While returning from a trip to the UK for research, I committed to finishing Ma Jian’s The Dark Road. Not only was this book very, very dark, but it gave voice to faceless men and women whose individual stories we can never hope to know. Let me just say that, God knows their names. He knows their stories. And their blood, and the blood of their children will speak from the ground where it has been spilled.
This book was harrowing. I would have called it the most depressing book that I’ve ever read, and that wouldn’t be a lie, but I don’t necessarily want anyone to be discouraged from reading it. It reads very fast, and you are certainly pulled into the characters’ lives in a way that you cannot separate from them easily.
Ma Jian provides a shocking account of what it means to live under the one-child policy, and forcible relocation policies of the Chinese government. [Incidentally, as soon as I finished the book yesterday-this morning I received notification from the NYT and BBC apps on my phone that China are revising these same policies.] He also gives an account of women’s sexuality under this type of government and social/traditional environment that you will not easily forget after reading. These characters will haunt you, and if you believe in prayer the stories represented here will be on your lips indefinitely.
I commend Mr Jian for making the invisible men and women of rural China visible to us. Thank you for making the religious minority visible to us. Thank you for making the victims of sexual violence and paternalism visible to us. And, thank you for giving us a small glimpse into the assault on traditional Chinese values and culture subject to the “Cultural Revolution.” I am aware that he represents a certain perspective on Chinese governance, given he lives as a dissident outside of China. I know that China is not in all ways as ruthless and hopeless as some of the scenes in this book, but I thank him anyways for putting a voice in the mouths of those who have been silenced.