It's the year of the rat.
China's fall and rise during my lifetime has been one of the signature events I've witnessed from afar.
There was a time that I repeated quotes from Chairman Mao that I'd heard from others. Although his was never a kind of writing I could study without falling asleep, the ideological statements of the Chinese Communist Party were held up by some as the most revolutionary of all leftist teachings.
In fact, they were foolish rubbish. Meanwhile, the Chinese people were enslaved by an autocratic system that held them in perpetual poverty, prevented them from exercising basic human rights, and sharply curtailed their right to have children.
The last element, the one-child policy, may prove to have been Mao's one great contribution to humanity. Because, unlike neighboring India, whose population has never stopped growing at a frightening pace, China has actually given humanity a somewhat better chance at surviving the coming climate change crisis by significantly slowing down its own population growth for decades.
Meanwhile, American children now celebrate Chinese traditions, at least here in San Francisco. Today's performance was one of those occasions.
And, yes, the Kitchen God's image was indeed visible on his ashes after he was sacrificed, because nobody violated the principle by touching those sacred ashes.
Happy New Year, everyone.
新年快樂，大家！
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