Germanicus
05-05-2014, 10:46 AM
- Johanna von der Morgenroethe - Foreigners have been coming to China for all kinds of reasons. My personal passion for China can be traced back to 2007 when I started my Sinology studies at Vienna University. It was not the 中国崛起 or the economic boom after the Reform and Opening that caught my attention and made me spend years studying Chinese language, history and politics. Nor was it the affection for dynastic China, its luxury and cultural achievements. It was the period of Republican China and the role, which intellectuals and academics played in shaping a new nation. The achievements of The May Fourth Movement and The New Culture Movement, the courage that Chinese intellectuals showed in confronting their own past and values, not afraid to question them laid the foundation for a new China. They felt frustrated and desperate, but didn’t lose hope.
Living as a foreigner in China, one cannot prevent searching for differences and parallels between China and one’s own country. After the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated, leaving Austria as a new nation in political instability. As in China, Austrian academics, intellectuals and writers like Joseph Roth or Robert Musil played an important role in making the past and the course of history comprehensible. Even if their modest task was to observe and write down the fates of single common people struggling with the challenges history imposed on them, up until now, their thoughts and visions enable us to see the world through their eyes. Often, these fates are the fates of young people, as they are facing a world and society they are just beginning to become part of. Like in Ba Jin’s novel The Family:
一种新的感情渐渐地抓住了他，他不知道究竟是快乐还是悲伤。但是他清清楚楚地知道他离开家了。他的眼前是连 接不断的绿水。这水只是不停地向前面流去，它会 把他载到一个未知的大城市去。在那里新的一切正在生长。那里有一个新的运动，有广大的群众，还有他的几个通 过信而未见面的热情的年轻朋友。
这水，这可祝福的水啊，它会把他从住了十八年的家带到未知的城市和未知的人群中间去。他这样想着，前面的幻 景迷了他的眼睛，使他再没有时间去悲惜被他抛在后面的过去十八年的生活了。他最后一次把眼睛掉向后面看，他 轻轻地说了一声“再见”，仍旧回过头去看永远向前流去没有一刻停留的绿水了。人的身体可以被囚禁，人的心却 不可以。
In China, intellectuals like Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shih, Guo Moruo, Ba Jin, Lao She and many more acted as advocates of humanism and reason in times of instability and disorientation. Their starting point was the demands of the common people. For this, they accepted personal difficulties and a troubled life. Lu Xun, for example, decided to give up his studies in medicine to examine the soul of the Chinese Nation. The Chinese Youth Day is also a day to commemorate the endless energy and hope, these people gathered in order to realize their visions. We are all children of our time, but the time we are living in may be also a product of our visions and thoughts.
May Fourth is also the School Celebration of Peking University. The fact that president Xi Jinping joined the celebrations today (and shook my hand!) highlights the important role Peking University has been playing in the history of modern China. I hope that Chinese academics and young students will become more aware of the responsibilities they have. I hope that young students and intellectuals at Peking University will have the courage, hope and energy to contribute to the development of China. I hope that they will express their opinions with a voice as loud and with full conviction, just like they recited poems at the celebration today. I hope, they spend more time reading all kinds of books and less time preparing for the 公务员考试.Why? Because: 人的身体可以被囚禁，人的心却不可以。
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-1354694-17760.html
Sigh.
Hey dont you guys think that the west needs a New Culture Movement?
Living as a foreigner in China, one cannot prevent searching for differences and parallels between China and one’s own country. After the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated, leaving Austria as a new nation in political instability. As in China, Austrian academics, intellectuals and writers like Joseph Roth or Robert Musil played an important role in making the past and the course of history comprehensible. Even if their modest task was to observe and write down the fates of single common people struggling with the challenges history imposed on them, up until now, their thoughts and visions enable us to see the world through their eyes. Often, these fates are the fates of young people, as they are facing a world and society they are just beginning to become part of. Like in Ba Jin’s novel The Family:
一种新的感情渐渐地抓住了他，他不知道究竟是快乐还是悲伤。但是他清清楚楚地知道他离开家了。他的眼前是连 接不断的绿水。这水只是不停地向前面流去，它会 把他载到一个未知的大城市去。在那里新的一切正在生长。那里有一个新的运动，有广大的群众，还有他的几个通 过信而未见面的热情的年轻朋友。
这水，这可祝福的水啊，它会把他从住了十八年的家带到未知的城市和未知的人群中间去。他这样想着，前面的幻 景迷了他的眼睛，使他再没有时间去悲惜被他抛在后面的过去十八年的生活了。他最后一次把眼睛掉向后面看，他 轻轻地说了一声“再见”，仍旧回过头去看永远向前流去没有一刻停留的绿水了。人的身体可以被囚禁，人的心却 不可以。
In China, intellectuals like Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shih, Guo Moruo, Ba Jin, Lao She and many more acted as advocates of humanism and reason in times of instability and disorientation. Their starting point was the demands of the common people. For this, they accepted personal difficulties and a troubled life. Lu Xun, for example, decided to give up his studies in medicine to examine the soul of the Chinese Nation. The Chinese Youth Day is also a day to commemorate the endless energy and hope, these people gathered in order to realize their visions. We are all children of our time, but the time we are living in may be also a product of our visions and thoughts.
May Fourth is also the School Celebration of Peking University. The fact that president Xi Jinping joined the celebrations today (and shook my hand!) highlights the important role Peking University has been playing in the history of modern China. I hope that Chinese academics and young students will become more aware of the responsibilities they have. I hope that young students and intellectuals at Peking University will have the courage, hope and energy to contribute to the development of China. I hope that they will express their opinions with a voice as loud and with full conviction, just like they recited poems at the celebration today. I hope, they spend more time reading all kinds of books and less time preparing for the 公务员考试.Why? Because: 人的身体可以被囚禁，人的心却不可以。
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-1354694-17760.html
Sigh.
Hey dont you guys think that the west needs a New Culture Movement?