2023 New Year Message｜Imagine a Better Tomorrow

Jan 2, 2023

Author: "Mang Mang", an independent Chinese magazine covering current affairs, society, culture and other issues. Members are a group of freedom-loving people living abroad, who are committed to practical actions and want to defend the right to write freely in Chinese, to record, fight against forgetting and initiate debate in their mother tongue.

Looking back to 2022, how will we define it?

Along the way, we pass through a long and dark tunnel of history. Frozen three feet, Jiangsu's "Feng County eight-child iron-chain mother" incident has attracted national attention to nothing, let us be completely disappointed in the rule of law and justice; cold spring, Shanghai's precision epidemic prevention bubble burst, and the severe closure of the city destroyed the development of generations of middle class Confidence in results. "Moisturizing" going out has become the final choice of many people; and those who do not "moisten" have gradually lost their expectations of life in the weariness of nucleic acid testing day after day and the lawlessness of grassroots epidemic prevention. Lose life itself...

What's more, all those who asked these questions were either imprisoned or their whereabouts were unknown. Those who remained silently passed on the documents of non-government mutual aid materials, and insisted on writing reports that were quickly deleted... Facing the ever-tightening civic space and the huge vulnerable population that urgently needs attention and support, we are in the dark In the crevice, listening to the distant cry.

The "20th National Congress" has set the final mark for this year, and it has also become a footnote for all disasters. Its accidents, shame and black boxes have left a huge question mark for all of us: why China is here, and where are we going? where?

However, at the end of disappointment and even despair, there seems to be a ray of hope.

This year is the "first year of struggle". In the past regimes used fear to alienate us, but now anger brings us out of numbness and brings us together. Many people picked up the phrase "It's My Duty" 33 years ago again, letting the spring breeze that almost disappeared in history blow again.

Beijing's "Sitongqiao Protest" failed to affect the finale of the 20th National Congress, but unexpectedly became the "first brick" to promote large-scale protests by overseas Chinese. Incidents such as the bus accident in Guizhou and the fire in Urumqi hurt everyone's heart. We can no longer keep silent about the suffering. From Berlin to Paris, from London to New York, the once "atomized" Chinese began to learn how to make slogans, design posters, gather resources, organize political rallies and protests this year...

This year is the "First Year of Struggle", and the Great Wall of white paper is blooming everywhere from south to north.

When people see each other, they never forget. Please remember these moments this year, and remember that I have been with you side by side; with pen, paint, and keyboard, memory can be engraved in art and writing; with photos, videos, and even word of mouth, the truth will not be afraid of high walls , forever in our hearts.

Our strength comes from fighting. It is the struggle that tore open a gap in history for 2022, where people awakened by conscience planted the seeds of hope for the new year. We are well aware that the historical responsibility of recording the truth and resisting totalitarianism has fallen into our own hands, and we are bound to do so.

In the past, we were pessimistic about tomorrow, with many emotions in our hearts because of being strangled by the throat, and the political chains made it difficult for us to breathe.

At this time, the new year is coming, let us imagine what tomorrow will look like. Imagine that we are sitting on the Berlin Wall in 1989, foreseeing that the wall will come down in the not-too-distant future... This is not expecting the values of democracy and freedom to be realized in a short time; With this imagination, we can always be aware that these values that we care about will be constantly reflected and practiced in the future struggles. In one small group after another, we will preserve and guard these precious fires together. In this imagination, the spirit of democracy and freedom will one day be like the Olympic torch. We carry it from Urumqi Middle Road in Shanghai to Nanjing Institute of Art and Media, to the Foxconn factory, and to Tiananmen Square.

In the end, we know that all this is not easy, and we would like to express our hard work to you who have gone through this year. We want to tell you loudly: We love you, love your kindness, peace and freedom.

Dear readers and friends, I sincerely wish you a happy and safe New Year.