Politics can be good

Hyperlink to source text in Chinese: 政治可以是美好的
Translated by @krizcpec

Listened to a talk by economist Mr Chen Zhiwu yesterday morning. What a talk! At noon my friends and I had lunch with Mr Chen, then in the afternoon I was occupied with other things. As a result, I didn't get the time to watch Obama's inauguration ceremony. But with advanced communication channels available, I can watch a recap this morning after I woke up.

Protest is a Form of Civic Education

Hyperlink to source text in Chinese: 抗议是一门公民课 
Translated by @krizcpec

In our country much of the common knowledge is blocked. Whether someone works as a politician, or a statesman, his compulsory course would be to face public protest with a proper manner. It was a disappointment that two days ago at Cambridge, Wen Jiabao made an inappropriate speech after a protester hurled a shoe at him. It indicated he didn't have the skills needed to face protesters.

How many bizarre incidents occur in China daily?

Hyperlink to source text in Chinese: 每天有多少荒唐的事情在中国上演？   
Translated by @krizcpec

In my earlier blog I ran a few editions of “Common Sense Weekly”, which had had to be discontinued because the objective I set to answer ten questions in each new issue was too difficult to achieve. Shielded from China are the many common knowledge which, despite higher learning is not needed to understand, many people just can't figure out.

And a lot of people blindly believe in the many deliberately misleading opinions which are not only popular, but also get publicized by the all forms of media repeatedly. What is worse, these people not just believe in these false information, they also help spreading them further across. These actions harm not only their own interests but also that of others.

My stance on the Tibet issues

Hyperlink to source text in Chinese: 我对西藏问题的态度   
Translated by @krizcpec

There have been lots of news lately. What attracted people's attention were the unrest in Tibet and the election in Taiwan, both are related to our lives and rights. Whatever that are related to our lives and rights are things worth thinking over, and talking about.

Regarding the issues of Tibet, many wanted to know my views. Below are my thoughts, which might not be comprehensive. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Sichuan Earthquake, Six months on: in Memory of the Victims

Hyperlink to source text in Chinese: 四川大地震半年祭
Translated by @Aliceyoung, proofread by @krizcpec

It's hard to believe that six months have passed since the devastating earthquake struck. For anyone who personally experienced that disaster, fear and pain are far from enough to express what they feel.

Looking back through history, comparing with any other peoples, we can see that God did not hand down special punishment to the Chinese people, including those living in Sichuan. On the contrary, they were given a vast and beautiful place to live, with rivers and mountains. What is loathsome is that for decades those who rule the country do not cherish it, triggering one man-made disaster after another, making this beautiful place a land of desolation.

The Fear of Chinese Government Officials

Hyperlink to source text in Chinese: 中国官员们的恐惧

Translated, proofread by @krizcpec

I read a report on the Internet that said many officials have anxiety about the Internet. Though there was no statistics provided, I found that report believable. Why?

Throughout history, [until the age of the Internet,] Chinese government officials had never been under genuine supervision and restriction. The saying “people's eyes are sharp” is but another way of saying that people are blind selectively. When the authorities need your eyes to be sharp, your eyes have to be sharp; when the authorities need you to turn a blind eye to something, you would have to do as you are told. In other words, the masses are used by government officials as puppets, and they can do nothing about it. On top of these, the populace sees the officials' unlawful actions, corruption and has no channel to air their discontent: the media, controlled by the government, would certainly not cover news stories that make officials look bad [simply because the public is dissatisfied]. Those disclosed corruption cases may be real, but their disclosures were not the result of effective supervision by the people, but rather the political struggle at top levels; or they could also mean those politicians had lost their backing. These disclosures have nothing to do with democratic and free supervision or victory of the common people; anti-corruption is but a pretext with which different political figures or factions fought against each other.

Heredity of Civil Service Positions, A Social Disaster

Hyperlink to source text in Chinese: 公务员世袭化是社会大灾难

Translated, proofread by @krizcpec

Ran note: The controversy over “Rich 2G*” is yet to be over; the shock and anger that “Crown Prince Party” have caused in the public is gradually spreading across the country, a phenomenon that needs more discussion and attention from all sectors of society. To me, the problem is not just about the “Crown Prince Party”, it is also about government officials who have turned, through nepotism, civil service positions into heredity. In other words, civil servants as a most secure “iron rice bowl” during economic crisis is now hereditary, and the ratio of positions filled by favoritism is shockingly high. Below is a column I wrote for China in Perspective, which explored the problems of heredity of civil service position, comments are welcome.

September 2, 2009, 7:46 in Chengdu

How should citizens treat the government

Hyperlink to the source text in Chinese: 公民应该怎样对待政府
Translated by @Michae1S, proofread by @krizcpec   

Some people said I am unreasonable as I often criticize the government, I wrote in response an article “Who Exactly Is Unreasonable?”, hoping the public could see that our government is many times more unreasonable than the masses. They use all sorts of propaganda that go every extreme to instill in the public ideas that are in their favor, and suppress any criticism and questions. There is nothing more unreasonable than muzzling dissent voices. Apart from this, I must keep pointing out that criticizing, instead of praising the government is the bounden duty of every citizen. This is more true in China, where the government is not under any real oversight and restrictions. Just like the disaster relief works following the snow storm this year, I couldn't say the government hasn't done anything, yet what it did was far from a job well done. Moreover, officials have evaded issues of human errors in the disaster, and those who neglected their duty have not been duly punished; these are serious disrespect to the dead and the rights of the victims, and a government like this should be criticized nonstop. However, it appears to some individuals that the government is aggrieved, and that the masses have wrongly accused the government of its decades of bad governance. In fact, there is no other race in the world that is more obedient than the Chinese people.

The government is not to be enshrined

Hyperlink to the source text in Chinese: 政府不是拿来供着的

Translated and proofread by @krizcpec

Thomas Paine is remembered for the booklet he authored, Common Sense, from which many draw ideas to deliberate on Western Democracies, liberty, and government's legitimacy. Many of the common sense that we are going to cover are but a continuation of wisdom of human and reinterpretation of it. Some of the common sense had quickly become consensus, and for many reasons, a view that is almost universally agreed on fails to get approval on another land. Some common sense may have become a consensus rather quickly. Yet a consensus that is almost universally agreed upon has, for many reasons, not been approved on another land. It has even been smeared by the many interest groups and those have voice in their control, with the purpose to exploit interests of others and pocket the benefits themselves. I will today give a few examples to illustrate why government is not to be enshrined, so as to make things clear to those readers who ask me to put myself into the government’s shoes, these people are mostly civil servants, one of them leaves comments on my blog using the name “a rank-and-file bureaucrat”, and of course there are also those who have been brainwashed, become out of touch with real life and use “conditions of the country” as an excuse to shrink from their responsibilities. “Government is not to be enshrined” could be written into a booklet like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, serving the purpose of revealing [the nature of government] to humankind, and to alert them. As I get to know more and become more experienced, maybe I should perhaps give this task a try. What's covered in today's article serves only as a beginning of this project, it may not be comprehensive, but there's time to develop it further in future.

Who exactly is unreasonable?

Hyperlink to the source text in Chinese: 到底是谁偏激？
Translated and proofread by @krizcpec

These days I often being criticized as biased. It appears that once being criticized so, all my arguments would become worthless for discussion - as if they are meaningless and untenable simply because of that criticism. And those critics would feel condescendingly a sense of victory without fighting. There are those who say not even a single word regarding the government's decades old of evil practices, and have an unreserved support of the government. These people have severe Stockholm syndrome, oblivious to their psychological yearning for persecution; some even feel happy to have this syndrome.

Don't Expect More from Me

Hyperlink to the source text in Chinese: 不要期望我更多
Translated by @dissenter2020, proofread and edited by @krizcpec

Many people want to know why I publish a blog post every day. Actually, if you have read my previous posts, you wouldn’t ask this question at all, you would have found a pretty satisfying answer long ago. I think if you want to know somebody, you would use the search engine to find and read as much about that person as possible; you would compare, analyze, and formulate an idea of how that individual is like in general. Nevertheless, you'd better not jump to conclusion yet: human being is complicated and has many faces. Just like my blog is only a very small part of my life. Judging by my blog posts, you may find me to be too serious; but if you drink with me, then you would know a different Ran Yunfei. I would talk about literature and art appreciation—you may assume I do not talk about these as they are seldom covered on my blog. No, on the contrary, I feel most comfortable when talking about my feelings of literature and art. It is writing commentaries on public affairs that makes me wary and afraid. for I am with David Hume's view of "[it is] fruitless to dispute concerning tastes", my choice of words and style when writing literature and art review cannot be more different from commentaries, those who have read some of my other books may prove it. I do not agree with Mr Hu Shih’s being somewhat objective when reviewing literature and art. Since in my opinion, the appreciation and views of literature and art is more of a personal matter. It doesn't involve direct and extensive public interests. I admired very much Mr Hu's composition and demeanor concerning public affairs, yet when he spoke about literature and art, I think he was too “scientific”. His reviews were really too inartistic, lacking savor, and without the amazement of "O, so that's what it is!"

Quotations from Ran Yunfei (Part Four)

As at the date this translation project started, twitterer @wuxinkuaiyu had tweeted 65 quotations from the detained dissident writer. Here are the last batch of the quotations translated into English.

Translated by @sikoalice
Proofread and modified by @krizcpec, @gaodawei

51. 这个社会太多的人想搭便车，很少人有责任感，觉得这个社会需要去努力。而且中国人讲究实用，巴不得今天做了事情明天就能收到效果。这就像中国人对读书的态度，如果认一个字能挣五块钱，那他愿意，要不他宁愿去打几把麻将。
Translation: There are too many people in this society who want to get a free ride, only a handful have the sense of responsibility and consider efforts necessary to bring forth a better society. The thinking of Chinese people is all about being practical and looking for an immediate pay-off: they want what they did today to pay off tomorrow. This is just like the Chinese’s attitude towards reading. They would do it willingly if they were to be paid five dollars for each character they learn; otherwise they would rather play Mahjong.

Quotations from Ran Yunfei (Part Three)

As at the date this translation project started, twitterer @wuxinkuaiyu had tweeted 65 quotations from the detained dissident writer. Here are the third batch of the quotations translated into English.

Translated by @sikoalice
Proofread and modified by @krizcpec , @gaodawei

36. 不要把自己的权利改善，寄托在没有真正监督与制约的政府善心大发上，这无异于缘木求鱼。在较完善的民主自由制度未建立以前，每个人自身权利无不是自己争取来的，每个人都可以在衡度自身安全的情形下，做力所能及的推动社会进步的好事，这并不需要你危及己身的大智大勇。
Translation: Do not place your hopes of greater respect for your rights on the good heartedness of a government that is not subject to genuine oversight and checks on its powers. This is like fishing in thin air. Until a free and democratic system of government is in place, every individual will be on their own -- they will have to fight for their own rights. Every individual can do whatever they can to promote social progress after weighing how their efforts might affect their own security. Everyone can do this. This is not something only for those with tremendous courage and wisdom needed for actions that might endanger their lives.

Quotations from Ran Yunfei (Part Two)

As at the date this translation project started, twitterer @wuxinkuaiyu had tweeted 65 quotations from the detained dissident writer. Here are the second batch of the quotations translated into English.

Translated by @sikoalice
Proofread and modified by @krizcpec @gaodawei

21. 打着国家的旗号，干着恶浊的勾当，这是我们生活中常见的例子。国家只是为所有个人服务的工具，舍此国家没有任何作用，或者国家的存在意义将化为乌有。也就是说，我们不能用神化国家来损害个人利益。
Translation: Dirty business done in the name of the state is no rarity in China's national life. A state is just a tool for serving all the individuals in it; it has no other function, or it has no reason for being. In other words, we should not harm the the interests of individuals merely for the sake of deifying the state.

Quotations from Ran Yunfei (Part One)

As at the date this translation project started, twitterer @wuxinkuaiyu had tweeted 65 quotations from the detained dissident writer. Here are the first batch of the quotations translated into English.

Translated by @sikoalice
Proofread and modified by @krizcpec

1. 我读书、写作、做研究的目的，是为了求真，为了求自由，是为了求得自己体面而有尊严的生活。当然我知道我远远没有得到这一切，因为没有谁会将尊严和体面奉送到我的面前，我得自己来争取。如果每个人都为自己的体面和尊严而斗争，当然这个社会可能就会变得更好一点。
Translation： I write, read and research to pursue truth, freedom, to pursue a life with glory and dignity. Surely I know there is still a long way to go, no one would present these two things in front of me and I must fight for them myself. Of course this society may change for the better if everyone gets to fight for glory and dignity.

Why is China being demonized so easily?

Hyperlink to the source text in Chinese:  中国为什么容易被妖魔化？

translated by @krizcpec

proofread by Michelle Adams @Michelle9647

I do not agree that China is being demonized. Then why am I writing about this topic? It is because occasionally, there may be some inaccurate reports by the West; and whenever our official media and people with strong nationalist sentiment see such reports, they would say that this is a collective, intentional distortion of China. English writer Joseph Rudyard Kipling once said, “Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”