Modern socio-economic ideas – Unconquered

In the beginning, I wanted to write a story about China because it was a popular subject. Whenever I turn on the idiot box, launch a social media app or read the news, I receive an incessant bombardment of China China China, as the bugbear, not Panda bear, delivered by people who know bupkis about China.

Given that I’m a Chinese born in Hong Kong to Chinese parents, speak both Cantonese and Mandarin, read and write both Traditional and Simplified Chinese scripts, studied Chinese history and literature, and lived and worked in mainland China for twenty years, I believe I may know a thing or two about China.

Furthermore, my father was a renegade Communist from Yan’an, the headquarters of the Communist Party after the Long March. He wrote a historical novel based on his experience. I was also lucky to have befriended people in China with unique life stories. One such person was Sidney Rittenberg, an American who lived in China for thirty-eight years after the Second World War, of which sixteen were inside a prison. I learned much about China from Sidney, who passed away in 2019.

In any event, I discovered, to my dismay, that there was already a plethora of authors composing copious words in numerous books on China, and my opinion, no matter how informed, would be buried under a profusion of poppycock. Rather than engaging in a thankless task, I decided to write about socioeconomics despite never having studied the subject at school. I didn’t view that as a disadvantage, as my mind was unencumbered by preconceptions. Then, I came across a quote from a prominent Canadian economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, who admitted, “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” On that note, I gave up on the mundane and went for the stars, in other words, science fiction. I realized sci-fi was the genre that allowed my imagination to run rampant in creating faraway alien worlds, travelling back and forth through time and predicting the future without appearing to have lost my marbles.

Experts and well-meaning friends who knew about my vacillations advised me to stick to one genre and focus on one subject. I could not decide whether I should listen to them or my guts if guts could talk. After wasting precious time on fruitless philosophical contemplation, I went where my guts took me, namely, the kitchen. As I unsealed the portal of the refrigeration unit and a burst of photons from the fridge light flooded my face, I had an epiphany. It was similar to the one that struck René Descartes: “I think; therefore, I’ll have a beer.” An idea was born, and the Schrödinger Wave Function of my fuzzy logic collapsed. I would write an oxymoronic fact-based sci-fi novel with everything in it, including the organic craft beer and the kitchen sink.

I had a lot of fun and learned a great deal creating this pièce de résistance. I must, however, warn treasure seekers that they may not find a mother lode; they may hit a leaky pipe and encounter something unpleasant instead. On the other hand, prospectors with a discerning eye and an open mind will discover new ideas, new knowledge, new interpretations of history, new ways to understand oneself and the world, new insight into the origin of human civilization, new questions about the mysteries of our universe and a new theory for establishing a perpetually peaceful Utopian society, a lofty aspiration previously thought to be unattainable. In addition, the reader will learn everything about China and be thoroughly gobsmacked, even if the reader believes he or she already knows everything about China.

To convince myself that my socioeconomic theory was not entirely frivolous, I submitted a concise thesis for review by the estimable Professor Yifu Lin, renowned professor of economics at Peking University, previous Senior VP and Chief Economist of the World Bank and the deputy director of the CPPCC committee that provides consultation on economic matters to the Chinese government. Professor Lin read my thesis and concluded that my thought process was “logical and convincing.” Amen!

Since this is science fiction, and we have quantum physics, time travel and artificial intelligence in the story, we’ll have to make sure the science has some basis in fact and not all mumbo jumbo. Thanks to the favourable alignment of the stars, I have had the chance to pick the brain of a real scientist who happens to be my brother-in-law Professor Peter Ramadge, director of Princeton University’s Center for Statistics and Machine Learning. Here’s a big shoutout to my dear brother Peter Ramadge for humouring me and holding lengthy discussions on my outlandish ideas.

For the benefit of our readers, who will likely be of all shades and persuasions, I’m spinning this yarn as a fanciful fable that caters to the epicurean pleasures desired by the consummate consumer. Although it will not please everyone, it promises to be something completely different. Carpe Liber—seize the book!

Book 2 of the Series: Bellatrix: The Female Warrior
The sequel delves into the connections between the planets Earth, Shangria and Betel. Lost in the past, Victoria tries to find her way back to the future by visiting the author of Dream of the Red Chamber. By chance, she witnesses one of the greatest battles ever fought by an invincible general who may have been a Canadian.

Book 3 of the Series: Augenblick: The Blink of an Eye
Readers will explore the concept of establishing a perpetually peaceful society, travel across a realm oft visited by heroes, lovers, demigods, epic poets and daydreaming young girls, and learn how our decisions in the future can change what has already transpired in the past. All the answers await us at the saga’s grand finale.