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The Dark Road QUOTES

The Dark Road QUOTES

1 " She discovered that women don't own their bodies: their wombs and genitals are battle zones over which their husbands and the state fight for control - territories their husbands invade for sexual gratification and to produce male heirs, and which the state probes, monitors, guards and scrapes so as to assert its power and spread fear. These continual intrusions into her bodu's most intimate parts have made her lose her sense of who she is. All she is certain of is that she is a legal wife and an illegal mother.

I'd be better off dead. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

2 " Never rely on a husband for your happiness. The government persecute men, then men persecute their wives in return. And what do the wives do? If they have a child, they slap it to let off steam. If not, they drown themselves or swallow bottles of pesticide. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

3 " If they see a woman they suspect of being illegally pregnant, they pounce on her and drag her to a clinic for an abortion. They are paid fifty yuan for each woman they bring in. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

4 " When our parents are alive, they stand in front of us, blocking our view of death. But once they’ve gone, we find ourselves at the cliff edge. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

5 " If you're unlucky enough to have been born with a cunt, you'll be monitored wherever you go. Men control our vaginas; the state controls our wombs. You can try to lock up your body, but the government still owns the key. That's just women's fate. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

6 " You have to inhale a lot of those chemicals before they can take effect. They're called dioxins, apparently. The family planning officers there are very relaxed, because they know that however hard a man tries, he's unlikely to get his wife pregnant.

What a wonderful place it sounds! "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

7 " Meili pitchers herself in Heaven Township again, sitting in a safe and peaceful yard, knitting quietly while inhaling deep breaths of the chemicals that prevent women conceiving. She doesn't know how long it will take to travel from the fertile mountains of Nuwa to the sterile fields of Heaven Township, but at least she now has a sense of where happiness lies. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

8 " What is a wife for if not to produce sons?

Why are you so obsessed with having a son? It's so feudal! Don;t you know that men and women are equal now?

My brother has no sons, so it's my responsibility to continue the family line. Our daughters will join their husband's family when they marry, and their names won't be recorded in the Kong register. So they serve no purpose to us.

Still clinging to those outmoded Confucian beliefs! I warn you the modern world will leave you behind.

Huh! Just a few days on the road and already you've become worldly-wise! Don't forget, you left school at eight while I graduated at sixteen, so I'll always be cleverer than you.

Stop being so patronising. We're both fugitives now. Let's see how far your male chauvinism gets you here. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

9 " This baby will never get a residence permit. It will be one of those 'Black Children' who are born without permission and banned from getting free schooling and medical treatment. When it grows up, it won't even be able to marry and it'll curse us for condemning it to a life s an outcast. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

10 " Have you no humanity? You want to kill our unborn child? Have you forgotten that you too once lay in your mother's womb?


Humanity? If your baby turns out to be a girl, you'll throw her into the river, so don't talk to me about humanity! You migrant workers travel around the country dumping baby girls as you do. You're the ones who have no shame! You think we wanted to come here and deal with you squalid boat people? No, the higher authorities sent us here because of all the filth that's been washing up downstream. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

11 " Getting pregnant without authorization is against the law. Argue your case with the government, if you want. Go to America-- see what they say. China's population control policy has the full support of the United Nations. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

12 " It's still alive, the stubborn little thing. What shall we do with it?

Strangle it. We]ll register it as a stillbirth. Don't wipe its face. Illegal babies aren't entitled to have their mucus removed. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

13 " It's still alive, the stubborn little thing. What shall we do with it?

Strangle it. We'll register it as a stillbirth. Don't wipe its face. Illegal babies aren't entitled to have their mucus removed. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

14 " If a panda gets pregnant, the entire nation celebrates. But if a woman gets pregnant, she's treated like a criminal. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

15 " The team's chairman told him that if the baby is a girl and they decide not to keep her, the Welfare Office would take the baby off their hands and pay the 4000-yuan fine for the illegal birth. It's common knowledge that the Welfare Office sells children in their care to foreigners for a 30,000-yuan profit. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

16 " I'm sick of your male chauvinism. No wonder Confucius wasn't welcomed during his travels - jabbering on about male superiority all the time! "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

17 " All these years you drone on about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, then you go and sell your own daughter. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

18 " All leather, whether from shoes, gloves or sofas, is shredded and boiled to produce the protein which is added to counterfeit milk formula. "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road

19 " Don't let me return as a woman in my next life! I'd rather be a dog or a rat than suffer this pain again! "

― Ma Jian , The Dark Road