Book excerpt: Smoke and Mirrors, an Experience of China by Pallavi Aiyar

The author is walking around the Potala with an interpreter from the Chinese ministry. A Danish journalist starts to ask the latter questions about Tibet. The woman is upset. The author tells her that in India, people often disagree with each other on a topic and that’s okay.

“But in China, it’s different,“ says the woman. “In China, we must all think the same thing.“

From Pallavi Aiyar’s Smoke and Mirrors.