Sunday, April 17, 2011

日本人寫給中國人的信

雖然我根源中華,但近年以來與內地人還有香港人接觸十分多,不免懷疑爲什麽今天的中國這樣子。這是一篇號稱由日本人寫的信,我覺得很有趣,給大家參考。最重要不是要議論他說的對還是錯,而是我們可以借鏡什麽,可以反省什麽,可以改變什麽。

無論這對現在真實的中國人還是好比我們在海外的中華子裔,這都十分重要。


一封日本人寫給中國人的信

作為一個日本人,我想在這裡和你們談談我對中國人的一些看法。我以前是中國人民大學的一名留學生,在中國呆了五六年了,因此我完全有資格來說說我的看法。

日本和中國地理上很近,但兩個民族的 性格卻是差得很遠的,中國人給我的開始印象是很好的,但時間一長,許多缺點暴露了,中國人膽小、恭順、懦弱、虛偽、圓滑、愛耍小聰明,尤其是讓我無法理解 的是中國人為什麼對自己的同胞那麼無情,卻對一個外國人恭善有加。我剛開始來中國時,不過一個窮書生,但我卻能受到超國民待遇,幾年的經歷讓我深刻感受到 中國人的確一盤散沙,中國人團結一心是有的,但那是在非常時期,比方說民族就 要被滅了,不過那也不是什麼徹底的團結,中國人在外斗和內鬥中似乎更傾向後者,中國人更恨的是漢奸,卻不是侵略者(在侵華問題上,我比較尊重歷史,承認這 是日本的過錯),中國人民養活我們在戰爭中的遺孤,卻可以在文革中無情的迫害自己的同胞,(甚至是親情之間),這些我都無法理解,如果不是中國人可能誰也 不理解,你們中國人是怎麼理解的,如果說中國人善良,虛偽什麼,我不知道怎麼回事,如果單純的沒有中國人的自相殘殺,也許可以說這是善良,但有了文革,情 況就不同了,老實說,我對你們的做法沒有什麼感謝的成分,只有不理解和疑問。


還有我同樣不理解你們對日本戰後賠款的放棄在這個世界上, 沒有哪個民族再像中華民族這麼對外隱忍,對內殘酷的了。這讓我想起了以色列和德國的關係,說實話我很佩服以色列人,他們對德國人不依不饒的態度,這表明他 們重視自己的價值和權利,他們沒有原諒德國人,但德國人卻很敬重他們,相反,在東方,現實是日本人很瞧不起中國人,你們放棄賠款,你們原諒我們,我們依然 恨你們,瞧不起你們,鄙視你們,原因不在我們,在你們自身,你們自輕自賤,別人也沒辦法,中國人沒有血性,意氣都被磨光了,剩下的是暮氣,自卑,和你們所 說的崇洋媚外。
你們號稱文明古國,但是除了那些死的建築,博物館裡的文物,現實在中國人的生活裡,哪還有傳統文明的影子?不錯,日本受過中國文化的長期影響,但現在保存這些文化鮮 活性卻在日本、韓國、新加坡,不在中國大陸,你們把誠信、節義、禮儀、四書五經看作四舊掃到垃圾堆裡,聲稱建立一個新社會,卻不想是現在這個樣子,你們比 我更清楚,一方面貪污腐敗(騙人的鬼話:腐敗是世界各國都面臨的問題),紙醉金迷,聲色雞犬,一方面窮的連飯都吃不飽。造假,中國無人能敵,能吹牛,見利 忘義,你們沒有什麼信仰,信馬克思主義。要是馬克思知道在他的主義下是這樣的社會,恐怕早也給氣死了,精神空虛,彼此不信任,難怪一盤散沙,現在的中國 人,其麻木、愚昧程度不比1895年好多少。


中國是個大國,但在政治上是個絕對的弱者,你們總嘲笑我們日本是政治矮子,但我們比比社會制度,看看哪個在世界上吃得開,社會主義國家沒幾個了,又不團結,專制,獨裁,世界不歡迎,但因為你中國太大了,所以能顯得重要,但是你們從來都是應對西方的政治攻勢,沒有過主動出擊,因為你就是不行,人權叫人家抓了多少年?誰把人權降格到生存權就是最大的人權?文革,大躍進,你們的政府多少錯誤,你們的歌唱家還唱:改革開放的領路人,帶領我們走向新時代。再也沒有中國人這麼溫順了,多聽話,在當今文明的世界裡,這種情況是少有的。


你 們中國人在糟蹋自己,自己的智慧,資源,你們中國經濟發展快,可代價呢?資源的枯竭,環境的惡化,你們一個好好的能源省山西,被你們糟蹋成什麼樣了,經濟 落後,民生凋敝,貪官橫行,你們不知道,在中華民國統治大陸的時候,山西還是模範省份,你們也不知道山西在中國歷史的地位,那時清代的山西經濟強,唐代一 半的宰相出自山西,地位遠比你們所謂驕傲自豪的上海高,現在你們看看山西,就知道什麼是歷史與現實的差距了(人均GDP中國倒數第一),你們就這麼糟蹋資源,如果山西給了日本,日本會像祖宗一樣供著他,遠比你們重視北京,上海強,你們經濟快,老喜歡拿什麼上海,北京作窗口,愚蠢!那兩個城市占中國國土多少,人口多少?你們長期忽視農民,9億中國農民不搞好,你們中國要出大亂子。在北京我與一個來自山東的流浪老太太談話,她是帶著她的兩個親生女兒在北京做皮肉生意的,她說,靠自己吃飯,不丟人,丟人的是這個社會,因為40多年前,當地政府敲鑼打鼓把他們幾千人移民到新疆,送到幾百里荒無人煙的地方,任他們自生自滅,死掉的人不知道有多少,但就是不讓回山東,逃回山東也沒用,政府說他們不是山東人,沒有戶口,幾十年來流浪,找誰說理去?


你 們好大喜功,幾百億的工程說幹就幹,我們這些被你們看作小氣的日本人乍舌,中國好富,可你們的失業人員卻在增多,多一個失業的人,社會就多一個不穩定因 素,你們沒有解決,農民低收入,你們不重視,貧富差距拉大,你們視而不見,你們喜歡的只有外國人的讚揚,這一點很多人看得清楚,你們虛榮,奢侈,你們的社 會亂七八糟,去年的中國大陸富豪,今年落馬的不少,最近的就是那個叫周正毅的上海人,你們有問題的社會造就有問題的富翁,你們還恬不知恥的說日本完了,中 國要超美國了,哈哈,短視!你們不過開放20幾 年,就這麼吹,日本經濟是在停滯,但你們拚死干了十年還不到日本經濟總量的四分之一,至於超美國,更是神話,還有,世界環境對你們很不利,而日本,憑著制 度的優越,國民的務實,以及西方的真誠支持,是完全有理由復甦的,中國卻因為意識形態、制度與美國或大多主流國家格格不入,中國穩定沒什麼,一旦陷入社會 動盪,經濟崩潰,周邊國家沒有誰會鼎力支持的,因為你們的國家始終給人以另類的感覺,所以日本敗,尚有機會趕上去,中國敗,則完全四分五裂,周邊國家喜歡 中國這樣,俄羅斯不喜歡你們好,印度恨你們,我們恨你們,東南亞恨你們,所以你們的環境很差很差,可你們沒有危機感,感覺良好,這就是愚昧!


東 方人中,我們尊敬韓國人,因為他們和我們很類似,就是有血有肉,敢做敢為,我們在歷史問題上和你們有摩擦時,韓國人可以從總統到國民都抗議,中國只有外交 部幾個無足輕重的發言人在那裡咿咿呀呀,哈哈,這就是差別,韓國人恨我們,但我們敬重這個對手,你恨不恨我們,我們感覺無所謂,因為你們性格、品行告訴世 界,中國人沒有剛性,我現在在想,前世不忘後事之師,到底中日之間誰在忘記歷史?我們參拜神社,改歷史教課書,說明我們沒有忘記那段歷史,你們呢?二戰中 的受害者?你們為了黨派之爭,不顧民族的大義,說什麼在中國共產黨領導下八年抗戰,歷史書寫那段歷史寫得比我們還要模糊,是你們在篡改歷史,哈哈!(這 再次說明內鬥勝於外斗)你們罵我們不正視侵略中國的戰爭,傷害中國人民的感情,可你們呢?正視歷次政治運動對自己人民的迫害了嗎?正視文革對中國的毀壞了 嗎?你們需要正視的太多啦,這都是誰在傷害中國人民的感情啊?拍南京屠城的電影,你們中有人竟然還說為什麼不多來些強姦的鏡頭。你們中國人就這種樣子,叫 別人怎麼拿你們當回事情,你們可以無能,但你們連人格都不要了,美國人打得我們要死,我們不恨他們,我們佩服他們,韓國人被我們統治過,現在造就了經濟奇 跡,他們敢鬥敢為,我們敬佩他們,你們中國人沒有什麼值得我們看得起你們的地方,好好反省一下,你們地大物博,歷史悠久,卻敗在我們手下,不覺得羞愧麼?

一盤散沙的社會生長一盤散沙的人,你們的時代裡還出過什麼志士麼?民國還有過魯迅,蔡鍔,朱自清這些我們佩服的人,現在你們除了貪官,虛華學者,思想懦弱的知識分子,還有什麼?你們不是說要培養本土的諾貝爾獎得主麼?為什麼現在還沒有?你們的龍芯主頻只有266赫茲,卻在吹要商業化,哈哈!中國人,我們敬佩你們什麼??同根同宗的新加坡也要在SARS時制你們一回,羅剛事件,讓人無法理解的事件,散漫的中國人啊,以色列人那麼齊心,你們那麼分散,你們十幾億人,十幾億條心思,我們一億日本人都在想怎麼讓我們的國家走出困境,我們都活在地球上,有趣!


(來源: http://hi.baidu.com/leopin/blog/item/fd07bf09222d01286b60fb17.html)

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Monday, March 21, 2011

Malaysianology #1: Low Cost Terminal to KLIA-2

Posted by Magician @ http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=331041&page=40


I had been traveling a lot these days and there are a lot of thoughts here and there conjured out from here and there and everywhere. Basically, I am against planning my blog post but I think it's time to at least get the theme right so that I can organize my mind when I am blogging. One of the series I had in mind for a long time is one about Malaysians and Malaysia. Bits of these and those. Let's call this series: Malaysianology. Now I think I gonna start with this one which is on my mind since yesterday night.

I didn't know of the very thing called new Low Cost Terminal nor KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) 2, until last night. The plan is shown in the figure above.

Why would I mention this out of nowhere? It's because the original theme for this new terminal is Low Cost Terminal and I heard from a contractor working on the KLIA-2 on stupid things that not even I can imagine of.

New LCT is meant to be 'low cost' but because it is such a huge piece of meat, every contractor and the person who applied for the grant (always a bumiputera, or aboriginals or in most cases in Malaysia, almost 99.999%, Malays) is trying their very, very, very best to squeeze as much money out of the government as possible. Now let me relay to you what I heard of:-

(1) In LCT standard, two levels of building is already considered a lot. HOWEVER, they built multiple stories, with 4 levels being the least. Thus, everything has to be upgraded, including shop lots, interior design, ventilation. The cost for the airport is RM$2 bil., and now it is nearly impossible to build the whole thing under RM$4 bil.;

(2) Thus, they decide that the name Low Cost Terminal is urm, inappropriate. They changed the name to KLIA-2. Wow.

(3) It is not unusual that a big projects involves a lot of contractors. In this case of "KLIA-2" involves unusually a lot. But that's not the point I want to make. The point I want to make is, they are so unsystematic that one design clashes the other. A control tower worth $RM 150 mil. was forced to be demolished and rebuilt because they found out that it blocks the line of sight of the pilot from the airport runway. Ridiculous? Not in Malaysia apparently. They just, you know, demolished it and rebuilt another one by the side. RM$150 mil. gone, just like that.

(4) The volume designed for the LCT is now urm, much much much lower than the amount of passengers that KLIA-2 can accommodate now, because everything is built so much extra in advance that the contractors themselves understood that unless Malaysia becomes a huge metropolitan city like Singapore or Hong Kong, or else it is near impossible to use up to even 50% of the volume.

So how do I feel after listening to these? Sad? Disappointed? Aghast?

How am I going to just accept these?

How much more stupidity like these I have to endure more, from the government and the thoughtless corrupted MPs trying to squeeze every part of the the $RM 5 mil. assigned to them so that they can put them in their pockets?

Fellow Malaysians, I, for one, cannot accept this at all. I believe, and still believe, KLIA happened in that way too because every time I was in KLIA, I felt its bizarre emptiness and casual traffic instead of the busy pace I experienced in Hong Kong. I cannot keep thinking myself that, what is wrong with the Malaysian government?

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Just Attempting

Suddenly cannot find a word and a direction in my mind. It's blank and full of pure simple emotions. Maybe I am too tired after so long, or maybe I just accepted that I am attempting to do the job instead of doing it, the part on communication with superiors and negotiation alike. I find that when I am doing a negotiation which I would like to strike a chord to, I would be so intimidating instead of accommodating, like what happened last Friday.

Just so obvious to me now, another mask removed.

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Monday, March 07, 2011

Am I a lost cause?

There were too much negative emotions in the 1 year and 7 months I'd been spending, studying the master research degree here.

To make it worse, for the past two months I think new ones sprouted.

As a rational university graduate (well, from UG for now I guess), especially with research training, I doubted since long whether I am the sole person who created all these troubles. I was a lost cause in my first semester, almost covered by darkness alone and there was no light permeating through my life. Not a single ray.

However all these darkness seems to be stripped off me forcefully by the end of December 2009, when I chose to step up and face it.

Then I came to see GL from a whole new angle, and then the time we spent together led me to self-awareness and thus to facing myself honestly, deleting each mask and layer as time goes by. And because of her, I found aikido, one of the closest discipline I encountered which ultimately led me to my first enlightenment experience.

I say, I am really grateful.

Don't curse me yet. I am not whining here. I am just, still doubtful.

I knew that I am very interested in language research. Now I understand I am more suitable to that field instead of being stuck here, unhappy.

I knew I want to spend some time in Japan to study both aikido and Japanese, to see how much more I can venture on this Way.

What you knew and what you are doing, in my case now, is perhaps at the most polarized extremes. The traditional Chinese perception is that you should persevere and just do it. But for me, each day is inching on with my heart screaming: You're just wasting time.

Moreover, I am starting to have this kind of uncomfortable barrier with old friends I made in my university. The feeling of me unable to be honest to them pains me, and the way they are trying to make a point to avoid making me feel bad make me feel worse. I guess the culture of Hong Kong does brew this kind of very strange way of communication with each other. I do not understand why. It seems to me that it is exceptionally hard to express honest feelings to each other comparing to that of which I experience with fellow Malaysians, Singaporeans and other nationalities.

On my side while all facets have already changed 180 degrees, looking at these people distancing away really, really does sadden me.

Then for a moment of two I am starting to think again: Am I the lost cause again?

When I am starting to blame the culture and the people, I think, maybe it's just me who doesn't fit in. I admit that I held up a considerable of pride to try to keep quiet and see what kind of reactions are tailing, although till now there is none, I am still too proud to keep my silence.

No matter what, I made new friends. New friends who I can work with in a totally honest fashion. I love that kind of frictionless communications. I guess from the start, one side has to initiate this atmosphere to ensure this feeling is secured and flowing.

Had a very fruitful experiment with a friend again last night on aikido. We learn that there is a huge difference between doing the technique itself or doing the technique in accordance to the attacker. When you are doing the latter, there is a feeling of engagement between your center and the attacker, and you are so aware of the connections that the flow of the technique is almost flawlessly circular.

I guess this is the way of communication too. Only when engagement happens, then feelings towards each other along with the intentions will be met and felt. At these moments, there is strange feeling that you are both relaxed and attentive, and your center feels really stabile. This is really, what I have been searching all along and trying to refine every moment I have the opportunity to.

Still, I am a lost cause, for I know what is going on and still I upheld the pride to not initiate conversations. Although I did send emails but I still do not think that is good enough.

Well, I have enough to deal in my hands already. The biggest one, is of course, to start commit to what I knew and understood all along, instead of wasting more time.

Somehow I sensed that there will be a severe thunderstorm about to cross my path very soon. I am waiting for it, since long, long ago. In fact, I welcome it. And I welcome the sunny rays that will shower me after the ordeal.

Life, after all, is about living, not living what others think you should be living. This becomes even a clearer fact when you had done more than a year of soul searching and really know for sure what are you going to do in your life when all these nightmares end.

Just let me be the lost cause for a little more. Just a little more.

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Saturday, March 05, 2011

Trust, and Commitment

Had a long talk with GL tonight, albeit jeopardizing the urge to sleep thus still wide awake at this unearthly hour, it does reorganize what I had been toying with in my mind in just a cloudy form for the past few months. I gonna share with you all here.

At this very moment, I had seen what can be jeopardized by a non-committal attitude. And in this eventual awakening, I knew how many mistakes I made in the past that possibly caused a lot of chances coming by me wasted.

The very first of all, trust is something that you have to pay ultra-extra effort to earn but too, can be lost easily.

All my life I had been assuming too many things, including that which I can afford to be late, especially when it involves my best friend. However, it seems not to be so. Although I was late without receiving too much of just a scorn from my best friend, I definitely lost the confidence of him towards me if we were to be involved in something really serious, for example, business venture.

If I am late most of the time, I guess nobody will really put his/her faith in me even though he/she is my best friend.

Slight difference? Nope. Huge difference.

In this light, I come to understand just how much I did which, just out for my own comfort, in one way or another destroyed me. Yes, it destroyed me not just in terms of credibility, but most crucial of all, the determination to live on.

When Natalie Portman is asked what she thinks of afterlife, she said:-

"I don't believe in that. I believe this is it, and I believe it's the best way to live."

That exactly brings out the message of life. This is it. Live it, or live in lies. Commit, or spend most of your life dealing with 'reasons' of your non-committal attitude, especially after you promised something, whether formally or informally.

How much are you willing to commit to the words you utter out of your very own mouth? "I will come" but then you did not show up. Not even a message to clarify before that? For me, the acceptable time is to tell me at least one hour earlier, best if two hours earlier. Sorry, something's coming up and I might be late. How late? Be honest.

When you try to save face by being courteous: Oh no no no, just a few minutes late, and you turn up an hour late, guess what will happen. Well, most of the times nothing will happen. It just happens that you lost the trust of whoever that is at the receiving end that he/she will just 'assume' you won't have it serious the next time.

This, turns out to be really irresponsible. However if you were to speak on the enlightenment level, you are messing yourself up by living in your mind. Your own reasons. Your own expectations and cover-ups for the socially defined misbehavior. Who's gonna lose? Nobody nobody but you.

Natalie Portman had it right. This is it, this is the only life you are going to live. Commit, or die in vain. Living means committing.

Don't give reasons. Don't explain. If you just can't show up or don't want to, tell me that you won't. There's nothing to hide, nothing so hard after all. Be brave, be yourself, be a man. Face yourself, face your own life with the commitment that, this is the one and only life you are going to live.

p/s: Although I am being cool here, I realized there's still a long way from fully committing. I was late in the past few occasion as well. For those who were disappointed by me, I am sorry, although that apology really does not mean anything at all. I am, on the other hand, observing myself more and more intensely and calmly. I am really sorry.

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Thursday, January 20, 2011

灰色的姑娘

突然間有一些靈感,沒有必要一定要寫出來,只是想寫。

發現,當你心裡離一個人越遠的時候,當你越靠近他,你會嘗試抑或費力地與他更親近,抱得更緊。嗯,這裡說的當然不限於情侶,雖然我的立場是從情侶那一點出發的。

那說回男女關係吧。始終覺得,一對男女,如果要舒舒服服過一輩子,有一種東西很重要,自然。當然,你會說,無論什麽都是的。但是我的出發點還是從男女關係,不好意思。

當照片里的一個緊擁對方而另一個在假笑,有時候你會懷疑,假笑那一個是因為不習慣鏡頭?還是心裡面還有另一些話無意間透露了出來?

也許你說,假笑那個心裡自己有分曉;我說,也許假笑那個心裡面連自己要什麽都不知道。

我知道,你的影子還有一部份殘留在我心裡某個奇怪的部位里,讓我莫名其妙的找到的時候,有一種若有所失的感覺。

雖然不曾真的走在一起,心裡雖然還是嫉妒,我還是想祝福你真的找到自己,然後才在愛情里燃燒。如果你問我,有沒有一首歌可以闡述我不攜任何消息離去的理由或是心情,我說有。就是Yellowcard的Grey. 想起來,那個地方的旅行原來是那麼一回事,我有一點悻悻然,可是我還是覺得我不該如此看你。你一直來都是我那視野里遙遠難及、孤獨傲慢的天使。

或許,你不是天使。你是我心裡永遠都塗上了灰色的姑娘。


I know every last regret inside of me is my own
The way I hold them close has made me be this way
I will never change
I know I'm stuck here on my own, my own

Given one more try
I don't know if I would stay
I feel so much better now
Where did we go wrong
I know you still hold on to me
But it's time that you let go
I gave you things I had
That I could not get back again
But I'm better off alone




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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

English, Overwhelming

I was told to write something about English, maybe from a Malaysian point of view. I think for a while and I start to run my life on film, and try to play it slow whenever I sense “English” sneaking around. But then after doing that for like 5 minutes, I can’t help wondering why I have this ‘hatred’. I mean, I actually hate English and at the same time I love it. Well, the notorious “love-hate relationship”.

Then I sit down, a little bit perplexed. I mean, since when did this feeling festers in me and yet I discover none of its evil intention?

Then it hit me. The English language, the most popular language in the world, actually is the medium of “information overload” in my life.

The news, map, travel guide, Facebook, movies, music, user guide, nutrition facts, formal letters, subtitles, phones, emails, advertisement…name a few yourself. Yes, even the programming language is in English. You can say you use Chinese most of the time, but face it. When you go technical you go English. When you key in the URL you use English.

And this actually saddens me. Yes, if Russian is the most widely used language then maybe I will hate Russian now but what saddens me is actually the extreme information overload on us, this generation, this era. And you are right, there are a lot more information to come, increasing exponentially each day.

You might want to say, that isn’t so bad. But read this: “US Military Faced with Deadly Consequences of "Information Overload". I am not joking. We grow up with the awe of the proliferation of information but it is little known that actually information outgrows us by folds in the process. Or you know that, but you sort of went ignorant. And this, I think, might well be the cause of the phenomena which teenagers nowadays seem to be skilled at: Shut off. You go blah-blah-blah, and I don’t like it, so you are muted. My attention shifts to the next thing. You are not worth my time. I am sorry. Too much information.

The language which grows alongside the exploding rate of information is of course the most popular tongue, and that crown goes to English. I did observe some interesting stuff:-

a) An increasing amount of swearing on the net by ‘English’ users each day;

b) More and more comments are made in ‘Shut off’ mode;

c) English is transforming each day, going from its noble and artistic status back in the 80s to a conglomerate of modern, simple and “multi-cultural” expressions pieced together.

While we are being overwhelmed by information, I guess on the other hand, English is being overwhelmed too, by the constant dynamic atmosphere made feasible through technology. Editors of Webster’s Dictionary said that there is an average of 25,000 words added to the language itself every year but Global Language Monitor actually announced in June 2009 that amount of words in English surpassed the 1 million words threshold. This is crazy. If you haven’t quite noticed it, the language structure of English on the web is changing too. English users today tend to use longer sentence comparing to shorter sentence structure in the last century. Some journalists even love to saturate their articles with lots of unheard of vocabulary in daily life. Well I would say that, if there are more than 1 million choices, it wouldn’t be that hard to pull that off though.

Technology certainly alter the way human live but now it has come to the point of information overload which human brains could not take it anymore, I foresee there would be a lot of paradigm shifts in almost every aspect you can think of, that of education, organization of information etc. But then, a paradigm shift too for English? I never thought of that until now. What will happen when English vocabulary breaks the 2 million threshold? By that time, I really don’t know what to tell my kids to motivate them to learn English.

Face it, the amount of knowledge we are ‘supposed’ to learn is increasing each day. What is necessary and what is not? And why should I learn ‘valetudinarian’ instead of “hypochondriac”?

Man, what a lame reason to hate English. Sorry English, for I have sinned.


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