Red Dust

Author/Guide: Ma Jian

Why a Booktrail?

Ma Juan escapes Bejing and heads to Western China to find himself

ISBN: 978-0099283294
Genre: Autobiography/memoirs, Travelogue

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What you need to know before your trail

In 1983, Ma Jian turned 30 and was overwhelmed by the desire to escape the confines of his life in Beijing.

At the time, he was under surveillance from his work unit and the police, as Deng Xiaoping clamped down on ‘Spiritual Pollution’. The fact that Ma had long hair, jeans and artistic friends made him suspicious in the eyes of the authorities.

To make matters worse, his ex-wife was seeking custody of their daughter; his girlfriend was sleeping with another man; and he could no longer find the inspiration to write or paint. So, one day he bought a train ticket to the westernmost border of China and set off in search of himself.

Locations

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Travel Guide

Bejing 1980s

The city in the 1980s was not an easy place to work or even live. The government then was dominant and dominating – a totalitarian one as described in the book where even your ideas and creative thoughts were deemed to be suspicious if the government thought them to be.

China is a very unique country and culture and an honest narrator on the sidelines as Ma is makes for a very interesting journey an insight into one of the most closed and misunderstood countries in Asia. There are insights here which an outsider would never have seen or been able to pick up.

Bejing has become a prison and as he explores the rest of China, there are some amusing, serious, funny and dangerous situations to paint a bright and fascinating picture of one country and its many shades.