王小东 – Wang Xiaodong
十一、 王小波是我们这个时代最虚伪、最丑陋的神话之一
Chapter 11, Wang Xiaobo is our one of our generation’s most hypocritical and ugly myths
Wang Xiaobo is one of our generations most hypocritical and ugly myths. Exposing this myth is a deed of supreme merit. Even if people aren’t persuaded at first, as long as a seed of doubt can be put out, a doubt with actual basis, then the myth isn’t far from being exposed. I’ve certainly thought about this before, but I was always a little busy, and I couldn’t stand reading his stupid articles. But, I was fortunate enough to meet a few of his fans. People who were closer to him or people who knew the truth about him would probably be more able to do this than me.
A post I put up that clearly alluded to Wang Xiaobo’s wife caused a bit of controversy. A person online named Alex had the insightful comment, “It seems as you have quite a bit of criticism for Wang Xiaobo…I don’t think Wang Xiaobo is stupid. His ideas are rather commonplace. I don’t know if you’ve read Wang Xiaobo’s novels or not, but that is where his true achievements are. Compared to Europe, his praise for America is rather limited, or even hidden. He ranks things like this: Europe, America, China. From what I understand, he’s only traveled through Europe so the things he was able to connect with were rather limited. This helped to form the construction of Europe in his head. Wang Xiaobo’s criticisms of China are not without merit. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what he was thinking, he insisted on placing these criticisms alongside his praise for Europe and America creating a certain bad effect. Many people have seized upon this point. For example, Mr. Zhu took Wang’s praise of Western culture and simplified it into ‘Western rationalism.’ Wang Xiaobo’s intentions are good and this is something lacking in many of the ‘freedom activists’ today. Although before he died he asserted that China needed freedom before it could really begin anything, I think if he knew about the events of the past ten years he might move a bit closer to China’s position.”
To be honest, I simply can’t read Wang Xiaobo’s novels or essays. From this perspective, my understanding of him isn’t that great so I can’t hold that strong of an opinion against him. But, one thing is clear, he certainly got taken really good in America. When he came home it was it was nothing but assaults on Chinese people and a perfect picture of the West. These are the actions of a cheat. This is what I’ve seen and this is why I have nothing but contempt for him.
The only things I’ve read of Wang Xiaobo’s are a few letters and a few articles attacking Chinese people. I’ve mainly got to know him through some fights he’s got into with some of my friends. But, it’s like Sir Athur Conan Doyle put it, “If you want to know if an egg is rotten you don’t have eat it.” No matter what his novels or essays are like, I still think he’s a rotten egg because I can smell his rotten odor. It’s that odor that prevents me from being to read his works and making a lot of comments him. I have to leave that work to others.
Alex, that person online, said, “You’re right about this point. It’s rather sad. Wang Xiaobo’s time living in America as a student was very representative. Later, he strategically avoided talking about this, preferring instead to talk about the faults of the Chinese people. This is his biggest fault. However, I’m more familiar with him than you are and I’m able to sympathize with him more. He didn’t buy into the myth of the West and he’s still much better than the freedom fighters nowadays. His top priority was giving these American-bred freedom fighters a dose of reality, showing regular Chinese people what Chinese people in America were really living like. If someone doesn’t know their own strength, they’ll spend an eternity working for someone else. There are a lot of Chinese people who are slaves to the West, but most of them would never admit it.”
Wang Xiaobo’s little brother was killed by an American and his body was left on the side of the road. According to the police, they estimated that before he died he had struggled for quite a long time. During that time, not a single American went to help him. Although his brother’s death came after he had already died, the tough life his brother was living was something Wang Xiaobo knew about very well. Originally, Wang Xiaobo had the most authentic personal experiences, and according to you guys, he could write very well. He came home to tell the regular people here what struggles the Chinese people in America were facing, but what happened? Tell me, how can you make not look down on him?
It’s been a decade or two, but these days, under the influence of Wang Xiaobo, Chinese people living in America are still displaying some sad signs. A friend of mine recently went to America. In San Francisco he went out to dinner with some friends who had been living there for a long time. Along the way the bumped into a white person who for no reason decided to hit one of his friends. My friend wanted to fight back but the four others absolutely forbid it. On the way back, no one said a word. Finally, my friend spoke up, “So, this is the life you’ve been living after all.” Their faces turned white. At last, they exploded. But, they didn’t have anything bad to say about the Americans, only assaults on the Chinese people and their lack of class. These people are all Wang Xiaobo and I will always look down on them.
Excellent. I have this essay bookmarked in my copy, and now here it is in English.
回覆刪除It's a real shame that so much ink has been spilled (by the authors and their critics both) over what is basically a collection of pieces whose intellectual heft isn't much beyond what's on display here.
Thank you for translating this so we didn't have to.
回覆刪除Actually, I think it's positive that at least some of the ideas that are important to many actually make it into book form as opposed to staying in the newspapers, magazines, or more likely blogs/forums. Once you have a book you have someplace to start. I imagine it would be impossible to get many international diplomats or scholars to read chinese forums, the closest they'll get is through sites like CDT or danwei or if some newspapers takes it up. If you have a book you at least have the possibility of a review or a translation, or a discussion somewhere.
回覆刪除I think my idea is get all the ideas (even ones you may think silly or without intellectual heft) out there for everyone to see. Don't let them fester in places where they can avoid full scrutiny and debate. Let them get debated, rejected, or praised and accepted in as wide and public a forum as possible. Then even if all you have is deliberative authoritarianism, you might get people of power taking cues a little better than listening to the biggest shouts on web.
I guess my poor impression of Unhappy China basically boils down to two issues:
回覆刪除1) Wang Xiaodong's style of argument strikes me as being uniquely unsuited to publication in a book. His skill in live debate makes for fascinating television, and even on his blog, the immediacy and interactivity excuses the kind of shoddy construction and straw-man fighting that is in evidence here (and especially in last November's even longer collection 天命所归是大国, much of which appeared to have been taken directly from blog posts). The points that he seems to be trying to make get obscured by vague references and hand-waving about facts, both of which are excusable in live debate and blog posts, but which really ought to be tightened up for a book.
2) The rise of the Internet and of space for exchanges in the mainstream media in the past decade have radically altered the landscape for debate in the time since China Can Say No was published. I'd agree that it was an important collection of opinions that needed to appear in a tangible form. But the arguments that appear in Unhappy China have largely been made in other venues - on blogs, forums, and print media. Publishing them in book form may arguably be beneficial for international diplomats and scholars, but for the people actually involved in the debates, it's kind of a rehash of old arguments without anything new being brought to the table. In a way, a book seems more like a place to end up rather than a starting point.
And most of the arguments have already been subject to scrutiny and debate in the past. Now that they're in book form, will critics dredge up the rebuttals they've already made? Will Cui Weiping reply to three-year-old accusations of opportunism and hypocrisy? Any discussion that does ensue will take place on the Internet and in the opinion pages, for the most part, where they have the potential to be read by far more people than just the book-buying public.
Your points.
回覆刪除A scholarly journal, this prose and argument style certainly might not qualify for, but academic standards certainly differ across countries.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0323/p01s01-woap.html?page=1
I'd hardly expect anything else in mainstream publication. It is 2009 after all. The shouters in America, Taiwan and China (and I'm sure elsewhere) tend to all put out books that are roughly like this. And, as I got into discussing at China Geeks, I think getting into , (read: read), (at least a little) of 'strong opinions' is a good thing.
I disagree that being 'fast with the facts' is OK in any setting, blog, speech, book, documentary. I feel the unforgivable failing of things like Michael Moore documentaries is that they aren't searches for absolute truth. So, in that sense I have little or no respect for the 'trafficking in fast facts' in any medium (diarrhea of the mouth, the temptation to speak about things which one is qualified to). It's fine if your shooting the shit at the table with some friends, but that all goes out the window when you are have a public presence (which their blog is).
I think the book is valuable/important not because of their ideas, argument, or faithfulness to facts, but rather because of it's impact, influence, and popularity in society.
I agree, for the people involved in the arguments this is a rehash and not really a step forward. But isn't the whole idea of publishing a book to reach a wider audience? Today's 参考消息 had a whole page dedicated to commenting about the book. Don't academics do the same thing? When all the other academics around know about the research already and have reached a new point, someone puts out a book, or someone comes and writes an article, etc, etc.
The arguments that still mean something will be rehashed, and ones that no one cares about won't. It's the same with any book that gets published after the original incident.
Listen, I'd be happy if a true debate got started in the boards, tv, books, blogs, etc, about what china's role is going to be, what has happened in the past 10, 20, 30, 50 years, what issues with identity, westernization, 自我矮化, haven't been resolved, but I know that's just wishful thinking. Too much of that discussion makes certain people uncomfortable. If you're going to have those discussions you're going to have to bring the fenqing and the buxing to the table, even if they shout and don't check their facts.
Even if just gets a few more discussions about these things in the open, or provokes a few books in response, i think it is a positive. If all it does is remind some that nationalist feelings in china/identity issues are two of the big open question it'll be ok.
I think if you go back and look at other tracts that spurred along nascent movements, debates, or actualizations, you'll see that the prose and arguments also often left much to be desired.
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