1, Nowadays, China is trapped in a collective spiritual vacuum. Like some scholars have said, after reform and open up, and along with the development of market economy, China has gone through some predicted social tides like liberation of individuality, pragmatism, liberalism and nihilism. Its influence is wide and profound and it is hard to evaluate.
1, 如今，中国也正在陷入这种集体性的精神虚无的困境。如一些学者所说，改革开放之后，中国经历了个性解放、实用主义、自由主义、虚无主义等市场经济发展之下必然产生社会思潮，其影响之广泛和深刻，难以评估。
2, More multi-dimensional mindsets have started to appear on the Internet, in schools, media and academia. Leftists advocate in the park and calling for the return to Mao’s era. Rightists gather on the Internet and criticize the government and the country. Descendents of previous emperors calling for constitutional monarchy. Some people even propose China to become a federal country. They all have strong wills to express themselves, but they have different motivations, directions and demands; and some of them contradict each other. Some of the radical remarks even go to extreme. Some of them don’t want to seriously study China’s political, economical and cultural development and they go beyond reality and become insane.
2, 更为多元的形形色色的思潮在网络、学校、传媒、学界出现，左派在公园向群众演讲呼吁回到毛泽东年代，右派在网络扎堆批评政府和国家，爱新觉罗的后代在以家族民意呼吁恢复君主立宪，也有人提议中国要成为一个由数十个各省联邦组成的国家。他们都有强烈的诉求表达，但动机各异、方向不同、要求不一、彼此对立。一些激进的言论甚至走向极端，由于不愿认真深刻地研究中国的政治、经济、文化发展规律，超越了现实，陷入了病态。
3, The mainstream national ideology is not as powerful as it was three decades ago, from the idealism in 1949 to pragmatism in 1978 to today’s “nothing-ism”. And it can’t really get most people’s acknowledgement from people outside of the system. To continue developing or keeping its momentum China increasingly needs to rely on its economic power rather than ideological power. The multi-dimensional social thoughts under market economy is like a double-edge sword. They support China’s development, but they also divide China up -- this political, economical, cultural, moral or even faith community.
3, 而作为主流的国家意识形态不再像三十年前那样强势，他从1949年的理想主义到1978年实用主义再到现在的“没有主义”，而且并非能得到除体制之外的绝大多数人的认同。中国要继续发展或保持现有实力的动力正在越来越依赖经济力量而非意识形态的力量。市场经济下的多元化的社会思潮，犹如一把双刃剑，既支持了中国的发展，又在分化着中国——这个政治、经济、文化、伦理、信仰的共同体乃至命运的共同体。
姚洋：中国政府改革的动力在何处？
Yao Yang is the director of Peking University’s National School of Development, and China Economics Study Center
1, It is not that the Chinese government doesn’t have its own motivation of interest - legitimacy is one of the interests it pursuits. However, there are many ways to maintain its legitimacy. The simplest way is to forge alliance with the most powerful group in the society and suppress those who oppose them with force. Many national governments use this method and eventually they make the economy a huge mess.
1, 中国政府并非没有自身利益，合法性就是它所追求的利益之一。可是维护合法性有很多办法，最简单的办法就是跟社会中最强势的利益集团结盟，用强力来镇压反对力量。很多国家政府都采用这种办法，最后把经济搞得一塌糊涂。
2, Mao Zedong once said that China could contribute much more to the world. The contribution is not only economical but also soft power. Politicians are often trapped in their daily work and can’t engage in this endeavor, therefore scholars should shoulder this responsibility. Currently there are many scholars who like to criticize the system, but there are very few people who could positively reflect on themselves. We are also trapped by the fights between leftists and rightists. Some people become extremely leftist; some people become extremely rightist. The extreme leftists always stress on old-fashioned things; and the extreme rightists say we need to be completely Westernized.
毛泽东说 “中国可以为世界做出更大的贡献”，它不仅仅是经济上的，也要有思想上的。政治家被日常工作所左右，做不了这件事，学者就应当承担起这个责任。现在批判制度的学者有很多，但是能正面总结自己的人太少了。我们被左右之争所绑架，有些人变成极左，有些人变成极右，极左的老强调一些过时的东西，极右的人就强调我们要向西方全盘西化。
3, I am first and foremost a nationalist, then a liberalist, and then a socialist. This is the order I give to myself. Though Americans cry for freedom and democracy everyday, but under the table they always say “the US is the priority”. They will never say they will first think of China. The president of US has clearly said that the “interest of the US is his first interest”.
3, 我首先是一个民族主义者，其次是一个自由主义者，再次是一个社会主义者，这是我的排序。别看美国人天天叫喊自由、民主，他们私下讲话都是“美国第一”，绝对不会说优先考虑中国，美国总统明确说“美国的利益是他的第一利益”。
4, However, many people in China don’t understand this. They think the supreme state should be the American “freedom and democracy”, which is wrong. For Americans, their first interest is American interest, and then there is freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy is but a flag to suppress others. I often go to the US to attend meetings on International Relations. From the speeches given you can feel their nationalism very clearly. Every American, particularly the elitists, deep down are nationlists. They always speak on their national stance. Not only this, American elitists also feel that they are higher on the moral stance. They always speak on top of Chinese people, which is very disgusting. The whole world is in the structure of big fish eating small fish. We need to talk about internationalism only when the whole world is equal. Obama has clearly said that the US can’t be the second. But China doesn’t want to be number 3 all the time. The Chinese nation is a very ambitious nation with two thousand years of history. Haven’t Americans realized that Chinese people have ambitions?
4, 但是国内很多人不明白这一点，以为美国人的“自由、民主”就是他的最高境界，这是错误的，第一位的是美国利益，其次才是自由、民主。自由民主只不过是一面旗，可以被用来压别人的。我经常去开国际关系的会，听会上的美国人发言，明显能感觉到他们的民族主义情绪。每个美国人尤其是精英分子骨子里都是民族主义者，要站在本国立场说话。
不仅如此，美国精英还觉得在道德上要高别人一等。他们永远是站在中国人的上面说话，这是极其恶心的。整个世界是大鱼吃小鱼的格局，我们要等到世界大同的那一天再来谈国际主义。奥巴马明确说美国不能做第二，可是中国也不想做老三啊!中华民族是一个有抱负的民族，两千多年的文明，难道美国人没有意识到中国人有这个抱负吗?
5, This is the American patriotism and nationalism, which is not less intense than the Chinese. It is just that there are problems in Chinese education. It didn’t make nationalism and patriotism part of people’s characteristics, which is our problem.
5, 这是美国的爱国主义、民族主义，它并不比中国弱。只是中国的教育出了问题，它没有把民族主义、爱国主义变成人民性格的一部分，这是我们的问题。
By Yu Ge, a writer and blogger
1, The biggest harm of chicken soup is that on the name of comforting, it teaches people to avoid, tolerate, self-deceive and self-numb. Taking account of this shadow, its function of encouragement is close to zero. This is actually a very familiar way of self-deception. First you admit the legitimacy of reality. Even if it is not as justified, people don’t feel motivated to change the situation because they are intoxicated by chicken soup. They are hypnotized. in their delusion they are alienated from reality. They only want to be the master in the illusional heart and don’t care that they are actually seriously enslaved by reality. This kind of chicken soup is really hormones for the cynics and good medicine for harmony control.
1, 心灵鸡汤的最大毒害正在于此，它以抚慰之名，教人退避，教人忍耐，教人自欺，教人麻痹，在此阴影之下，其激励作用几可忽略不计。说起来，这是一种我们再也熟悉不过的精神胜利法：首先在于承认现实的合理性，其次，纵使现实不够合理，受众却无力进取，他们已经为鸡汤所沉醉，所催眠，在幻觉之中，内心从现实叛离，割据称王，他们只要做心灵王国的主人，而不会在乎自己陷入了现实的重重奴役。这样的心灵鸡汤，堪称犬儒之激素，维稳之良药。
2, A good example is how Yu Dan (a famous TV host) teaches people how to deal with smog, not to fight, but to avoid: close doors and windows so smog won’t come into your house; turn on air purifier so smog won’t come into your lungs too much. If these don’t work, protect yourself emotionally, don’t let smog come into your heart. Even though she admits the damage of smog, she also justifies the existence of smog. This kind of comforting is like drug. It is a spiritual smog, or even worse than smog.
再如于丹教育国人怎么应对雾霾，不是抗争，而是逃避：“关上门窗，尽量不让雾霾进到家里;打开空气净化器，尽量不让雾霾进到肺里;如果这都没用了，就只有凭自己的精神防护，不让雾霾进到心里。”她固然承认了雾霾的危害，却也证成了雾霾的合理。这样的抚慰，形同麻醉，简直是一种精神雾霾，甚至比雾霾还要可怕。
Book review of Chen Jian’s Documentation of China’s Family Planning Revolution
Written by Deng Yuwen, deputy editor of Party School’s newspaper Study Times, and researcher of Tianda Research Institute in Hong Kong
1, This book wants to tell us how the decision of family planning revolution was made. How come a well-meaning public policy became the target of public criticism? What are the prices of the family planning revolution? What kind of pain it has brought to everyone, the whole country and nation? Where does our happy life today come from? Is it from family planning or reform and open up? In the end it concludes that we must quickly adjust family planning policy and completely open up to more second birth.
1, 本书要告诉我们的是，生育革命的决策是怎么做出的，为什么一个出发点良善的公共政策到最后成为千夫所指?生育革命的代价是什么，它带给每个人、整个国家和民族哪些伤痛?我们今天的幸福生活是靠什么来的，是计划生育带来的，还是改革开放带来的?这一切最后落脚到必须尽快调整计生政策，全面放开生育二胎的建议上来。
2, Once a ruling party has almost used up all of its resources for the legitimacy of a revolution, if they can’t provide new legitimacy in other aspects, mainly in economical or life aspects, they will face the crisis of legitimacy, which is the reality the Chinese Communist Party faced after the Cultural Revolution. They felt an urgency in the economical sense, therefore they ruthlessly chose the “foreign leap forward” plan. At that time they thought that to quickly increase the living standard of its people, while seriously trying to develop economy, they also needed to control population growth and bring the number of population down.
2, 一个革命政党在耗尽革命的合法性资源后，如果不能在其他方面，主要是经济和民生方面尽快弥补和提供新的合法性，它就会遭遇合法性危机，而这正是中共在文革之后面临的现实。文革结束后，中共在发展经济上有一种急迫感，由此才会饥不择食地提出“洋跃进”计划。当时的认识是，要迅速地提高民众的生活水平，在大力发展经济的同时，必须抑制人口增长，将过多的人口降下来。
3, A public policy could only proceed smoothly if it wins the understanding and support of the people. Otherwise it could only be carried out by force and violence. Many public policies were like this and the family planning policy was not an exception.
3, 一项公共政策只有在得到民众的理解和支持下，才能顺利推进，否则就只能依靠强制和暴力，很多不好的公共政策都是这样。生育政策也不例外。
4, Therefore, the book believes that in general, the overall effects of the family planning policy are negative. If there was not this revolutionary change because of this family planning policy, and if they continued the policy of “later and fewer birth”, under the big backdrop of reform and open up, the quality of birth by Chinese women, the age structure of the birth population, the age structure of the general population, the gender structure and aging situation would be much more balanced than the current state. And we could have avoided the extreme tragic prices we have paid.
对此，本书分析认为，就总体效益进行评估，很有可能是地道的负效益。也即如果没有生育政策革命性改变的话，继续推行原有的“晚稀少”政策，且在改革开放这个大背景下，中国妇女的生育水平，出生人口的年龄结构，总人口的年龄结构、性别结构，人口老龄化程度等诸多指标，都会比现在更为合理，人口年龄结构、性别结构都会比现在更为平衡，人口总量也会比现在更少，另外还不需要付出极其惨重的代价。
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