elisabook

“In the early evening, when the lights came on, you could see in all the windows the watchful eyes of frightened people looking out for signs of trouble. But whenever something bad did happen, no one ever saw it coming.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“How, with all your education, do you come to be more needy than your mother?”
― Tsitsi Dangarembga, This Mournable Body

“She had naturally high aspirations, but having come to terms with the limitations imposed by her environment, she developed a habit of splashing cold water on her hopes.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Like most Shanghai residents who had lived through such sweeping historical changes, they regarded the Communist Party as unapproachable, and saw themselves as people left over from a previous era. Moreover, living in the heart of society, caught up in the swirl of everyday life, they barely had a chance to develop a coherent opinion of themselves, let alone grand concepts like "the nation" or "political power." They are not to be faulted for their narrow frame of reference, because a large city is like a huge machine that turns according to the principles dictated by its own structure; only its tiniest components have a human texture, and it is these tiny components that people hold on to, otherwise they would fall into the vacuum of abstraction.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai