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Whispering Shadows (The Rising Dragon, #1) QUOTES

Whispering Shadows (The Rising Dragon, #1) QUOTES

1 " Zhang thought about how quickly the face of his country had changed. . . . In a very short time, buildings hundreds of years old that had borne witness to the past had disappeared . . . Razed to the ground as though they had never existed. At times like these, it seemed to him that this untrammeled building frenzy and the incredible rate of change were a desperate attempt to flee from history, and the new high-rise buildings, roads, highways, airports, and factories were not so much signs of progress as giant memorials to the desire to forget. As if you could brick up memories. As if you could leave your shadow behind if you only walked fast enough "

― Jan-Philipp Sendker , Whispering Shadows (The Rising Dragon, #1)

2 " [Tang] could not believe what he saw. If his father could be arrested in the name of the Great Chairman and publicly put on trial like this then anything was possible. If it had not been enough for him to leave the family as a boy to join the Communists, if it had not been sufficient that he had fought for Mao in the civil war and then supported every one of his political campaigns, then, Tang thought, there was nothing in this world that could be relied on. Then everything was possible and it was really randomness that rules life, hiding behind the everyday routine. Then any feeling of security was an illusion. At any time and without notice, from one moment to another, evil could take over the entire country and the lives of every individual. "

― Jan-Philipp Sendker , Whispering Shadows (The Rising Dragon, #1)

3 " Fear was nothing more than a function of an overactive imagination, at least with regard to nontraumatic experiences. That was how he had often comforted Justin when he had been frightened of the dark. People imagined everything that could happen and felt afraid. So those who had no imaginations could not be afraid. "

― Jan-Philipp Sendker , Whispering Shadows (The Rising Dragon, #1)

4 " Why have they left me in this basement for almost two days and interrogated me like a prisoner?

For the same reason that they interrogated me for one night, even after I had given them all we had and listened to the recorded conversations with them. Because they wanted to make sure that we were telling the truth and that this was not a trick or one of Tang's many ruses. Because they didn't trust us. Because no one trusts anyone here. Ever. "

― Jan-Philipp Sendker , Whispering Shadows (The Rising Dragon, #1)

5 " This was a time of establishing new horizons, a gold rush period in which everyone was out to get as much as he could for himself. Every great power in their history had experienced a time of change like this. Tang was convinced that it was people like him who helped the country make progress. Without them, the people would be sitting in the dirt and chewing on tree bark like the North Koreans. How did the inspector think that the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers had come by their fortunes? By honest reckoning of every cent or centime? By keeping their word on agreements? "

― Jan-Philipp Sendker , Whispering Shadows (The Rising Dragon, #1)

6 " I only know that there are no shortcuts in life, no matter how much we long for them, and that everyone goes at their own speed and that any attempt to significantly influence this speed in any way either fails or exacts a high price. "

― Jan-Philipp Sendker , Whispering Shadows (The Rising Dragon, #1)