The Qingming Festival is approaching. It is
a day that not only marks the true beginning of spring, but also
reminds me a lot, and a lot more since last year.
I was escorting a delegation visiting China
last March and I took the weekend with my parents to honour my grandfather
at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. I was wandering when I was young that why
my grandfather was surnamed as Wang but Shi as were my father and I. Only after
I was 15 years old I became realize that my kind grandfather is not exactly the
father of my daddy. And the elder, who I never had a chance to call grandpa to
him, has since slept at Babaoshan for decades. That smart gentleman in photograph
on cremated remains container was smart, slim and in a suit but not Mao suit
which is much more familiar in Babaoshan. I dreamed many times since I first
met him in year 2000 that I wished to have him sit aside me, telling me his
colourful experience, correcting me my English accent, guiding me on
philosophic issues. However, that dream can never become true.
Last year, daddy tried to clean that
container a bit before we leave, and I will never forget how stunned I was when
he opened that container, the one I thought was sealed and cannot be opened
again, and have me found empty inside. It’s empty though, my daddy murmured to
me. It’s empty, no cremated remains, no grave goods, not even a piece of dust. It
was year 2009 then, after seventy years he and his family devoted almost
everything to liberation and democracy, after forty years he passed away. The
very pioneer of communism revolution in 1940s, the very first batch of
professional diplomat of new found People’s Republic, the exclusive couple along
with my grandmother who can speak fluent English in embassy. We still have no
idea where he is.
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Google finally quitted mainland China
today. Yesterday when Obama’s health care bill got passed in congress Bloomberg
was focusing its impact on stock market, especially on medical and insurance
industry. However, along with Bloomberg’s focus to Obama’s bill, it paid a lot
of attention on Google’s spat with China authority, which rumors indicated that
a decision was likely to come out yesterday.
谷歌今天退出中国了。昨天在欧巴马的医疗改革法案经众议院表决通过后，布隆伯格就一直在关注其对昨日下午开盘的北美市场，尤其是对于医疗、保险行业，的影响。但与此同时，布隆伯格也大费笔墨的关注着被退出决定即将被公布的传闻笼罩着的谷歌与中国政府的摩擦。
Then this morning, from twitter I got what I
missed midnight yesterday. I’d like to shout bravo to Google! This just shows
the bravery it bears.
今天早上，我在推特上看到了我昨天午夜错过的确认的新闻。我要为谷歌较好。这行为真正显示了他们有多么勇敢。
In most websites in mainland China,
comments such as get out of China Google, Go hell Google, Come on Baidu or
Shame on Google etc, are full of pages show the official response from Chinese
government.
在大部分大陆的网站上，各种诸如“滚出中国”、“谷歌去死”、“百度加油”、“谷歌真tm丢脸”的评论充斥着中国政府官方回应谷歌退出一事的页面。
Most of proponent of Chinese government
mentioned Baidu in their comment, so what on the earth distinguish Baidu and
Google?
大多数中国政府的支持者都提到了百度，那么百度和谷歌到底有什么区别呢？
I believe, or assert if you think I’m
arrogant and in a bias, that the people who is using Baidu are poor at English
and poor at logical thinking.
我相信，或者如果你认为我傲慢或有偏见的话可以认为我认定，百度的用户英语很烂而且不善逻辑思维。
The user of Baidu is a group of people who
cannot read an English article of 1000 words more, who cannot write an English article
of 1000 words more, who never intent to verify a rumor when come across, whom
never subjected to strict training of logical thinking.
百度的用户是一群无法读懂1000字以上英文文章，无法写出1000字以上英文文章，从不试图求证任何传闻以及从没接受过严格的逻辑思维训练的人。
I came across a comment this morning in
Google Reader asking the blogger why she strongly believes that quitting China
is a shame of China but not a shame of Google.
我今天在谷歌阅读器的订阅中看到一位用户提问一位博客写作人为什么她那样肯定的认为谷歌退出中国是中国的耻辱，而不是谷歌的耻辱？
I just replied with a simple question. In a
country while its undergraduates are not able to read, write, listen nor speak English
after learning it for decades, doesn’t he believe that Google’s quitting China
is a shame, or at least a tragedy to this country where its students hardly get
access, voluntarily or involuntarily, to any serious English content but country
itself desperately looks for prosperity and revival.
我在下面用我简单的疑问给了他回应。在一个大量经过十几年训练的大学毕业生仍然无法掌握英语的听说读写技能的国家里，他难道不觉得谷歌退出对于这个其学生本来自愿或非自愿的都很难接触严肃英文内容但其本身却拼命谋求发展和复兴的国家来说就算不是丢脸，也是很悲剧的吗？
In an era which a country’s prosperity
relays on people who can read papers from IEEE, Nature or many other academic
organizations and who can read Economist, Financial Times, WSJ, Foreign Affairs,
Harvard Business Review and many other serious periodicals but not those who in
charge of propaganda machines, Google’s quitting China will certainly be a huge
blow to China’s reputation in the world and its tomorrow.
在一个国家的兴旺需要依赖于那些可以读懂IEEE、自然或者其它专业学术组织论文以及那些可以看懂经济学人、金融时报、华尔街日报、外交事务、哈佛商业评论或其它严肃期刊的人而不是那些会用宣传机器的人的时代，谷歌退出中国无疑对中国的国际声望以及明天都是一个沉重的打击。
Nevertheless, I concede that authority’s
interest might be met when there is few people who could read English in China.
As there will be no Chinese questioning authority’s bureaucratic propaganda machine.
不过，我也承认当没有什么人再去阅读英文内容的时候，当局的利益也许可以从得到满足。因为那时就没有人再会质疑当局官僚的宣传机器了。
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From many years ago, I started buying
publications from Amazon.com regularly. Although it’s not cheap buying books directly
from US after shipping charge included, the price is nonetheless more
attractive compared with those listed in Beijing Book Mall. In year 2009 I spent
$385 in Amazon and the figure was $367.83 in 2008, $154.24 in 2007, $194.2 in
year 2006 and tens of dollars earlier every year when I was still in college.
许多年以来，我一直定期的在美国亚马逊网站买书。尽管加上运费后难以称得上便宜，不过它的价钱比起北京图书大厦的标价来说还是诱人许多。2009年我花了385美元在亚马逊上，2008年是367.83，2007年是154.24， 2006年是194.2，更早的在大学的时候每年几十美元吧。
Thanks to Amazon.com, I have a broader
knowledge about climate change, next generation energy, WWII, Laissez-faire,
refugee, state aid, art, classic music and etc.
感谢亚马逊，我在气候变化、下一代能源、二战、自由经济、难民、国家援助、艺术、古典音乐以及许多其它领域积累了更多的知识。
Meanwhile, I could hardly recall the last Chinese
publication I bought. I might be, though I’m not sure, Beijing Beijing by Mr. Tang
Feng. It is hardly a literature, but rather a tool for you to kill time. Full of
nasty word, disrespect of women, arrogant male chauvinism, its yellow cover
even dyed another book of mine. However, I still believe it is a good fiction,
especially in a circumstance that we can hardly get any better Chinese fiction
now.
与此同时，我几乎记不得我买的最后一本中文出版物是什么了。大概是冯唐的《北京北京》吧。一本几乎称不上是文学而更适合用来打发时间的工具的书。其中充满了脏话，对于女性的不尊重，大男子主义，那黄色的封皮还把我另一本书染了色。尽管如此，我觉得那仍然可以成为是本不错的小说，尤其是现在我们很难找到再好一些的小说了。
While I believe literature is a vital bearer
of culture and ideology, we are in an era that there is no room for flourish of
modern subject literature.
我一向认为文学是文化和思想的重要载体，但我们所处的时代已经没有任何可供现实题材作品兴旺发展的空间了。
During past decades, Chinese came across so
many historical events that influenced generations and changed people
dramatically. Does anybody think it make nonsense for Chinese to review our history,
apart from whether Yongzheng killed his father or whether Du Lala will be
promoted or whether people could marry without any property, but modern history
seriously.
过去几十年，中国人经历了那么多剧烈影响和改变了几代人的事件。难道没有人觉得中国人来回头审视一下自己的历史，我不是说雍正是不是杀了他爹，不是杜拉拉是不是会升职也不是人是不是可以白手结婚，是现代史，是件很有意义的事情吗？
Beneath the prosperity of Chinese economy
and greater international status, my pity toward our culture, our tradition and
our way ahead of us flooded.
在中国蓬勃发展的经济以及日渐提高的国际地位的夹缝中，我对于我们的文化、传统以及我们前方的路的隐忧就这样泛滥着。
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After all, I would like to emphasize my
proponent attitude toward our political structure. Not only because what I previously
indicated that my own destiny was tightly tied with CCP, but also because of
what I told to many foreigners when we travelled together that China, so does
many other Far East Asian countries, has a tradition of centralized authority
and the people lack a bit of democracy concept as well. In such a circumstance,
methodology can play an important role in China’s political structure. In a
point of view based on current political structure of Japan and Singapore, both
of which are de facto one party states although we saw DPJ won National Diet of
Japan last year I personally believe LDP will come back soon as DPJ lacks the
power to push Japan society forward systematically, we see no ground to assert
that one party China must shift to bipartisan or multi-partisan politics in
order to achieve more democracy. What we have to do is to work under the
concept of methodology and to work out, or to design, a way to make the society stable
and build a constitutional country.