift across the skies of Liverpool. These are prophecies, the future of this place. * She has memories from thirty years in the future. She knows the pound is about to plummet. She knows which band will become an overnight sensation, which wall in an East End gallery will sell for a fortune, and even that the younger son of the Italian restaurant across the street will become a Silicon Valley tycoon ten years from now. * When George, the British boy in an Eton uniform, angles his umbrella over her rain-soaked sketchbook... When Zhong Yanshu, the son of a family of Chinese lawyers, softly tells her, "We're both in the same boat..." she suddenly wishes time would slow down. In 1992 Britain, the Conservatives have just won the general election, the clouds of economic recession still hang overhead, and peace talks in Northern Ireland keep starting and stopping. Reports of bombings occasionally appear on the seven o'clock news. Students protesting the poll tax gather in Trafalgar Square. The girl thinks of the events recorded in the diary. The Northern Ireland peace agreement will eventually be signed. The gray-haired politician speaking on television will step down in a few years, then be remembered in history books as "the person who led the country out of recession." "Who can say what the future holds?" George runs a hand over her sketchbook. "But my family can get you a recommendation to any school you want to attend." Zhong Yanshu looks at her and slowly says, "Chinatown's children don't need to borrow someone else's name to shine." The rain falls heavily that year. Su Que stands on the steps of St. James's Park. Inside her art case, she carries the whole sky of 1990s Britain. [Reader's note] An alternate-history period drama set in Britain, not a realistic story. Contains original settings and fictional events. Please don't scrutinize the historical details too closely. Theme: Positive energy