New York Subway:
Johnnie Walker:
"Say it without saying it"
John Jameson:
"It doesn't take a genius to think of distilling whiskey three times for flavor.
But he's probably honest, loyal and criminally handsome."
Sunday, December 19, 2010
French
2012.2.12
Pardonne mes lèvres. Elles trouvent la joie dans les endrois les plus inhabituels.
Forgive my lips. They find joy in the most unusual places.
-- A Good Year (2006)
2010.11.12
La petite ville de Verrières peut passer pour l'une des plus jolies de la Franche-Comté. Ses maisons blanches avec leurs toits pointus de tuiles rouges s'étendent sur la pente d'une colline, dont des touffes de vigoureux châtaigniers marquent les moindres sinuosités. Le Doubs coule à quelques centaines de pieds au-dess...ous de ses fortifications bâties jadis par les Espagnols, et maintenant ruinées.
-- "Une Petite Ville," chapitre premier, Le Rouge et le Noir (1830), Stendhal (1783-1842)
掙不脫這一八三零的巴黎，剪不斷那波旁王朝的背影。
2010.1.27
民主把一个人永远地抛回给他自己，最终将他完全禁锢在内心的孤独里。
...it throws him back forever upon himself alone and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within the solitude of his own heart."
...elle le ramène sans cesse vers lui, et menace de le renfermer enfin tout entier dans la solitude de son propre coeur.
-- De la démocratie en Amérique (1835), Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
Pardonne mes lèvres. Elles trouvent la joie dans les endrois les plus inhabituels.
Forgive my lips. They find joy in the most unusual places.
-- A Good Year (2006)
2010.11.12
La petite ville de Verrières peut passer pour l'une des plus jolies de la Franche-Comté. Ses maisons blanches avec leurs toits pointus de tuiles rouges s'étendent sur la pente d'une colline, dont des touffes de vigoureux châtaigniers marquent les moindres sinuosités. Le Doubs coule à quelques centaines de pieds au-dess...ous de ses fortifications bâties jadis par les Espagnols, et maintenant ruinées.
-- "Une Petite Ville," chapitre premier, Le Rouge et le Noir (1830), Stendhal (1783-1842)
掙不脫這一八三零的巴黎，剪不斷那波旁王朝的背影。
2010.1.27
民主把一个人永远地抛回给他自己，最终将他完全禁锢在内心的孤独里。
...it throws him back forever upon himself alone and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within the solitude of his own heart."
...elle le ramène sans cesse vers lui, et menace de le renfermer enfin tout entier dans la solitude de son propre coeur.
-- De la démocratie en Amérique (1835), Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
老男孩 片尾曲
Song from the Chinese internet movie "Old Boy," 20 million views since its October 28 premiere on Youku.com. Originally titled "ありがとう," composed and sung by Takuya Ohashi (大橋卓弥).
青春如同奔流的江河 一去不回来不及道别 只剩下麻木的我 没有了当年的热血 看那满天飘零的花朵 在最美丽的时刻凋谢 有谁会记得这世界他来过
老男孩
作词：筷子兄弟
作曲：大桥卓弥
那是我日夜思念深深爱着的人呐
到底我该如何表达
她会接受我吗
也许永远都不会跟她说出那句话
注定我要浪迹天涯
怎么能有牵挂
梦想总是遥不可及
是不是应该放弃
花开花落又是雨季
春天啊你在哪里
青春如同奔流的江河
一去不回来不及道别
只剩下麻木的我没有了当年的热血
看那漫天飘零的花朵
在最美丽的时刻凋谢
有谁会记得这世界他来过
转眼过去多年时间多少离合悲欢
曾经志在四方少年
羡慕南飞的雁
各自奔前程的身影匆匆渐行渐远
未来在哪里平凡啊
谁给我答案
那时陪伴我的人啊
你们如今在何方
我曾经爱过的人啊
现在是什么模样
当初的愿望实现了吗
事到如今只好祭奠吗
任岁月风干理想再也找不回真的我
抬头仰望着满天星河
那时候陪伴我的那颗
这里的故事你是否还记得
生活像一把无情刻刀
改变了我们模样
未曾绽放就要枯萎吗
我有过梦想
青春如同奔流的江河
一去不回来不及道别
只剩下麻木的我没有了当年的热血
看那满天飘零的花朵
在最美丽的时刻凋谢
有谁会记得这世界它曾经来过
当初的愿望实现了吗
事到如今只好祭奠吗
任岁月风干理想再也找不回真的我
抬头仰望着满天星河
那时候陪伴我的那颗
这里的故事你是否还记得
如果有明天祝福你亲爱的
青春如同奔流的江河 一去不回来不及道别 只剩下麻木的我 没有了当年的热血 看那满天飘零的花朵 在最美丽的时刻凋谢 有谁会记得这世界他来过
老男孩
作词：筷子兄弟
作曲：大桥卓弥
那是我日夜思念深深爱着的人呐
到底我该如何表达
她会接受我吗
也许永远都不会跟她说出那句话
注定我要浪迹天涯
怎么能有牵挂
梦想总是遥不可及
是不是应该放弃
花开花落又是雨季
春天啊你在哪里
青春如同奔流的江河
一去不回来不及道别
只剩下麻木的我没有了当年的热血
看那漫天飘零的花朵
在最美丽的时刻凋谢
有谁会记得这世界他来过
转眼过去多年时间多少离合悲欢
曾经志在四方少年
羡慕南飞的雁
各自奔前程的身影匆匆渐行渐远
未来在哪里平凡啊
谁给我答案
那时陪伴我的人啊
你们如今在何方
我曾经爱过的人啊
现在是什么模样
当初的愿望实现了吗
事到如今只好祭奠吗
任岁月风干理想再也找不回真的我
抬头仰望着满天星河
那时候陪伴我的那颗
这里的故事你是否还记得
生活像一把无情刻刀
改变了我们模样
未曾绽放就要枯萎吗
我有过梦想
青春如同奔流的江河
一去不回来不及道别
只剩下麻木的我没有了当年的热血
看那满天飘零的花朵
在最美丽的时刻凋谢
有谁会记得这世界它曾经来过
当初的愿望实现了吗
事到如今只好祭奠吗
任岁月风干理想再也找不回真的我
抬头仰望着满天星河
那时候陪伴我的那颗
这里的故事你是否还记得
如果有明天祝福你亲爱的
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Status updates - 2010 - Second Half
12.16
“在本案 [连胜文案] 水落石出之前，类似的口水战还将持续上演。身在狱中的陈水扁这次决定不帮民进党说话，他9日发表一篇狱中札记，词锋尖锐地说，一颗子弹打不掉17万票，民进党别输不起。扁在文中还详尽分析选举得失，贬苏贞昌，赞蔡英文，指点江山意气风发一如往日。” ── 这牢坐得相当爽！
12.14
Received an email from "CIUBeijing@state.gov" on my sixth and final year as a student in the US. Feels like winning a lottery. Apparently Hillary Clinton is doing great things for US-China relations by emailing us this discount information for visa renewal.
12.13
火烧眉毛
12.12
1031(e) Exchange of livestock of different sexes. -- For purposes of this section, livestock of different sexes are not property of a like kind.
12.11
Don't click.
12.10
倾举国之力对一个人进行迫害、抹黑、打压，可悲、可笑、可怜至极。
他只是尽了一个读书人的本分。
欲加之罪，何患无辞。
纸里包不住火。
12.9
Reading everyday the two most popular news outlets in the America and China -- the New York Times and 163.com, respectively, I find a new and mind-boggling pattern: that people from both countries are increasingly prone to deride their own countries and openly admire the other. The two peoples must be so in love. In fact I suspect they might get married if the Pacific did not exist.
12.6
虱虱啼危
12.5
近读中国新闻，屡屡想起去年清华大学孙立平教授提出的中国“最大的威胁不是社会动荡而是社会溃败”论，深有感触。
12.4
一念愚即般若绝，一念智即般若生
My biography begins like this: 18 years of schooling in China and 6 years of schooling in America later, this 3-year-old boy finally finished his education.
This is my 47th consecutive semester since going to kindergarten at 3 years and 3 months old. I'm so sick of taking final exams 23.5 years NONSTOP and so glad that after my 48th and last semester in school it's gonna be ALL OVER.
12.3
Attach. Bond. Depend.
I take it as a good sign. It shows that press freedom is expanding, and journalists are not sitting idle on these gold opportunities to fully explore and faithfully record all sides of China's metamorphosis, and the audience are not turning a deaf ear. Bad things happened in the past - they just didn't get reported real-time and broadcast to the world.
Mr. Friedman's painting of an unjustifiably favorable picture of China is, unfortunately, as misleading as the demonization of that country. And he plagiarized himself in the following quote, which I read some time ago from one of his columns: “When someone calls you from China today it sounds like they are next door. And when someone calls you from next door in America, it sounds like they are calling from China!”
12.2
It's scary when someone insists on retaining you as his or her lawyer, unless the person actually pays and the ABA takes that "unauthorized practice of law" out of the Model Rules.
12.1
The balance in my printing account speaks volumes about how little I studied this semester. or how environmental I have turned.
11.29
才贪了五千万就上了报纸头版，这样的国力怎么跟美国争第一。
11.24
editing newsletters is escalating my 变态程度 from moderate to severe.
11.23
最近常干的一件事是跑到健身房，拿一条大浴巾铺在垫子上，然后躺下开始睡觉。然后听到旁边人们都在很卖力地运动感觉很爽。
unwilling hero
11.21
expert literary debt collector
I compose 100 status updates in my head everyday and I suppose that's not very healthy. In fact they might call it a symptom.
11.20
dear hi dear hi dear
11.19
east and west each took couple of thousand years to develop their ways independent of each other, and i'm not surprised that it takes couple of hundred years to sort out the differences and come to terms with each other. of course, america is way ahead of other places in this regard.
11.17
高三时，努力学习的最大动力就是为了以后不要再过这样的日子。整十年，绕了一大圈之后又变回了当初的自己。
Finally back on track. Hope it's not too late.
税法：按图索骥
11.15
戳破这层纱
Moments.
Double Jeopardy (Newsletter and Note)
请全体指战员各就各位
Upriser in Suit 穿西装的造反派
11.12
再信一次
掙不脫這一八三零的巴黎，剪不斷那波旁王朝的背影。
11.10
I still believe that we have an obligation to free our nation from this monumental stupidity. (responding to NYT article "China bars rights lawyers from leaving country.")
11.6
Congratulations to all newly-minted New York lawyers!
春風得意馬蹄疾，一日看盡長安花
11.4
don't suppress, don't indulge
和諧之錘
11.2
Icebreaker, jukebox, wedding crasher.
10.20
I was 3/4 asleep in the Income Tax class until the professor suddenly proclaimed: "...oh that was a great year to die!"...and just because Congress enacted some stupid law??
[recorded on 11.20]
9.17
Writer, essayist, novelist; speaker, orator, conversationalist.
Bostonian, Washingtonian, Chicagoan.
8.28
岂能因为声音小而不呐喊
“在本案 [连胜文案] 水落石出之前，类似的口水战还将持续上演。身在狱中的陈水扁这次决定不帮民进党说话，他9日发表一篇狱中札记，词锋尖锐地说，一颗子弹打不掉17万票，民进党别输不起。扁在文中还详尽分析选举得失，贬苏贞昌，赞蔡英文，指点江山意气风发一如往日。” ── 这牢坐得相当爽！
12.14
Received an email from "CIUBeijing@state.gov" on my sixth and final year as a student in the US. Feels like winning a lottery. Apparently Hillary Clinton is doing great things for US-China relations by emailing us this discount information for visa renewal.
12.13
火烧眉毛
12.12
1031(e) Exchange of livestock of different sexes. -- For purposes of this section, livestock of different sexes are not property of a like kind.
12.11
Don't click.
12.10
倾举国之力对一个人进行迫害、抹黑、打压，可悲、可笑、可怜至极。
他只是尽了一个读书人的本分。
欲加之罪，何患无辞。
纸里包不住火。
12.9
Reading everyday the two most popular news outlets in the America and China -- the New York Times and 163.com, respectively, I find a new and mind-boggling pattern: that people from both countries are increasingly prone to deride their own countries and openly admire the other. The two peoples must be so in love. In fact I suspect they might get married if the Pacific did not exist.
12.6
虱虱啼危
12.5
近读中国新闻，屡屡想起去年清华大学孙立平教授提出的中国“最大的威胁不是社会动荡而是社会溃败”论，深有感触。
12.4
一念愚即般若绝，一念智即般若生
My biography begins like this: 18 years of schooling in China and 6 years of schooling in America later, this 3-year-old boy finally finished his education.
This is my 47th consecutive semester since going to kindergarten at 3 years and 3 months old. I'm so sick of taking final exams 23.5 years NONSTOP and so glad that after my 48th and last semester in school it's gonna be ALL OVER.
12.3
Attach. Bond. Depend.
I take it as a good sign. It shows that press freedom is expanding, and journalists are not sitting idle on these gold opportunities to fully explore and faithfully record all sides of China's metamorphosis, and the audience are not turning a deaf ear. Bad things happened in the past - they just didn't get reported real-time and broadcast to the world.
Mr. Friedman's painting of an unjustifiably favorable picture of China is, unfortunately, as misleading as the demonization of that country. And he plagiarized himself in the following quote, which I read some time ago from one of his columns: “When someone calls you from China today it sounds like they are next door. And when someone calls you from next door in America, it sounds like they are calling from China!”
12.2
It's scary when someone insists on retaining you as his or her lawyer, unless the person actually pays and the ABA takes that "unauthorized practice of law" out of the Model Rules.
12.1
The balance in my printing account speaks volumes about how little I studied this semester. or how environmental I have turned.
11.29
才贪了五千万就上了报纸头版，这样的国力怎么跟美国争第一。
11.24
editing newsletters is escalating my 变态程度 from moderate to severe.
11.23
最近常干的一件事是跑到健身房，拿一条大浴巾铺在垫子上，然后躺下开始睡觉。然后听到旁边人们都在很卖力地运动感觉很爽。
unwilling hero
11.21
expert literary debt collector
I compose 100 status updates in my head everyday and I suppose that's not very healthy. In fact they might call it a symptom.
11.20
dear hi dear hi dear
11.19
east and west each took couple of thousand years to develop their ways independent of each other, and i'm not surprised that it takes couple of hundred years to sort out the differences and come to terms with each other. of course, america is way ahead of other places in this regard.
11.17
高三时，努力学习的最大动力就是为了以后不要再过这样的日子。整十年，绕了一大圈之后又变回了当初的自己。
Finally back on track. Hope it's not too late.
税法：按图索骥
11.15
戳破这层纱
Moments.
Double Jeopardy (Newsletter and Note)
请全体指战员各就各位
Upriser in Suit 穿西装的造反派
11.12
再信一次
掙不脫這一八三零的巴黎，剪不斷那波旁王朝的背影。
11.10
I still believe that we have an obligation to free our nation from this monumental stupidity. (responding to NYT article "China bars rights lawyers from leaving country.")
11.6
Congratulations to all newly-minted New York lawyers!
春風得意馬蹄疾，一日看盡長安花
11.4
don't suppress, don't indulge
和諧之錘
11.2
Icebreaker, jukebox, wedding crasher.
10.20
I was 3/4 asleep in the Income Tax class until the professor suddenly proclaimed: "...oh that was a great year to die!"...and just because Congress enacted some stupid law??
[recorded on 11.20]
9.17
Writer, essayist, novelist; speaker, orator, conversationalist.
Bostonian, Washingtonian, Chicagoan.
8.28
岂能因为声音小而不呐喊
Thursday, December 09, 2010
On the eve of the ceremony
James Fallows:
South African officials eventually looked back with regret on the years in which they jailed Mandela; while racial inequalities are still with us in America, even Glenn Beck pays honor to Martin Luther King. Let's hope Liu and his family live to see the day when official China can look back with regret on its decisions at this time.
South African officials eventually looked back with regret on the years in which they jailed Mandela; while racial inequalities are still with us in America, even Glenn Beck pays honor to Martin Luther King. Let's hope Liu and his family live to see the day when official China can look back with regret on its decisions at this time.
Friday, December 03, 2010
Jon M. Huntsman, Jr.: America Lures Chinese Who Dream Big (WSJ 2010.12.1)
Jon M. Huntsman, Jr.: America Lures Chinese Who Dream Big (WSJ 2010.12.1)
One year ago, I posted a blog, "十萬青年," a title that echoed a slogan by Chiang Kai-shek in World War II, and inadvertently anticipated Ambassador Huntsman's recent piece in the Wall Street Journal.
One year ago, I posted a blog, "十萬青年," a title that echoed a slogan by Chiang Kai-shek in World War II, and inadvertently anticipated Ambassador Huntsman's recent piece in the Wall Street Journal.
Michael Pettis: How China Can Avoid the Japan Trap (WSJ 2010.10.29)
A very insightful piece from Michael Pettis, professor of finance at Peking University and a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
World leaders don't agree on much economic policy these days, but one thing that does set heads nodding is the idea that China needs to rebalance its economy toward greater domestic consumption. The only question is how. Beijing clearly worries that making the transition too quickly could prove economically disruptive and politically destabilizing.
But China is not the first country to have attempted─willingly or otherwise─such a transition. Leaders in Beijing can look across the sea to Japan in particular for a case study in what to do, and what not to do, during such a transition.
Japan became an export powerhouse in the 1980s and '90s following a strategy very similar to what China does today: Policy makers discouraged household consumption by suppressing wages and holding interest rates on savings deposits artificially low. Meanwhile, they encouraged investment through cheap lending rates and subsidies on many inputs used by manufacturers, including socializing credit risk.
One consequence of this strategy is that households effectively subsidize manufacturers through the lower interest rate on savings that allows borrowers to pay lower rates, too. When Japan was still in an expansionary phase, and in China today, that amounts to hidden debt forgiveness because artificially low interest rates mean the present value of future payments can be less than the amount of money borrowed. Under these conditions, it makes sense to borrow even if the proceeds are invested in projects with low or even negative net present values.
In China now, the result also looks very similar to Japan then: a trade surplus the world increasingly is unable to absorb, and massively misallocated investment. This model also distorts the allocation of the proceeds of growth. During the last two decades of Japan's economic miracle, household income─and with it consumption─grew more slowly than overall GDP.
These similarities to Japan might cause unease among Chinese policy makers. But China can make the transition to domestic consumption more successfully by learning some Japanese lessons.
The first is related to debt. A major contributor to Japan's staggering debt level─approaching 200% of GDP in gross terms─has been efforts to transition to greater domestic demand with as little disruption as possible. Tokyo has used government money to clean up banks that had made uneconomic loans under the earlier industrial policy. It has also funded massive public-works spending in an effort to boost domestic demand. None of that spending has been very effective. Little of the money has filtered down to the consumer level.
Meanwhile, the amount of debt creates its own policy trap. Especially since so much of the debt is held domestically by Japanese savers, the same interest-rate subsidies households once were forced to offer to exporting companies now accrue to the government. This at least means Japan's debt may not be as burdensome as sometimes imagined─if interest rates are only half of what they should be, for instance, that would mean the true debt burden after factoring in implicit debt forgiveness is only half the nominal burden, or about 100% of GDP. That's high but manageable. Under conditions of deflation it is true that real rates are higher, but with nominal rates close to zero Japan can ignore the real debt burden as long as it can keep rolling over principal.
The problem is that the debt is only manageable as long as interest rates are kept low. If they rise to anywhere near a level that represents the true economic cost of capital, Japan's real debt burden will quickly rise to its nominal level. Yet continuing to suppress interest rates at the expense of households only slows the transition to consumption-led growth that Japan so badly needs. In effect, policy makers in Tokyo are forced to choose between hastening a growth-inducing rebalancing or servicing existing debt.
One lesson for Beijing is to avoid that trap. It may sound easy since national government debt as a percentage of GDP is only 20%. But factor in local-government and other contingent debt and the total percentage rises to well over 60%. And this is before the transition to domestic consumption has started in earnest. China must be careful to avoid Japan's practice of muting the effects of restructuring through unsustainable government spending.
The thought of allowing rebalancing to unfold without extending government aid to 'keep the peace' may sound scary to policy makers in Beijing keen to avoid any social disharmony. But here at least Japan offers a ray of hope to China: The rebalancing need not be as politically destabilizing as it sounds.
For 20 years one of the most puzzling questions for analysts was how the Japanese public accepted with such equanimity the collapse in growth after 1990. The answer is that some rebalancing was happening, albeit not fast enough.
Per-capita GDP stagnated. But consumption per capita tells a very different story. Adjusted for deflation and population shrinkage, real per-capita household consumption has grown only a little more slowly after 1990 than it did before 1990. The collapse in Japanese GDP growth did not come with a collapse in Japanese consumption growth because as the economy rebalanced, no matter how painfully, at least some wealth was transferred from the state and companies back to the household sector.
Social welfare transfers, higher real interest rates as a consequence of deflation, and a strengthening currency, helped transfer income from the government, from exporters, and from capital-intensive companies, to Japanese households. Most of the slowdown, in other words, was borne by businesses and governments.
These Japanese lessons suggest China doesn't need to fear rebalancing, as long as policy makers handle the process correctly. The key is to allow the transition to happen instead of trying to thwart it for fear of discontent that might well prove less scary than it sounds.
(Mr. Pettis is a professor of finance at Peking University and a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment. )
World leaders don't agree on much economic policy these days, but one thing that does set heads nodding is the idea that China needs to rebalance its economy toward greater domestic consumption. The only question is how. Beijing clearly worries that making the transition too quickly could prove economically disruptive and politically destabilizing.
But China is not the first country to have attempted─willingly or otherwise─such a transition. Leaders in Beijing can look across the sea to Japan in particular for a case study in what to do, and what not to do, during such a transition.
Japan became an export powerhouse in the 1980s and '90s following a strategy very similar to what China does today: Policy makers discouraged household consumption by suppressing wages and holding interest rates on savings deposits artificially low. Meanwhile, they encouraged investment through cheap lending rates and subsidies on many inputs used by manufacturers, including socializing credit risk.
One consequence of this strategy is that households effectively subsidize manufacturers through the lower interest rate on savings that allows borrowers to pay lower rates, too. When Japan was still in an expansionary phase, and in China today, that amounts to hidden debt forgiveness because artificially low interest rates mean the present value of future payments can be less than the amount of money borrowed. Under these conditions, it makes sense to borrow even if the proceeds are invested in projects with low or even negative net present values.
In China now, the result also looks very similar to Japan then: a trade surplus the world increasingly is unable to absorb, and massively misallocated investment. This model also distorts the allocation of the proceeds of growth. During the last two decades of Japan's economic miracle, household income─and with it consumption─grew more slowly than overall GDP.
These similarities to Japan might cause unease among Chinese policy makers. But China can make the transition to domestic consumption more successfully by learning some Japanese lessons.
The first is related to debt. A major contributor to Japan's staggering debt level─approaching 200% of GDP in gross terms─has been efforts to transition to greater domestic demand with as little disruption as possible. Tokyo has used government money to clean up banks that had made uneconomic loans under the earlier industrial policy. It has also funded massive public-works spending in an effort to boost domestic demand. None of that spending has been very effective. Little of the money has filtered down to the consumer level.
Meanwhile, the amount of debt creates its own policy trap. Especially since so much of the debt is held domestically by Japanese savers, the same interest-rate subsidies households once were forced to offer to exporting companies now accrue to the government. This at least means Japan's debt may not be as burdensome as sometimes imagined─if interest rates are only half of what they should be, for instance, that would mean the true debt burden after factoring in implicit debt forgiveness is only half the nominal burden, or about 100% of GDP. That's high but manageable. Under conditions of deflation it is true that real rates are higher, but with nominal rates close to zero Japan can ignore the real debt burden as long as it can keep rolling over principal.
The problem is that the debt is only manageable as long as interest rates are kept low. If they rise to anywhere near a level that represents the true economic cost of capital, Japan's real debt burden will quickly rise to its nominal level. Yet continuing to suppress interest rates at the expense of households only slows the transition to consumption-led growth that Japan so badly needs. In effect, policy makers in Tokyo are forced to choose between hastening a growth-inducing rebalancing or servicing existing debt.
One lesson for Beijing is to avoid that trap. It may sound easy since national government debt as a percentage of GDP is only 20%. But factor in local-government and other contingent debt and the total percentage rises to well over 60%. And this is before the transition to domestic consumption has started in earnest. China must be careful to avoid Japan's practice of muting the effects of restructuring through unsustainable government spending.
The thought of allowing rebalancing to unfold without extending government aid to 'keep the peace' may sound scary to policy makers in Beijing keen to avoid any social disharmony. But here at least Japan offers a ray of hope to China: The rebalancing need not be as politically destabilizing as it sounds.
For 20 years one of the most puzzling questions for analysts was how the Japanese public accepted with such equanimity the collapse in growth after 1990. The answer is that some rebalancing was happening, albeit not fast enough.
Per-capita GDP stagnated. But consumption per capita tells a very different story. Adjusted for deflation and population shrinkage, real per-capita household consumption has grown only a little more slowly after 1990 than it did before 1990. The collapse in Japanese GDP growth did not come with a collapse in Japanese consumption growth because as the economy rebalanced, no matter how painfully, at least some wealth was transferred from the state and companies back to the household sector.
Social welfare transfers, higher real interest rates as a consequence of deflation, and a strengthening currency, helped transfer income from the government, from exporters, and from capital-intensive companies, to Japanese households. Most of the slowdown, in other words, was borne by businesses and governments.
These Japanese lessons suggest China doesn't need to fear rebalancing, as long as policy makers handle the process correctly. The key is to allow the transition to happen instead of trying to thwart it for fear of discontent that might well prove less scary than it sounds.
(Mr. Pettis is a professor of finance at Peking University and a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment. )
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Niall Ferguson: In China’s Orbit
In China’s Orbit (WSJ 2010.11.18)
Not much new or surprising info - just a very readable 5-page summary by a first-rate economic historian, with an impeccable British accent.
Niall Ferguson is a professor of history at Harvard University and a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School.
Not much new or surprising info - just a very readable 5-page summary by a first-rate economic historian, with an impeccable British accent.
Niall Ferguson is a professor of history at Harvard University and a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School.
新闻两则
清华博士家被拆 公开信问责市长
北京城管称"蛋形小屋"属违建应拆除
网易浙江杭州网友 [狙击伪爱]：这孩子不是富二代、官二代，在这个城市里，在这个独生子女时代，他或许连个有血缘关系的亲戚都没有……他没有不学无术、他没有因为贫穷而犯罪、他没有给银行导致不良资产、他没有……他的收入在支付了寒酸的饭菜、基本的通讯、简单的御寒衣物后，已经所剩无几……快春节了，节约点儿租房的费用，买张黄牛站票，回家给父母尽点儿孝道……城管大人！饶了他吧！* 顶[36232]
北京城管称"蛋形小屋"属违建应拆除
网易浙江杭州网友 [狙击伪爱]：这孩子不是富二代、官二代，在这个城市里，在这个独生子女时代，他或许连个有血缘关系的亲戚都没有……他没有不学无术、他没有因为贫穷而犯罪、他没有给银行导致不良资产、他没有……他的收入在支付了寒酸的饭菜、基本的通讯、简单的御寒衣物后，已经所剩无几……快春节了，节约点儿租房的费用，买张黄牛站票，回家给父母尽点儿孝道……城管大人！饶了他吧！* 顶[36232]
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
一代文豪鲁迅的佛缘
来自 白人岩寺
一代文豪鲁迅的佛缘
鲁迅生于1881年，他的第一篇小说《狂人日记》写于1918年，时已37 岁，在此之前，主要是为日后的创作打坚实的基础，其中佛教思想和佛教文化正是坚实基础中的重要基石。鲁迅的挚友许寿裳在《亡友鲁迅印象记》中写道“民三以来，鲁迅开始看佛书，用功很猛，别人赶不上。”“民三”是1914年，我们看这一年的《鲁迅日记》，他购买了《释迦成道记》、《金刚般若经》、《发菩提心论》、《大乘起信论》等佛教书籍达80余种。他不仅自己看佛书，还不断地往家里寄，如4月寄《释迦如来应化事迹》三册，6月寄《佛教初学课本》等，7月寄《起信论》等七本，同月又寄《续高僧传》等。
1915年7月，鲁迅逐句校对高丽本《百喻经》，并在书后记下“以日本翻刻高丽宝本己丑年本校一过，异字悉出于上。”《百喻经》又名《百句譬如经》，是佛教寓言集，古印度僧伽斯那著，南朝齐时印度来华僧人求那毗地译。1915年鲁迅为母祝寿，特地托金陵刻经处刻印《百喻经》一百册，前后汇款洋60元。印成后尚有余资6元，又拨刻《地藏十轮经》。以后他曾将《百喻经》用来送人，如 1916年5月记“送朱造五《百喻经》一册”，可见佛教书籍在鲁迅心目中的地位。
1916年鲁迅在继续购买《净土经论》、《妙法莲华经》等书外，还买了大量的寺碑、庙碑、塔铭等佛教碑帖，这一年他以13个晚上抄录《法显传》共12900余字，并记入日记。《法显传》是记述东晋高僧法显等赴中印度寻求经律的事迹，法显为求取真经，渡流沙、越葱岭、泛沧海，在几十年时间里历尽千辛万苦。这种舍身求法的精神确实令人肃然起敬。1936年鲁迅在《中国人失掉自信力了吗？》一文中写道“我们从古以来，就有埋头苦干的人，有拼命硬干的人，有为民请命的人，有舍身求法的人。”认为“这就是中国的脊梁”，从而有力地驳斥了 “中国人失掉了自信力的”论调，指出“自信力的有无，状元宰相的文章是不足为据的。”
鲁迅与佛教的关系并不始于1914年，不仅此前他的“书帐”中就己记载购过佛教书籍，而且他年幼时寄名佛寺，拜长庆寺住持龙师父为师，师父赠以银八卦一件，上镌“三宝弟子法号长庚”。1936年已享盛名的鲁迅写了《我的第一个师父》一文，怀想“半个世纪以前的最初的先生”，感到“我们的交情依然存在的。”
毫无疑问，鲁迅现在也已被认作是“中国的脊梁”了，但至今人们在研究鲁迅时，却很少提到他与佛教的关系和佛学给他的滋养。现在做学问、写文章、搞创作的人虽多，但少有像鲁迅那样先打扎实的良好的文化修养基础，而是急于“出成果”，追求作品的问世数量，对于太多的浮躁、太多的的功利观念，我们的一些作者也要像鲁迅那样多接受一点佛教思想，多得到一点佛教文化的滋养。
一代文豪鲁迅的佛缘
鲁迅生于1881年，他的第一篇小说《狂人日记》写于1918年，时已37 岁，在此之前，主要是为日后的创作打坚实的基础，其中佛教思想和佛教文化正是坚实基础中的重要基石。鲁迅的挚友许寿裳在《亡友鲁迅印象记》中写道“民三以来，鲁迅开始看佛书，用功很猛，别人赶不上。”“民三”是1914年，我们看这一年的《鲁迅日记》，他购买了《释迦成道记》、《金刚般若经》、《发菩提心论》、《大乘起信论》等佛教书籍达80余种。他不仅自己看佛书，还不断地往家里寄，如4月寄《释迦如来应化事迹》三册，6月寄《佛教初学课本》等，7月寄《起信论》等七本，同月又寄《续高僧传》等。
1915年7月，鲁迅逐句校对高丽本《百喻经》，并在书后记下“以日本翻刻高丽宝本己丑年本校一过，异字悉出于上。”《百喻经》又名《百句譬如经》，是佛教寓言集，古印度僧伽斯那著，南朝齐时印度来华僧人求那毗地译。1915年鲁迅为母祝寿，特地托金陵刻经处刻印《百喻经》一百册，前后汇款洋60元。印成后尚有余资6元，又拨刻《地藏十轮经》。以后他曾将《百喻经》用来送人，如 1916年5月记“送朱造五《百喻经》一册”，可见佛教书籍在鲁迅心目中的地位。
1916年鲁迅在继续购买《净土经论》、《妙法莲华经》等书外，还买了大量的寺碑、庙碑、塔铭等佛教碑帖，这一年他以13个晚上抄录《法显传》共12900余字，并记入日记。《法显传》是记述东晋高僧法显等赴中印度寻求经律的事迹，法显为求取真经，渡流沙、越葱岭、泛沧海，在几十年时间里历尽千辛万苦。这种舍身求法的精神确实令人肃然起敬。1936年鲁迅在《中国人失掉自信力了吗？》一文中写道“我们从古以来，就有埋头苦干的人，有拼命硬干的人，有为民请命的人，有舍身求法的人。”认为“这就是中国的脊梁”，从而有力地驳斥了 “中国人失掉了自信力的”论调，指出“自信力的有无，状元宰相的文章是不足为据的。”
鲁迅与佛教的关系并不始于1914年，不仅此前他的“书帐”中就己记载购过佛教书籍，而且他年幼时寄名佛寺，拜长庆寺住持龙师父为师，师父赠以银八卦一件，上镌“三宝弟子法号长庚”。1936年已享盛名的鲁迅写了《我的第一个师父》一文，怀想“半个世纪以前的最初的先生”，感到“我们的交情依然存在的。”
毫无疑问，鲁迅现在也已被认作是“中国的脊梁”了，但至今人们在研究鲁迅时，却很少提到他与佛教的关系和佛学给他的滋养。现在做学问、写文章、搞创作的人虽多，但少有像鲁迅那样先打扎实的良好的文化修养基础，而是急于“出成果”，追求作品的问世数量，对于太多的浮躁、太多的的功利观念，我们的一些作者也要像鲁迅那样多接受一点佛教思想，多得到一点佛教文化的滋养。
Monday, November 29, 2010
一瓣心香
谓心中虔诚敬礼，如燃香供佛。 宋 王十朋 《行可生日》诗：“祝公寿共诗书久，一瓣心香已敬焚。”《花月痕》第五一回：“次日， 荷生 仍来 汾神庙 ，与 心印 共坐一车，一瓣心香，数行情泪。”《儿女英雄传》第二五回：“﹝ 何小姐 ﹞心里想道：‘这瓣香两个字倒还容易明白，只是题在卧房门上不对啊。这卧房里可一瓣心香的供奉谁呢？’” 方荣杲 《题红薇感旧记》诗：“爰将感旧从头记，一瓣心香缕缕铭。” 董必武 《酬唐虞政》诗：“悄然曾謁 五公祠 ，一瓣心香只念兹。”参见“ 一瓣香 ”。
注：红薇感旧记
难得蛾眉解爱才 (from idoican.com.cn 爱读爱看)
为听潇湘风雨哀，伤心大地尽为虺。变名投止怜张禄，难得蛾眉解爱才。
拈花微笑手亲携，转瞬飘茵意惨凄。但祝东风好将去，莫随飞絮化春泥。
——姚光《题钝根红薇感旧记》
傅熊湘（1883-1930），字文渠，别署钝根，又号“红薇生”，是清末民初湖南著名诗人、教育家，也是一位革命者。早在光绪三十一年（1905），他就开始主编《竞业旬报》，次年又加入同盟会，与友人在上海创办《洞庭波》杂志，宣传反清思想，鼓吹推翻帝制；其后他又加入同盟会的外围组织南社，成为社中的骨干分子。辛亥革命后，袁世凯窃任大总统，继而图谋帝制，傅熊湘又在报刊连续发表文章反袁。民国二年（1913），袁世凯的爪牙汤芗铭任湖南都督，傅熊湘遭到通缉，无处容身，最后在友人的介绍下，傅熊湘藏匿到妓女黄玉娇家中。尽管黄玉娇当时已经脱籍并且闭门谢客，但是听说傅熊湘的事迹之后，黄玉娇冒着极大的风险毅然收容了他，并且不畏周围的谣诼和闲话，一直陪伴着傅熊湘，两人度过了一段才子佳人相知相赏的日子。直到1916年，袁世凯已死，汤芗铭也被逐出湖南，傅熊湘才重获自由。之后黄玉娇从良另嫁，一段因缘也就此结束。
为了表彰黄玉娇的侠肝义胆，更为了纪念这段非常的遇合，傅熊湘写了《红薇感旧记》，并且在南社社友之中广征题咏，并结集为《红薇感旧记题咏集》单行，上面这两首诗就是南社后期负责人、著名学者和诗人姚光所作。第一首说湖南大地天愁地惨，恶势力横行，革命志士只能隐姓埋名四处逃亡，而黄玉娇敢于收留傅熊湘，如此爱才的女子真是难得；第二首说他们曾经有过美好的日子，但最终还是分开了，他只能给她最衷心的祝福。也许在很多人看来，他们没有走到一起似乎有些遗憾，其实未必，因为他们是江湖儿女、患难知音，甚至也可以说是革命战友，这种介乎友情与爱情之间的情感，谁说不是最纯粹、最可贵的情感？
方荣杲
题《红薇感旧记》
侠女芳名称玉娇，玲珑妩媚小蛮腰。
能将慧眼看才子，慷慨悲歌慰寂寥。
爰将感旧从头记，一瓣心香缕缕铭。
注：红薇感旧记
难得蛾眉解爱才 (from idoican.com.cn 爱读爱看)
为听潇湘风雨哀，伤心大地尽为虺。变名投止怜张禄，难得蛾眉解爱才。
拈花微笑手亲携，转瞬飘茵意惨凄。但祝东风好将去，莫随飞絮化春泥。
——姚光《题钝根红薇感旧记》
傅熊湘（1883-1930），字文渠，别署钝根，又号“红薇生”，是清末民初湖南著名诗人、教育家，也是一位革命者。早在光绪三十一年（1905），他就开始主编《竞业旬报》，次年又加入同盟会，与友人在上海创办《洞庭波》杂志，宣传反清思想，鼓吹推翻帝制；其后他又加入同盟会的外围组织南社，成为社中的骨干分子。辛亥革命后，袁世凯窃任大总统，继而图谋帝制，傅熊湘又在报刊连续发表文章反袁。民国二年（1913），袁世凯的爪牙汤芗铭任湖南都督，傅熊湘遭到通缉，无处容身，最后在友人的介绍下，傅熊湘藏匿到妓女黄玉娇家中。尽管黄玉娇当时已经脱籍并且闭门谢客，但是听说傅熊湘的事迹之后，黄玉娇冒着极大的风险毅然收容了他，并且不畏周围的谣诼和闲话，一直陪伴着傅熊湘，两人度过了一段才子佳人相知相赏的日子。直到1916年，袁世凯已死，汤芗铭也被逐出湖南，傅熊湘才重获自由。之后黄玉娇从良另嫁，一段因缘也就此结束。
为了表彰黄玉娇的侠肝义胆，更为了纪念这段非常的遇合，傅熊湘写了《红薇感旧记》，并且在南社社友之中广征题咏，并结集为《红薇感旧记题咏集》单行，上面这两首诗就是南社后期负责人、著名学者和诗人姚光所作。第一首说湖南大地天愁地惨，恶势力横行，革命志士只能隐姓埋名四处逃亡，而黄玉娇敢于收留傅熊湘，如此爱才的女子真是难得；第二首说他们曾经有过美好的日子，但最终还是分开了，他只能给她最衷心的祝福。也许在很多人看来，他们没有走到一起似乎有些遗憾，其实未必，因为他们是江湖儿女、患难知音，甚至也可以说是革命战友，这种介乎友情与爱情之间的情感，谁说不是最纯粹、最可贵的情感？
方荣杲
题《红薇感旧记》
侠女芳名称玉娇，玲珑妩媚小蛮腰。
能将慧眼看才子，慷慨悲歌慰寂寥。
爰将感旧从头记，一瓣心香缕缕铭。
Sunday, November 28, 2010
台湾五都选举竞选宣传片欣赏
这就是2010年的中国：在这里你上不了Facebook，但会有用心的媒体人制作台湾五都选举的竞选宣传片专辑，放在中国最大的门户网站上。
Such is China in 2010: Facebook remains blocked, but editors of the most popular internet portal in China manage to put together aesthetically laudable, eye-pleasing campaign ads from the latest Taiwan elections, and not being censored -- so far.
台湾五都选举竞选宣传片欣赏
“我知道：你是这样的人，你宁愿当外星人也不想当有颜色的人。你不愿盲目的讲出爱台湾，但你心里一直都很在乎。我知道，你从来都不是局外人。你的选择将决定这片土地的未来。”苏贞昌《你有权改变的不只是一座城市》
Such is China in 2010: Facebook remains blocked, but editors of the most popular internet portal in China manage to put together aesthetically laudable, eye-pleasing campaign ads from the latest Taiwan elections, and not being censored -- so far.
台湾五都选举竞选宣传片欣赏
“我知道：你是这样的人，你宁愿当外星人也不想当有颜色的人。你不愿盲目的讲出爱台湾，但你心里一直都很在乎。我知道，你从来都不是局外人。你的选择将决定这片土地的未来。”苏贞昌《你有权改变的不只是一座城市》
Facebook Fading Fast in China (2009.10.27)
From Patrick Chovanec's blog.
I came across a rather astounding set of numbers yesterday, posted on Shanghaiist.com. As you probably already know, access to Facebook — as well as YouTube and Twitter – have been blocked in China since July. The ban came in apparent response to two events that greatly alarmed China’s leaders: the disputed election in Iran, where all three social networking sites provided citizens with a vital tool for coordinating protests and broadcasting information, and the deadly ethnic riots in Xinjiang, in far western China. No official explanation was given, but most people held out hope that the block might be lifted after China’s sensitive 60th Anniversary took place on October 1st. So far, no such luck.
I came across a rather astounding set of numbers yesterday, posted on Shanghaiist.com. As you probably already know, access to Facebook — as well as YouTube and Twitter – have been blocked in China since July. The ban came in apparent response to two events that greatly alarmed China’s leaders: the disputed election in Iran, where all three social networking sites provided citizens with a vital tool for coordinating protests and broadcasting information, and the deadly ethnic riots in Xinjiang, in far western China. No official explanation was given, but most people held out hope that the block might be lifted after China’s sensitive 60th Anniversary took place on October 1st. So far, no such luck.
With the largest number of Internet users in the world, China is a critical market for all three companies. They must be feeling the pinch, but I had no idea how hard they are feeling it under I saw the following figures. According to the Global Facebook Monitor report issued by Inside Facebook, in July — the month it was first blocked – Facebook had one million monthly active users in China. The figure dropped to half a million in August, before collapsing to 41,000 in early September and finally, at the start of October, just 14,000 users. Essentially, Facebook’s entire customer base in China has been wiped out in three months.
The remaining hold-outs must be accessing Facebook using a VPN (Virtual Private Network, or encrypted proxy server) like I do. You also need a VPN to read this blog from China, since most blog hosting sites (such as WordPress) are entirely blocked. If I ever go radio silent, you’ll know that China has finally pulled the plug on the VPNs. It could do so (simply by blocking any encrypted messages heading in or out), but has only interfered with them sporadically in the past because businesses — both foreign and Chinese – rely heavily on VPNs to access the Internet securely.
None of this, of course, helps Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter. Some speculate that “security” concerns are only part of the equation, a convenient excuse to favor home-grown social networking sites by blocking out foreign competition. Several of these sites are planning IPOs in the near future, so the “help” comes at a very convenient time. And from the government’s point of view, domestic Chinese sites can be more easily monitored and controlled. In the meantime, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are watching their largest potential market slip away, with barely a peep of protest.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
生命的呐喊：悼念蔡定剑
生命的呐喊：悼念蔡定剑
雷 颐
虽然与蔡定剑兄认识多年，但来往并不多。仅有的两三次见面，也还是在人数不少的讨论会上，彼此点头而已。不过，他的文章、著述，我大都认真阅读。他是国内一流的法学家，对民主的理论与实践、法治、宪政等，都有深刻的研究，与其他学者相比，他的过人之处在于曾长期在全国人大工作，因此对中国的法津制定、有关程序、实施效果等有更多的实际经验，而不是像许多学者那样，完全“从书本到书本”。因此，他的论述往往更切合实际，更有“问题意识”，更中肯綮。在 2010年元月的全国图书定货会上，我作为“专家”推荐的几本书中，就有他的《民主是一种现代生活》（社会科学文献出版社2010年1月版）。没想到，不久就听说他身染沉疴，近于不治。辗转打听到他的电话，去电问候。电话中传来疲弱的声音，他正在散步，说还在写文章，还要参加一些研讨会。后来，仍陆续读到他的文章和发言，我知道，这是他的生命的呐喊、最后的呐喊。我暗自祷盼出现奇迹，让他能写得更多、说得更多。然而，今晨收到短信，他已在今天（11月22 日）凌晨3时去世。《民主是一种现代生活》可能是他最后的著作，因此，我以为此书写评作为对他的追思、怀念。
“民主”是产生于古希腊雅典的国家制度形态，在民主的制度发展中经历过“直接民主”、“代议民主”等阶段。历史证明，雅典“多数人统治”的直接民主很有可能造成“多数人的暴政”，因此发展出现代“代议制民主”以防此弊。代议制民主以平等、自由选举为基础，虽然以人民主权、多数人统治为基础，但同时又对多数人权力实行分权和制约，民主必须是权力分散和多元化的。所谓代议制民主，正如定剑所言，其实质是：“人民通过普遍选举产生属于人民主权的政府，政府实行分权统治、相互制衡，以防止权力的滥用和多数人或任何个人专断的政体。”“把古希腊简单多数人的直接民主，转变成一套多数人选举、少数人统治、实行分权制衡的代议制民主。即使还有多数统治，也要保护少数，以法律约束多数的权力，多数人的意志，也不能侵犯个人的基本人权。”但20世纪30年代民主的危机、纳粹的暴政，使人们认识到代议制民主仍有不足，引起人们对代议制民主的深刻反思。“这些反思使人们对代议制民主有了新的认识，所导致的结果就是违宪审查制度的发展和国际人权保障制度的建立，它们在制度上大大完善了民主，在很大程度上建立起了防止多数人暴政的制度措施。”现代民主理论认为，实现民主目标最基本的前提是以法治确保公民的个人自由，从而防止民主走向自己的反面：多数专政。
民主制度、民主理论是开放体系，并不讳言自身的不足、缺陷，从不认为自身是一种尽善尽美、不容质疑、不能批评的“绝对真理”，因此，民主理论和制度一直有许多新的重大发展。现代民主制度的发展，从议会民主发展到公众参与式民主和协商性民主等更为广泛的社会民主形式。“现行各国的民主已不仅是通过选举产生的议会讨论和决策，还包括利益集团的影响和街头行动，非政府组织的广泛参与，第四权力媒体无所不在的监督。”这些都已超出了选举议会式的民主模式，据此，定剑认为：“民主已不仅是一种国家制度的形态，而且成了一种社会形态和广大公众的生活方式。”所以，当代民主制度和理论的发展已在相当程度上纠正了“直接民主”和“选举民主”的缺陷，当然，并非尽善尽美。
然而，我国一些反对民主制度、民主理论的学者却罔顾事实，即现代意义上的民主已经不是反对者所简单化的“多数决定论”，也不是片面的“选举式民主”，他们或以“多数暴政”、“选举式民主”的缺陷来反对、否定民主，或以民主不要法治、不要自由来反对、否定民主。因此，他们“如果不是对民主的无知，就是对民主的有意歪曲。”
一些反对民主的学者把法治与民主人为地对立起来，强调“只要法治，不要民主”，甚至认为民主是对法治的破坏。对此，定剑作了非常深入的分析与批评。他认为，法治的两要素一是普遍服从法律，二是法律本身应是“良法”。虽然专制统治者有时也能制定一两部“良法”，但专制政府的法律总体上是一家之私法，是“著之于官府，施之于百姓”的治民之法。虽然民主社会也会制定“恶法”，但从总体上说，民主政府比专制政府制定的恶法要少得多。他的分析还表明，现代法治更强调民主性。政治民主是法治的必要条件，法律需要一个有效的政府来维护，但是，有效的政府要受立法权、也就是民主权力的制约。当然，有民主不一定有法治，但没有基本民主，就不可能有法治。他认为，现代法治更依赖于民主，没有民主就没有现代法治，这是“法治”与“法制”的根本区别。他的分析说明，中国反民主的 “法治主义者”其实是以“法制”取代“法治”。“法制”是专制统治者的工具，而“法治”不仅政府统治的工具更是人民管理和控制政府的工具。没有民主，就做不到后面这一点。“现代意义上的法治是民主制度产生以后才有的，在民主制度产生以前只有法制，没有法治。”
任何社会都有矛盾，都有程度不等的公民不满、公民抱怨，这些矛盾往往是平时的“日常生活”中积累而成，当这些不满和抱怨积累到一定程度就会在议会中、甚至以较为激烈的形式，如街头政治的形式表现出来。化解日常生活中的矛盾，是社会和谐稳定的重要保证。在议会民主制国家，这些矛盾相当程度是通过向议员投诉解决。新加坡的国会议员正常情况下每周必须有一个晚上接待选民，这个晚上通常要接待四五十个选民的投诉。美国国会议员有两个办公室，一个是起草法律议案的，另外一个办公室在他的家乡，负责接待选民。他也是每周必须回去一次，到选区处理有关信件和投诉。他们处理的，都是大都是百姓生活中的小事。在这种制度下，社会矛盾要靠议会民主制消除，公民的投诉的问题要靠议员来解决。定剑认为：“我们的人大和人大代表没有发挥这样的作用，所以，老百姓的小事变成了大事，而且当地解决不了就都跑到北京来，上访的群众经常集聚一大群。”当前社会出现众多矛盾、纠纷，根本上要靠民主和民意来解决，他尤其强调要从“源头”上解决问题。如何解决、至少是减少矛盾、减弱矛盾的强调，他建议要充分发挥各级人大、各级人大代表的作用，因为中国有2800多万各级人大代表，如果这2800万全国人大代表都能发挥作用，接待访民、解决问题，就不会有那样多的老百姓到北京“上访”。但这是一个制度性问题，“就是建立代表与选民的责任制度，就是应该让人大发挥作用，就是要让人大代表有力、有动力帮助选民解决问题，那就有社会的安定和稳定”。定剑的设想和建议确是“维稳”的根本之途，否则只能是“刚性维稳”、“硬性维稳”，甚至一些地方政府要在北京雇佣“黑保安公司”拦截、关押访民，以违法手段“维稳”，最后的结果是更加不稳。
不短的全国人大工作经验使定剑认识到，现在人大制度面临这样的局面：人们对它的要求和希望很高，但它却不能发挥应有的作用；有一些活跃代表会提一些议案，反映百姓要求，但效果并不明显。所以：“这个制度是需要改革的，所有的问题根本在于没有建立代表对人民的责任制。”他进一步问道：为什么一些西方议员那么负责？不辞辛苦接待选民、帮选民解决问题？并非因为他们是慈善家，而是因为他们是和一种政治利益结合在一起的，这个政治利益就是选民的选票。“要想当国会议员就要争取选票，他们想争取选票就要帮助老百姓解决些问题，不然的话老百姓就不投他们的票。很简单，不管他们的动机是什么，但是这个制度的安排使这此不管是野心家还是什么人必须顺着民意来，他们必须争取选票，得不到这个选票他们就选不上。”相反，“我们的问题就在于没有真正实行公开竞争，代表还是组织安排的，他们只希望争取组织的信任，而不是选民的信任。这是很重要的。如果是老百姓选的代表，就必须考虑老百姓的利益，发言和表决，是不是反映了选民的意见，老百姓都知道。他们必须依着老百姓的意图来，这就靠选举制度起作用。”“所以人大制度不改革不行，人大制度改革，应先从选举改革开始。”
当然，人大制度的改革还涉及人大代表人数、会期长短、代表专职化、专家当代表、官员当代表的利弊等许多具体问题，对此，定剑在本书中都有具体论述。他认为，现在人大代表人数太多、会期太短，大大减弱人大能力。因为人数越多集中意见越困难，最后还是少数几个人作决定；人大是靠开会行使权力，会期太短必然严重影响人大权能。增强人大权能必须减少目前的人大代表人数，同时大大延长会期，而延长会期的一个必然要求就是代表专职化。另外，对专家型代表加入人大代表行列、官员当人大代表，他认为各有利弊，但决定是利是弊的关键还在于谁决定专家的人大代表身份、谁决定官员的人大代表身份。所以，关键还是在于“马克思认为民主选举的四个要素：普遍、平等、直接、秘密投票”。
实证研究，是本书的另一特色。定剑兼任北京大学“人民代表大会与议会研究中心”执行主任，在他的主持下该中心在全国约20个地区发放了2500份问卷，对公民素质与民主选举作了问卷调查。问卷围绕选举设计了56个问题，得出了150多页的统计分析数据。
书中以图表形式罗列大量数据本文无法记述。这些数据表明，那些一向被认为是愚昧的、落后的、不懂得何谓民主的农民，对村委会的选举的热情远高于城市居民、大学生和知识分子对人大代表的选举。他对各种数据的分析说明：“政治觉悟、教育程度和经济发展水平在一定程度上影响公民的选举意识和投票行为。但是，对公民的投票行为普遍、始终起决定作用的是利益关系。”任何一种选举与公民的个人利益有直接关系时，公民就会积极参与，反之，公民就表现冷淡、逃避。所以， “中国人的素质太低，搞不以民主”的理论根本站不住脚。实地调查的结论仍然是：“我们应该认真考虑选举制度的改革问题，把选举制度改革尽快提上议事日程。选举制度改革的方向就是让选举出的代表真正代表人民的根本利益，让选举制度与选民的利益建立起真正的联系，让选举行为真正能表达人民的意志，让选举成为真实民主的，而不是虚假的、形式主义的政治宣传。”
这，是他发自生命深处的呐喊。定剑兄，走好！
雷 颐
虽然与蔡定剑兄认识多年，但来往并不多。仅有的两三次见面，也还是在人数不少的讨论会上，彼此点头而已。不过，他的文章、著述，我大都认真阅读。他是国内一流的法学家，对民主的理论与实践、法治、宪政等，都有深刻的研究，与其他学者相比，他的过人之处在于曾长期在全国人大工作，因此对中国的法津制定、有关程序、实施效果等有更多的实际经验，而不是像许多学者那样，完全“从书本到书本”。因此，他的论述往往更切合实际，更有“问题意识”，更中肯綮。在 2010年元月的全国图书定货会上，我作为“专家”推荐的几本书中，就有他的《民主是一种现代生活》（社会科学文献出版社2010年1月版）。没想到，不久就听说他身染沉疴，近于不治。辗转打听到他的电话，去电问候。电话中传来疲弱的声音，他正在散步，说还在写文章，还要参加一些研讨会。后来，仍陆续读到他的文章和发言，我知道，这是他的生命的呐喊、最后的呐喊。我暗自祷盼出现奇迹，让他能写得更多、说得更多。然而，今晨收到短信，他已在今天（11月22 日）凌晨3时去世。《民主是一种现代生活》可能是他最后的著作，因此，我以为此书写评作为对他的追思、怀念。
“民主”是产生于古希腊雅典的国家制度形态，在民主的制度发展中经历过“直接民主”、“代议民主”等阶段。历史证明，雅典“多数人统治”的直接民主很有可能造成“多数人的暴政”，因此发展出现代“代议制民主”以防此弊。代议制民主以平等、自由选举为基础，虽然以人民主权、多数人统治为基础，但同时又对多数人权力实行分权和制约，民主必须是权力分散和多元化的。所谓代议制民主，正如定剑所言，其实质是：“人民通过普遍选举产生属于人民主权的政府，政府实行分权统治、相互制衡，以防止权力的滥用和多数人或任何个人专断的政体。”“把古希腊简单多数人的直接民主，转变成一套多数人选举、少数人统治、实行分权制衡的代议制民主。即使还有多数统治，也要保护少数，以法律约束多数的权力，多数人的意志，也不能侵犯个人的基本人权。”但20世纪30年代民主的危机、纳粹的暴政，使人们认识到代议制民主仍有不足，引起人们对代议制民主的深刻反思。“这些反思使人们对代议制民主有了新的认识，所导致的结果就是违宪审查制度的发展和国际人权保障制度的建立，它们在制度上大大完善了民主，在很大程度上建立起了防止多数人暴政的制度措施。”现代民主理论认为，实现民主目标最基本的前提是以法治确保公民的个人自由，从而防止民主走向自己的反面：多数专政。
民主制度、民主理论是开放体系，并不讳言自身的不足、缺陷，从不认为自身是一种尽善尽美、不容质疑、不能批评的“绝对真理”，因此，民主理论和制度一直有许多新的重大发展。现代民主制度的发展，从议会民主发展到公众参与式民主和协商性民主等更为广泛的社会民主形式。“现行各国的民主已不仅是通过选举产生的议会讨论和决策，还包括利益集团的影响和街头行动，非政府组织的广泛参与，第四权力媒体无所不在的监督。”这些都已超出了选举议会式的民主模式，据此，定剑认为：“民主已不仅是一种国家制度的形态，而且成了一种社会形态和广大公众的生活方式。”所以，当代民主制度和理论的发展已在相当程度上纠正了“直接民主”和“选举民主”的缺陷，当然，并非尽善尽美。
然而，我国一些反对民主制度、民主理论的学者却罔顾事实，即现代意义上的民主已经不是反对者所简单化的“多数决定论”，也不是片面的“选举式民主”，他们或以“多数暴政”、“选举式民主”的缺陷来反对、否定民主，或以民主不要法治、不要自由来反对、否定民主。因此，他们“如果不是对民主的无知，就是对民主的有意歪曲。”
一些反对民主的学者把法治与民主人为地对立起来，强调“只要法治，不要民主”，甚至认为民主是对法治的破坏。对此，定剑作了非常深入的分析与批评。他认为，法治的两要素一是普遍服从法律，二是法律本身应是“良法”。虽然专制统治者有时也能制定一两部“良法”，但专制政府的法律总体上是一家之私法，是“著之于官府，施之于百姓”的治民之法。虽然民主社会也会制定“恶法”，但从总体上说，民主政府比专制政府制定的恶法要少得多。他的分析还表明，现代法治更强调民主性。政治民主是法治的必要条件，法律需要一个有效的政府来维护，但是，有效的政府要受立法权、也就是民主权力的制约。当然，有民主不一定有法治，但没有基本民主，就不可能有法治。他认为，现代法治更依赖于民主，没有民主就没有现代法治，这是“法治”与“法制”的根本区别。他的分析说明，中国反民主的 “法治主义者”其实是以“法制”取代“法治”。“法制”是专制统治者的工具，而“法治”不仅政府统治的工具更是人民管理和控制政府的工具。没有民主，就做不到后面这一点。“现代意义上的法治是民主制度产生以后才有的，在民主制度产生以前只有法制，没有法治。”
任何社会都有矛盾，都有程度不等的公民不满、公民抱怨，这些矛盾往往是平时的“日常生活”中积累而成，当这些不满和抱怨积累到一定程度就会在议会中、甚至以较为激烈的形式，如街头政治的形式表现出来。化解日常生活中的矛盾，是社会和谐稳定的重要保证。在议会民主制国家，这些矛盾相当程度是通过向议员投诉解决。新加坡的国会议员正常情况下每周必须有一个晚上接待选民，这个晚上通常要接待四五十个选民的投诉。美国国会议员有两个办公室，一个是起草法律议案的，另外一个办公室在他的家乡，负责接待选民。他也是每周必须回去一次，到选区处理有关信件和投诉。他们处理的，都是大都是百姓生活中的小事。在这种制度下，社会矛盾要靠议会民主制消除，公民的投诉的问题要靠议员来解决。定剑认为：“我们的人大和人大代表没有发挥这样的作用，所以，老百姓的小事变成了大事，而且当地解决不了就都跑到北京来，上访的群众经常集聚一大群。”当前社会出现众多矛盾、纠纷，根本上要靠民主和民意来解决，他尤其强调要从“源头”上解决问题。如何解决、至少是减少矛盾、减弱矛盾的强调，他建议要充分发挥各级人大、各级人大代表的作用，因为中国有2800多万各级人大代表，如果这2800万全国人大代表都能发挥作用，接待访民、解决问题，就不会有那样多的老百姓到北京“上访”。但这是一个制度性问题，“就是建立代表与选民的责任制度，就是应该让人大发挥作用，就是要让人大代表有力、有动力帮助选民解决问题，那就有社会的安定和稳定”。定剑的设想和建议确是“维稳”的根本之途，否则只能是“刚性维稳”、“硬性维稳”，甚至一些地方政府要在北京雇佣“黑保安公司”拦截、关押访民，以违法手段“维稳”，最后的结果是更加不稳。
不短的全国人大工作经验使定剑认识到，现在人大制度面临这样的局面：人们对它的要求和希望很高，但它却不能发挥应有的作用；有一些活跃代表会提一些议案，反映百姓要求，但效果并不明显。所以：“这个制度是需要改革的，所有的问题根本在于没有建立代表对人民的责任制。”他进一步问道：为什么一些西方议员那么负责？不辞辛苦接待选民、帮选民解决问题？并非因为他们是慈善家，而是因为他们是和一种政治利益结合在一起的，这个政治利益就是选民的选票。“要想当国会议员就要争取选票，他们想争取选票就要帮助老百姓解决些问题，不然的话老百姓就不投他们的票。很简单，不管他们的动机是什么，但是这个制度的安排使这此不管是野心家还是什么人必须顺着民意来，他们必须争取选票，得不到这个选票他们就选不上。”相反，“我们的问题就在于没有真正实行公开竞争，代表还是组织安排的，他们只希望争取组织的信任，而不是选民的信任。这是很重要的。如果是老百姓选的代表，就必须考虑老百姓的利益，发言和表决，是不是反映了选民的意见，老百姓都知道。他们必须依着老百姓的意图来，这就靠选举制度起作用。”“所以人大制度不改革不行，人大制度改革，应先从选举改革开始。”
当然，人大制度的改革还涉及人大代表人数、会期长短、代表专职化、专家当代表、官员当代表的利弊等许多具体问题，对此，定剑在本书中都有具体论述。他认为，现在人大代表人数太多、会期太短，大大减弱人大能力。因为人数越多集中意见越困难，最后还是少数几个人作决定；人大是靠开会行使权力，会期太短必然严重影响人大权能。增强人大权能必须减少目前的人大代表人数，同时大大延长会期，而延长会期的一个必然要求就是代表专职化。另外，对专家型代表加入人大代表行列、官员当人大代表，他认为各有利弊，但决定是利是弊的关键还在于谁决定专家的人大代表身份、谁决定官员的人大代表身份。所以，关键还是在于“马克思认为民主选举的四个要素：普遍、平等、直接、秘密投票”。
实证研究，是本书的另一特色。定剑兼任北京大学“人民代表大会与议会研究中心”执行主任，在他的主持下该中心在全国约20个地区发放了2500份问卷，对公民素质与民主选举作了问卷调查。问卷围绕选举设计了56个问题，得出了150多页的统计分析数据。
书中以图表形式罗列大量数据本文无法记述。这些数据表明，那些一向被认为是愚昧的、落后的、不懂得何谓民主的农民，对村委会的选举的热情远高于城市居民、大学生和知识分子对人大代表的选举。他对各种数据的分析说明：“政治觉悟、教育程度和经济发展水平在一定程度上影响公民的选举意识和投票行为。但是，对公民的投票行为普遍、始终起决定作用的是利益关系。”任何一种选举与公民的个人利益有直接关系时，公民就会积极参与，反之，公民就表现冷淡、逃避。所以， “中国人的素质太低，搞不以民主”的理论根本站不住脚。实地调查的结论仍然是：“我们应该认真考虑选举制度的改革问题，把选举制度改革尽快提上议事日程。选举制度改革的方向就是让选举出的代表真正代表人民的根本利益，让选举制度与选民的利益建立起真正的联系，让选举行为真正能表达人民的意志，让选举成为真实民主的，而不是虚假的、形式主义的政治宣传。”
这，是他发自生命深处的呐喊。定剑兄，走好！
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Days of Heaven
http://www.varsity.co.uk/fashion/2877
Varsity, the independent Cambridge University student newspaper since 1947.
Varsity, the independent Cambridge University student newspaper since 1947.
Days of Heaven
Photographed and styled by Louise Benson and Jess Kwong
With special thanks to The North Circular.
FOR MORE IMAGES GO TO VARSITYFASHION.TUMBLR.COM
Braid cable necklace THE NORTH CIRCULAR. Boots FRYE.
Fur hat VINTAGE.
Dark knight's hood THE NORTH CIRCULAR. Cape COS. Boots FRYE.
Cable hood scarf THE NORTH CIRCULAR.
Fur hood NICHOLAS K. Jumper VINTAGE. Boots FRYE.
Fur hat VINTAGE. Cardigan VINTAGE.
Huang Hua, 97, a Diplomat Who Served China, Dies
November 24, 2010
Huang Hua, 97, a Diplomat Who Served China, Dies
By DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI — Huang Hua, a Communist Party revolutionary who was China’s foreign minister during the 1970s and early 1980s and helped China restore diplomatic relations with the United States, died Wednesday in Beijing. He was 97.
The cause was complications of lung failure and kidney failure, his daughter-in-law, Dede Nickerson, said.
A loyal deputy to Zhou Enlai, then the prime minister, Mr. Huang was an amiable statesman at a time when China was moving to end decades of international isolation. Backed by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, those efforts set the stage for the country’s spectacular rise in the past three decades.
As a senior diplomat with excellent English, Mr. Huang was known for his toothy smile and conservative brand of diplomacy. Henry A. Kissinger, the former secretary of state, called him “one of the ablest public servants I have ever met” and a “trusted friend.”
He met Mr. Kissinger during the secret trip Mr. Kissinger made to Beijing in 1971 as President Richard M. Nixon’s national security adviser. He also negotiated with a series of American presidents, including Jimmy Carter, George Bush and Ronald Reagan, and he served as China’s first ambassador to Canada.
In late 1971, Mr. Huang was named China’s first permanent representative to the United Nations, taking up the post shortly after Beijing gained a United Nations seat.
As foreign minister, he held talks that led to the signing of a peace and friendship treaty with Japan, and he negotiated with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain regarding the 1997 transfer of Hong Kong to China.
When Beijing ordered him to be tough, he was. After the United States and China resumed diplomatic relations in 1979, he accused the United States of backtracking on its promises when it continued to sell weapons to Taiwan, which China continues to regard as a renegade province.
But Mr. Huang is perhaps best known for a secret trip he undertook as a college student in Beijing. In 1936, with China ravaged by civil war and Japanese aggression, he agreed to serve as an interpreter for the American journalist Edgar Snow, who had arranged to travel to a remote part of north China to meet a band of Communist rebels, including Mao.
With Mr. Huang’s help, Mr. Snow wrote a series of newspaper articles that created a sensation and led to the publication of “Red Star Over China,” a best seller and one of the first detailed accounts of Mao and the Chinese Communists.
Mr. Snow was later accused of writing Communist propaganda. He denied any bias but eventually moved to Switzerland, where he died in 1972. Mr. Huang visited him shortly before his death.
Huang Hua was born in January 1913 as Wang Rumei, the son of a teacher in Hebei Province, in northern China. After he joined the Communist Party, he changed his name to Huang Hua.
In the 1930s, Mr. Huang was a student leader in Beijing at Yanjing University, which was run by American missionaries. Like many college students at the time, he demonstrated against Japanese military action in China. He even helped form the December 9th Movement, named for the date of an anti-Japanese protest in Beijing.
After being detained by the police following a demonstration, he hid in the home of Mr. Snow and his wife, Helen Foster Snow, who was also a journalist. Mr. Snow was then teaching at Yanjing, and Mr. Huang was his student.
In 1936, Mr. Snow arranged to travel to the Soviet region of north China, which was then under blockade by the Nationalist Chinese government. Mr. Huang, who had already secretly joined the Communist Party, agreed to serve as an interpreter.
In Shaanxi Province, in northern China, Mr. Huang was one of several interpreters Mr. Snow depended on when he interviewed top Communist rebels. He translated Mr. Snow’s notes into Chinese and then shared them with Mao to determine if they were accurate, Mr. Huang wrote in his memoir.
After Mr. Snow returned to Beijing, Mr. Huang stayed in the region to aid the revolution. In the 1940s, he was a special assistant to Zhu De, a top Communist military strategist, and married He Liliang, who had moved to the area with her father, an adviser to Mao.
Mr. Huang also served as an interpreter for the United States Army Observer Group, which traveled to Yan’an to meet with Mao and other rebel leaders after the American-backed Chinese Nationalists formed an alliance with the Communists to fight Japan.
After the Communists took power in 1949, Mr. Huang joined the Foreign Ministry and negotiated the closing of the United States mission in China with John Leighton Stuart, the United States ambassador to China and a former dean of Yanjing University.
Mr. Huang participated in talks to end the Korean War and the Geneva Conference in 1954. He served as China’s ambassador to Ghana and Egypt between 1960 and 1969, when he returned during the Cultural Revolution because of the social and political upheaval Mao had created.
On his return, he and his wife were forced to work on farms in two different regions of the country. But in 1970, when Mr. Snow was preparing to travel to Beijing to meet again with Mao, Mr. Huang was called back to Beijing to serve as an interpreter and accompany Mr. Snow around the country.
It was during that trip that Mao hinted that he was willing to open talks with the United States and invited President Nixon to visit China.
After Mr. Snow’s visit, Mr. Huang was named ambassador to Canada and then permanent representative to the United Nations. He held secret talks with Mr. Kissinger in New York around the time of Mr. Nixon’s China trip.
In 1976, after Mao’s death, the Chinese foreign minister, Qiao Guanhua, was dismissed because of accusations that he had close ties to the notorious Gang of Four, which ruled in Mao’s name during his final years. Mr. Huang was named foreign minister and then vice prime minister. He retired in 1992.
He is survived by his wife, He Liliang; three children, and several grandchildren.
Huang Hua, 97, a Diplomat Who Served China, Dies
By DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI — Huang Hua, a Communist Party revolutionary who was China’s foreign minister during the 1970s and early 1980s and helped China restore diplomatic relations with the United States, died Wednesday in Beijing. He was 97.
The cause was complications of lung failure and kidney failure, his daughter-in-law, Dede Nickerson, said.
A loyal deputy to Zhou Enlai, then the prime minister, Mr. Huang was an amiable statesman at a time when China was moving to end decades of international isolation. Backed by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, those efforts set the stage for the country’s spectacular rise in the past three decades.
As a senior diplomat with excellent English, Mr. Huang was known for his toothy smile and conservative brand of diplomacy. Henry A. Kissinger, the former secretary of state, called him “one of the ablest public servants I have ever met” and a “trusted friend.”
He met Mr. Kissinger during the secret trip Mr. Kissinger made to Beijing in 1971 as President Richard M. Nixon’s national security adviser. He also negotiated with a series of American presidents, including Jimmy Carter, George Bush and Ronald Reagan, and he served as China’s first ambassador to Canada.
In late 1971, Mr. Huang was named China’s first permanent representative to the United Nations, taking up the post shortly after Beijing gained a United Nations seat.
As foreign minister, he held talks that led to the signing of a peace and friendship treaty with Japan, and he negotiated with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain regarding the 1997 transfer of Hong Kong to China.
When Beijing ordered him to be tough, he was. After the United States and China resumed diplomatic relations in 1979, he accused the United States of backtracking on its promises when it continued to sell weapons to Taiwan, which China continues to regard as a renegade province.
But Mr. Huang is perhaps best known for a secret trip he undertook as a college student in Beijing. In 1936, with China ravaged by civil war and Japanese aggression, he agreed to serve as an interpreter for the American journalist Edgar Snow, who had arranged to travel to a remote part of north China to meet a band of Communist rebels, including Mao.
With Mr. Huang’s help, Mr. Snow wrote a series of newspaper articles that created a sensation and led to the publication of “Red Star Over China,” a best seller and one of the first detailed accounts of Mao and the Chinese Communists.
Mr. Snow was later accused of writing Communist propaganda. He denied any bias but eventually moved to Switzerland, where he died in 1972. Mr. Huang visited him shortly before his death.
Huang Hua was born in January 1913 as Wang Rumei, the son of a teacher in Hebei Province, in northern China. After he joined the Communist Party, he changed his name to Huang Hua.
In the 1930s, Mr. Huang was a student leader in Beijing at Yanjing University, which was run by American missionaries. Like many college students at the time, he demonstrated against Japanese military action in China. He even helped form the December 9th Movement, named for the date of an anti-Japanese protest in Beijing.
After being detained by the police following a demonstration, he hid in the home of Mr. Snow and his wife, Helen Foster Snow, who was also a journalist. Mr. Snow was then teaching at Yanjing, and Mr. Huang was his student.
In 1936, Mr. Snow arranged to travel to the Soviet region of north China, which was then under blockade by the Nationalist Chinese government. Mr. Huang, who had already secretly joined the Communist Party, agreed to serve as an interpreter.
In Shaanxi Province, in northern China, Mr. Huang was one of several interpreters Mr. Snow depended on when he interviewed top Communist rebels. He translated Mr. Snow’s notes into Chinese and then shared them with Mao to determine if they were accurate, Mr. Huang wrote in his memoir.
After Mr. Snow returned to Beijing, Mr. Huang stayed in the region to aid the revolution. In the 1940s, he was a special assistant to Zhu De, a top Communist military strategist, and married He Liliang, who had moved to the area with her father, an adviser to Mao.
Mr. Huang also served as an interpreter for the United States Army Observer Group, which traveled to Yan’an to meet with Mao and other rebel leaders after the American-backed Chinese Nationalists formed an alliance with the Communists to fight Japan.
After the Communists took power in 1949, Mr. Huang joined the Foreign Ministry and negotiated the closing of the United States mission in China with John Leighton Stuart, the United States ambassador to China and a former dean of Yanjing University.
Mr. Huang participated in talks to end the Korean War and the Geneva Conference in 1954. He served as China’s ambassador to Ghana and Egypt between 1960 and 1969, when he returned during the Cultural Revolution because of the social and political upheaval Mao had created.
On his return, he and his wife were forced to work on farms in two different regions of the country. But in 1970, when Mr. Snow was preparing to travel to Beijing to meet again with Mao, Mr. Huang was called back to Beijing to serve as an interpreter and accompany Mr. Snow around the country.
It was during that trip that Mao hinted that he was willing to open talks with the United States and invited President Nixon to visit China.
After Mr. Snow’s visit, Mr. Huang was named ambassador to Canada and then permanent representative to the United Nations. He held secret talks with Mr. Kissinger in New York around the time of Mr. Nixon’s China trip.
In 1976, after Mao’s death, the Chinese foreign minister, Qiao Guanhua, was dismissed because of accusations that he had close ties to the notorious Gang of Four, which ruled in Mao’s name during his final years. Mr. Huang was named foreign minister and then vice prime minister. He retired in 1992.
He is survived by his wife, He Liliang; three children, and several grandchildren.
基辛格：周恩来英语听力水平相当高
基辛格：周恩来英语听力水平相当高(图)
http://book.sina.com.cn 2009年03月19日 13:02 新浪读书
文章摘自《东方文化西方语》
作者：翟华 出版社：中国书店
本书简介：乌龟说：人说话的语言不同，但是咳嗽声音都一样。——非洲谚语一个人写的“杂志书”一套东、西方民间文化解读丛书一套东、西方思维差异的文化参考丛书一套多语言、多视角、跨国界的“乐活文化丛书”翟华，从学工……[连载内容]
考证过毛泽东的英语水平以后，我们再来探讨一下周恩来的英语水平。
1913年春，周恩来随伯父周贻赓搬到天津，在大泽英文补习学校学习了三个多月的英文，此后考取南开学校。南开学校是仿照欧美近代教育制度开办的，学制四年，相当于中等学校。主科有国文、英文、数学(包括代数、几何、三角)三门，每年都有，英文课每周都有10小时。从二年级起，除国文和中国史地外，各科都用英文课本；三年级起，就要求学生阅读英文原著小说。1917年，周恩来自南开学校毕业时，获国文最佳奖，并代表毕业同学致答辞，以平均分数 89.72的成绩毕业。《毕业同学录》中评价周恩来：“君家贫，处境最艰，学费时不济，而独于万苦千难中多才多艺”，“善演说，能文章，工行书”，“长于数学”，“毕业成绩仍属最优”。虽然评语中没有提到英文水平，既然毕业成绩“最优”，就可以说明周恩来的英文底子是相当扎实的。
后来，周恩来留日期间1918年4月3日的日记写道：“阅英文报，得知日政府又提二十条于中国矣！”在日本不阅读日本报纸，却阅读英文报纸，可见其英语水平高于日语。1921年底周恩来抵达法国以后，却一度专门跑到英国打算报考(college admission application and test)英国学校，也证明他对自己的英语水平相当自信。周恩来阅读英文报纸的习惯一直到解放以后，《百年恩来》这部纪录片中就有周恩来在工作之余阅读英文报纸的镜头。
1936年6月，美国记者埃德加？斯诺(Edgar Snow)在陕北第一次见到了已经是中共主要领导人之一的周恩来。斯诺在《西行漫记》第二篇“去红都的道路”这样记述了他与周恩来的会面：
……这时突然出现了一个清瘦的青年军官，他长着一脸黑色大胡子。他走上前来，用温和文雅的口气向我招呼：“哈罗，你想找什么人吗？”他是用英语讲的！我马上就知道了他就是周恩来……我一边和周恩来谈话，一边深感兴趣地观察着他，因为在中国，像其他许多红军领袖一样，他是一个传奇式的人物。他个子清瘦，中等身材，骨骼小而结实，尽管胡子又长又黑，外表上仍不脱孩子气，又大又深的眼睛富于热情。他确乎有一种吸引力，似乎是羞怯、个人的魅力和领袖的自信的奇怪混合的产物。他讲英语有点迟缓，但相当准确。他对我说已有五年不讲英语了，这使我感到惊讶……
周恩来为什么说自己“已有五年不讲英语了”呢？1928年，周恩来从莫斯科出席党的“六大”以后，回国在上海坚持地下工作，在这个当年远东最国际化的大城市还是有许多机会说英语的。1931年12月，周恩来进入中央革命根据地(central revolutionary base area)，到1936年见到美国记者斯诺，周恩来的确五年没有机会说英语。
欧文？拉铁摩尔(Owen Lattimore)是著名中国问题专家(China expert)。1941年6月至1942年11月，拉铁摩尔受美国总统富兰克林？罗斯福(Franklin Roosevelt)的委派，前往中国重庆，被任命为蒋介石的私人顾问。在此期间，他结识了国、共两党的许多重要人物，也包括周恩来。拉铁摩尔在《中国回忆录(China's memoirs)》一书中也谈到了周恩来的英语。他这样写道：
……周恩来第一次到我这里来，是只身一人，连个翻译都没带。而由官方派给我的翻译兼秘书薛保桥(音)先生也很得体地离开客厅，留下我们两人单独谈话。我们忆起1937年在延安的会面。当时，周给我留下与众不同的印象，他对外部世界的理解相当透彻。忽然间我想起周一直在学习英语，并且我还知道他年轻的时候曾在法国住过一段时间。于是我问：“我们能用英语或法语交谈吗？”“噢，对不起”，他说，“我的英文程度有限，法语也差不多忘光了，还是用中文吧。”我答道：“那你得多多包涵我的中文，我讲得也不怎么好，有些困难的地方请给帮助。”他说那没有问题。于是我们一直用中文交谈……
1936年，周恩来与斯诺交谈时还是使用的英语。到了1941年却因为“英文程度”有限，而使用中文与美国人交谈，说明周恩来的英语确实有所退步，但还没有到“差不多忘光了”的地步。美国著名作家、记者哈里森？索尔兹伯里(Harrison Salisbury)记述了他1954年亲眼目睹的一件轶事。那是周恩来在日内瓦会议(Geneva Conference)之后经过莫斯科，参加苏联人举办的一个酒会。参加酒会的有赫鲁晓夫(Khrushchev)、米高扬(Mikoyan)、莫洛托夫 (Molotov)等苏共政治局成员(Soviet Communist Party Politburo members)以及当时与中国有外交关系(diplomatic relations)的外国使节(foreign envoys)，包括英国和印度。当周恩来致辞时，他使用了生疏的英语。他这样做是很不寻常的，因为除了那几个国家的外交官，酒会(reception) 上的苏联权贵完全不懂英语，所以还要翻译把他的英语致辞翻译为俄语。索尔兹伯里亲眼看到，当周恩来用英语向米高扬祝酒时，米高扬以不满的口气对周恩来说： “周，你为什么不说俄语，你的俄语很流利嘛！”周恩来的回答是：“你怎么不说中文呢？”
1972年，尼克松访华又给了美国记者近距离观察周恩来的机会。在随同尼克松访华的记者中有一位西奥多？H?怀特(Theodore H. White)，中文名字叫“白修德”。白修德是20世纪30年代到20世纪40年代美国《时代》杂志驻华记者，与周恩来相识。在周恩来总理为尼克松举行的欢迎宴会上，当尼克松离席祝酒致辞时，白修德试图接近周恩来，却被中美双方的保安人员(security personnel)拦下。当时周恩来看见了白修德，立即示意保安让白修德靠近，让他在周恩来身边尼克松的座位上坐了几分钟，但是周恩来的英语口语已经很有限，只是一再说白修德是“old friend, old friend”。
尽管周恩来的英语口语水平不彰，但是听力水平相当高。基辛格(Henry Alfred Kissinger)博士在《白宫岁月(The White House Years)》这本回忆录这样描写他所认识的周恩来：
……他脸容瘦削，颇带憔悴，但神采奕奕，双目炯炯，他的目光既坚毅又安详，既谨慎又满怀信心……他听英语时，不必等到翻译，脸上的笑容和表示理解的表情，很清楚的表示他是听得懂英语的；他警觉性(alert)极高，令人一见到就感觉得到……
周恩来的英语听力和警觉性在1972年1月美国总统特使(Special Envoy)亚历山大？黑格(Alexander Haig)将军为尼克松访华打前站(advance mission)时表现得淋漓尽致。当时黑格在会谈中提到苏联威胁(threat)的时候说“The U.S. government is concerned about the viability of China”，中方译员章含之翻译为“美国政府关心中国的生存能力”。章含之注意到，她翻过去这句话后，周恩来没说话，但显然皱了下眉头。黑格走了以后，周恩来立即要求章含之找来各种版本的韦伯斯特(Webster)、牛津(Oxford)大辞典查“viability”这个词的意思是什么。查了之后确实是“生存能力”的意思，所以在再次会见黑格时，周恩来就当面指出黑格上次用词不当，用这种词中国不能接受，因为中国不需要别人关心自己的“生存能力”。
尽管发生了“viability”的小插曲，黑格的前站非常成功，尼克松总统顺利访华签署了《中美联合公报(Sino-US Joint Communique)》。在公报签字后尼克松举行答谢宴会(reciprocal banquet)，最后特别赞扬中方的翻译，并且拿出美国人的幽默感对当章含之说她很出色，“翻译我全听到了，一个字也没错过”。尼克松当然不知道，就是在这次酒会上，章含之在翻译尼克松的致辞时翻译错了一个词，尼克松当时说中美之间的距离很近，才1.7万英里，当时他说的“1.7万”英文表达就是“17 个千(seventeen thousands)”，当时章含之翻译成“1700英里”。在场没有一个中方人员听得出来，因为那时很少中国人去过美国，也没有一个美方人员听得出来，因为他们也搞不清中国到美国有多远，只有周恩来听出来了。他抬起头来说：“含之，太近了点儿吧。”
从周恩来的经历来看，他除了少年开始学习英语以外，还因出国接触过日语、法语、德语、俄语。1917年9月，19岁的周恩来从南开学校毕业后东赴日本，进入日本东亚高等预备学校(Japan East Asia College Preparatory School)主修日语，兼学文理各科。他在日本生活一年半多一点儿的时间，于1919年4月回国报考南开大学。1920年11月，周恩来由上海赴欧洲勤工俭学(Work-Study Program)，12月中旬到法国。1921年1月，周恩来准备投考英国的爱丁堡大学(University of Edinburgh)，来到英国，因入学考试在秋天，一个多月后又返回法国。他在法国巴黎的法语学校(French Language school)补习法文，后又转到法国中部的布卢瓦(Blois)市继续学习法文，还在雷诺(Renault)汽车厂做过工。1922年3月，周恩来转赴德国，在柏林大学(University of Berlin)学习。1923年夏，再返法国。1924年7月，离开欧洲回国。从1920年11月到1924年7月回国，周恩来在欧洲度过了近四年的岁月。自欧洲回国以后，周恩来因为工作需要数次去苏联，特别是1939年7月周恩来在延安骑马摔伤右臂，中共中央决定送周恩来到苏联治疗，1940年3月回到延安。算起来，周恩来在苏联连续居住了大约八个月。
关于周恩来的德语水平，资料很少，我只是在中共早期领导人、也是留欧学生的郑超麟的回忆录中看到“周恩来虽是柏林寓公(exile in Berlin)，但他说德语并没有我们说法语好，他几乎只会交涉极简单的事情，例如吃饭付账之类。”至于周恩来的俄语水平，我们前面已经提过美国著名作家、记者哈里森？索尔兹伯里(Harrison Salisbury)1954年在莫斯科一次酒会上目睹的那一幕：当周恩来用英语祝酒，苏共领导人米高扬以不满的口气对周恩来说：“周，你为什么不说俄语，你的俄语很流利嘛！”
那么周恩来的法语水平如何呢？
抵达法国后，周恩来先在巴黎郊区补习法文，后转到法国中部的布卢镇(Blois)继续学习法语，晚上常常通宵达旦地给天津《益世报》撰写旅欧通讯。这时候他的身边有一位美女张若名，是周恩来南开的同学，而且与他一同来法国留学。张若名天资聪颖，很快掌握了法语，口语非常流畅，能够顺畅阅读、翻译马克思主义的法文原著。张若名后来成为中国第一位留法女博士。相比之下，忙于革命活动的周恩来法语水平不如张若名，但是却也达到了应用自如的水平。 1922年9月至1923年1月，周恩来在巴黎与来自其他国家的留学生合租(share)了一套房子，日常互相之间的交流自然都是法语。当时的法共领导人卡山(Marcel Cachin)与周恩来有过接触，卡山的女儿听到父亲这样评价周恩来：“这个年轻人有广泛的兴趣和概括归纳能力”。卡山不会汉语，周恩来之所谓的“广泛的兴趣”与“归纳概括能力”自然是用法语表达的。
1941年4月，美国作家海明威(Hemingway)夫妇访华，在重庆见到了中共驻重庆代表周恩来。海明威夫妇与周恩来之间的交谈没有使用英语，而是由王炳南的德籍妻子担任翻译，通过法语进行。据说海明威选择欧美上流贵族在交际场合使用的语言来表示对周恩来的尊重，更让海明威惊奇的是周恩来竟然不用翻译就能听懂法语。
1957年，法国前总理埃德加？富尔(Edgar Faure)作为戴高乐总统(President Charles de Gaulle)特使访华，多次与周恩来会晤，但是在富尔的回忆录中却没有提到周恩来与他讲法语。以法国人对法语的热爱与敏感，如果周恩来讲了法语的话，富尔应该会记上一笔的。1973年1月9日，意大利摄影记者(photojournalist)洛迪(Giorgio Lotti)先生随同意大利外长梅迪奇(Italian Foreign Minister Medici)见到了周恩来。洛迪作为摄影记者，早就产生要为周恩来拍张单人像的强烈愿望。尽管此次接见前意大利使馆向洛迪等记者叮嘱不允许携带照机，但他却向意大利驻华大使撒了个谎，悄悄地带上了照相机。在代表团一行排着队等候周恩来握手时，洛迪排在队伍的中间。当听到周总理向人们打招呼和致谢的声音时，洛迪向排在前面的大使询问，除了中文外，周总理会讲什么语言？大使说：“周恩来的法语讲得很流利。”洛迪马上有了主意，他从队伍里走了出来，一直走到队尾，这样就成了最后一个接近总理的人了。当轮到洛迪与周恩来握手时，他果然用法语向周恩来请求拍照。洛迪那时只是个中年人，却是位“少白头”。周恩来看了看洛迪，诙谐地对他说：“对有白头发人的请求，我是不会拒绝的。”于是就诞生了那幅最著名的《深思中的周恩来》的照片。也许就是因为周恩来听懂了一个白头发的意大利人说的法语，而产生了好感，故而对其拍照的请求欣然应允。
事实上，周恩来始终没有忘记法语。柬埔寨国王西哈努克亲王(Cambodian King Prince Sihanouk)在周恩来晚年常有机会与周恩来见面，而每次面见西哈努克都使用法语。西哈努克在他的回忆录中对周恩来的法语水平有这样的评价：
周恩来有一位很出色的法语翻译，其口语相当流畅标准，但她在传达总理的连珠妙语时，偶尔也会出现一两处小错。智慧超人的周恩来出于谦虚，同我交谈时没有使用法语，可是他明察秋毫，总是尽可能礼貌地指出和纠正翻译的失误，让她重作确切的表述。
http://book.sina.com.cn 2009年03月19日 13:02 新浪读书
文章摘自《东方文化西方语》
作者：翟华 出版社：中国书店
本书简介：乌龟说：人说话的语言不同，但是咳嗽声音都一样。——非洲谚语一个人写的“杂志书”一套东、西方民间文化解读丛书一套东、西方思维差异的文化参考丛书一套多语言、多视角、跨国界的“乐活文化丛书”翟华，从学工……[连载内容]
考证过毛泽东的英语水平以后，我们再来探讨一下周恩来的英语水平。
1913年春，周恩来随伯父周贻赓搬到天津，在大泽英文补习学校学习了三个多月的英文，此后考取南开学校。南开学校是仿照欧美近代教育制度开办的，学制四年，相当于中等学校。主科有国文、英文、数学(包括代数、几何、三角)三门，每年都有，英文课每周都有10小时。从二年级起，除国文和中国史地外，各科都用英文课本；三年级起，就要求学生阅读英文原著小说。1917年，周恩来自南开学校毕业时，获国文最佳奖，并代表毕业同学致答辞，以平均分数 89.72的成绩毕业。《毕业同学录》中评价周恩来：“君家贫，处境最艰，学费时不济，而独于万苦千难中多才多艺”，“善演说，能文章，工行书”，“长于数学”，“毕业成绩仍属最优”。虽然评语中没有提到英文水平，既然毕业成绩“最优”，就可以说明周恩来的英文底子是相当扎实的。
后来，周恩来留日期间1918年4月3日的日记写道：“阅英文报，得知日政府又提二十条于中国矣！”在日本不阅读日本报纸，却阅读英文报纸，可见其英语水平高于日语。1921年底周恩来抵达法国以后，却一度专门跑到英国打算报考(college admission application and test)英国学校，也证明他对自己的英语水平相当自信。周恩来阅读英文报纸的习惯一直到解放以后，《百年恩来》这部纪录片中就有周恩来在工作之余阅读英文报纸的镜头。
1936年6月，美国记者埃德加？斯诺(Edgar Snow)在陕北第一次见到了已经是中共主要领导人之一的周恩来。斯诺在《西行漫记》第二篇“去红都的道路”这样记述了他与周恩来的会面：
……这时突然出现了一个清瘦的青年军官，他长着一脸黑色大胡子。他走上前来，用温和文雅的口气向我招呼：“哈罗，你想找什么人吗？”他是用英语讲的！我马上就知道了他就是周恩来……我一边和周恩来谈话，一边深感兴趣地观察着他，因为在中国，像其他许多红军领袖一样，他是一个传奇式的人物。他个子清瘦，中等身材，骨骼小而结实，尽管胡子又长又黑，外表上仍不脱孩子气，又大又深的眼睛富于热情。他确乎有一种吸引力，似乎是羞怯、个人的魅力和领袖的自信的奇怪混合的产物。他讲英语有点迟缓，但相当准确。他对我说已有五年不讲英语了，这使我感到惊讶……
周恩来为什么说自己“已有五年不讲英语了”呢？1928年，周恩来从莫斯科出席党的“六大”以后，回国在上海坚持地下工作，在这个当年远东最国际化的大城市还是有许多机会说英语的。1931年12月，周恩来进入中央革命根据地(central revolutionary base area)，到1936年见到美国记者斯诺，周恩来的确五年没有机会说英语。
欧文？拉铁摩尔(Owen Lattimore)是著名中国问题专家(China expert)。1941年6月至1942年11月，拉铁摩尔受美国总统富兰克林？罗斯福(Franklin Roosevelt)的委派，前往中国重庆，被任命为蒋介石的私人顾问。在此期间，他结识了国、共两党的许多重要人物，也包括周恩来。拉铁摩尔在《中国回忆录(China's memoirs)》一书中也谈到了周恩来的英语。他这样写道：
……周恩来第一次到我这里来，是只身一人，连个翻译都没带。而由官方派给我的翻译兼秘书薛保桥(音)先生也很得体地离开客厅，留下我们两人单独谈话。我们忆起1937年在延安的会面。当时，周给我留下与众不同的印象，他对外部世界的理解相当透彻。忽然间我想起周一直在学习英语，并且我还知道他年轻的时候曾在法国住过一段时间。于是我问：“我们能用英语或法语交谈吗？”“噢，对不起”，他说，“我的英文程度有限，法语也差不多忘光了，还是用中文吧。”我答道：“那你得多多包涵我的中文，我讲得也不怎么好，有些困难的地方请给帮助。”他说那没有问题。于是我们一直用中文交谈……
1936年，周恩来与斯诺交谈时还是使用的英语。到了1941年却因为“英文程度”有限，而使用中文与美国人交谈，说明周恩来的英语确实有所退步，但还没有到“差不多忘光了”的地步。美国著名作家、记者哈里森？索尔兹伯里(Harrison Salisbury)记述了他1954年亲眼目睹的一件轶事。那是周恩来在日内瓦会议(Geneva Conference)之后经过莫斯科，参加苏联人举办的一个酒会。参加酒会的有赫鲁晓夫(Khrushchev)、米高扬(Mikoyan)、莫洛托夫 (Molotov)等苏共政治局成员(Soviet Communist Party Politburo members)以及当时与中国有外交关系(diplomatic relations)的外国使节(foreign envoys)，包括英国和印度。当周恩来致辞时，他使用了生疏的英语。他这样做是很不寻常的，因为除了那几个国家的外交官，酒会(reception) 上的苏联权贵完全不懂英语，所以还要翻译把他的英语致辞翻译为俄语。索尔兹伯里亲眼看到，当周恩来用英语向米高扬祝酒时，米高扬以不满的口气对周恩来说： “周，你为什么不说俄语，你的俄语很流利嘛！”周恩来的回答是：“你怎么不说中文呢？”
1972年，尼克松访华又给了美国记者近距离观察周恩来的机会。在随同尼克松访华的记者中有一位西奥多？H?怀特(Theodore H. White)，中文名字叫“白修德”。白修德是20世纪30年代到20世纪40年代美国《时代》杂志驻华记者，与周恩来相识。在周恩来总理为尼克松举行的欢迎宴会上，当尼克松离席祝酒致辞时，白修德试图接近周恩来，却被中美双方的保安人员(security personnel)拦下。当时周恩来看见了白修德，立即示意保安让白修德靠近，让他在周恩来身边尼克松的座位上坐了几分钟，但是周恩来的英语口语已经很有限，只是一再说白修德是“old friend, old friend”。
尽管周恩来的英语口语水平不彰，但是听力水平相当高。基辛格(Henry Alfred Kissinger)博士在《白宫岁月(The White House Years)》这本回忆录这样描写他所认识的周恩来：
……他脸容瘦削，颇带憔悴，但神采奕奕，双目炯炯，他的目光既坚毅又安详，既谨慎又满怀信心……他听英语时，不必等到翻译，脸上的笑容和表示理解的表情，很清楚的表示他是听得懂英语的；他警觉性(alert)极高，令人一见到就感觉得到……
周恩来的英语听力和警觉性在1972年1月美国总统特使(Special Envoy)亚历山大？黑格(Alexander Haig)将军为尼克松访华打前站(advance mission)时表现得淋漓尽致。当时黑格在会谈中提到苏联威胁(threat)的时候说“The U.S. government is concerned about the viability of China”，中方译员章含之翻译为“美国政府关心中国的生存能力”。章含之注意到，她翻过去这句话后，周恩来没说话，但显然皱了下眉头。黑格走了以后，周恩来立即要求章含之找来各种版本的韦伯斯特(Webster)、牛津(Oxford)大辞典查“viability”这个词的意思是什么。查了之后确实是“生存能力”的意思，所以在再次会见黑格时，周恩来就当面指出黑格上次用词不当，用这种词中国不能接受，因为中国不需要别人关心自己的“生存能力”。
尽管发生了“viability”的小插曲，黑格的前站非常成功，尼克松总统顺利访华签署了《中美联合公报(Sino-US Joint Communique)》。在公报签字后尼克松举行答谢宴会(reciprocal banquet)，最后特别赞扬中方的翻译，并且拿出美国人的幽默感对当章含之说她很出色，“翻译我全听到了，一个字也没错过”。尼克松当然不知道，就是在这次酒会上，章含之在翻译尼克松的致辞时翻译错了一个词，尼克松当时说中美之间的距离很近，才1.7万英里，当时他说的“1.7万”英文表达就是“17 个千(seventeen thousands)”，当时章含之翻译成“1700英里”。在场没有一个中方人员听得出来，因为那时很少中国人去过美国，也没有一个美方人员听得出来，因为他们也搞不清中国到美国有多远，只有周恩来听出来了。他抬起头来说：“含之，太近了点儿吧。”
从周恩来的经历来看，他除了少年开始学习英语以外，还因出国接触过日语、法语、德语、俄语。1917年9月，19岁的周恩来从南开学校毕业后东赴日本，进入日本东亚高等预备学校(Japan East Asia College Preparatory School)主修日语，兼学文理各科。他在日本生活一年半多一点儿的时间，于1919年4月回国报考南开大学。1920年11月，周恩来由上海赴欧洲勤工俭学(Work-Study Program)，12月中旬到法国。1921年1月，周恩来准备投考英国的爱丁堡大学(University of Edinburgh)，来到英国，因入学考试在秋天，一个多月后又返回法国。他在法国巴黎的法语学校(French Language school)补习法文，后又转到法国中部的布卢瓦(Blois)市继续学习法文，还在雷诺(Renault)汽车厂做过工。1922年3月，周恩来转赴德国，在柏林大学(University of Berlin)学习。1923年夏，再返法国。1924年7月，离开欧洲回国。从1920年11月到1924年7月回国，周恩来在欧洲度过了近四年的岁月。自欧洲回国以后，周恩来因为工作需要数次去苏联，特别是1939年7月周恩来在延安骑马摔伤右臂，中共中央决定送周恩来到苏联治疗，1940年3月回到延安。算起来，周恩来在苏联连续居住了大约八个月。
关于周恩来的德语水平，资料很少，我只是在中共早期领导人、也是留欧学生的郑超麟的回忆录中看到“周恩来虽是柏林寓公(exile in Berlin)，但他说德语并没有我们说法语好，他几乎只会交涉极简单的事情，例如吃饭付账之类。”至于周恩来的俄语水平，我们前面已经提过美国著名作家、记者哈里森？索尔兹伯里(Harrison Salisbury)1954年在莫斯科一次酒会上目睹的那一幕：当周恩来用英语祝酒，苏共领导人米高扬以不满的口气对周恩来说：“周，你为什么不说俄语，你的俄语很流利嘛！”
那么周恩来的法语水平如何呢？
抵达法国后，周恩来先在巴黎郊区补习法文，后转到法国中部的布卢镇(Blois)继续学习法语，晚上常常通宵达旦地给天津《益世报》撰写旅欧通讯。这时候他的身边有一位美女张若名，是周恩来南开的同学，而且与他一同来法国留学。张若名天资聪颖，很快掌握了法语，口语非常流畅，能够顺畅阅读、翻译马克思主义的法文原著。张若名后来成为中国第一位留法女博士。相比之下，忙于革命活动的周恩来法语水平不如张若名，但是却也达到了应用自如的水平。 1922年9月至1923年1月，周恩来在巴黎与来自其他国家的留学生合租(share)了一套房子，日常互相之间的交流自然都是法语。当时的法共领导人卡山(Marcel Cachin)与周恩来有过接触，卡山的女儿听到父亲这样评价周恩来：“这个年轻人有广泛的兴趣和概括归纳能力”。卡山不会汉语，周恩来之所谓的“广泛的兴趣”与“归纳概括能力”自然是用法语表达的。
1941年4月，美国作家海明威(Hemingway)夫妇访华，在重庆见到了中共驻重庆代表周恩来。海明威夫妇与周恩来之间的交谈没有使用英语，而是由王炳南的德籍妻子担任翻译，通过法语进行。据说海明威选择欧美上流贵族在交际场合使用的语言来表示对周恩来的尊重，更让海明威惊奇的是周恩来竟然不用翻译就能听懂法语。
1957年，法国前总理埃德加？富尔(Edgar Faure)作为戴高乐总统(President Charles de Gaulle)特使访华，多次与周恩来会晤，但是在富尔的回忆录中却没有提到周恩来与他讲法语。以法国人对法语的热爱与敏感，如果周恩来讲了法语的话，富尔应该会记上一笔的。1973年1月9日，意大利摄影记者(photojournalist)洛迪(Giorgio Lotti)先生随同意大利外长梅迪奇(Italian Foreign Minister Medici)见到了周恩来。洛迪作为摄影记者，早就产生要为周恩来拍张单人像的强烈愿望。尽管此次接见前意大利使馆向洛迪等记者叮嘱不允许携带照机，但他却向意大利驻华大使撒了个谎，悄悄地带上了照相机。在代表团一行排着队等候周恩来握手时，洛迪排在队伍的中间。当听到周总理向人们打招呼和致谢的声音时，洛迪向排在前面的大使询问，除了中文外，周总理会讲什么语言？大使说：“周恩来的法语讲得很流利。”洛迪马上有了主意，他从队伍里走了出来，一直走到队尾，这样就成了最后一个接近总理的人了。当轮到洛迪与周恩来握手时，他果然用法语向周恩来请求拍照。洛迪那时只是个中年人，却是位“少白头”。周恩来看了看洛迪，诙谐地对他说：“对有白头发人的请求，我是不会拒绝的。”于是就诞生了那幅最著名的《深思中的周恩来》的照片。也许就是因为周恩来听懂了一个白头发的意大利人说的法语，而产生了好感，故而对其拍照的请求欣然应允。
事实上，周恩来始终没有忘记法语。柬埔寨国王西哈努克亲王(Cambodian King Prince Sihanouk)在周恩来晚年常有机会与周恩来见面，而每次面见西哈努克都使用法语。西哈努克在他的回忆录中对周恩来的法语水平有这样的评价：
周恩来有一位很出色的法语翻译，其口语相当流畅标准，但她在传达总理的连珠妙语时，偶尔也会出现一两处小错。智慧超人的周恩来出于谦虚，同我交谈时没有使用法语，可是他明察秋毫，总是尽可能礼貌地指出和纠正翻译的失误，让她重作确切的表述。
Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig
芮成钢：讲个故事来解释，美国的前政要黑格将军，他每次和基辛格博士为一些事情争执时，基辛格总是对他说“亚历山大，如果你知道我所知道的，你看到我所看 到的，你经历了我所经历的，你掌握了我所有的信息，你就会同意我的看法”。这也是我想说的，信息的不对称让人们产生了误解。
经济观察报
芮成钢：韩国人没有表示不满
Tried to verify this quote but couldn't.
经济观察报
芮成钢：韩国人没有表示不满
Tried to verify this quote but couldn't.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
happy, healthy and ethical
“Dear Law Student: I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the profession that you are about to enter is one of the most unhappy and unhealthy on the face of the earth – and, in the view of many, one of the most unethical. The good news is that you can join this profession and still be happy, healthy and ethical.” – Professor Patrick Schiltz
Monday, November 15, 2010
China Surges Past India as Top Home of Foreign Students
November 15, 2010
China Surges Past India as Top Home of Foreign Students
By TAMAR LEWIN
The number of Chinese students studying in the United States surged 30 percent in the 2009-10 academic year, making China, for the first time, the top country of origin for international students, according to “Open Doors,” the Institute of International Education’s annual report.
The report found that a record high of 690,923 international students came to the United States last year — nearly 128,000 of them, or more than 18 percent, from China. Over all, the number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States increased 3 percent for the 2009-10 academic year.
India, which in recent years had been in the top spot, increased its numbers only slightly, to 104,897 last academic year.
“The number of students from China is booming, because of that booming Chinese economy,” said Peggy Blumenthal, executive vice president of the institute. “But India, which also has a booming economy, is only up 1.6 percent. I think one factor is the great number of Chinese families with disposable income, two working parents and only one child, and a determination to invest their money to make sure that child receives the best education possible.”
David B. Austell, director of the Office for International Students and Scholars at New York University, said the Chinese undergraduates came primarily from the large urban areas on China’s coast. Because they are not eligible for the same financial aid as Americans and usually pay full tuition, he said, their growing presence is an indicator of just how many Chinese families are financially strong.
At the University of Southern California, Tony Tambascia, executive director of the Office of International Services, said the number of Chinese students grew substantially last year, but surpassed the number of Indian students for the first time just this fall.
“We’re getting more Chinese master’s students, and dramatically more freshmen,” he said.
According to the report, which is supported by the State Department, the number of students coming to the United States from Saudi Arabia increased almost 25 percent last year, to 15,810, reflecting the Saudi government’s generous aid for studies abroad.
But not all countries sent more students to the United States last year. The number coming from Japan declined 15 percent, and Mexico, Indonesia and Kenya each sent 7 percent to 9 percent fewer students than in the previous year.
Still, Allan Goodman, president of the institute, said the United States continued to host more international students than any other country. And according to the Commerce Department, such students contribute nearly $20 billion to the economy.
While the majority of Chinese students in the United States are still graduate students, the recent growth has been strongest among undergraduates.
Last year, there were 39,921 Chinese undergraduates studying in the United States, a 50 percent increase from the previous year, and more than four times as many as five years earlier.
The Indian experience has been quite different; that country sent 15,192 undergraduates last year, fewer than five years earlier. And the number of Indians coming to the United States for graduate study dropped by almost 4 percent last year
“The educational-advising people say that the job market is so hot in places like Mumbai and Bangalore that students thinking about grad school decide it’s not worth it,” Ms. Blumenthal said, “since they can just go out and get a good engineering job.”
As in past years, the report found that California, with 94,279 international students, hosts far more students from abroad than any other state. The University of Southern California is the institution with the most international students, 7,987 last year.
The report also tracks Americans studying abroad, although those numbers come from a year earlier. In the 2008-9 academic year, 260,327 American students studied abroad, down slightly from 262,416 the previous year.
While Britain, Italy, Spain and France remain the leading destinations, the study found, all four hosted fewer students, with the declines ranging from 2.5 percent to 10.8 percent.
But nontraditional destinations outside Europe gained popularity. Chile, Peru and South Korea all had increases of more than 26 percent, and China, Australia, Costa Rica, Japan, Argentina, South Africa, Ecuador, Brazil and New Zealand all hosted more American students than in the previous year.
China Surges Past India as Top Home of Foreign Students
By TAMAR LEWIN
The number of Chinese students studying in the United States surged 30 percent in the 2009-10 academic year, making China, for the first time, the top country of origin for international students, according to “Open Doors,” the Institute of International Education’s annual report.
The report found that a record high of 690,923 international students came to the United States last year — nearly 128,000 of them, or more than 18 percent, from China. Over all, the number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States increased 3 percent for the 2009-10 academic year.
India, which in recent years had been in the top spot, increased its numbers only slightly, to 104,897 last academic year.
“The number of students from China is booming, because of that booming Chinese economy,” said Peggy Blumenthal, executive vice president of the institute. “But India, which also has a booming economy, is only up 1.6 percent. I think one factor is the great number of Chinese families with disposable income, two working parents and only one child, and a determination to invest their money to make sure that child receives the best education possible.”
David B. Austell, director of the Office for International Students and Scholars at New York University, said the Chinese undergraduates came primarily from the large urban areas on China’s coast. Because they are not eligible for the same financial aid as Americans and usually pay full tuition, he said, their growing presence is an indicator of just how many Chinese families are financially strong.
At the University of Southern California, Tony Tambascia, executive director of the Office of International Services, said the number of Chinese students grew substantially last year, but surpassed the number of Indian students for the first time just this fall.
“We’re getting more Chinese master’s students, and dramatically more freshmen,” he said.
According to the report, which is supported by the State Department, the number of students coming to the United States from Saudi Arabia increased almost 25 percent last year, to 15,810, reflecting the Saudi government’s generous aid for studies abroad.
But not all countries sent more students to the United States last year. The number coming from Japan declined 15 percent, and Mexico, Indonesia and Kenya each sent 7 percent to 9 percent fewer students than in the previous year.
Still, Allan Goodman, president of the institute, said the United States continued to host more international students than any other country. And according to the Commerce Department, such students contribute nearly $20 billion to the economy.
While the majority of Chinese students in the United States are still graduate students, the recent growth has been strongest among undergraduates.
Last year, there were 39,921 Chinese undergraduates studying in the United States, a 50 percent increase from the previous year, and more than four times as many as five years earlier.
The Indian experience has been quite different; that country sent 15,192 undergraduates last year, fewer than five years earlier. And the number of Indians coming to the United States for graduate study dropped by almost 4 percent last year
“The educational-advising people say that the job market is so hot in places like Mumbai and Bangalore that students thinking about grad school decide it’s not worth it,” Ms. Blumenthal said, “since they can just go out and get a good engineering job.”
As in past years, the report found that California, with 94,279 international students, hosts far more students from abroad than any other state. The University of Southern California is the institution with the most international students, 7,987 last year.
The report also tracks Americans studying abroad, although those numbers come from a year earlier. In the 2008-9 academic year, 260,327 American students studied abroad, down slightly from 262,416 the previous year.
While Britain, Italy, Spain and France remain the leading destinations, the study found, all four hosted fewer students, with the declines ranging from 2.5 percent to 10.8 percent.
But nontraditional destinations outside Europe gained popularity. Chile, Peru and South Korea all had increases of more than 26 percent, and China, Australia, Costa Rica, Japan, Argentina, South Africa, Ecuador, Brazil and New Zealand all hosted more American students than in the previous year.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
砥柱铭
唐 · 魏征
维十有一年，皇帝御天下之十二载也。道被域中，威加海外；六和同轨，八荒有截；功成名定，时和岁阜。越二月，东巡狩至于洛邑，肆觐礼毕，玉銮旋轸；度崤函之险，践分陕之地；缅维列圣，降望大河；砥柱之峰桀立，大禹之庙斯在；冕弁端委，远契刘子；禹无闲然，玄符仲尼之叹，皇情乃睠，载怀仰止。爰命有司勒铭兹石祝之，其词曰：大哉伯禹！水土是职；挂冠莫顾，过门不息；让德夔龙，推功益稷；栉风沐雨，卑宫菲食；汤汤方割，襄陵伊始；事极名正，图穷地里；兴利除害，为纲为纪；寝庙为新，盛德必祀；傍临砥柱，北眺龙门；茫茫旧迹，浩浩长源；勒斯铭以纪绩，与山河而永存！
魏公有爱君之仁，有责难之义。其智足以经世，其德足以服物，平生欣慕焉。时为好学者书之，忘其文之工拙，我但见其妩媚者也。吾友杨明州，知经术，能诗，喜属文，吏干公家如己事。持身清洁，不以谀言以奉于上智；亦不以骄慢以诳于下愚。可告以郑公之事业者也。或者谓：世道极颓，吾心如砥柱。夫世道交丧，若水上之浮沤；既不可以为人之师表，又不可以为人臣之优则。砥柱之文座傍，并得两师焉。虽然，持砥柱之节以奉身；上智之所喜悦，下愚之所畏惧。明州亦安能病此而改节哉？
维十有一年，皇帝御天下之十二载也。道被域中，威加海外；六和同轨，八荒有截；功成名定，时和岁阜。越二月，东巡狩至于洛邑，肆觐礼毕，玉銮旋轸；度崤函之险，践分陕之地；缅维列圣，降望大河；砥柱之峰桀立，大禹之庙斯在；冕弁端委，远契刘子；禹无闲然，玄符仲尼之叹，皇情乃睠，载怀仰止。爰命有司勒铭兹石祝之，其词曰：大哉伯禹！水土是职；挂冠莫顾，过门不息；让德夔龙，推功益稷；栉风沐雨，卑宫菲食；汤汤方割，襄陵伊始；事极名正，图穷地里；兴利除害，为纲为纪；寝庙为新，盛德必祀；傍临砥柱，北眺龙门；茫茫旧迹，浩浩长源；勒斯铭以纪绩，与山河而永存！
魏公有爱君之仁，有责难之义。其智足以经世，其德足以服物，平生欣慕焉。时为好学者书之，忘其文之工拙，我但见其妩媚者也。吾友杨明州，知经术，能诗，喜属文，吏干公家如己事。持身清洁，不以谀言以奉于上智；亦不以骄慢以诳于下愚。可告以郑公之事业者也。或者谓：世道极颓，吾心如砥柱。夫世道交丧，若水上之浮沤；既不可以为人之师表，又不可以为人臣之优则。砥柱之文座傍，并得两师焉。虽然，持砥柱之节以奉身；上智之所喜悦，下愚之所畏惧。明州亦安能病此而改节哉？
Friday, November 12, 2010
Une Petite Ville (Chapitre Premier, Le Rouge et le Noir, by Stendhal, 1830.)
La petite ville de Verrières peut passer pour l'une des plus jolies de la Franche-Comté. Ses maisons blanches avec leurs toits pointus de tuiles rouges s'étendent sur la pente d'une colline, dont des touffes de vigoureux châtaigniers marquent les moindres sinuosités. Le Doubs coule à quelques centaines de pieds au-dessous de ses fortifications bâties jadis par les Espagnols, et maintenant ruinées.
维里埃算得弗朗什－孔泰最漂亮的小城之一。一幢幢房子，白墙，红瓦，尖顶，展布在一座小山的斜坡上。茁壮的栗树密密匝匝，画出了小山最细微的凹凸。城墙下数百步外，有杜河流过。这城墙早年为西班牙人所建，如今已残破不堪。
维里埃算得弗朗什－孔泰最漂亮的小城之一。一幢幢房子，白墙，红瓦，尖顶，展布在一座小山的斜坡上。茁壮的栗树密密匝匝，画出了小山最细微的凹凸。城墙下数百步外，有杜河流过。这城墙早年为西班牙人所建，如今已残破不堪。
Elizabeth Tillinghast
- Current
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- MD, JD at Psychiatrist in Private Practice
- Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University, Department of Psychiatry
- Past
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- Program Director at Director of Law and Psychiatry Fellowship Program at Columbia and Cornell
- Education
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- Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
- New York University School of Law
- Harvard University
- Connections
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5 connections - Industry
- Mental Health Care
Elizabeth Tillinghast, MD, JD’s Summary
I am particularly interested in working with professionals to overcome emotional or psychological impediments to success and satisfaction at work. To that end, I've given a number of talks (and done some writing) on subjects like: overcoming procrastination and other forms of self-sabotage at work, helping people who hate conflict and overt competition, and solving emotional obstacles to making money (particularly pertinent in this environment!).
Elizabeth Tillinghast, MD, JD’s Specialties:
Because of my legal training and experience, I have a particular understanding of the stresses lawyers are under -- and work with a number of lawyers in my private practice as a psychiatrist.
Elizabeth Tillinghast, MD, JD’s Experience
-
MD, JD
Psychiatrist in Private Practice
(Mental Health Care industry)
Currently holds this position
-
Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
Columbia University, Department of Psychiatry
(Mental Health Care industry)
July 1994 — Present (16 years 5 months)
Faculty member in Psychiatry Departments at Columbia and Cornell in NYC. Teach at Columbia Psychoanalytic Center.
-
Program Director
Director of Law and Psychiatry Fellowship Program at Columbia and Cornell
(Mental Health Care industry)
1998 — 2005 (7 years )
Elizabeth Tillinghast, MD, JD’s Education
-
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
MD , Medicine/Psychiatry Residency , 1989 — 1997
Additional Training as a Psychoanalyst at the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Completed training in
2003.
New York University Law School, 1982-1985. -
New York University School of Law
JD , law , 1982 — 1985
-
Harvard University
BA , English , 1975 — 1979
Where Have All the Strivers Gone? (NYT 2006.4.9)
Essay
Where Have All the Strivers Gone?
IMAGINE if literary novelists stopped writing about love and sex. We'd notice, wouldn't we? Yet that's exactly what happened to ambition, which used to be one of their great subjects. It's a disappearance as mystifying as anything in Sherlock Holmes — and part of the mystery is the silence that greeted it. As a matter of cultural history, it's the dog that didn't bark, or, anyway, the dog that didn't yearn for more kibble than its littermates.
Once upon a time, the typical literary hero was a man on the make. Think of Stendhal's Julien Sorel, a carpenter's son who spends his childhood dreaming of Napoleon. Or Balzac's Eugène de Rastignac, a poor law student who racks up debts trying to get in good with the well-married daughters of the old pasta maker Goriot. Or Trollope's Phineas Finn, who leaves his hometown girl behind for a life in London and a seat in Parliament. Or Jack London's Martin Eden, an unlettered seaman who does a Professor Higgins on himself and becomes a literary celebrity.
Of course, ambition wasn't the only thing novelists wrote about. But for most of the novel's history, the story of the Young Man From the Provinces was a standard plot premise. (And yes, these tales tended to be about, and by, men.) YMFTP arrives in the city with nothing except talent and dreams of greatness; adventure and misadventure ensue. You can push forward with these stories of ascent a few decades into the 20th century, through writers as various as Arnold Bennett and Theodore Dreiser. "The bitch-goddess SUCCESS," in William James's famous phrase, wasn't just a powerful literary muse; she remained a powerful literary subject. Then the lady vanishes.
Round up the usual suspects of the modern canon, and you'll see what I mean: the go-getters have gotten up and gone. Where Sorel and Rastignac once schemed, their successors took their credo from André Gide's Lafcadio: "I am a creature of inconsequence." Where Phineas Finn had painstakingly rehearsed his public addresses, Lucky Jim prepared for his by getting blotto. Meanwhile, the jut-jawed, chest-thumping American Century brought you literary protagonists like Salinger's anomie-addled Seymour Glass, Roth's overmothered Portnoy and the self-doubting husbands of Cheever and Yates and Updike. ("My characters are all failures," Updike once cheerfully noted.) And let's not forget Bellow's Herzog, with his maundering, unsent letters to Spinoza, Churchill, Heidegger and so on.
This isn't a complaint; nobody wants Professor Herzog to start composing letters to Dale Carnegie and pining for an endowed chair. In the main, these are ambitious works that brilliantly achieve their ambitions. They excel at capturing our every fleeting, furtive, shaming thought. Almost.
In an era when practically nothing is too sordid to be the stuff of serious fiction, the craving for success has become the love that dare not speak its name. Curious, no? Making a reputation, making money, rising in the world — is this so much more unseemly than, oh, sex with a piece of raw calf's liver?
In his zesty 1967 memoir, "Making It," Norman Podhoretz chafed at the way his fellow New York intellectuals considered it "contemptible to dream of the rewards contemporary society had to offer." This kid from Brooklyn wasn't having any of it: a basic lesson of Western literature, by his reckoning, was that money, power and fame were "immensely desirable things to have." Actually, the great novelists of ambition often shared this suspicion toward strivers. They didn't celebrate the drive to succeed, any more than they celebrated lust. As with any ungovernable passion, it was likely to lead to trouble. Julien Sorel, caught between l'ambition and l'amour, loses his head, literally. Rastignac finds himself contemplating a dire criminal bargain, and Phineas only narrowly escapes the scaffold.
And then, if you thought (like Dickens, but not Trollope) that the social order was deeply unjust, you'd want to show that worldly success was basically a crapshoot. The wistfully progressive William Dean Howells once wrote a YMFTP novel about an Ohioan who arrives in New York with an unpublished novel and half-acknowledged fantasies of a glittering career. By a fluke, his wildest dreams come true. But Howells's novel ends with the poor guy's realization that his success wasn't earned or deserved, and maybe everything else in this lousy world was a roll of the dice, too. Lest anyone miss the point, Howells entitled his novel "The World of Chance." Jack London's Martin Eden, after his own disillusionment, drowns himself in self-pity, and then he drowns himself for real.
Today, a few American writers — Tom Wolfe and Jay McInerney among them — remain defiantly old-school in their portrayal of ambition as a basic aspect of the human character. But the literary heavyweights who address the theme usually do so not as tragedy but as farce: think of William Gaddis's "JR," about an 11-year-old who puts together a multinational conglomerate. And even when we're given a Gatsby or a Widmerpool (from Anthony Powell's multivolume saga, "A Dance to the Music of Time"), a narrative cordon sanitaire is maintained; the authorial consciousness belongs to a more fastidious soul, like Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway or Powell's Nick Jenkins. The drive to get ahead is registered, recognized and, usually, reviled: but it's seldom owned.
How come? One conjecture I've heard is that modern literary fiction is just following a course set earlier by Romanticism in poetry. Subjectivity moves to the foreground; conflict becomes interior. You're not striving to best your rivals in the big wide world; you're struggling to come to terms with the ghosts of your past or the discord of the authentic self. According to this theory, nobody writes literary novels about worldly advancement any longer for more or less the same reason that nobody writes poetry about charging brigades, light or otherwise.
Still, this can't be the whole story. It doesn't quite tell us why lusting for a shiksa goddess can propel a modern classic, while lusting for the bitch goddess is off limits. I've got another explanation, and it starts with the fact that we've been talking about literary fiction. In the humbler feedlots of so-called popular fiction where I toil, the lady never left. Suspense fiction still offers up star-is-born sagas or, more darkly, updates on the Faust story: Jeffrey Archer's "Kane & Abel," John Grisham's "The Firm." Ambition breathes the perfumed air, and wears Jimmy Choos, in the high-rent precincts of the sex-and-shopping novel, from Judith Krantz's "Scruples" to Candace Bushnell's "Lipstick Jungle."
The point isn't that literary fiction has dropped the subject because popular fiction hasn't. It's that literary fiction is defined, in part, by its distance from popular fiction. And a crucial aspect of our whole high-low cultural system is that high culture mustn't be created for worldly gain. Which is an especially touchy subject when it comes to the novel.
Like old Goriot's upwardly mobile daughters, literary fiction has had to turn its back on its miserable origins. Long ago, the novel was condescended to as mere entertainment, and could only envy the cultural status that forms like lyric poetry and verse drama enjoyed. Literary fiction only fully emerged as a self-conscious genre in the later decades of the 19th century, and the gap between it and popular fiction widened in the first decade or so of the 20th.
Trollope, for one, cocked a snook at the trend, and in his autobiography he insisted that his "first object" in writing was to rake in the bucks. Bad move. The book's publication in 1883, shortly after his death, pretty much scuttled his literary reputation for years. Compare that Victorian scribbler to a popular British literary figure from our own era of candor: "What I care about is literary durability," Martin Amis has said. "That is all that matters to me, and I'm just happy enough when I have an advance of £250." You've got to marvel at how our most brazen talents go knock-kneed before the ideology of art. Because literary fiction is, by stipulation, fiction that isn't written for personal reward, ensuring its status means roping off the subject of status. To betray a non-ironic interest in money, power or fame would compromise its place in the culture.
Not to worry, though. Literary novelists aren't about to run out of material. As for the sordid appetite for advancement, the sullying dream of making it? Leave ambition to us "commercial" writers, congregants of the wire racks. Honestly, she's in good hands. We'll treat her like a goddess.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
南方周末：青年“住房痛苦指数”又跳升一级
青年“住房痛苦指数”又跳升一级
作者: 何三畏 2010-10-29 17:11:45
"在这样的社会转型关头，挤兑出一代要么买不起房、要么被一笔跟收入不相称的巨额债务套牢的青年"
这里说的青年，主要指尚未首次购房的新一代。他们受过良好教育，聪明上进，渴望城市生活。他们已经居无定所地奋斗过一段时间，有了最初的积蓄，或者集结了上两代的财富，拼凑了两成首付款，准备买房。房价飞涨给他们带来紧张和焦虑。在准备首付款的过程中，房价上涨的数额，大大超过了他们储蓄的速度，这让他们感到被剥夺。好在，国家一再承诺“坚决有效地抑制房价上涨过快”，他们在期待中。
终于，十一前夕，最受期待的又一“房产新政”来了。然而，这个政策却进一步把他们踢出购房者的行列：他们准备的首付款够不着购房门槛了——新政策把首次购房的现款支付，从二成提高到三成。
这等于是“有效地抑制”了最需要住房的人买房。于是，房子继续沿着资本的路线，进入投资者的名下，空置着。预计在将来，价格再涨以后，卖给目前被高房价抛弃又艰苦奋斗了一段时间的一代青年。其结果，是延长了青年们在城市漂泊的时间，推迟他们的人生计划，使资本对他们多一轮剥夺。当住房作为资本追逐的对象，“买的不住，住的不买”，资产闲置，财富聚敛，产生的另一个效应是，堆积了社会矛盾。
制定公共政策的人士，都是头发开始谢顶、内心充满毅力的社会中坚。他们对青年的痛苦不免陌生或者漠然。虽然他们的儿子或孙子也正是这个年龄段的青年，但是，父辈和祖辈已成为社会规则的制定者，其儿孙们断不会有住房的困惑。这些爷们是住房的既得利益者和涨价的获利者，他们不希望价格下跌或不涨。更兼地方的政府都渴望不断增收土地款和税费。
中国人口太多，城市化很迅速，城市住房需求是刚性的，因此有人说，住房价格上涨是必然的，一部分青年买不起，是必然的。不错，应该相信，在基本公正的规则面前，基层人民是能够接受转型期的种种痛苦的。具体说来，在收入不断增长的前提下，房价增长得稍快一步，也不一定会造成恐慌。但是，这不并意味着可以理直气壮地抛弃公正的规则，让房地产市场在政府、资本家、银行和各路炒家的层层分肥之后，让大部分青年痛苦不堪。
“住改”是中国新时期切割社会阶层的一把利刃，它把社会分割成各个层面的既得利益者和暴利阶层，而另一边，则是广大的无房户和无论怎样努力奋斗也买不起房的痛苦青年。各地“反腐败成果”证明，腐败官员通常有收藏住房的癖好。而一次又一次“房改”，一轮又一轮“集资建房”，使各级权力部门包括并非要害部门的员工，在同一城市占有几套房屋，并不需主动追逐而是顺理成章。住房痛苦的人们都在“体制外”。
权贵和资本都在争夺住房资源，轮到最底层的劳动者还有房子住，还承受得起房价，那倒有些意外了。不过，需要说明的是，疯狂的房价也把一些诚实劳动的白领也卷了进去。例如，一位普通的银行职员或电脑程序员，目前可能同时供着三五套以上住房的按揭。因为他们吃定了政府不敢让房价跌，而只能让它涨。
周孝正教授在一次对青年学生的演讲中说：我享受了一份“红色收入”。台下的学生未必听得懂。周解释道：他在北京享受了一次福利房，学校分配的30多平方，现在价值70万。周教授对学生说，你们再也没这样的“好事”了。所谓“红色收入”，即公有制时代传承下来的，对体制内实行的特殊供给和利益分配。
也许你觉得那个时代已经过去。但是，你却不知道现在的各级国家干部的住房如何取得，从县市级到省部级，分别住多大房屋，是否保持着，或者在什么程度上保持着公有制时代的传统，因为未见公开。不过，对周教授这样的原本在“红色收入链”中居于末端的分配，大致已经终结。正是在这样的社会转型关头，挤兑出一代要么买不起房、要么被一笔跟收入不相称的巨额债务套牢的青年。
中央高层早就把房价当成政治问题看了。但是，房价却不向政治投降。据信，如果地方政府不与民争利，不那么依赖土地收入，少让房地产商承担一些征费；如果适当运用房产税，迫使空置房重新流通，抑制过度投资性购房，房价或可下降。
但是，同时人们也相信，这基本是不可办理的，因为政府不能没有这一项财源，而征收有实质意义的房产税，必定超出了政府的行政能力。但除此以外，还没有看到可以使住房价格回到令不断进入社会的勤奋而有能力的青年能够承受的范围的高招。
作者: 何三畏 2010-10-29 17:11:45
"在这样的社会转型关头，挤兑出一代要么买不起房、要么被一笔跟收入不相称的巨额债务套牢的青年"
这里说的青年，主要指尚未首次购房的新一代。他们受过良好教育，聪明上进，渴望城市生活。他们已经居无定所地奋斗过一段时间，有了最初的积蓄，或者集结了上两代的财富，拼凑了两成首付款，准备买房。房价飞涨给他们带来紧张和焦虑。在准备首付款的过程中，房价上涨的数额，大大超过了他们储蓄的速度，这让他们感到被剥夺。好在，国家一再承诺“坚决有效地抑制房价上涨过快”，他们在期待中。
终于，十一前夕，最受期待的又一“房产新政”来了。然而，这个政策却进一步把他们踢出购房者的行列：他们准备的首付款够不着购房门槛了——新政策把首次购房的现款支付，从二成提高到三成。
这等于是“有效地抑制”了最需要住房的人买房。于是，房子继续沿着资本的路线，进入投资者的名下，空置着。预计在将来，价格再涨以后，卖给目前被高房价抛弃又艰苦奋斗了一段时间的一代青年。其结果，是延长了青年们在城市漂泊的时间，推迟他们的人生计划，使资本对他们多一轮剥夺。当住房作为资本追逐的对象，“买的不住，住的不买”，资产闲置，财富聚敛，产生的另一个效应是，堆积了社会矛盾。
制定公共政策的人士，都是头发开始谢顶、内心充满毅力的社会中坚。他们对青年的痛苦不免陌生或者漠然。虽然他们的儿子或孙子也正是这个年龄段的青年，但是，父辈和祖辈已成为社会规则的制定者，其儿孙们断不会有住房的困惑。这些爷们是住房的既得利益者和涨价的获利者，他们不希望价格下跌或不涨。更兼地方的政府都渴望不断增收土地款和税费。
中国人口太多，城市化很迅速，城市住房需求是刚性的，因此有人说，住房价格上涨是必然的，一部分青年买不起，是必然的。不错，应该相信，在基本公正的规则面前，基层人民是能够接受转型期的种种痛苦的。具体说来，在收入不断增长的前提下，房价增长得稍快一步，也不一定会造成恐慌。但是，这不并意味着可以理直气壮地抛弃公正的规则，让房地产市场在政府、资本家、银行和各路炒家的层层分肥之后，让大部分青年痛苦不堪。
“住改”是中国新时期切割社会阶层的一把利刃，它把社会分割成各个层面的既得利益者和暴利阶层，而另一边，则是广大的无房户和无论怎样努力奋斗也买不起房的痛苦青年。各地“反腐败成果”证明，腐败官员通常有收藏住房的癖好。而一次又一次“房改”，一轮又一轮“集资建房”，使各级权力部门包括并非要害部门的员工，在同一城市占有几套房屋，并不需主动追逐而是顺理成章。住房痛苦的人们都在“体制外”。
权贵和资本都在争夺住房资源，轮到最底层的劳动者还有房子住，还承受得起房价，那倒有些意外了。不过，需要说明的是，疯狂的房价也把一些诚实劳动的白领也卷了进去。例如，一位普通的银行职员或电脑程序员，目前可能同时供着三五套以上住房的按揭。因为他们吃定了政府不敢让房价跌，而只能让它涨。
周孝正教授在一次对青年学生的演讲中说：我享受了一份“红色收入”。台下的学生未必听得懂。周解释道：他在北京享受了一次福利房，学校分配的30多平方，现在价值70万。周教授对学生说，你们再也没这样的“好事”了。所谓“红色收入”，即公有制时代传承下来的，对体制内实行的特殊供给和利益分配。
也许你觉得那个时代已经过去。但是，你却不知道现在的各级国家干部的住房如何取得，从县市级到省部级，分别住多大房屋，是否保持着，或者在什么程度上保持着公有制时代的传统，因为未见公开。不过，对周教授这样的原本在“红色收入链”中居于末端的分配，大致已经终结。正是在这样的社会转型关头，挤兑出一代要么买不起房、要么被一笔跟收入不相称的巨额债务套牢的青年。
中央高层早就把房价当成政治问题看了。但是，房价却不向政治投降。据信，如果地方政府不与民争利，不那么依赖土地收入，少让房地产商承担一些征费；如果适当运用房产税，迫使空置房重新流通，抑制过度投资性购房，房价或可下降。
但是，同时人们也相信，这基本是不可办理的，因为政府不能没有这一项财源，而征收有实质意义的房产税，必定超出了政府的行政能力。但除此以外，还没有看到可以使住房价格回到令不断进入社会的勤奋而有能力的青年能够承受的范围的高招。
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
China Could Surpass U.S. in 2012
In its latest study, the Conference Board (based in New York City) found that China may have a larger GDP (PPP-converted) than the United States by 2012.
WSJ: China Could Surpass U.S. in 2012
The Conference Board: World Growth to Pick Up Speed
WSJ: China Could Surpass U.S. in 2012
The Conference Board: World Growth to Pick Up Speed
China is too busy trying to get rich to bother with human rights
[My comment] Well this guy really doesn't care about being politically correct. Britain's got talent.
Jeremy Warner, assistant editor of The Daily Telegraph, is one of Britain's leading business and economics commentators.
China is too busy trying to get rich to bother with human rights
Why is it that the BBC, in its reporting of David Cameron’s visit to China, keeps banging on about the supposed dilemma faced by the Prime Minister over whether to raise human rights abuse, and in particular the plight of Liu Xiaobo, a prominent Chinese dissident unable to collect his Nobel peace prize because he’s serving an 11 year sentence in a Chinese jail?
There’s no dilemma here at all – except in the vague terms already referred to by Mr Cameron, this is not an issue which needs to be explored at all on a visit which is meant to be wholly about trade. Only the BBC, would, in oblivious disregard for the national interest, keep on trying to make something out of it.
And I’m not arguing this point of view merely because Britain might lose potentially lucrative trade deals if Mr Cameron attempts to grand stand human rights. Any harm done in this regard is in any case unlikely to be permanent.
President Sarkozy’s refusal to take any nonsense from the Chinese in meeting the Dalai Lama a few years back doesn’t seem to have done France’s trading relationship with China any harm at all. Last week, French firms signed trade deals with China worth $20bn during a visit by Hu Jintao to Paris. In the end, Chinese trade relations are ruled by pragmatism. If they think it in their own commercial and economic interests, they’ll do it.
No, the real reason for steering clear of public complaint is that it will make no difference at all to human rights in China, and actually might make things worse. President George Bush’s admission that given the choice, he’d waterboard again, will only increase China’s determination to take no lectures from the West on human rights abuse.
True enough, these acts of torture are as nothing against the epic abuse of opponents that is still carried out on a routine basis in China today, but to attempt to judge China by contemporary Western standards is neither helpful nor justified. Neither the US nor the British government would take kindly to being told by the Chinese how to manage their internal, or even external, affairs; why, with advanced economies queuing round the block to take advantage of the trade opportunities afforded by Chinese growth, would they want to listen to us?
You don’t need to go far back in Western history to find similarly intolerant attitudes to political opposition, and as for the human rights agenda, well that’s a very recent addition indeed. As pointed out by the historian Michael Burleigh in his column for Standpoint magazine, the human rights industry really only started to gain traction from the 1970s onwards. Only in very recent years have human rights activists managed to subvert the law to this overarching end. Looking at a system which now demands that candles are provided for pagans practicing their dark arts at Her Majesty’s pleasure, and other such nonsenses, you can understand why the Chinese want none of it.
China has always put ideas of the collective good above those of individual liberty, and is therefore from an entirely different cultural tradition to that of Thomas Paine, the French revolutionaries, and the rights of man. Attempts to impose Western models and ideals on the Chinese political class are therefore not just futile, they are are culturally insulting.
I’m not seriously arguing against western libertarianism, but some might think, looking at the country’s relative lack of crime, that the Chinese system has much to commend it. The most important thing to understand about modern China, one eminent expert once told me, is that all actions of policy, justice and administration are wholly focused on just one goal – maintaining the Communist Party elite in power.
This gives the system a strange kind of democratic accountability. As long as the CP keeps delivering, it will continue to command popular support and is therefore safe. Officials know that the moment they fail, their end will by nasty, brutish and short. For the moment, there is little if any appetite in China for Tiananmen Square type protest. The Chinese are too busy trying to get rich to worry about human rights.
There are plenty of things Mr Cameron could usefully complain of while in China that are harmful to Western interests – currency manipulation, trade protections and theft of intellectual property rights being just three of them. But there is absolutely no point in lecturing the Chinese on human rights.
Jeremy Warner, assistant editor of The Daily Telegraph, is one of Britain's leading business and economics commentators.
China is too busy trying to get rich to bother with human rights
Why is it that the BBC, in its reporting of David Cameron’s visit to China, keeps banging on about the supposed dilemma faced by the Prime Minister over whether to raise human rights abuse, and in particular the plight of Liu Xiaobo, a prominent Chinese dissident unable to collect his Nobel peace prize because he’s serving an 11 year sentence in a Chinese jail?
There’s no dilemma here at all – except in the vague terms already referred to by Mr Cameron, this is not an issue which needs to be explored at all on a visit which is meant to be wholly about trade. Only the BBC, would, in oblivious disregard for the national interest, keep on trying to make something out of it.
And I’m not arguing this point of view merely because Britain might lose potentially lucrative trade deals if Mr Cameron attempts to grand stand human rights. Any harm done in this regard is in any case unlikely to be permanent.
President Sarkozy’s refusal to take any nonsense from the Chinese in meeting the Dalai Lama a few years back doesn’t seem to have done France’s trading relationship with China any harm at all. Last week, French firms signed trade deals with China worth $20bn during a visit by Hu Jintao to Paris. In the end, Chinese trade relations are ruled by pragmatism. If they think it in their own commercial and economic interests, they’ll do it.
No, the real reason for steering clear of public complaint is that it will make no difference at all to human rights in China, and actually might make things worse. President George Bush’s admission that given the choice, he’d waterboard again, will only increase China’s determination to take no lectures from the West on human rights abuse.
True enough, these acts of torture are as nothing against the epic abuse of opponents that is still carried out on a routine basis in China today, but to attempt to judge China by contemporary Western standards is neither helpful nor justified. Neither the US nor the British government would take kindly to being told by the Chinese how to manage their internal, or even external, affairs; why, with advanced economies queuing round the block to take advantage of the trade opportunities afforded by Chinese growth, would they want to listen to us?
You don’t need to go far back in Western history to find similarly intolerant attitudes to political opposition, and as for the human rights agenda, well that’s a very recent addition indeed. As pointed out by the historian Michael Burleigh in his column for Standpoint magazine, the human rights industry really only started to gain traction from the 1970s onwards. Only in very recent years have human rights activists managed to subvert the law to this overarching end. Looking at a system which now demands that candles are provided for pagans practicing their dark arts at Her Majesty’s pleasure, and other such nonsenses, you can understand why the Chinese want none of it.
China has always put ideas of the collective good above those of individual liberty, and is therefore from an entirely different cultural tradition to that of Thomas Paine, the French revolutionaries, and the rights of man. Attempts to impose Western models and ideals on the Chinese political class are therefore not just futile, they are are culturally insulting.
I’m not seriously arguing against western libertarianism, but some might think, looking at the country’s relative lack of crime, that the Chinese system has much to commend it. The most important thing to understand about modern China, one eminent expert once told me, is that all actions of policy, justice and administration are wholly focused on just one goal – maintaining the Communist Party elite in power.
This gives the system a strange kind of democratic accountability. As long as the CP keeps delivering, it will continue to command popular support and is therefore safe. Officials know that the moment they fail, their end will by nasty, brutish and short. For the moment, there is little if any appetite in China for Tiananmen Square type protest. The Chinese are too busy trying to get rich to worry about human rights.
There are plenty of things Mr Cameron could usefully complain of while in China that are harmful to Western interests – currency manipulation, trade protections and theft of intellectual property rights being just three of them. But there is absolutely no point in lecturing the Chinese on human rights.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Friday, November 05, 2010
艰难的决定
http://comment.news.163.com/news_guonei8_bbs/6KML1I5C0001124J.html
网易河北廊坊网友 ip：221.194.*.*
360保护了我的电脑无数次，这次让我来保护你。* 顶[20869]
网易湖南常德手机网友(220.248.*.*)的原贴：
诺基亚做了个艰难的决定，如果探测到10米范围内有iPhone，将启动自爆程序，毁灭10米内一切物体。
阿迪做了个决定，检测到用户身上有耐克，衣服鞋自动变透视装
康师傅做了个艰难的决定，如果检测到用户使用过统一，方便面里将没有配料
麦当劳做了个艰难的决定，如果监测到客人曾经食用过KFC，将自动释放致癌物质
蒙牛做了个艰难的决定，如果监测到用户胃里有伊利牛奶，将自动释放三聚氰胺
中石化做了个艰难的决定，如果监测到用户汽车油箱里有中石油，将自动引爆加油站
杰士邦做了个艰难的决定，如果监测到用户有使用杜蕾斯，将自动释放艾滋病毒
广电总局做了个艰难的决定，如果发现用户下载美剧，将自动转化成新闻联播
公安局做了一个艰难的决定,如果检测到某人他爸是李刚,将自动免罪
网易河北廊坊网友 ip：221.194.*.*
360保护了我的电脑无数次，这次让我来保护你。* 顶[20869]
网易湖南常德手机网友(220.248.*.*)的原贴：
诺基亚做了个艰难的决定，如果探测到10米范围内有iPhone，将启动自爆程序，毁灭10米内一切物体。
阿迪做了个决定，检测到用户身上有耐克，衣服鞋自动变透视装
康师傅做了个艰难的决定，如果检测到用户使用过统一，方便面里将没有配料
麦当劳做了个艰难的决定，如果监测到客人曾经食用过KFC，将自动释放致癌物质
蒙牛做了个艰难的决定，如果监测到用户胃里有伊利牛奶，将自动释放三聚氰胺
中石化做了个艰难的决定，如果监测到用户汽车油箱里有中石油，将自动引爆加油站
杰士邦做了个艰难的决定，如果监测到用户有使用杜蕾斯，将自动释放艾滋病毒
广电总局做了个艰难的决定，如果发现用户下载美剧，将自动转化成新闻联播
公安局做了一个艰难的决定,如果检测到某人他爸是李刚,将自动免罪
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
狂飙突进的民族主义
马立诚 (1946年出生，原《人民日报》评论部主任编辑，政论家)
我手里有两个黄色的棉布钱包，是在北京最热闹的旅游景点——什刹海酒吧街的摊上买的。一个钱包上印着：“中国人必须领导一切”；另一个印着：“全世 界必须说中文”。生产这样的商品，是为了刺激眼球赚钱。不知别的国家是否出售这种商品，印象中没有。这两个钱包，给下面几位学者的话作了生动注脚。
许纪霖在2010年8月号的 《读书》杂志上说，最近10年中国出现了民族主义狂飙，从反西方与反启蒙出发，发展为崇拜国家的政治保守主义。
资中筠在2010年7月5日的《经济观察报》上说，现在国家主义或是极端民族主义特别严重，以国家主义牺牲国民福祉满足虚荣，推向极致就会导致法西斯主义。
徐友渔在2010年7月号的《领导文萃》杂志上说，民族主义是近年来中国社会最为喧嚣的声音。一些人打着“爱国”旗号坑蒙拐骗恣意妄为，鼓吹民族主义已经成为作秀、捞钱和升官的伎俩。民族主义的各种口号，没有独立的、内在的、与中国人民真正利益相关的价值。
2010年9月18日，《新京报》发表易中天与李泽厚关于民族主义与民粹主义的对话，两位直接提出中国已经出现纳粹思潮，应当警惕。李泽厚 说：“中国龙主宰世界”的民族主义一旦和民粹主义结合，就非常危险，它将对外发动战争，对内厉行专制。民族主义加民粹主义，正好是 “国家社会主义”，即纳粹。这是当前中国往何处去的最危险的一个方向，大讲 “中国模式”就有这个危险。易中天说：现在要是有人提出和日本、美国干一仗，他们都群情激昂，都愿意。李泽厚先生在这个时候提出反对民族主义加民粹主义的 “纳粹倾向”，我举双手赞成。
(全文请点击文首链接)
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
雪花点
http://www.drunkpiano-liuyu.net/?p=266
六月 12th, 2008 | Category: 故事
过去几个星期一直在昏天黑地地改考卷。
说是100来份，但是一份考卷三篇文章，所以从阅读文章总数来说，有300多篇。
我自己的课当然没有这么多学生。但是剑桥（也可能是我们系）有个奇怪的制度，每份作业和考卷都要由两个人来改，为公平起见，取平均分。而且这里改考卷不象中国或者美国，各个老师负责自己那门课就行了---- 这里是个“集体作业”，每个人被随机分配去改不同课的考卷，所以虽然我只教过2门课，但却改4门课的考卷加别人辅导的一堆毕业论文。
就是说，如果这段时间您路过我办公室的窗口，就会看到那个小学生课本中被写到的动人情景：夜深了，老师的剪影依然浮现在深夜的办公室窗口，“呕心沥血”地伏案改作业……
开始还行，毕竟，改考卷本质上是体力活，没有什么心理压力，一度还有“逃避自由”的欣快感。
后来慢慢就不行了，象爬大山坡，越爬越吃力。
开始还是在读文章，后来大脑和眼睛都给程序化了，象GPS找路一样搜索、定位，大脑不断用GPS那种机器声说：此处没有关键字，减3分……此处论点论据不对应，减2分……此处和前面不一致，减2分……此处举例不当，减1分……
基本就是“倒车……请注意……倒车……请注意……”的那种节奏感。
然后就是头晕眼花想吐。大脑塞满了，一个词都塞不进去了，再塞一个词就会掉出来十个词来。
再后来就觉得打一个喷嚏就会喷出一篇学生的文章来。
从上周末开始，出现了长时间干体力活的一个经典症状：不会思考了，成天大脑一片空白，也不完全是空白，布满了黑白电视上的那种雪花点。以往看到天气变化、树呀光呀影呀总要触景生情一下，或者读到新闻时事，总要思考一下，这一段就完全没有了感受力，就剩雪花点了。
其中一个症状当然就是：一点不想写博客了。
博客，博客是什么呀。
脑子就跟浮肿病人一样，按一下，陷进去一个“坑”，半天弹不回来。
记得以前有人讨论为什么奥森维斯的犹太人不反抗，有人解答说，那些犹太人天天被派去干体力活，这些活从经济上未必有多少意义，但摧垮一个人意志的最好方式就是让他长时间地从事体力透支型的劳动。
体力劳动中的那种机械感，那种简单重复中的混沌感，的确令人越来越麻木。
马克思或者新马克思主义者关于这个肯定也说过点什么。
昨天晚上伦敦时间9点03分，终于改完了。呆若木鸡地坐在椅子上，脑子里一滩淤泥，过了很久，咕咚，冒了一个泡。
泡里写着：“我想喝可乐……要冰冻的。”
六月 12th, 2008 | Category: 故事
过去几个星期一直在昏天黑地地改考卷。
说是100来份，但是一份考卷三篇文章，所以从阅读文章总数来说，有300多篇。
我自己的课当然没有这么多学生。但是剑桥（也可能是我们系）有个奇怪的制度，每份作业和考卷都要由两个人来改，为公平起见，取平均分。而且这里改考卷不象中国或者美国，各个老师负责自己那门课就行了---- 这里是个“集体作业”，每个人被随机分配去改不同课的考卷，所以虽然我只教过2门课，但却改4门课的考卷加别人辅导的一堆毕业论文。
就是说，如果这段时间您路过我办公室的窗口，就会看到那个小学生课本中被写到的动人情景：夜深了，老师的剪影依然浮现在深夜的办公室窗口，“呕心沥血”地伏案改作业……
开始还行，毕竟，改考卷本质上是体力活，没有什么心理压力，一度还有“逃避自由”的欣快感。
后来慢慢就不行了，象爬大山坡，越爬越吃力。
开始还是在读文章，后来大脑和眼睛都给程序化了，象GPS找路一样搜索、定位，大脑不断用GPS那种机器声说：此处没有关键字，减3分……此处论点论据不对应，减2分……此处和前面不一致，减2分……此处举例不当，减1分……
基本就是“倒车……请注意……倒车……请注意……”的那种节奏感。
然后就是头晕眼花想吐。大脑塞满了，一个词都塞不进去了，再塞一个词就会掉出来十个词来。
再后来就觉得打一个喷嚏就会喷出一篇学生的文章来。
从上周末开始，出现了长时间干体力活的一个经典症状：不会思考了，成天大脑一片空白，也不完全是空白，布满了黑白电视上的那种雪花点。以往看到天气变化、树呀光呀影呀总要触景生情一下，或者读到新闻时事，总要思考一下，这一段就完全没有了感受力，就剩雪花点了。
其中一个症状当然就是：一点不想写博客了。
博客，博客是什么呀。
脑子就跟浮肿病人一样，按一下，陷进去一个“坑”，半天弹不回来。
记得以前有人讨论为什么奥森维斯的犹太人不反抗，有人解答说，那些犹太人天天被派去干体力活，这些活从经济上未必有多少意义，但摧垮一个人意志的最好方式就是让他长时间地从事体力透支型的劳动。
体力劳动中的那种机械感，那种简单重复中的混沌感，的确令人越来越麻木。
马克思或者新马克思主义者关于这个肯定也说过点什么。
昨天晚上伦敦时间9点03分，终于改完了。呆若木鸡地坐在椅子上，脑子里一滩淤泥，过了很久，咕咚，冒了一个泡。
泡里写着：“我想喝可乐……要冰冻的。”
Thursday, October 28, 2010
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (TOC)
by Barack Obama
Prologue (7 pages; 0'0'' - 15'32'')
Chapter 1 Republicans and Democrats (17 pages; 15'32'' - 58'36'', or 43'04'')
Chapter 2 Values
Chapter 3 Our Constitution
Chapter 4 Politics
Chapter 5 Faith
Chapter 6 Race
Chapter 7 The World Beyond Our Borders
Chapter 8 Markets
Chapter 9 Family
Conclusion
Prologue (7 pages; 0'0'' - 15'32'')
Chapter 1 Republicans and Democrats (17 pages; 15'32'' - 58'36'', or 43'04'')
Chapter 2 Values
Chapter 3 Our Constitution
Chapter 4 Politics
Chapter 5 Faith
Chapter 6 Race
Chapter 7 The World Beyond Our Borders
Chapter 8 Markets
Chapter 9 Family
Conclusion
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
刘晓波的悲剧
说最后一句吧。
刘晓波的悲剧在于，他以为用自己的牺牲能够换来一群人的自由；他不知道的是，这群人根本不在乎自由。这样的一群人，根本不值得他为之牺牲。
"人类的血战前行的历史，正如煤的形成，当时用大量的木材，结果却只是一小块。"
Case closed.
刘晓波的悲剧在于，他以为用自己的牺牲能够换来一群人的自由；他不知道的是，这群人根本不在乎自由。这样的一群人，根本不值得他为之牺牲。
"人类的血战前行的历史，正如煤的形成，当时用大量的木材，结果却只是一小块。"
Case closed.
Liu Xiaobo: A Reader [updating]
A syllabus of key articles concerning Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Authored by: Liu Xiaobo; the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court; the Norwegian Nobel Committee; 23 Chinese Communist Party elders; Professor Gao Mingxuan of Renmin University of China Law School (interviewed); 15 past Nobel Peace Prize Laureates; and Liu Xia, the wife of Liu Xiaobo.
1. "我没有敌人──我的最后陈述" ("I Have No Enemy -- My Final Statement"), by Liu Xiaobo, December 23, 2009.
2. 刘晓波判决书，北京市第一中级人民法院 (Verdict of the Liu Xiaobo case, by the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court), December 25, 2009.
3. The Nobel Peace Prize for 2010, by The Norwegian Nobel Committee, October 8, 2010.
4. "Why We Gave Liu Xiaobo a Nobel," by Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, October 22, 2010.
5. “执行宪法第35条，废除预审制，兑现公民的言论出版自由――致全国人民代表大会常务委员会的公开信”， 李锐、胡绩伟等23位中共元老，October 11, 2010. (An open letter signed by 23 Chinese Communist Party elders calling for an end to censorship. See "Chinese Elders Blast Censorship," the Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2010.)
6. "“因言获罪”是对刘晓波案判决的误读"， 新华网，October 25, 2010. (An interview of Professor Gao Mingxuan 高铭暄, renowned criminal law scholar at Renmin University of China.)
7. "15 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Call on World Leaders to Urge Chinese President Hu Jintao to Release Nobel Peace Prize Laurate Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia," October 25, 2010.
8. "给晓波朋友们的公开邀请函"， 刘霞, October 20, 2010. (Liu Xia, Liu Xiaobo's wife invites 143 Chinese activists, academics and celebrities to the award ceremony in Oslo. See report in the New York Times, October 26, 2010.)
Liu Xia's List
刘霞公开信中邀请出席12月10日在挪威奥斯陆举办的诺贝尔奖颁奖典礼的143人中有不少名人。有些意外的是，这份名单中不但有王朔、姜文、陈凯歌、韩寒、李银河、沙叶新、梁文道、胡舒立等文化、传媒界名人，也有柳传志、王石等工商巨子。这份特殊的名单似乎在某种程度上透露着中国未来二十年社会政治大变局的一些线索。
亲爱的朋友们：
我是刘晓波的妻子刘霞。晓波获得诺贝尔和平奖的消息传来，我和大家一样，内心充满感动和感恩，感谢国际社会和诺贝尔委员会对晓波多年努力的认同，感谢朋友们这么多年对晓波的支持，感谢所有《零八宪章》签署人。晓波说过，这个和平奖属于六四亡灵，我想，这个奖也属于大家，属于所有那些为了捍卫尊严而无所畏惧的中国人。
遗憾的是，从10月8号开始，我就处在软禁当中，行动没有自由，和外界通信也极为困难，我不知道对我的这种非法软禁还要延续多久，我对此表示严重抗议，我呼吁官方遵守法律，立即停止对我正常生活的干扰，尊重国内和国际社会的正当要求，尽快恢复晓波的自由，让我们得以进行正常的生活。
最近，诺贝尔委员会通知我，他们将于12月10日在挪威奥斯陆举行颁奖仪式。从目前情况看来，晓波或者我前往领奖的可能性都微乎其微，但是我相信晓波肯定会希望朋友们能出席这个历史性的典礼，共同分享这份荣耀。 因此，在我还能发出信息的时候，我想公开邀请下列晓波同道和朋友们参加12月10日在挪威奥斯陆举行的和平奖颁奖典礼：
于浩成，鲍彤，李锐，杜光，李普，沙叶新，张祖桦，丁子霖，蒋培坤，王淑玲，资中筠，许医农，丁东，王康，张宏，梁文道，吴茂华，张显扬，胡舒立，刘军宁，张旭昆，何光沪，朱学勤，吴思，卢跃刚，李大同，章诒和，徐晓，刘苏里，王小山，郝建，王朔，姜文，陈凯歌，韩寒，李银河，高兟，高强，张先玲，齐志勇，孙文广，余世存，周舵，高瑜，蒋亶文，余杰，王怡，廖亦武，戴晴，赵达功，秦耕， 温克坚，莫之许，刘柠，郑旭光，王德邦，杨恒均，唯色，肖雪慧，野夫，野渡，侯梅新，昝爱宗，傅国涌，张大军，郭玉闪，王俊秀，陈子明，胡石根，秦永敏，江棋生，李海，朱虞夫，王荣清，佘万宝，陈卫，杨海，马少方，陈明先，贾建英，杨子立，张宏海，高洪明，刘京生，陈西，欧阳懿，刘荻，张辉，卢雪松,周中陵，柳传志，王石，高耀洁，冯正虎，曾金燕，许志永，范亚峰，梁晓燕，姚立法，万延海，高智晟，陈光诚, 游精佑 栗宪庭，江艺平，程益中，贺卫方，夏业良，冉云飞，连岳，崔卫平，艾晓明，流沙河，铁流，叶孝刚，陈奉孝，李昌玉 尚宝军，丁锡奎，莫少平，浦志强，滕彪，陈永苗，李苏滨，李柏光，李和平，李方平，江天勇，张星水，庄道鹤，张鉴康 王金波 王仲夏，殷玉生，杨立才 朱菊如，车宏年，查建国 吴义龙，黎雄兵，凌沧州，张博树，李元龙。
我知道，上述邀请名单肯定是不完整的。请原谅，我并不熟悉伸张权利的民间社会生态，而目前的处境也不允许我和晓波的朋友们做充分的商量，因此，我只能根据有限的信息和记忆拟出上述名单。我欢迎更多的海内外朋友前往参加颁奖仪式，请有意者发邮件到这个地址：nobellxb@gmail.com， 我已经委托杨建利先生进行联络和处理。
上述邀请名单中还包含了部分知名传媒人，文化界人士和一些企业家，我也希望他们能拨冗参与这个典礼。中国社会的进步，需要各个阶层的共同努力。
刘霞
2010-10-20
刘霞：给晓波朋友们的公开邀请函
我是刘晓波的妻子刘霞。晓波获得诺贝尔和平奖的消息传来，我和大家一样，内心充满感动和感恩，感谢国际社会和诺贝尔委员会对晓波多年努力的认同，感谢朋友们这么多年对晓波的支持，感谢所有《零八宪章》签署人。晓波说过，这个和平奖属于六四亡灵，我想，这个奖也属于大家，属于所有那些为了捍卫尊严而无所畏惧的中国人。
遗憾的是，从10月8号开始，我就处在软禁当中，行动没有自由，和外界通信也极为困难，我不知道对我的这种非法软禁还要延续多久，我对此表示严重抗议，我呼吁官方遵守法律，立即停止对我正常生活的干扰，尊重国内和国际社会的正当要求，尽快恢复晓波的自由，让我们得以进行正常的生活。
最近，诺贝尔委员会通知我，他们将于12月10日在挪威奥斯陆举行颁奖仪式。从目前情况看来，晓波或者我前往领奖的可能性都微乎其微，但是我相信晓波肯定会希望朋友们能出席这个历史性的典礼，共同分享这份荣耀。 因此，在我还能发出信息的时候，我想公开邀请下列晓波同道和朋友们参加12月10日在挪威奥斯陆举行的和平奖颁奖典礼：
于浩成，鲍彤，李锐，杜光，李普，沙叶新，张祖桦，丁子霖，蒋培坤，王淑玲，资中筠，许医农，丁东，王康，张宏，梁文道，吴茂华，张显扬，胡舒立，刘军宁，张旭昆，何光沪，朱学勤，吴思，卢跃刚，李大同，章诒和，徐晓，刘苏里，王小山，郝建，王朔，姜文，陈凯歌，韩寒，李银河，高兟，高强，张先玲，齐志勇，孙文广，余世存，周舵，高瑜，蒋亶文，余杰，王怡，廖亦武，戴晴，赵达功，秦耕， 温克坚，莫之许，刘柠，郑旭光，王德邦，杨恒均，唯色，肖雪慧，野夫，野渡，侯梅新，昝爱宗，傅国涌，张大军，郭玉闪，王俊秀，陈子明，胡石根，秦永敏，江棋生，李海，朱虞夫，王荣清，佘万宝，陈卫，杨海，马少方，陈明先，贾建英，杨子立，张宏海，高洪明，刘京生，陈西，欧阳懿，刘荻，张辉，卢雪松,周中陵，柳传志，王石，高耀洁，冯正虎，曾金燕，许志永，范亚峰，梁晓燕，姚立法，万延海，高智晟，陈光诚, 游精佑 栗宪庭，江艺平，程益中，贺卫方，夏业良，冉云飞，连岳，崔卫平，艾晓明，流沙河，铁流，叶孝刚，陈奉孝，李昌玉 尚宝军，丁锡奎，莫少平，浦志强，滕彪，陈永苗，李苏滨，李柏光，李和平，李方平，江天勇，张星水，庄道鹤，张鉴康 王金波 王仲夏，殷玉生，杨立才 朱菊如，车宏年，查建国 吴义龙，黎雄兵，凌沧州，张博树，李元龙。
我知道，上述邀请名单肯定是不完整的。请原谅，我并不熟悉伸张权利的民间社会生态，而目前的处境也不允许我和晓波的朋友们做充分的商量，因此，我只能根据有限的信息和记忆拟出上述名单。我欢迎更多的海内外朋友前往参加颁奖仪式，请有意者发邮件到这个地址：nobellxb@gmail.com， 我已经委托杨建利先生进行联络和处理。
上述邀请名单中还包含了部分知名传媒人，文化界人士和一些企业家，我也希望他们能拨冗参与这个典礼。中国社会的进步，需要各个阶层的共同努力。
刘霞
2010-10-20
Monday, October 25, 2010
新华网: "因言获罪"是对刘晓波案判决的误读
新华网10月25日报道
刘晓波因犯煽动颠覆国家政权罪，被判处有期徒刑十一年，剥夺政治权利二年。此案已于今年2月终审，正在逐渐淡出公众的视线。然而出乎意料的是，挪威诺贝尔 委员会将今年诺贝尔和平奖授予刘晓波。接着，有境外媒体称刘晓波被判刑是“因言获罪”，似乎认为刘晓波的言行属于公民言论自由的范围，法院不应对他定罪判 刑。这种说法有道理吗？煽动颠覆国家政权与言论自由的界限在哪里呢？带着这些疑问，记者走访了著名刑法学家高铭暄教授。
高铭暄教授认为，要讨论刘晓波的行为是否构成犯罪，应该先搞清楚刘晓波实施了哪些行为。从北京市第一中级人民法院和北京市高级人民法院一致认定的事 实看，刘晓波的行为有两项：其一，2005年10月至2007年8月，刘晓波撰写并在互联网“观察”、“BBC中文网”等网站发表《中共的独裁爱国主 义》、《通过改变社会来改变政权》、《独裁崛起对世界民主化的负面效应》等多篇文章，多次煽动推翻中国的现政权；其二，2008年9月至12月，刘晓波伙 同他人撰写了题为《零八宪章》的文章，提出“取消一党垄断执政特权”、“建立中华联邦共和国”等多项煽动性主张，并伙同他人在征集了三百余人的签名后，将 《零八宪章》及签名发给境外网站，在“民主中国”、“独立中文笔会”等网站上发表。这两项行为都是撰写和发表文章的事实，刘晓波本人在法庭上是承认的。只 不过，刘晓波辩解说没有煽动颠覆国家政权，而只是发表了一些批评性的言论。
需要讨论的是，刘晓波撰写和发表文章的内容，究竟是一般的“批评性言论”，还是具备颠覆国家政权的犯罪性质？高铭暄教授认为，从刘晓波言论的字面含 义，即可直观地判断其具有推翻我国国家政权和现行社会制度的动机和目的。例如，刘晓波说“中共独裁政权祸国殃民”，要求“改变政权”、“建立中华联邦共和 国”等等，明明白白传递了煽动民众起来推翻中国共产党领导的我国现行合法的人民民主专政的政权和社会主义制度的信息。又如，刘晓波说：“自由中国的出现， 与其寄希望于统治者的 新政 ，远不如寄希望于民间 新力量 的不断扩张”。这也充分地暴露了他煽动所谓的“新力量”来推翻政权的目的。这些言论，已经脱离了一般的批评性言论的范畴，属于具有现实社会危害性的行为。
说到这里，记者还有一个疑问没有解开：凡是发表不利于现政权稳定的煽动性言论的，都需要刑法加以调整吗？如果这样的话，会不会影响公民行使言论自由 的权利呢？高铭暄教授认为，任何国家刑法都讲究刑罚适用的审慎原则，动用刑法手段打击和制止煽动危害国家安全的言论是有条件的。我国刑法也不例外。从我国 刑法第一百零五条第二款的规定和司法实践情况看，构成煽动颠覆国家政权罪的行为，须具有两个基本条件：第一，该行为必须是以造谣、诽谤或者以其他方式实施 的。刘晓波的行为正是造谣、诽谤、污蔑等方式的极端表现形式。例如，刘晓波在《零八宪章》中说：“1949年建立的 新中国 ，名义上是 人民共和国 ，实质上是 党天下 。”还说：“在当今世界的所有大国中，唯独中国还处在威权主义的政治生态中，并由此造成连绵不断的人权灾难和社会危机。”这些显然属于造谣、诽谤、污蔑。 第二，该行为必须具有严重的社会危害性。审判实践告诉我们，并非所有的以造谣、诽谤为手段的煽动颠覆国家政权的行为都需要动用刑罚手段，其中区分罪与非罪 的标准是看某种煽动行为有无严重的社会危害性。这一标准就是煽动颠覆国家政权罪与一般的煽动性言论之间的实质界限。正确把握这个“实质界限”，也就解决了 煽动颠覆国家政权与言论自由的界限。就刘晓波案而言，以下几个因素值得注意：首先，刘晓波利用互联网传递信息快、传播范围广、社会影响大、公众关注度高的 特点，长时间、系统性地在互联网上发表的一连串文章，赤裸裸地对我国现政权进行诽谤、污蔑，其推翻现政权的故意是显而易见的。其次，刘晓波组织或者诱劝他 人参加签名，致使其煽动言论被广泛连接、转载、浏览，境外反华势力利用刘的言行向我国发难，事实上造成了严重的不良影响和后果。再次，刘晓波长期从事煽动 颠覆活动，1991年1月因犯反革命宣传煽动罪被免予刑事处分（当时刘晓波痛哭流涕表示认罪服法获得法院宽大处理）；1996年9月又因扰乱社会秩序被决 定劳动教养3年。这三个因素，反映了刘晓波的行为具有严重的社会危害性，且表明其人身危险性（即再次犯罪的可能性）极大，到了不动用刑罚手段不可的地步。 同时，刘晓波撰写并在互联网上发表煽动性文章，并且征集他人签名，已经不是言论问题了，而是实施了刑法禁止的“行为”。可见，西方媒体所谓“因言获罪”之 说，是不了解刘晓波的判决而作出的想“当然”评论。
高铭暄教授还向记者介绍，以言辞为表现形式的犯罪行为，几乎在世界各个国家的法律和有关国际公约中均有规定。“言论自由”在任何国家都是有限度的。 比如，《美国法典》第115章第2383条、2385条规定，对煽动、实施、协助或进行叛乱或造反以反对美国当局或其法律的行为；蓄意或故意鼓吹、煽动、 劝说或讲授理应、必须、值得或宜于以武力或暴乱或通过暗杀政府官员的方式，推翻或摧毁美国政府或任何州、领地、特区或占领地政府，或任何下级政治机构或政 府的行为，判处刑罚。英国《1351年叛国法令》规定图谋废除女皇或发表煽动上述意图行为违法。德国刑法第90条b规定了针对宪法机构实施敌对宪法的诋毁 犯罪。意大利刑法第342条规定了侮辱政治、行政或者司法机构犯罪。加拿大《刑事犯罪法典》第61条规定，发表煽动性语言文字、参与煽动性的活动构成犯 罪。澳大利亚法律规定鼓吹、煽动推翻联邦宪法或政府的行为违法。新加坡刑法第505条规定了煽动实施反政府或者反公共安定秩序的犯罪等。又如，《公民权利 和政治权利国际公约》第20条规定，鼓吹民族、种族或宗教仇恨的，应以法律加以禁止。《美洲人权公约》第13条规定，思想和表达自由不能突破保护国家安 全、公共秩序、公共卫生或者道德等界限。《欧洲理事会反对恐怖主义公约》第5条规定，各缔约方应采取必要措施，将非法和故意公开挑动实施恐怖主义犯罪的行 为作为国内法下的犯罪加以惩治。
高铭暄教授还介绍，在西方国家以煽动治罪的案件时有发生。美国在上个世纪就先后审理了申克邮寄反征兵传单，煽动军人反抗服役案；艾布拉姆斯印制、张 贴反对美国出兵的传单，呼吁军火业工人进行总罢工案；Leon Mack煽动反对警察案等。在美国发表威胁他人乃至国家领导人的言论也会涉嫌犯罪。据英国《独立报》报道，美国一名28岁的男子在一个网站上发表了一首题 为《狙击手》的诗，描述射杀了一名“暴君”的情景，影射刺杀美国总统。尽管诗中没有提及奥巴马总统，却被控构成犯罪。该案将于11月2日在肯塔基州地方法 院宣判，被告人因写诗威胁美国总统人身安全而面临最高五年的监禁，同时可能被处罚款16.5万美元。可见，美国的言论自由同样是以维护其现存制度和社会稳 定为前提的。其他国家也有类似案例。比如，2005年，加拿大联邦法院认定德国人Zundel鼓吹破坏政府和多元社会，已经超出言论自由的范围，威胁了国 家安全，将其驱逐出境。2001年，德国一个名叫Landser的乐队因涉嫌在网上散布含有种族主义内容的音乐而被判刑；2007年，德国法院认定 Zundel煽动种族仇恨和否认纳粹屠杀，对其判刑。2003年，法国判决一名制作煽动种族仇恨网页的网站站长有罪；2007年，法国戈尔尼施因发表质疑 纳粹大屠杀死难人员死亡原因及人数的言论被判刑。2004年，丹麦判决在网上发布针对犹太人种族仇恨言论的一名男子有罪。2006年，英国历史学者戴维 欧文因否认纳粹大屠杀，被奥地利法院判刑。国际司法机构也有相关案例。比如，联合国卢旺达国际刑事法庭判处通过卢旺达电台煽动种族仇恨和暴力的比利时记者 乔治 鲁久因等人有罪。
此外，由于文化背景、社会生活条件和法律体系的区别，各国在对言辞行为认定犯罪的审判实践中把握着不同的标准。英美国家通常以“明显且 现实的危险原则（THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TEST）”作为定罪标准。这一原则是依据美国霍姆斯大法官在申克寄发反征兵邮件案（SCHENCK v. UNITED STATES）中的意见而确立的。“一切行为的性质应由行为时的环境来确定。对言论自由所作最严格的保护，也不会容忍一个人在戏院中妄呼起火，引起恐慌。 禁令所禁止的一切可造成暴力后果的言论也不受保护。一切有关言论的案件，其问题在于所发表的言论在当时所处的环境及其性质下，是否能造成明显而现实的危 险，产生实际祸害。如果有这种危险，国会就有权阻止。”很有意思的是，美国大法官举出的“在剧院中妄呼起火”的案例，如果没有造成人员伤亡或者其他严重扰 乱社会秩序后果的话，在中国公众的心目中，充其量只是个治安案件，但在美国却属于刑事犯罪。
最后，高铭暄教授认为，美国法院就限制言论自由问题提出的具体认定标准，对于我们来说是有启发意义的：一是言论自由是一种可以根据危害结果来衡量的 可以限制的权利；二是言论自由的限制与否之标准，是根据在一定环境下的言论给现实秩序造成的危险的性质和程度来确定的。据此，对具体的、极易引起社会动乱 的煽动言论，国家必须加以限制。即便用这个美国的标准去衡量刘晓波案，北京市两级法院的判决也不存在可质疑之处。
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Why We Gave Liu Xiaobo a Nobel
Why We Gave Liu Xiaobo a Nobel
By THORBJORN JAGLAND
Oslo
THE Chinese authorities’ condemnation of the Nobel committee’s selection of Liu Xiaobo, the jailed political activist, as the winner of the 2010 Peace Prize inadvertently illustrates why human rights are worth defending.
The authorities assert that no one has the right to interfere in China’s internal affairs. But they are wrong: international human rights law and standards are above the nation-state, and the world community has a duty to ensure they are respected.
The modern state system evolved from the idea of national sovereignty established by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 [Oh?...]. At the time, sovereignty was assumed to be embodied in an autocratic ruler.
But ideas about sovereignty have changed over time. The American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen replaced the control of the autocrat with the sovereignty of the people as the source of national power and legitimacy.
The idea of sovereignty changed again during the last century, as the world moved from nationalism to internationalism. The United Nations, founded in the wake of two disastrous world wars, committed member states to resolve disputes by peaceful means and defined the fundamental rights of all people in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The nation-state, the declaration said, would no longer have ultimate, unlimited power.
Today, universal human rights provide a check on arbitrary majorities around the world, whether they are democracies or not. A majority in a parliament cannot decide to harm the rights of a minority, nor vote for laws that undermine human rights. And even though China is not a constitutional democracy, it is a member of the United Nations, and it has amended its Constitution to comply with the Declaration of Human Rights.
However, Mr. Liu’s imprisonment is clear proof that China’s criminal law is not in line with its Constitution. He was convicted of “spreading rumors or slander or any other means to subvert the state power or overthrow the socialist system.” But in a world community based on universal human rights, it is not a government’s task to stamp out opinions and rumors. Governments are obliged to ensure the right to free expression — even if the speaker advocates a different social system.
These are rights that the Nobel committee has long upheld by honoring those who struggle to protect them with the Peace Prize, including Andrei Sakharov for his struggle against human rights abuses in the Soviet Union, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for his fight for civil rights in the United States.
Not surprisingly, the Chinese government has harshly criticized the award, claiming that the Nobel committee unlawfully interfered with its internal affairs and humiliated it in the eyes of the international public. On the contrary, China should be proud that it has become powerful enough to be the subject of debate and criticism.
Interestingly, the Chinese government is not the only one to criticize the Nobel committee. Some people have said that giving the prize to Mr. Liu may actually worsen conditions for human-rights advocates in China.
But this argument is illogical: it leads to the conclusion that we best promote human rights by keeping quiet. If we keep quiet about China, who will be the next country to claim its right to silence and non-interference? This approach would put us on a path toward undermining the Universal Declaration and the basic tenets of human rights. We must not and cannot keep quiet. No country has a right to ignore its international obligations.
China has every reason to be proud of what it has achieved in the last 20 years. We want to see that progress continue, and that is why we awarded the Peace Prize to Mr. Liu. If China is to advance in harmony with other countries and become a key partner in upholding the values of the world community, it must first grant freedom of expression to all its citizens.
It is a tragedy that a man is being imprisoned for 11 years merely because he expressed his opinion. If we are to move toward the fraternity of nations of which Alfred Nobel spoke, then universal human rights must be our touchstone.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Quotes - Chinese
人无癖不可与交，以其无深情也；人无疵不可与交，以其无真气也。
--张岱（1597-1679）
性痴则其志凝，故书痴者文必工，艺痴者技必良。
--蒲松龄（1640-1715），《聊斋志异》卷二《阿宝》
导中国进步，当以渐也。
欲维新吾国，当先维新吾民。
今日欲伸民权，必以广民智为第一义。
有一分之智，即有一分之权，有六七分之智，即有六七分之权，有十分之智，即有十分之权。
--梁启超 (1873-1929)
天下惟庸人无咎无誉。
--梁启超《李鸿章传》
"Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world."
-- First email sent out from the People's Republic of China, September 14, 1987.
--张岱（1597-1679）
性痴则其志凝，故书痴者文必工，艺痴者技必良。
--蒲松龄（1640-1715），《聊斋志异》卷二《阿宝》
导中国进步，当以渐也。
欲维新吾国，当先维新吾民。
今日欲伸民权，必以广民智为第一义。
有一分之智，即有一分之权，有六七分之智，即有六七分之权，有十分之智，即有十分之权。
--梁启超 (1873-1929)
天下惟庸人无咎无誉。
--梁启超《李鸿章传》
"Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world."
-- First email sent out from the People's Republic of China, September 14, 1987.
Quotes - Movie
There are no mistakes in tango. Not like life. If you got all tangled up, just tango on.
--Al Pacino as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, from "Scent of a Woman" (1992)
Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
-- "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994)
--Al Pacino as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, from "Scent of a Woman" (1992)
Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
-- "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994)
Monday, October 18, 2010
沐浴在党的光辉下──记党培养的第一个诺贝尔奖得主刘先生
转载
华人诺贝尔奖得主已有不少，但大多起直接贡献的是西方教育科研制度。我们固然为他们的得奖感到高兴，但又为他们的奖没有能体现党的关怀而感到遗憾。而刘先生是第一位在党的直接关怀下得到诺奖的人物。
党对刘先生的关怀，体现在评奖过程中为刘先生一路保驾护航。诺奖年年被提名的有上百人，其中有很多对人类文明做出很大贡献的人物。刘先生在其中本来很不起眼。他的观点，文章，不过是对《人权宣言》，《独立宣言》，《联合国人权公约》的简单重复，没有什么了不起的新思想。就是党在七十年前，也写过大量类似的文章。为了让刘先生顺利得奖，党先用言论罪把他投进监狱。政治犯入狱的事，过去常见，但在21世纪已经很罕见了，因此最容易得到诺奖委员会的注意。这样刘先生在数百人中一下子脱颖而出，成为热门之一。接着，为了保证他拿奖，党不惜损害自身形象，派外交部副部长去挪威做工作。西方国家热爱和党唱对台戏的习惯，党岂能不知？外交部一再要求他们不能给刘先生颁奖的结果，不仅进一步提高了诺奖委员会对刘先生重要性的认识，还把他们逼到了如果不让刘先生得奖就会显得自己软弱无能，害怕党的压力而被人耻笑的地步，最终不得不给刘先生颁奖。
党对刘先生的关怀，还体现在对他和党的喉舌工作者的不同待遇上。刘先生发了十来个帖子，就赢得了160万美元奖金。而普通网络评论员发十个帖子，只有不到一美元。即使是高级评论员如外交部发言人，新闻主播等，其收入与工作量之比，与刘先生也差以千里.党对刘先生真是有国士之恩。
二十年来，当刘先生在家中高卧时，党派出的卫士们在他家外面彻夜不眠，为刘先生站岗放哨。当刘先生外出时，忠诚的卫士们一路紧随，震慑坏人的同时也提高了刘先生的声势。为了扩大刘先生的影响，他们不惜数十年如一日，牺牲和家人团聚的时间。党对刘先生的关怀可谓是无微不至。
党为了帮助刘先生得奖，还不惜伤害自己最看重的东西：“面子“。党常常不惜千亿重金搞形象工程来挣面子，体现负责任的大国形象。如今为了刘先生，不惜让自己在国际上大伤面子。党对刘先生的爱，又岂是一个简单的无私所能形容？
为了不让诺奖委员会发现自己的愚蠢，党在第一时间对他们大加谴责，进一步扩大了刘先生的影响。并且故意封锁消息，使得消息以广大群众更加喜闻乐见的口耳相传方式扩散，强化了刘先生的殉道者形象，使得原本相貌平平，毫不起眼的刘先生的形象顿时高大起来。
党的这一盘大棋，把西方反党势力蒙在鼓里，一网打尽。看他们还在那里傻不拉叽的弹冠相庆，怎能不为党的高瞻远瞩，料事如神所倾倒，又怎能不为党对刘先生的无私奉献而感动？
华人诺贝尔奖得主已有不少，但大多起直接贡献的是西方教育科研制度。我们固然为他们的得奖感到高兴，但又为他们的奖没有能体现党的关怀而感到遗憾。而刘先生是第一位在党的直接关怀下得到诺奖的人物。
党对刘先生的关怀，体现在评奖过程中为刘先生一路保驾护航。诺奖年年被提名的有上百人，其中有很多对人类文明做出很大贡献的人物。刘先生在其中本来很不起眼。他的观点，文章，不过是对《人权宣言》，《独立宣言》，《联合国人权公约》的简单重复，没有什么了不起的新思想。就是党在七十年前，也写过大量类似的文章。为了让刘先生顺利得奖，党先用言论罪把他投进监狱。政治犯入狱的事，过去常见，但在21世纪已经很罕见了，因此最容易得到诺奖委员会的注意。这样刘先生在数百人中一下子脱颖而出，成为热门之一。接着，为了保证他拿奖，党不惜损害自身形象，派外交部副部长去挪威做工作。西方国家热爱和党唱对台戏的习惯，党岂能不知？外交部一再要求他们不能给刘先生颁奖的结果，不仅进一步提高了诺奖委员会对刘先生重要性的认识，还把他们逼到了如果不让刘先生得奖就会显得自己软弱无能，害怕党的压力而被人耻笑的地步，最终不得不给刘先生颁奖。
党对刘先生的关怀，还体现在对他和党的喉舌工作者的不同待遇上。刘先生发了十来个帖子，就赢得了160万美元奖金。而普通网络评论员发十个帖子，只有不到一美元。即使是高级评论员如外交部发言人，新闻主播等，其收入与工作量之比，与刘先生也差以千里.党对刘先生真是有国士之恩。
二十年来，当刘先生在家中高卧时，党派出的卫士们在他家外面彻夜不眠，为刘先生站岗放哨。当刘先生外出时，忠诚的卫士们一路紧随，震慑坏人的同时也提高了刘先生的声势。为了扩大刘先生的影响，他们不惜数十年如一日，牺牲和家人团聚的时间。党对刘先生的关怀可谓是无微不至。
党为了帮助刘先生得奖，还不惜伤害自己最看重的东西：“面子“。党常常不惜千亿重金搞形象工程来挣面子，体现负责任的大国形象。如今为了刘先生，不惜让自己在国际上大伤面子。党对刘先生的爱，又岂是一个简单的无私所能形容？
为了不让诺奖委员会发现自己的愚蠢，党在第一时间对他们大加谴责，进一步扩大了刘先生的影响。并且故意封锁消息，使得消息以广大群众更加喜闻乐见的口耳相传方式扩散，强化了刘先生的殉道者形象，使得原本相貌平平，毫不起眼的刘先生的形象顿时高大起来。
党的这一盘大棋，把西方反党势力蒙在鼓里，一网打尽。看他们还在那里傻不拉叽的弹冠相庆，怎能不为党的高瞻远瞩，料事如神所倾倒，又怎能不为党对刘先生的无私奉献而感动？
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