Mention China and people think of the Great Wall, tofu, kung fu, and of course, Confucius. They might also think of the skyscrapers in Beijing and Shanghai, and the unforgettable 2008 Olympics, which heralded China’s rise as a great nation. . .

The rise of China has also led to a rise in amnesia. Today, as China is rising to new heights I want to retell these stories in the hope that you can learn something about the entirely different kind of life some people in China are living. . .

. . .At 2.40 pm on the 29th of June, 2009, fifty-four-year-old Wu Chandi squeezed on to a number 14 bus in Beijing. She was heading to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council to present a petition. In today’s parlance, Wu Chandi is not a citizen, she’s a petitioner. And like most petitioners she had sought help from the government because she did not receive fair treatment from the local courts. And like petitioners who do not get satisfaction from the local government, she too embarked on long pilgrimages to Beijing to lodge a formal complaint with the Petition Office of the State Council.