Old C.,
I simply do not know how to begin with the topic you re-opened, as I think actually we have been discussing the same in many aspects on and off for quite some time.
I haven't read that author's book. But I've just found something on his blog. I must say I quite agree to many of his opinions. But he might have gone too far. He is completely lost in his Western Shangri-La. He seems to have found some poisonous soil, yet he doesn't know how to neutralize it. What he has put forward is no reasonable solution.
Re-examining the Chinese culture should no longer be a "let's do it now" thing, of course we should keep on doing it, while reflecting deep inside ourselves; what we should do right away is change it, repair it, bit by bit, by changing and repairing our very selves in the first place. But this means personal sacrifice for those who are well educated, like the author himself, for education is the only means.
Only the well educated could help renew the education system. This will not succeed if they are not willing to sacrifice their own interest. Only their sacrifice would count, setting an example to all others including those of the greediest and corruptest classes, not that of Ah Q, not that of the peasants, and not that of the poorly educated.
But this just has to be a mankind dilemma, when there is a well developed Western world, which includes that tiny part called Norway where that author's wife is from, for them to turn to. Many highly educated simply can freely choose, painfully though it might look, not to be Chinese anymore, though partially and not racially, in this very present life. There is no need to wait till their next life.
One could be reborn a pig if the reincarnation thing is real. How risky! Who knows?
I think this author must have once been in love with China not as his motherland, but more or less as if it were his mother. He must be very proud of her. But one day he found this was no good mother, it was actually a mean, dirty, hypocritic and stupid woman, his love for her turned into anger, hatred, shame and disdain.
A country is not an individual, not a woman, not a guy. You encounter a certain ordinary good man somewhere sometime, later he might transform into a very bad thug and end up in prison, and later still he could renew himself to become an old nice fellow. All changes happen in one single lifetime.
A civilization, or just a country, as a whole cannot enjoy such dramatic changes, not to mention during a certain individual's lifetime.
If Barack Obama was born a couple of decades earlier and ran for the top office, there would be no way for him to succeed. Even he did he would be dead long before he could take the messed up oath.
So, born a Chinese and not a bad one, you can be angry, can feel shameful, can go hysterical, can swear your voice broken, can go to Norway, but it just doesn't help much. You just should be patient and calm, and do something positive and constructive with a sense of humour.
Even so pathetic a Chinese people has produced so good an individual as that author himself! How couldn't he see any hope?
If the U.S. were a non-Christian country, Barack Obama wouldn't have stood a chance. Yet you don't dream that you invited the crusaders to invade the ancient Empire of Ming back in history.
Jesus Christ saved the Western civilization. Christianity has evolved dramatically during a course of 2 thousand years. Yet not many Christians today know how to deal with their brothers created by the same God.
I would say, being Chinese, I seek to be as good, as creative, as reflective, as courageous, as righteous a person as I can during this present life, and leave the next life, if some day I would commence believing there is one, to the Hindu reincarnation mechanism.
And when it comes to the choice between Chinese and non-Chinese, or human and non-human, or swine and non-swine, I would like to consult Buddha if He lets me see Him without kneeling down and kowtowing.
2008/11/07
May the American Dream come true!
The people of the United States of America have just made history, by doing one of the simplest things on earth to cast a simple vote for a man called Barack Obama, simply agreeing to let him be their first ‘black’ president.
Literally this 47-year-old ‘black’ president-elect is no simple ‘black’. He is at least a little bit more than simple in terms of the ‘black and white’ makeup, still more so culturally. It is almost impossible to define him accurately except to say simply that he is a highly civilized modern man, who belongs to a very smart, courageous and confident kind, of course. And he is to be the supreme commander of the United States, the largest racial melting pot on the face of the globe.
Through this American presidency he will also be a de facto world political leader too, standing among many elder rulers of many nations, of all races and all types, all over the shrinking yet divided world.
Despite foreseen and unforeseen local and global difficulties waiting to deter and temper this young president and commander in chief, be he competent or not, his calling the White House home for at least four years is no doubt a significant change with profound meanings, especially for all those who either have difficulty yet to, or insist to refuse to acknowledge, or believe in racial equality.
When this ‘ black’ president-elect was born to his 100% ‘white’ mother, who studied anthropology, less than five decades ago, the ‘black’ citizens of this democratic nation were still struggling hard for genuine voting right. Now that boy with a dark skin has grown up to be elected the nation’s president, even a few years before he is to turn fifty. It could be as fast as a nation could change not by way of revolution.
And it is just as good as it could be that Obama is half ‘black’ and half ‘white’, and better still he does not have a single slave as forefather, so that no single ‘white’ racist could possibly embarrass this ‘black’ president by claiming that his ancestors once owned Obama’s. ‘White’ racists might not feel shameful for what their forefathers did with slavery, they might even feel proud instead.
Other than all kinds of challenging political and economical difficulties ahead, Obama will enjoy his presidency together with a mission to bridge the still existing racial gap. He as the president could be the most suitable one for trying to accomplish the impossible mission that Martin Luther King had once as a short-lived dream.
May this American Dream come as true as King wished soon!
By the way, some lines of the president-elect’s speech of triumph seem worth quoting:
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
“It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.
“It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals, or a collection of red states and blue states, we are, and always will be the United States of America.
“It’s the answer that let those who’ve been told for so long, by so many to be cynical and fearful, and doubtful about what we can achieve, to put their hands on the arc of history and bend toward the hope of a better day.
“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because what we did on this date, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”
“This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight’s about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election, except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
“She was born just a generation past slavery, a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky, when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons: because she was a woman, and because of the color of her skin.
“And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America: the heartache and the hope, the struggle and the progress, the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
“At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot.
“Yes we can.
“When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose.
“Yes we can.”
Literally this 47-year-old ‘black’ president-elect is no simple ‘black’. He is at least a little bit more than simple in terms of the ‘black and white’ makeup, still more so culturally. It is almost impossible to define him accurately except to say simply that he is a highly civilized modern man, who belongs to a very smart, courageous and confident kind, of course. And he is to be the supreme commander of the United States, the largest racial melting pot on the face of the globe.
Through this American presidency he will also be a de facto world political leader too, standing among many elder rulers of many nations, of all races and all types, all over the shrinking yet divided world.
Despite foreseen and unforeseen local and global difficulties waiting to deter and temper this young president and commander in chief, be he competent or not, his calling the White House home for at least four years is no doubt a significant change with profound meanings, especially for all those who either have difficulty yet to, or insist to refuse to acknowledge, or believe in racial equality.
When this ‘ black’ president-elect was born to his 100% ‘white’ mother, who studied anthropology, less than five decades ago, the ‘black’ citizens of this democratic nation were still struggling hard for genuine voting right. Now that boy with a dark skin has grown up to be elected the nation’s president, even a few years before he is to turn fifty. It could be as fast as a nation could change not by way of revolution.
And it is just as good as it could be that Obama is half ‘black’ and half ‘white’, and better still he does not have a single slave as forefather, so that no single ‘white’ racist could possibly embarrass this ‘black’ president by claiming that his ancestors once owned Obama’s. ‘White’ racists might not feel shameful for what their forefathers did with slavery, they might even feel proud instead.
Other than all kinds of challenging political and economical difficulties ahead, Obama will enjoy his presidency together with a mission to bridge the still existing racial gap. He as the president could be the most suitable one for trying to accomplish the impossible mission that Martin Luther King had once as a short-lived dream.
May this American Dream come as true as King wished soon!
By the way, some lines of the president-elect’s speech of triumph seem worth quoting:
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
“It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.
“It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals, or a collection of red states and blue states, we are, and always will be the United States of America.
“It’s the answer that let those who’ve been told for so long, by so many to be cynical and fearful, and doubtful about what we can achieve, to put their hands on the arc of history and bend toward the hope of a better day.
“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because what we did on this date, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”
“This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight’s about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election, except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
“She was born just a generation past slavery, a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky, when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons: because she was a woman, and because of the color of her skin.
“And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America: the heartache and the hope, the struggle and the progress, the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
“At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot.
“Yes we can.
“When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose.
“Yes we can.”
2008/06/12
Black and White
In the English language, people say 'black and white' and never reversely 'white and black', black always comes in front of white. The antonyms are in exactly the same order in Chinese.
Black is not a colour as there is simply no light in it, while white could be the mixture of all colours in the visible spectrum picked up by the stupid human eye.
Yet black is perceived by the human brain as something and white as nothing at all. So black seems to be dominant and white has to be recessive. No wonder some Americans are still wondering whether their current presidential candidate from the Democrats is 'black enough'.
As for determining a person's race, white has to be absolute in order to be pure, while black is allowed to have different tones. A genetic composition of 99.22% white is not really white, while 0.78% black could be enough to be black. One always can see black people in America with rather pale skin.
If Barack Obama does win the next presidency, the Americans and the world would like to say he is the first black president in U.S. history.
They say Barack Obama is black.
His skin definitely looks dark. Yet he is certainly not black.
Calling Barack Obama black according to his rather dark skin is literally incorrect, especially he had a white mother as a matter of fact. Saying it in a less traditional and convenient racial sense, he is at least half white. In such sense, to some African Americans, he can no doubt never be 'black enough'. Yet he is still a black man after all.
To be a male and to pass onto his children his genuine African family name, Barack Obama has copied his Kenyan father's Y chromosome, which has nothing to do with his skin colour. He thus inherited more genes from his white mother than his black father, as it counts far more genes in the X chromosome than in the Y one. The Y chromosome contains less than a hundred working genes, while the X chromosome has more than a thousand. Since Barack Obama has received the X chromosome from his white mother, so he should be considered a little bit white more than he is black.
In this great Western democracy, many nationals still hold a blind faith in a certain sort of racial purity. In this country where anthropology, genetics, genomics are widely and vigorously studied, some of the black population still have to dream for something Martin Luther King once did.
If you are 100% black, you are, of course, recognized as a black. If only one of your great grand parents was black, you are still black even though you actually are made up of 87.5% of white genetic stuff. It seems that the name of white hardly tolerates a few black genes.
Barack Obama was born to his white mother, who was an anthropologist by training, and who must have known very well what human races are all about.
Now no contemporary anthropologists would dispute on the fossil and genetic evidence that suggests humans originated in Africa. One of those cradles is Kenya, the homeland of Barack Obama's father.
Far away from this cradle of human evolution, a man and a woman genetically some 100,000 years apart met on a Pacific island, and they gave birth to a child. Now this child is running for president to lead not only that powerful part of the New World, but many parts of the Old World as well. The Americans, mainly white though, should give this black man a chance to create history for America, even just for the sake of creating.
Are the Americans ready for a black president yet? I think absolutely not. But, as they are not ready now, they will never be in the future, not after one presidential term, not after ten terms.
Barack Obama must have known that more than 12% of the population is black, and he also knows that many of the American blacks 'are still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong'. (Obama's own words) But if he does NOT appeal to the whites, then things could be even more wrong for him. So, how could he possibly balance himself in such a fully democratic country in which racism is considered absolutely wrong, yet existing just everywhere in many blacks' and whites' daily life.
Be it that he is elected, this 100% self-confident Barack Obama will surely not be able to sit as comfortably in the Oval Office, as his immediate predecessor is doing, or the previous romantic one did. He will have to manoeuvre one of the hardest leader-ships the States has ever sailed, simply because he is still recognizably black. And his being considered not black enough will only add to his difficulties that he should have anticipated and enjoyed.
Black is not a colour as there is simply no light in it, while white could be the mixture of all colours in the visible spectrum picked up by the stupid human eye.
Yet black is perceived by the human brain as something and white as nothing at all. So black seems to be dominant and white has to be recessive. No wonder some Americans are still wondering whether their current presidential candidate from the Democrats is 'black enough'.
As for determining a person's race, white has to be absolute in order to be pure, while black is allowed to have different tones. A genetic composition of 99.22% white is not really white, while 0.78% black could be enough to be black. One always can see black people in America with rather pale skin.
If Barack Obama does win the next presidency, the Americans and the world would like to say he is the first black president in U.S. history.
They say Barack Obama is black.
His skin definitely looks dark. Yet he is certainly not black.
Calling Barack Obama black according to his rather dark skin is literally incorrect, especially he had a white mother as a matter of fact. Saying it in a less traditional and convenient racial sense, he is at least half white. In such sense, to some African Americans, he can no doubt never be 'black enough'. Yet he is still a black man after all.
To be a male and to pass onto his children his genuine African family name, Barack Obama has copied his Kenyan father's Y chromosome, which has nothing to do with his skin colour. He thus inherited more genes from his white mother than his black father, as it counts far more genes in the X chromosome than in the Y one. The Y chromosome contains less than a hundred working genes, while the X chromosome has more than a thousand. Since Barack Obama has received the X chromosome from his white mother, so he should be considered a little bit white more than he is black.
In this great Western democracy, many nationals still hold a blind faith in a certain sort of racial purity. In this country where anthropology, genetics, genomics are widely and vigorously studied, some of the black population still have to dream for something Martin Luther King once did.
If you are 100% black, you are, of course, recognized as a black. If only one of your great grand parents was black, you are still black even though you actually are made up of 87.5% of white genetic stuff. It seems that the name of white hardly tolerates a few black genes.
Barack Obama was born to his white mother, who was an anthropologist by training, and who must have known very well what human races are all about.
Now no contemporary anthropologists would dispute on the fossil and genetic evidence that suggests humans originated in Africa. One of those cradles is Kenya, the homeland of Barack Obama's father.
Far away from this cradle of human evolution, a man and a woman genetically some 100,000 years apart met on a Pacific island, and they gave birth to a child. Now this child is running for president to lead not only that powerful part of the New World, but many parts of the Old World as well. The Americans, mainly white though, should give this black man a chance to create history for America, even just for the sake of creating.
Are the Americans ready for a black president yet? I think absolutely not. But, as they are not ready now, they will never be in the future, not after one presidential term, not after ten terms.
Barack Obama must have known that more than 12% of the population is black, and he also knows that many of the American blacks 'are still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong'. (Obama's own words) But if he does NOT appeal to the whites, then things could be even more wrong for him. So, how could he possibly balance himself in such a fully democratic country in which racism is considered absolutely wrong, yet existing just everywhere in many blacks' and whites' daily life.
Be it that he is elected, this 100% self-confident Barack Obama will surely not be able to sit as comfortably in the Oval Office, as his immediate predecessor is doing, or the previous romantic one did. He will have to manoeuvre one of the hardest leader-ships the States has ever sailed, simply because he is still recognizably black. And his being considered not black enough will only add to his difficulties that he should have anticipated and enjoyed.
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