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The Silent Majority
Sample translated by Eric Abrahamsen , from the book Wo de Jingshen Jiayuan.
But if all speech is only a payment of tax, then we’re in trouble. What can all that speech be used for? It’s talk, not money; it can’t be used to build dams, nor power stations. Once paid, it can only be left there to rot, to be mocked by future generations. Of course, I shouldn’t concern myself about the uses of expropriated speech; perhaps it has other uses I’ve not thought of. What I want to say is, the collection of the speech tax has been going on since ancient times. Those who speak have always known of the need to pay it. Th at need has been absorbed into their blood, and realised in their mouths.
[First published in the Asia Literary Review]