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David的回信以及我的答复
hu 发表于 2008-07-22 19:15:02
我觉得把信贴出来没有什么问题，没有涉及到很隐私或者不能说的东西。。。
Hey,
I got your email. Thanks for your mail. I have added my comments and idea in the below. Check it :-)
Best wishes
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hi, Nicky,
Thanks for your letter.
I think the phrase 'things are getting better' needs to be treated with great care. While life in the big cities does seem much better, it is easy to forget that there are still many millions of people in the countryside for whom things are not getting better. The World Bank calculates that 18% of the poor in the entire world are in China, and that 150 million people live on less than a dollar a day.
Also the World Bank sets the limit for poverty as an income of less than US5 a year. In China, the average income for 800 million farmers is about US0 – just a little bit higher.
[Nicky:] Although I didn't know the statistics from World Bank before, I agree with your conclusion that millions of people in the countryside are still suffering poverty. My father used to work as a coal mine management staff for one year in ShanXi province which is well-known for the coal mine and notorious for the polluted air and high death rate of coal mine workers. As soon as I arrived there, I am impressed by the dangerous and snaked road on the mountain, also by the very big truck carrying tons of coal heading towards us. After staying there one week later, the poverty really beyond my expectation, the big gap between countryside in ShanXi and the east coast of China (my hometown is there), especially when a coal mine worker, with coal powder in his nose and ears, shake hands with me, I was really shocked. But I was thinking why they pick up that kind of job, why they didn't work as a farmer or anything else? My father told me that the average income of a famer is pretty low (I am not clear about the income), and the income to work as coal mine worker is 2-3 times higher and another factor that NOT be ignored is: the weather is pretty bad and the ground is poor only suitable for several pool plants. Another key factor is that government official or CPC does not adopt suitable policies to help them. Quote from my friend: they are abandoned by the government. The economy and living standard does not improved significantly in the past few decades, the also they didn't successfully pick up and enjoy the fruit of opening-up policy.
My video clip in ShanXi with my father: http://www.tudou.com/programs/
So, while it is true that the horrible stuff like the Cultural Revolution or the Great Leap Forward do seem to be in the past, I tend to feel that rather than things 'getting better,' they are just getting more unequal. Yes, life is better for people in the cities – but it's not better for so many others. What about the recent riots in Guizhou, for example?
[Nicky:] As for the incident of riot in Guizhou, I think that's a release of long-term suppressed emotion of masses. According my prediction, that's only the beginning and the incident obviously due to the unsatisfied emotion for the bureaucracy and the gap between rich and poor. You mentioned "life is better for people in big cities", on a high level perspective; I agree most of people lead a better life. But you should also pay attention to another group of people in big city; they have to afford high house-renting expense, or buying a house work as slavery for more than 10 years. The house-renting expense, according to my understanding, is one of the source incomes of another group which hold a large amount of resources, they even do not work. Maybe my point of view is from horizontal (both in city and countryside) and your point is from vertical (city comparing countryside). The truth is that the gap is becoming huge…
And I certainly agree with you that too many people are quite indoctrinated. City people and university people, in my opinion, are no often aware of what life is like in the countryside. They don't ask enough questions. And perhaps you are right that part of this is due to living standards getting better – as long as they have enough TVs, computers, Ipods, DVD players etc, then they are happy.
[Nicky:] I do believe that these groups of people you mentioned, will ask more freedom in the foreseeable future unintentionally.
I am of course familiar with Maslow's theories, and you have a good point.
But I am really not sure it needs 50 to 100 years. People can change pretty quickly – for example look how rapidly the whole 'internet generation' formed. That only took a few years. Yet even if we did accept it took 50 to 100 years, my concern is that the CPC is not even trying to let change happen. It is all 'window dressing' – I guess you know that phrase, right? – It means something that looks good but is not real / is superficial.
[Nicky:] Concerning the specific time, accurately speaking of my point is by 1, 2 or several generations (maybe 20-40 years is enough), you should be aware of the fact that the "internet generation" is not widely affect our previously generation, for example, my father, even my grandfather. As we all know that younger generation is easy to adopt new-born staff, for example. Internet. However, my father's generation, first of all, they still lead their traditional life, open TV, reading internet news which filtered by GFW (well-known great firewall). Next, they are not so skillful to touch the unbiased information, some of which is not posted on famous portal website and not in Chinese language. My grandfather's generation, according to my observation, is satisfied with current life, because they suffered so much when they were young. They seem to be like a sheep that always attack by ferocious wolf, what they want is to live a peaceful life. For them, it is luxurious to expect and enjoy a sunny day; they do not have much time left (although they still want to).
Of course I also agree there is a lot of over-reaction in China. And from the comments on the ChinaBounder blog you are right that 'history' does play a part. People seem angry about the 'humiliation' China suffered in the past.
But this is an issue that needs to be handled with care. First of all, I absolutely agree that the Western nations treated China terribly in the 19thC. I'm sure you know the history of the opium war. That was indeed totally disgraceful – one country invading another to sell drugs. Awful! Britain does indeed have a lot of terrible history.
Yet it is history – it is a long time in the past. No one alive in China today has ever been harmed in that way by Western powers.
So why would people feel humiliated about something that never affected them, do you think?
[Nicky:]I think most of Chinese people would become angry when they heard " No one alive in China today has ever been harmed in that way by Western powers". Actually, I will give you an explanation why logically. First, they already indoctrinated western nation's invasion in the history text book when they accept the education as they were young. You must understand the fact that some reaction towards history would become unconscious before logically thinking when some idea is put into the brain as they were children. Second, the culture distinction. I am quite understanding your feeling and I guess you must be feel very weird that the past history should not affect current people, we are living in present not past. Actually in China, the ancestor is highly honored, especially their own ancestor. If someone's ancestor is humiliated or killed by others, enemy abroad or not, they will remember and revenge. If humiliated by foreigner, ethnical emotion would provoke plus the revenge emotion. It's a stigma in their mind. The entire above analysis does not involve any personal feeling and it's totally my logical neutral analysis. What's your comments about my analysis?
Surely it would be far more sensible to be angry at the way the CPC has harmed China. After all, many of those leaders who served with Mao are still in power. Has the CPC ever said sorry?
[Nicky:]Dictator will never say sorry.
I think the 'psychological humiliation' is something that people have been taught to feel, by the CPC, so that they feel angry at 'outsiders' rather than their own leaders.
[Nicky:] That's an approach to divert the people's attention.
As for media, you are right that the Chinese media is very biased. Again this is an issue that needs to be treated carefully – for of course Western media is biased too. For example, the US channel 'Fox News' gives everything it reports a strong right-wing bias.
[Nicky:] Actually I do not know much about Western media. Thanks for your information.
But the difference is that in Western nations, people can speak up against the media, and can freely speak out their own opinions. But as you know, if someone puts a 'wrong' opinion online in China, it gets deleted. That's the difference, I think.
[Nicky:] Totally agree.
Our book is indeed an attempt to be constructive about China. Yes, we have a lot of negative news in the book. But this is because we believe that it is very important to look at the true situation, and freely discuss the most serious problems. Only in that way can people think about and deal with these problems.
As authors, we both want to see China take the 'right' direction. But we also see that is not happening. So out book is a look at exactly why and how China is going in the wrong way.
[Nicky:] Thanks
Thank you again for your thoughtful and interesting letter.
Best wishes,
David
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