Kean Wong:
Writer Ma Jian, living in exile in London, has just published his new novel 'Beijing Coma'. It is based on his own experiences of the 4th of June Tiananmen Massacre. It took the novelist ten years to complete. Here follows our exclusive interview from our London team.

Author Ma Jian wants his new novel 'Beijing Coma' to be a true reflection of China's past and present.

[Ma Jian, Author 'Beijing Coma']:
"There has been no one else writing novels related to the "4th of June" Tiannamen Massacre. I feel that if a country ruled by a dictatorship wants to eliminate part of it's own history, then as a writer, I must get back this part of missing history. This is my main motivation for writing the novel."

"The current Chinese economic development has put everyone into a coma. I mean they have all lost the value or conception of morality. They have turned into a vegetative state and can only think about making money."

The book's main character is lying in a coma for 10 years after being shot in the head at the Tiannamen Massacre. When he wakes up, he finds the whole world changed around him. During these 10 years, his mother looked after him. She used to be a member of the Chinese Communist Party but then became a Falun Gong practitioner and suffered later on persecution.

According to Ma Jian, the Tiananmen students and those of today share one same problem, they don't know their own history.

[Ma Jian, Author 'Beijing Coma']:
"The dictatorship has controlled people's memory and in doing so has controlled people's future. So those students are basically victims. Among them we can find some who like independent thinking. They have tried to break through the memory control and wished to become independent people."

"The students' ignorance is not only caused by themselves but also by society. In my novel, I try to show this 'generation gap'; this gap made the students fail completely. It has also made them become closer to the way of thinking of the Chinese Communist Party."

Ma Jian is hopeful that faith groups in China will bring hope to the country.

"I hope that all the people of faiths can bring more benefits to China. Not only the faith of the Falun Gong, but also the Christian Faith, Buddhism, Taoism. I think they are all safer, more reliable and closer to human nature than the ideology of Communism which has no faith."

A Chinese version of "Beijing Coma" will be published next year, before the 20th anniversary of the '4th of June Massacre'.

NTD, London.