Monday, April 27, 2015

news and commentaires, 2015.04.27


She did her PhD at Beijing Normal University from 1987 to 1990, major in ethnic studies.  She has been a professor of sociology at Tsinghua since 2000.

There is a part of a series of Building Civil Society interviews uploaded by social activist Laohumiao 老虎庙 on youtube in 2011:
Transcription of part of the 19-minute interview:
China’s situation is like this: the state power is very strong, the market is also very open, and basically the market economy is set up. But the special characteristics of China is that the relationship between the State and the market is very close. For a relatively normal or healthy society, there should be separation among the state, market and society - they should be three independent pillars. There should be compliment and balance among the three. However, over so many years I feel the space for society in China is very small. It is oppressed by power. And it is occupied by the combination of power and market. The society has never really grown. So we hope to look for the growing point during China’s transition time.

The myth of this system (communist ideology) is that this so-called “grand socialist ideal” and “beautiful communist blueprint” seems to have nothing to do with farmers. Let alone farmers, even most of the intellectuals can’t really acknowledge it. Except a few founders of the Communist Party, what does this has anything to do with most people? From this perspective, this set of ideology can’t be successful. However, in reality it has influenced many people. So many people struggle, sacrifice and contribute to it. Therefore it is worthwhile to study how come it has mobilized so many people and come into so many people’s hearts and minds and changed their lives and social relations, or even changed their spiritual worlds. This is what we need to understand and analyze.
这套体制让人着迷之处在于,所谓的"宏伟的社会理想"、"美好的共产主义蓝图"看上去跟农民没有任何关系,且不说农民,即使大多数知识分子可能也不认同它,除了少数中共创始人以外,大多数人跟它有什么关系?从这个角度来看,这套理念根本不可能成功,可是现实当中,它却影响了很多人,那么多人为它去奋斗、牺牲、奉献,如此就值得去研究它怎样动员那么多人,进入了那么多人的内心世界,改变了那么多人的生活、社会关系,甚至改变了他们的精神世界?这恰恰是我们所要去了解、分析的。

For example, for some contemporary labor research, some scholars blame neo-liberalism. they believe Chinese laborers are the worst in the world and the root of the problem is neoliberalist capital globalization. I would first like to ask, where is China’s liberalism? There is no liberalism in China, why do they criticize neo-liberalism? The origin of China’s labor problem is social inequality due to the power of the state. Of course there is influence from global capitalism, but it is not the direct reason. Looking all over the world, there is no other place where their capitalists could exploit their laborers like their Chinese counterparts. Besides, after being exploited, workers from other countries could fight back or strike, but could Chinese workers do this? Once there is strike it is going to be harmonized by the government. This is Chinese characteristics.
比如当代的劳工研究,一些学者将所有问题都推到新自由主义上,他们认为中国劳工是全世界最惨的,而问题的根源就是新自由主义思潮下的资本全球化,我想先问一句:中国的自由主义在哪?中国还没有自由主义,那他们批什么新自由主义?中国劳工问题的症结在于权力造成的社会不公正,资本全球化固然也有影响,但并非是直接因素,放眼全球,哪个国家的资方能像在中国这样欺负劳工,只有中国!另外,其他国家的工人在被欺负了以后会反抗、罢工,中国工人可以吗?一旦罢工就遭遇政府维稳,这就是中国特色。

Based on our understanding of the common sense, the “universal value” is the common value and civilization accumulated throughout the long history of human progress, generally includes liberty, democracy, science, human rights, rule of law, equality and fraternity. It is not difficult to understand for most people. To spell it out more, it is the value everyone needs and everyone likes. Some people could put it more extremely and says it is something even the thugs can’t deny publicly. Right, if it is something that even thugs acknowledges and abides by, do we still need to discuss it? Denouncing universal value basically means announcing: I am unreasonable.
按照常识性的理解,“普世价值”是指人类在长期的历史进程中形成的共同价值观和创造的文明成果,大体包括自由、民主、科学、人权、法制、平等、博爱等等理念;是些普通人都不难明白的道理,说白了就是人人都需要人人都喜欢的价值观,有人说得极端些,就是连流氓都不能公开否认的东西。是啊,流氓都得承认的理,强盗都得遵守的道,还用得着讨论么?否认普世价值基本上就是公开表明:我就是不讲理了。

Therefore, no matter how steady forwardly Chinese people strive to keep their “characteristics” and how strongly they object Western modernity and want to form their own modernity, therefore venturing a path that is superior to the West, to realize the great reunification of the Chinese nation, they can’t do this based against the principle of universal value. They also can’t object the mainstream of civilization, unless they are a bunch of thugs who don’t know what is right or wrong, what is black or white.
如此说来,无论中国人多么坚定地要保持自己的“特色”,多么强烈地反对西方现代性并要形成自己的现代性,进而走出一条优越于西方的发展道路、实现中华民族的伟大复兴,也不能以反对普世价值为宗旨,也不能背离人类文明的主流。除非我们根本就是苗草不分、黑白不明、是非不辨的一群.


This was the first time that the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Televi
sion issued a written warning to the liberal magazine, criticizing them for publishing several articles that were against the rules and regulations. General chief editor Mr. Yang Jisheng was also asked to leave the editorial board.

AP reports that there is 34% more civil servants resigned this year compared to the same period in last year. Spokesperson of Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security says there are some civil servants who have resigned but it is normal mobility of human resources.

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