My cell phone buzzes and I fumble it out of my pocket.
“Yeah?” I hear Mummy Lulu’s smoker’s cough at the other end.
“Do you know your video The Tragedy of Liu Hulan has been age-restricted?” Mummy Lulu says. “What happened? Those YouTube fuckers have anti-Communist sentiments?”
“I’m aware, they informed me. Liu Hulan was only fifteen years old when she was executed by the Kuomintang. The YouTube people don’t want young viewers to emulate her heroism by choosing death. That’s their side of the coin. My side of the coin is that Liu was a highly principled and brave teenager, and as a martyr of Communism, deserves honour and respect. She has been the subject of many stories, plays and a movie; even her home village was renamed Liu Hulan Village.”
“Guess you can’t beat the system.” Mummy Lulu makes a farting noise with her mouth. “Okay, bye.”
/end
