MCLC: stirring essay by Murong Xuecun

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: A. E. Clark <aec at raggedbanner.com>
Subject: stirring essay by Murong Xuecun
***********************************************************

Another striking piece by Murong Xuecun, deleted within a day from Weibo,
translated by the people at Tea Leaf Nation. The original is available in
image format at:

    
http://research.jmsc.hku.hk/social/index.py/singleSinaWeibo?id=347166351550
3041

Andrew 

==========================================================

Source: Tea Leaf Nation (7/30/12):
http://tealeafnation.com/2012/07/translation-one-authors-plea-for-a-gentler
-china/

Translation: One Author’s Plea for a Gentler China

Tr. by A Cappella, Liz Carter, and Michelle Li

On Wednesday, July 25, a famous Chinese author and liberal voice with the
pen name Murong Xuecun (@慕容雪村
<http://www.weibo.com/hawking>) shared a long and heartfelt plea to his
countrymen via Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, based on a speech given
earlier in Hong Kong. According to Hong Kong University’s Weiboscope
<http://research.jmsc.hku.hk/social/index.py/singleSinaWeibo?id=34716635155
03041>, which tracks Weibo posts popular with influential users, the text
of this speech became the most popular image for July 25, with over 36,000
reposts and 8,000 comments. Just over one day later, the post was deleted
by censors.

Three Tea Leaf Nation writers have combined to translate Xuecun’s
ambitious but important piece. Please enjoy.

The water in autumn and the unending sky

There is one clear advantage to living in mainland China: It’s always easy
to separate theory and reality. We have some rights in theory, but in
reality, they do not exist. Income has increased in theory, but once you
get to the market, you’ll see that you can’t even afford to buy meat. In
theory, some people have risen up, but actually, they’re still kneeling.
In theory, you’ve moved a few mountains, but you’ve actually just fallen
into a hole. In theory, you’re the master of your country, but in
actuality, you live in chains.

Textbooks describe a society broken down into two classes: The rulers and
the ruled. In these times, it’s fair to say that officials big and
small–over 50 million of them in fact–make up the actual ruling class.
Theirs is the highest paying work in the world; the mayor of one town can
embezzle tens of millions, while a provincial governor can embezzle
hundreds of millions. Even more powerful officials are wealthy beyond
imagining. In the past few years, the phrase “the great endeavor” (伟业) has
come into use, and this mostly refers to the great work of corruption and
embezzlement. The phrase “the state of the nation” (国情) has also been
bandied about quite a bit. This is the true state of the nation: We have
the world’s largest and most corrupt system of bureaucracy–barbaric,
wasteful, and immoral without precedent–but it insists that each and every
one of us walk the straight and narrow path.

Modern China is a strange new world. Every day, tragic and unbelievable
things happen, leaving us not knowing whether to laugh or cry. All of
those mining disasters, incidences of black lung, infants with kidney
stones, train accidents, car accidents, food safety incidents, the forced
and violent destruction of homes, cases of corruption and embezzlement,
all prisoners of conscience who died from “playing hide-and-seek” or
“drinking boiled water,” and the rising storm of mass opposition
incidents…you can be certain, within the next few years, these kinds of
incidents will not only not go away, but they will grow in number and
visibility. These incidents are mostly due to one reason, and that is
almighty, unruly, unchecked government power.

Over the past few years, every time I’ve gone to Hong Kong, I’ll buy a few
magazines about politics to see what observations and analyses political
observers have to offer about China’s future. In my opinion, these
analyses and predictions have ignored a very important point, which is
that years of living under authoritarian rule and being brainwashed by the
educational system have made residents of Mainland China into a special
people. These people have not only influenced China’s present, but also
will undoubtedly influence its future as well. They have made Chinese
society barbaric, violent, incredibly unsafe, and they have also made it
slow and stupid, unlikely to force a change of the present system of
government.

Numbness

The first kind of [social malady] is a “numb personality.” In a
totalitarian society, people have already had most of their rights and
privileges taken away from them, and any rights remaining are seen as a
gracious gift from the rulers. Because of the simple fact of entropy, this
state of affairs has become the new normal. Even in cases of extreme
violence, the people are not able to protest, they have no way to protest,
so they willingly accept this state of misery, this life of toil, this
tragic fate. As time passes, they don’t even consider whether or not this
should be their fate, whether or not it’s fair. When their food is robbed
they just go hungry; when they’re slapped in the face, they just take it;
when their homes are destroyed, they just watch it; when their wives are
abducted and forced to abort their babies, they just cry. All injustices
are seen as inevitable, expected; it would be abnormal only if it were
otherwise. People live with heads bowed and eyes glued to the ground, they
don’t cry out against their fate, they shut up and hide, shut up and clap,
shut up and lend a hand. Even when they die, they do it with their mouths
shut. All of this shutting up can be traced back to one precondition: they
don’t dare start something. If it were just one punk you didn’t want to
start something with, you could just hide, but if what you’re facing is a
system full of punks, you can’t run, you can’t hide, and you certainly
can’t afford to start anything. The only choice you have left is to change
it.

Becoming numb is often an act of malice and cruelty towards others. If you
could quantify empathy, it might sadden you to discover that residents of
Mainland China rank very low. In the famous Wang Yue incident, a
two-year-old girl died in the middle of the road, and 18 people walked by
without helping. These 18 people represent a greater number, a very unkind
number of people that will yell at beggars, ignore victims of distant
disasters, and even lack empathy for their own relatives. If people are
beaten, they’ll just stand around and watch. If people are complaining,
they’ll just coldly mock them. If people say they are going to commit
suicide, they’ll just say “They want to get famous.”  I once painted a
portrait of one of these kinds of people: If no one speaks up for them,
they’ll just put up with it. If someone speaks up for them, they’ll just
watch. If someone is able to secure rights for them, they’ll thank fate
and say hey, what’s mine is mine! If someone isn’t able to get their
rights for them, they’ll pretend like they knew that would happen all
along. They’ll say, “Why would you waste your time?” If someone speaks up
for them and is snatched away by the police, they’ll stand to one side,
snickering, and say, “Serves you right for trying to stir things up!”

In George Orwell’s “1984,” the protagonist Winston Smith and Julia have
one particularly moving conversation. They escaped the ever-present
network of spies and met in the Golden Country meadow. At the end of their
time there, Winston said to Julia: “Listen. The more men you’ve had, the
more I love you. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, perfectly.”

“I hate purity, I hate goodness. I don’t want any virtue to exist
anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones.”

“Well then, I ought to suit you, dear. I’m corrupt to the bones.”

We might say this is the late stage of numbness. In this stage, the numb
personality has become an antisocial personality. People will hate
everything good, and harbor suspicion of all kinds of language and action.
They will carry hatred in their bones. In this stage, they are no longer
numb, but easily angered, easily provoked to violence. The smallest thing
will set them off, and then they will stop at nothing to indiscriminately
lash out in revenge. The cruelest part is, the victim of their anger is
usually those who are even more unfortunate, even more vulnerable. Lu
Xun’s Ah Q [a novel from 1920s China] is a prime example: When he’s beaten
by the mayor, Ah Q doesn’t dare strike back, so he goes to hit Wang Hu.
When he can’t hit him, he goes after Little D. When he can’t win in that
match, he goes to hit Wu Ma. When he can’t match her, he goes after the
children in pre-school. This is not simply a joke or fiction, and the
increasing number of murdered preschool children in mainland China proves
this point.

Unreality

The second kind of personality can be called “difficulty in accepting
reality.” A long period of ignorance and brainwashing must by necessity
lower the ability to learn of the society as a whole and impair critical
thinking. People are unwilling and unable to accept obvious facts, and do
not hesitate to defend bold-faced lies. In this light, honesty is not just
a moral issue, but also an issue of capacity. In Mainland China, at least
half the population still believes Mao Zedong was the “great savior of the
people,” and that he saved the Chinese people, rescuing them from poverty
and suffering. At Mao’s Mausoleum in Tiananmen Square, people wait in line
to pay their respects to his corpse. In taxis and private limos, people
hang his picture like some kind of diety, seeking his blessings and
protection. Even to this day, many people still feel nostalgic for the
Cultural Revolution, believing that it was a time with no corruption, when
everyone was equal. Just two months ago, a debate took place on the
Internet about the great famine during the Great Leap Forward, and a
substantial number of people believed that it had never happened at all,
that it was just a story created by a small group of evil people to attack
the government. They didn’t think it was possible that tens of millions
had died of hunger. In order to prove their point, these people raised the
following laughable doubts:

If that many people died of hunger, then where are the mass graves?

If there was really such a disaster, why haven’t there been any reports
about it in the media?

If that many people really died of hunger, why do we still have to have
the One Child Policy?

My hometown is also really poor, so why haven’t I heard of people starving
to death?

If it’s true that so many people died of hunger, then let me ask you, how
many people in your family starved to death?

Some people say 30 million people starved to death, that’s equal to 1/20
of China’s population, is that even possible?

The most shocking question was: If they didn’t have any rice to eat, why
didn’t they just eat meat?

Servility

The third type of personality is called the “slave” personality. Like Lu
Xun described, China has only had two [alternating] eras: Temporary stable
periods during which people are slaves, and periods when people want to be
slaves but can’t. In ancient times, slaves were loyal to the emperor and
the dynasty. Today, most of them do not believe themselves to be slaves,
but think they are the masters of their country. They have been taught
since they were small to be loyal to the collective group, to the country,
and to the Party. The only thing they are not to be loyal, is to
themselves.

This type of person believes the government is above all else, and anyone
who criticizes the government is their enemy. They believe they are
patriots, and everything must be somehow “patriotic” to have any meaning
at all. Studying is for the good of the country, and so is work, exercise,
protecting one’s eyesight, even sex. The “national interests” that they
speak of are actually mostly the interests of the government, the Party,
the small minority of the people. Because of these so-called “national
interests,” they’ll hate whomever the higher-ups tell them to hate. In a
normal country, freedom, equality, and human rights are good words, but in
the eyes of these slaves, they are all imperialist conspiracies. They
support the practice of informing on others and betraying them, even
turning in one’s own relatives, and are prepared to sacrifice their own
lives at any moment.

This kind of slave, when subject to a long period of education in hatred,
will become strange and easily angered, in its final stage becoming a
“violent slave” personality. In the eyes of this type of person, most
media in the world is anti-Chinese, all human rights organizations are
anti-Chinese forces, all dissidents are filthy traitors and slaves to
Western powers. If a Chinese woman marries a foreign man, then it’s a
national shame; on the other hand, if a Chinese man seeks out a foreign
prostitute, then that’s just China getting its revenge on everyone else.
I’ve heard–and not just once–“patriotic” angry youth describing their
ideals: They want to go to Japan after they get rich to find a Japanese
prostitute, and then have their vengeance for a hundred hears of
oppression on their bodies, until they are fully sated and she is dead.
They openly call for war, and often say that China and Japan, or China and
the U.S., will inevitably be at war with each other. The implication
behind these lines is clear: Even if you don’t come after me, I’m still
going to go after you. Some people even openly discuss putting bombs on
commercial planes and setting them off on Japanese soil.

It is easy to appreciate the viciousness of this kind of thinking. These
“patriots” are not so essentially different from the Red Guards of 50
years ago or the Boxer Rebellion of 100 years past. They are just as
ignorant, just as furious, just as bloodthirsty and just as unstable. In a
normal society, these people would be seen as a danger; but in China, the
authorities coddle and fan their anger. It’s basically playing with fire.
Once the conditions are right, this irrational fire will consume
everything in its path.

Life in the minefields

The fourth type of personally is “minefield personality.” For many people,
living in China does not make them feel safe. It is as if they are walking
in a dangerous minefield. Here, the law is just a fiction, and state power
can derail at any time. There is no clear line between the legal and the
illegal. Almost every company is cheating on its taxes, and almost
everyone does something not completely legal….Take the owner of a small
shop for example. In his striving to run his business, the Commerce
Department, the Tax Department, the Police Department, the Fire Safety
Department, the Health Department… almost every kind of state power can
force him to close down his shop. Every time he does not follow the wills
of these powers, he faces the possibility of complete disaster for him and
his family. Due to this kind of insecurity, most people do not keep long
term plans, but rather focus only on instant profits. In government,
business, and people’s personal lives, we see too many people care only
about profits and not a bit about ethics. Government officials horde money
into their own pockets and businesses disregard the standards of ethics
and law to maximize profits. Once they make enough money, they either
transfer their money away or spend it carelessly. These people never think
of the consequences that might follow in the future.

The origin of this feeling of insecurity makes a group of uneasy people
feel even more unsettled. Most people feel a need to rush: While the plane
is still moving, people start opening the luggage compartments; while
driving on the road, cars jostle for small openings in traffic without any
care for safety; while waiting in line, there will be someone who cuts in
line and break the rules. Furthermore, this pervasive insecurity has
strained relationships among people. Family and friends guard against one
another, suspect one another, and even despise one another. The old saying
of “if someone is in trouble, help comes from every direction” has become
just a fairytale. Instead, our society exemplifies “if someone is in
trouble, everyone watches,” or “if someone is in trouble, no one helps.”

Who’s at fault?

There may be various reasons for all the personalities I mentioned above,
but the most importantly, the fault sits squarely with institutional
cajoling and instigation. Having been long immersed in slavery training,
party-line indoctrination, and coaching in hatred, people have lost their
true heart, forgot their conscience, and even thrown out their most
important identity: Humanity.

“I am a person first, and then I can be everything else. I am myself
first, then I can help with society.” This is a simple idea. However, it
is sad that most people cannot understand it all their lives. As soon as
you talk about the “human rights” situation in China, people will pick a
fight with you, behaving as if “human rights” are not their rights. All
the talk of how China is special, all the rationalizing that China is
unique, originate from people forgetting their humanity. This is why there
are a lot of weird ideas. Some people will see suffering—regardless of the
reason for the suffering—as something that is naturally moral. A few
decades ago, countless urban youth were sent to the countryside simply
because people thought they needed to suffer. The countless hardships and
trials ruined their youths and destroyed their lives. Some of these
people, unbelievably, still sing the praises of their oppressors. They say
their suffering was well deserved and much appreciated. The Russian writer
Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote a novel called “Humiliated and Insulted.” We see
the humiliated and the insulted in our own lives; they rationalize their
own suffering, defend their own suffering and cheer for own their
suffering.

In China, “sacrifice” is a highly regarded ideal. Few people understand
that the word sacrifice originally referred to the animals killed in
religious ceremonies. So many songs, so many essays , so many heroic
stories encourage people to sacrifice, to become those animals. What to do
when the wood from the commune falls into the river? Sacrifice myself to
pick it up. What to do when the production team’s sheep are lost in the
snowstorm? Sacrifice myself to find them. Even today, many people believe
in the saying “fear neither hardship nor death.” I can barely understand
not fearing hardship, but not fearing death is just completely ridiculous.
In this time of peace, why would you encourage people to not be afraid of
death? 
What is it to you? 

I am definitely not talking about something from the past. After flipping
through the newspaper, you will see that this absurd era never ended. The
legacy from those years has never left us; it is right beside you. Those
inhumane ideas and encouragements have never left us. Here, I want to
encourage every to learn from Professor Kong Qingdong. He created a famous
“Three Mother Rule”: if someone asks you to endure hardship, you say “go
find your mother;” if someone asks you make a sacrifice, you say “go find
your mother;” if someone tell you to turn in your family for the good of
the country, you know what to say.

Additionally, the government encourages people to embrace the idea of
giving. In the past few decades, the Chinese government never stopped
asking people to give. Every government official extols the virtues of
giving (before they are caught, anyway). The more corrupt these officials
are, the more they talk about giving. The truth is, giving and taking
always come together. They are two sides of the same coin. Your giving is
their taking. If a company asks its employees to selflessly give, all they
want is for you to work more, and for them to pay less. If a country asks
its citizens to selflessly give, then it is openly taking from them.
Someone will ask: Isn’t true that we need to selflessly give in a society?
A normal society needs selfless behaviors. However, what it needs more is
a contract of freedom and equality. There is a sequence to these two
rules. Once we have a contract, then they can give selflessly. If there is
no contract, then there is no such thing as giving.

Government is supposed to work for us, not the other way around

We always see on TV or read in the newspapers about people who move into
government housing or receive government monetary support. They’ll say to
the camera, tears in their eyes, “Thank you, government!” We should not be
criticizing the people who say things like that, rather we need to
criticize the government for accepting the praise. We taxpayers living
under your rule are having such a hard life, but you are accepting their
gratitude? We now know that the government is not a splendid, wonderful,
and perfect deity. The government should be something we elect. Its power
should be borrowed from us. To some degree, the government is like our
bodyguard or janitor. They take our money, and clean our floors. If a
janitor does a good job cleaning the floor, is it necessary to thank the
janitor, tears in your eyes? Is that not the janitor’s job? I am not
looking down on janitors. However, if a janitor is not doing a good job,
but instead always asks you to thank him, and even asks you to cherish him
unconditionally, then you should ask him: “Can I scream at you?” At least
you would tell him to come back after he cleans the floor.

In regard to government, the best comment comes from Thomas Paine:
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst
state, an intolerable evil.”

We know that every penny that the government spends comes from our
wallets. That’s why we need to check its account from time to time. If
your janitor tells you that he bought a broom for thousands of dollars,
then he is embezzling from you. If he takes your money and buys a
million-dollar watch, then he is nothing but corrupt. If your cleaner, in
the name of cleaning the floor for you, eats in upscale restaurants,
drinks expensive Maotai liquor, smokes high-end cigarettes, then you have
all the right to think: Would not it be better if someone else is cleaning
the floor?

The key to success: Deregulation

A smart government will accept its own shortcomings and rely on its
people’s strengths. On the other hand, a government that boasts its
omnipotence is usually an incompetent one. It will try to control
everything, but it does nothing well. In the last 30 years, they did make
some progress, especially with the economy. As a result, many people have
been lifted out of poverty. However, if we have to credit the government,
it is because of its willingness to deregulate. The history from the past
30 years show that whenever the government keeps a loose grip, the Chinese
people can always demonstrate an amazing innovative power. Only a few
years after the government deregulated household electronics, Chinese
household electronics can now compete with big international brands.

At the same time, every sector that the government controls strongly feels
dead. Why are movies from China so bad? It is because the government
controls the movies. Why are Mandarin TV shows so bad? The government
controls the TV. Why are there no modern literary masterpieces? The
government controls the culture. Why is Chinese soccer so bad? The answer
is the same as to the other questions: The government cannot let go.

Why “bad news” isn’t bad

There are roughly two kinds of government in the world: Those who know
shame, and those who do not. Governments that know shame will listen to
criticism; even if they don’t want to, they will show some degree of
humbleness. The latter kind of government, however, will only listen to
flattery; worse yet, it will get angry even if your flattery was just a
little bit off from what it wanted. Under the rule of this kind of
government, “negative news” is usually hidden. Many incidents will be
reported over and over again by overseas media, but you will never read
about it in Mainland China.

In fact, “negative news” is itself a problematic phrase. There’s nothing
negative about reporting bad news. By exposing atrocious behaviors,
results, and traditions, we will be able to alert viewers who can then
stay away from them instead of copying these incidents. Our life
experience tells us that people can learn more from being informed of
“negative news.” Watching 30 years of News Broadcast [a daily news program
by China Central Television, known for its prescreened material] won’t
teach you much, other than the fact that one can perfect the art of
butchering pigs by studying Mao Zedong Theory. But a simple exposure to
the death of 2-year old Wang Yue will teach you what it means to be a
responsible parent and what the passers-by should have done. In the last
few decades, our history books have muted out too much “negative news,”
much of which are crimes of the system and violence of the collective. All
of this should be seen as the misfortune of our country…If you really want
to love your country, then you have to love more than its glory—you have
to love its misfortunes too. Don’t just love this country’s prosperity;
you have to love its scars, its sadness, its darkness, and its torment,
too.

We often divide people into those who belong within the system and those
who remain outside of it. In a system that stands against humanity, such
as the ones in Nazi Germany and North Korea, people who work for the
system usually only have two outcomes. Either they hurt themselves without
reaping any benefits, or they benefit a little, but hurt themselves even
more. Most people who are sitting here today are good people, but it’s
possible that some among us are informants and spies too. If you are one
of those, then I would like to tell you today that even you are
responsible for the future of our country as well.

Open advice to government officials: Be decent

If your job is to merely approve of documents, issue licenses, fill a
form, or catch a thief, then you are not closely related to the crimes of
this system—the jobs you do have to be done in order for society to
function. But I still hope you understand that your real bosses are the
ones who ask you to help them and perform these functions. These are the
people who contributed their wages to pay for yours, they are your
sustenance, so please be nice to them. Even if you can’t greet them with a
smile, at least you shouldn’t treat them with contempt or anger. You
should follow the rules, do your job, and not make things extra difficult
for them. If something can be done with little effort, please don’t
beleaguer them with extra work and make them visit your office over and
over again. You have to know this–it’s hard for them to keep paying for
you.

If your job deals with education, propaganda, and ideology, then beware:
Your influence reaches much more than one or two people; your influence
reaches millions. Over the centuries, and across all societies, human
beings have reached a consensus: We should keep our children away from
poison. In fact, poisons for the mind, such as lies, fallacies, hatred,
and propaganda against humanity, are equally if not much more dangerous
than those that harm the body. Even if we can’t ban these things, we
should at least keep our children away from it. If you are a journalist,
then you shouldn’t contribute to the making of these poisons; if you are a
teacher, then you shouldn’t engage in the distribution of these poisons;
if you are a scholar, then you should insist on truth and reject
fallacies; if you are an author, then you shouldn’t invent open-faced
lies. These are not your highest callings; rather, they are the most basic
demands.

If your job is to dismantle other people’s house, smash other people’s
shop stalls, abort other people’s babies, and beat those who are
unfortunate, then, well, I won’t expect you to go to them with an embrace,
but I do hope that you can maintain some shreds of conscience. George
Orwell, the author, fought in the Spanish War of 1936 as a sniper. One
morning, he saw an enemy soldier coming out of his trench. He had no
shirts on, and he was using his hands to hold up his pants. Orwell
could’ve shot him easily, but he hesitated for a long time, and gave up
eventually. He said: “How can someone whose hands are holding up his pants
be a Fascist? How can you shoot someone when his hands are holding up his
pants?”

This is “Orwell’s question”, and this is also where we differ from
animals—our precious sympathy. Here, I would like to say this to those who
work for the demolition teams, interception teams, and urban enforcement
teams: I know that you have a responsibility, but I hope you can think
about “Orwell’s question” occasionally. I know that your supervisors make
demands on you, but I still hope that you can cherish the moments when
your conscience becomes aware of itself again.

Or maybe you have a righteous heart, and you feel like you are fighting
for the good side and protecting your country. But even beyond your
country, there is a bigger good, and that is the righteousness in our
heart. The figure kneeling in front of you is a person too, you know? He
has emotions, feelings, parents spouse children and siblings just like
you! If you yell at him, he will get scared; if you hit him, he will feel
hurt; if you insult him, he will hate you. When you bury one enemy under
your feet now, he will grow into two enemies next year. You are just doing
a normal job; there’s no need to create so many personal enemies for
yourself. You can do your job without embracing all this hatred.

The importance of a clear heart

A real tragedy happened in a jail in Jiangsu Province once—a prison guard
was beating up a prisoner for no reason, and the prisoner said: “You are
in charge of me, so it’s your job to discipline me and give me orders. But
the beating that you are giving me now has nothing to do with your job,
it’s purely between the two of us. I don’t have the guts to fight you back
now, but remember, you will have to pay for this eventually!” A few years
later, the prison guard’s child was found hanged in front of the prison.
I hate this prisoner’s crime just as much as all of you do. However,
everyone within the system should learn from this. Hatred is like a
knife—if you make it too sharp, it will be turned against you and hurt you
too eventually. In a world where power is unrestrained, in a world where
laws are powerless, even if you wield an enormous amount of power now,
there’s no guarantee that you can have any sense of security in the long
run. Today, you make him hide from you; tomorrow, you might need to hide
from him instead. Today, you block those who want to appeal to law;
tomorrow, someone else will block your attempts, too. We already know that
those who are blocked are not just ordinary citizens—policemen, judges,
officials, and even the head of the Appeals Department can be found among
their ranks, too.

Someone once asked a wise monk: “What makes a person good?” The monk said:
“Mercy and clarity.” The person asked again: “What are those?” The monk
answered: “They are like the water in autumn and the unending sky.” I
think what it means to be a good person is to be a modern citizen who
values his character and who has a sense of shame. Mercy and clarity are
our sympathy and conscience. These two things aren’t useful in real life;
they won’t help you get rich or get promoted, and they definitely won’t
help you to “do well” in this order-less world. However, they distinguish
us from animals. It might not be smart to harbor sympathy for others, but
these “stupid people” are even more valued in chaotic times. It is because
of these people, who raised the muzzle, moved away from the trigger, and
stopped the tank “at the wrong times,” that our society managed to
maintain its basic humanity and dignity.

We live in an age when dust blocks the sky. Politics is dirty, the economy
is dirty, and even culture smells like it’s rotten. Our heart is supposed
to be clear like the water in the autumn and the unending sky, but if we
place it in the dust for a long time, then it can’t help but getting dirty
and frangible. When we mail fragile items at the post station, the staff
there will stamp the image of a red glass on the package to show that
what’s inside is fragile. I hope everyone stamps a red glass on their
heart too. It will remind us that this is a heart that needs sympathy and
a heart that needs clarity. It is precious, but it is also fragile. We
should take care of it every day and keep it free of dust. It should be as
clear as the water in autumn, and as clean as the sk