Sublime

Project 985.

Pavlovian—in

Like anybody who had grown up in the countryside, he instinctively deflected the praise.

If a request was rejected, it was worth trying a different office, a different cadre; in a country of such size, there were always other rivers.

Chinese narrative genre: the non-personal non-story of a Party man who knows that the system matters much more than any individual.

Like many parts of Sichuan, Chengdu has a reputation for being self-contained—a city of the basin.

I asked Emily what she thought was the root of her brother’s problem, she said, “He is a victim of modernization.”