陳衝在華盛頓郵報撰文:Let the Games Go On

By Joan Chen

Wednesday, April 9, 2008; A19

I was born in Shanghai in 1961 and grew up during the Cultural Revolution. During my childhood, I saw my family lose our house. My grandfather, who studied medicine in England, committed suicide after he was wrongly accused of being a counterrevolutionary and a foreign spy.

Those were the worst of times.

Since the Cultural Revolution ended in the late 1970s, however, I have witnessed unimaginable progress in China. Changes that few ever thought possible have occurred in a single generation. A communist government that had no ties to the West has evolved into a more open government eager to join the international community.

A state-controlled economy has morphed into a market economy, greatly raising people's standard of living. It's clear that the majority of the Chinese people enjoy much fuller, more abundant lives today than 30 years ago. Though much remains to be done, the Chinese government has made rapid progress in opening up and trying to be part of the international community.
Last month I went to China and spent four weeks visiting Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Chengdu. The people I met and spoke with are proud and excited about the Beijing Games. They believe that the Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to showcase modern China to the rest of the world. Like many Americans, most Chinese people are disturbed by the recent events in Tibet. But after watching the scenes of violence and arson by the rioters, the Chinese believe that the government is doing the right thing in cracking down to restore order.

The Olympic torch is in California and is to be carried through San Francisco today. In a resolution criticizing China, Chris Daly, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said that demonstrating against the torch relay would "provide the people of San Francisco with a lifetime opportunity to help 1.3 billion Chinese people gain more freedom and rights." To his credit, Mayor Gavin Newsom did not sign Daly's resolution.

This statement could not be further from reality. For one thing, the Chinese are a proud people. They want freedom and greater rights, but they know they must fight for them from within. They know that no one can grant them freedom and rights from afar. The stigma of Western imperialism and the Opium Wars also remains a strong reminder of the past, and Chinese people do not want their domestic policies to be dictated by outside powers. They also do not want the United States to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Games. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow and the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles accomplished nothing. A U.S. boycott of the opening ceremonies in Beijing would be counterproductive for relations between the two countries.

For decades, anti-China human rights groups in Washington have spent millions of dollars denouncing China. To many Chinese, it seems that this lobby is the only voice that's acceptable or newsworthy in the U.S. media and to the U.S. government. But times are changing. We need to be open-minded and farsighted. We need to make more friends than enemies. Remember what a little ping-pong game did for Sino-U.S. relations in the 1970s? Let's celebrate the Olympics for what the Games are meant to be -- a bridge for friendship, not a playground for politics.

The writer is an actress and director. She became a U.S. citizen in 1989.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040802907_pf.html




　1961年我在上海出生，並在文化大革命期間長大。在童年時代，我目睹了自家的流離失所。我的祖父曾經在英國學醫，卻被錯判為反革命和外國間諜後而自殺身亡。那是一段最糟糕的時期。

　　但是，自從七十年代末文化大革命結束以來，我親身經曆了中國翻天覆地的變化。對於這些變化，沒有人能想象過會在僅僅一代人中就發生了。一個跟西方不相幹的共產黨政府，已經變成一個更加開放的政府，並且期待著加入到國際社會中來。

　　中國的國營經濟已經蛻變成市場經濟，並且大大提高了人民的生活水平。相對於三十年前，很清楚的事實是，今天絕大多數的中國人享受了更充分，更富足的生活。 盡管還有更多的要做，但是中國政府在對外開放和融入國際社會中已經大大進步許多。

　　就在上個月，我用了四個星期去了中國的上海，北京，香港和成都。對於北京奧運會，我所遇見的中國人都很自豪也很興奮。他們相信奧運會是一個很絕好的機會來向世界展示一個現代中國。正如許多美國民眾一樣，大多數的中國民眾也為最近在西藏發生的事件而不安。但是，在觀看了騷亂分子的焚燒和暴力行為之後，中國民眾相信政府做了一件正確的事情，那就是平息騷亂恢複社會秩序。

　　奧運火炬已經到了加州，今天還要在舊金山傳遞接力。在一項批評中國的議案中，舊金山市監察局的克裏斯·戴裏，聲稱對火炬接力的抗議會“為舊金山民眾提供一個一生中難得的機會來幫助十三億中國人獲得自由和權利”。好在葛溫?紐森市長並沒有簽署這項決議案。

　　這項決議案根本不顧現實情況。首先，中國民眾是自豪的民眾。他們想要自由和更多的權利，但是他們知道這些必須從自己內部爭取。他們知道沒有人能平白贈與這些自由和權利。過去西方帝國主義和鴉片戰爭所遺留的陰影仍然還在，中國民眾不需要自己的國內政策被外部政權幹涉。他們也不希望美國抵製奧運會開幕式。一九八零年的美國抵製莫斯科奧運會和一九八四年的蘇聯抵製洛杉磯奧運會根本沒有用。美國對北京開幕式的抵製隻能會對兩國關係不利。

　　幾十年來，反華人權組織在華盛頓花費上百萬美金來詆毀中國。對很多中國人來說，這些遊說隻是為了賺取美國新聞媒體和美國政府的眼球。但是，時代不同了。我們需要開放思想並放長眼光。我們需要交更多的朋友而不是製造更多的敵人。還記得一個小小的乒乓球比賽為中美關係在七十年代做的貢獻？讓我們來慶賀奧運會作為一個運動會應該成為的——一條友誼的橋梁，而不是一個政治的競技場。