北方憨哥在北美
即興隨筆，無任何企圖，歡迎指教。謝絕任何侮辱謾罵之詞，如有發布，歸發布者本人享用。
《Two big China stories you missed this year》
By Jeffrey Wasserstrom from the December 17, 2008
美國《基督教科學箴言報》昨天發表文章：《今年你錯過的兩大中國新聞》，作者傑弗裏-瓦瑟施特倫，係加利福尼亞大學Irvine分校中
To say the least, 2008 has been a pivotal year for
“2008年至少可以說是中國的關鍵一年。這一年，中國經曆了四川地震的悲劇和精彩奧運開幕式的成功。西藏騷亂、毒奶粉事件、壓製民主不同政見，僅僅是成為全球頭條的中國新聞的其中三條。”
他的文章的大概提要如下：
人們忽視了兩條重要新聞，而每一條都能透露出有關中國的重要信息，關聯著悲劇和成功的發生，預示著中國的未來。
一條是，中國的民族主義已成為一支反對力量。中國的愛國主義熱情，特別是互聯網所表現出來的熱情，受到了很大的關注。
官員喜歡看到人們譴責奧運火炬在法國巴黎受到粗暴對待和後來法國總統薩科齊會見達賴喇嘛，報紙批評外國人不想讓奧運聖火傳遞成為慶祝性的活動。但是，當局從未忘記，愛國主義、集體主義往往證明在中國是難以控製的。中國的精英也知道，愛國憤慨和不滿官員腐敗、瀆職、貪婪和自私，往往驅使人們會走向街頭，這是中國官員感到緊張的原因。這種情況在2008年沒有發生。
另一條是，中國一位老哲學家獲得了明星般的待遇，他就是孔子。孔子的複活已持續有年。尊孔的廟宇得以重建，孔子的塑像也出現了，而旨在傳播中華文化的孔子學院也在國外紛紛落地。
很難說官方對於孔子的這種歡迎態度是由於真正地尊重聖賢，還是僅僅是對他的形象和遺產的利用。另一個可能的原因是國民的自豪感。不管孔子思想中有哪些優點和瑕疵，把他列入世界曆史上最偉大的哲學家應該不成問題。
這兩個沒有獲得關注的新聞，都可以使2008年成為中國人的“重要年份”。而且，它們都可以幫助我們觀察2009年及以後的中國。
以下是文章的全文：
Two big
The brief yet radical shift of patriotic fervor into criticism of the government after the
By Jeffrey Wasserstrom from the December 17, 2008 edition
To say the least, 2008 has been a pivotal year for
Yet there are two major stories that received little notice. Each reveals important things about
1. Chinese nationalism becomes an oppositional force
Chinese patriotic fervor, especially as manifested on the Net, got plenty of attention, mostly portrayed as something welcomed or even stirred up by the regime. This portrayal makes sense, up to a point.
Yes, officials liked seeing posts denouncing the French after a torchbearer was roughed up in
This didn't happen in 2008. But at one crucial moment in May, right after the earthquake, a familiar shift from outward-focused to inward-focused patriotic fervor occurred. This made Chinese officials nervous – for good reason.
The tone of the Chinese blogosphere suddenly changed, with posts criticizing foreigners for being unwilling to let the Olympic torch relay be a celebratory event disappearing. In their place came posts chiding the government for continuing to run upbeat stories about the torch.
How, some bloggers asked, could official news agencies be so self-absorbed and callous as to focus on the torch when the citizens of
This whiplash could have led to large-scale street actions that made headlines, but it didn't. That's partly because
This didn't completely defuse discontent at a precarious moment. There were still small gatherings in
The government realizes that few Chinese now have any faith left in the formal ideologies espoused by Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and their successors. It also knows that the Communist Party is perceived as being riddled with out-of-touch officials who care only about lining their pockets.
One response to this long-term legitimacy crisis has been a new emphasis on social welfare and social harmony in propaganda, mixed in with a drumbeat of references to the Communist Party's role in returning
When the tenor of blog posts shifted in May, the regime concluded quickly that business as usual regarding the torch was making its talk of striving to create a "harmonious society" (President Hu Jintao's mantra) ring even more hollow than usual – and the result could be dangerous. This was probably the right conclusion to draw.
2. An old Chinese philosopher gets the star treatment
The philosopher at the center of this second overlooked story is Confucius, who has been making an extraordinary comeback in a land where, within living memory, he was officially excoriated as a retrograde thinker.
As recently as the early 1970s, the Communist Party still held to the Marxist dictate that progress tended to comes as the result of struggle and conflict (whereas Confucius celebrated harmony), and Chairman Mao insisted that old modes of thought that venerated the past and prized social hierarchies (as Confucianism did) had to be uprooted once and for all for China to advance toward utopia.
In addition, Mao's longtime archrival, the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, had praised Confucius as
The revival of Confucius has been going on for years. It has been linked at the popular level to a general loss of faith in Marxism and Maoism, which has led to an interest in reappraising many once-discredited belief systems. And recently, thanks to how nicely Confucian bromides fit in with talk of a "harmonious society," the sage has gotten official support. Old temples honoring him have been rebuilt, new statues of him have gone up, and "Confucius Institutes," devoted to spreading Chinese culture, have been set up in foreign countries.
It is hard to tell whether this official embrace of Confucius expresses a genuine renewed admiration for the sage within the leadership, or is merely a cynical use of his image and legacy. It may be a bit of both. Another factor behind the popular official revival alike may simply be national pride. Whatever strengths or weaknesses may be in the man's ideas, there is no question that he ranks as among the most famous philosophers in world history.
This revival reached new heights during the torch run, when the flame's arrival in Qufu, the sage's hometown, was celebrated lavishly. It was then taken to an even higher crescendo during the Opening Ceremony, when Confucius was quoted as Hu and other leaders looked on with approval. Then 3,000 actors took the stage at the Bird's Nest, dressed up to represent a massive contingent of the sage's disciplines.
The prominent Confucian sayings and symbols played in the opening ceremonies were treated in a surprisingly matter-of-fact way, as though Confucius had never ceased being a revered figure and positive symbol of
For the historically minded, the effect was shocking. It was similar to what a sports fan might have experienced if a man who had won a gold medal as a sprinter at the Rome Olympics in 1960, then disappeared from the track scene, suddenly took the lead in the finals for the 100-meter dash in the 2008 Games – and the commentator simply said: "Gee, we always knew he was fast!"
Each of these under-the-radar stories played a role in making
And each gives us a sense of things to watch for in 2009 and beyond, as the Communist Party continues to try to ride out still longer the legitimacy crisis it has faced ever since the faith in Maoism as a creed dissipated decades ago. In struggling to come up with novel ways to remake their image and stay in power as a ruling group,
We should be ready for these developments. We should also watch for moments when, as happened briefly last May, patriotic fervor morphs into antigovernment backlashes, and officially sponsored Confucian-sounding calls for pursuit of a "harmonious society" are attacked by the public as nothing more than window dressing for a ruling group most of whose member care above all simply about keeping hold of the reins of power.
Jeffrey•Wasserstrom, a professor of Chinese History at University of California, Irvine, is the author of the just-published "Global Shanghai, 1850-2010: A History in Fragments," and a co-editor of "
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