When the morning train left Beijing on July 23 2011, the passengers did not expect their fancy vehicle would become the train of mourning. Roaring on the high-speed rail link southbound, it was often described to betraveling like a bolt of lightening – until it was struck by a real one. Talk about irony.
The disastrous collision may be a perfect metaphor for contemporary China. For decades, the whole nation has transformed into a high-speed train with a sole engine of GDP. The unstoppable monster has long derailed from the tracks of law and morality. Like any desperados on the run, the Chinese Communist Party kidnapped this intimidating vehicle, and drives recklessly to its self-destruction. All the Chinese on board serve as both cheap fuel for the engine and also ceremonious funerary objects to the doomed wreckage…
Sadly, even though deep sorrow, anger, and powerlessness keep me up at such a deep night, all I can do is send a few keyboard strokes to the departed. May they rest in peace. At least, Heaven doesn’t have high-speed train, thunders, or Communists.