How is Liu Yu, a writer and professor at Tsinghua University, doing lately? Why haven't I seen any news about her in a long time?

Liu Yu's latest blog

Because I complained from time to time, a friend taught me: "China is developing very well now! Look -" he pointed out the window: " There are high-rise buildings everywhere! It’s much more modern than many places abroad! Look at our current restaurant and the surrounding restaurants, they are all full..."

I admit that although the visibility in the air is limited, With her finger, I did see many shining high-rise buildings outside the window. There are not only high-rise buildings, but also busy traffic - it stretches endlessly, which can be described as "only overwhelming and overwhelming". In addition, I can testify with personal experience that restaurants near the area where I live and work are almost always full during meal time. This is a strong refutation of the "insufficient domestic demand theory". In the summer, I often see old ladies playing Tai Chi, teenagers playing basketball and roadside stalls selling barbecue on the roadside. If Zhang Zeduan were still alive, these scenes would be enough for him to paint a modern version of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".

Ashamed of my negative attitude, I suddenly remembered a joke I had read before. This joke is about the teacher calling on all the students in the class: "If you are not here, please raise your hands."

I asked this friend: Do you know Xue Jinbo? She said she didn't know. I had to explain to her: This was a farmer from a certain village in Guangdong. He had a conflict with the government during a land rights protection incident in the village. After being taken to the detention center, he was said to have died of a "cardiac heart attack." One of many "mysterious detention center deaths" on the ground.

I asked again, do you know Han Ying? She said she didn't know. I had to explain to her: This is a woman from a place in Haidian, Beijing. She was followed, harassed and even beaten because she independently ran for local people's congress representative. She is just one of the many independent candidates who have been suppressed this year.

I asked again, do you know Lei Jinmo? She said she didn't know. I had no choice but to explain to her: This is an ordinary pneumoconiosis patient who is now in danger because he has no money for treatment. This is just one of countless pneumoconiosis patients and other patients who cannot receive medical insurance.

I listed a dozen people in one breath that my friends had never heard of. They were all "people who never came" in this prosperous era. Because their image may affect social stability and development, information about them is always vague - although it is occasionally revealed on the Internet, the relevant information is always fleeting. And because this is an era of mass media, if they have not existed and stayed in the mass media, then they almost do not exist. This is of course not to say that the bustling traffic in "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is fake, but behind the bustling traffic, there is another world that is not so heroic.

“These are development issues. After all, it depends on the mainstream of the times!” said my friend. I don’t really know what the mainstream of the times is. I only know that when a person has a gastric ulcer, the doctor cannot turn a blind eye and comfort him by saying: It depends on the mainstream of the body. Except for the stomach, all your other organs are fine!

It is said that there are three types of knowledge: what you know, what you don’t know, and what you don’t know you don’t know. Xue Jinbo, Han Yinglei, Jinmo, for my friend, it probably belongs to the type of knowledge that she "doesn't know she doesn't know". Because she didn't know that she didn't know, despite her kind-hearted nature, she didn't even have the urge or curiosity to turn to the back of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" to take a look. Because she doesn’t know what she doesn’t know, she believes that what she sees and hears within Beijing’s Fifth Ring Road is “the strongest voice of the times.” Also, when humans didn't know the existence of Mars, no one would be curious about what was on it.

In a society with limited information dissemination, it is almost an inevitable trend to sit in a well and look at the sky. People who drive a newly purchased car, live in a newly renovated house, hold a 30-yuan cup of coffee in one hand, and hold up an iPhone in the other hand will indeed be confused: You said you can afford McDonald's and clothes. The seven wolves are gone, and they are still mumbling. Isn’t it so damn ungrateful?

Unless you realize that China means more than just the "five rings" of the city.

In the depths of the sea, where the sun never shines, there are Xue Fubo and Han Yinglei golden models, and every known Xue Fubo and Han Yinglei golden model probably corresponds to countless Xue Fubo and Han Yinglei golden models that we have not yet known and have no way of knowing. In the vast snow, to maintain awareness of the obscured world, you have to constantly remind yourself not to fall asleep, not to fall asleep, not to fall asleep.

This principle sounds simple, but not everyone may know it. In the early 1930s, British writer Bernard Shaw visited the Soviet Union and was shown various socialist achievements. After returning to the UK, he published an article refuting various remarks that "slandered the great achievements of Soviet construction." "We want to confirm that there is no evidence of economic slavery, deprivation, unemployment... Everywhere we go we see a working class full of hope and enthusiasm...". In fact, in the years surrounding his visit to the Soviet Union, forced collectivization of agriculture led to the deaths of some seven million people in famine. Coincidentally, Snow, who wrote "Red Star Shines in China", also refuted the rumors of famine in China as "Cold War propaganda" after visiting China twice in 1960 and 1964. He said: "I did not see it in China. For hungry people, there will never be famine like in the past...". You see, no one who didn't come raised their hands, which means everyone is here, which is great.