Today's NYT newsletter discusses social media platforms' identity crisis-Facebook and Instagram in decline, TikTok under political scrutiny. Already polarized, Twitter may become an even harsher place if and after the deal closes.
On China's social media, some users refuse to desert despite central and mob censorship, for they believe that they can't give up their voice and leave the microphone to the villains. But, can we keep on fighting this fight, if it seems no worth?
刚刚读到一个有意思的评论。来不及细看或细想。先留在这里。 是对这篇文章的回复:http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/national-rejuvenation-or-chinese-fascism/ 作者自称Greg,来自Boston。以下引用他的评论: This is a rather simplistic report for such a large topic.
It has been often said that China is a civilization pretending to be a nation. The Chinese civilization historically was more culture based, not race or ethnicity based. The so-called Han, is really a mixed race blended by thousands of years' migration, melting and wars. The people originated in Guangdong, one could argue, is much closer to Vietnamese racially than to people in Northeast.
The Chinese nationalism, in the western sense of the world, was really started to forge since the invasion and aggression from the western powers in the nineteenth century, and had finally completed during the Anti-Japanese War during WWII. It is therefore fair to say, the Chinese nationalism is rooted in the defensive reaction, a far cry from the aggressive nationalism originated in the west/Europe based on competition for national interest, colonialism and racism. In China, patriotism is a much more familiar term than nationalism - a lot of Chinese do not really understand the meaning of nationalism ("minzu zhuyi"). Often, these two terms might be mixed up by Chinese, and there is none of the shame or negative connotation associated with nationalism that European feel about it after WWII. The Chinese experience of the 19th and 20th centuries are so much different from that of Europe, it's almost led to confusion if people try to map their corresponding concepts and understanding to China. The national rejuvenation is a natural extension of Chinese nationalism/patriotism, whose goals were first to expel the foreign occupiers and aggressors from China, restore China's sovereign, and ultimate rejuvenate the Chinese civilization that had lost it's vitality over the last few hundred years. The Chinese Communist Party, despite its name, and Chinese Nationalist Party, are both originated from Lennist Party and were really the two sides of the same coin, one being the left end extreme and the other being the right extreme of the same nationalist movement in the early 20th century. The Chinese Communist Party would not exist and be supported by the mass had it not for its nationalist goals.
The reporter quotes from Wang Lixiong, who has always represented a tiny minority opinions among Chinese. It creates a wrong impression for western readers who are not familiar with the debate and discussion within China. It's like quoting Liu Xiaobo about the status of the Chinese political system or Gordon Chang about the status of Chinese economy.
Plus, can 17th police checkpoints be a strong evidence of the upcoming Chinese fascism? We don't need get into the discussion of Tibet to make our judegment.
刚才在微博上看了北京暴雨相关的微博。想起来这几天一直在想的事情。人性本恶吗?一个犯下滔天罪行的人,真的就是“demon inside”吗?除非你是持有古早的“文曲星下凡”的幻想,或者有今世来生或者造物主创世造人的宗教信仰,我不会与你争辩;除此之外,如果你真相信“all men are (created) equal”,又凭什么就认为有些人就是“罪恶”的呢?我被感动的那数条微博里,记录这一些冒着暴雨、不求报酬、开着私家车半夜去机场接人的人,那些人中,好多是强烈的“地方主义者”。什么意思?这些人极端认同自己的“北京土著”的身份,几乎到了严重排外的地步,他们中有些人在微博上长期、大范围、不留余地、不分情况的辱骂在京从业人员,以至于到了大多数人(默认全国范围内大多数人都是非北京人口)厌恶愤怒的地步。这些人,到底是善,还是恶呢?
Did you aim at questioning one person's behavior or at discussing a pressing phenomenon?
Were you aware that you were making constant, multiple times of legal accusation of one individual throughout a considerable length in a public fashion?
Did you do any fact check before making such accusation besides your own "observation?"
How certain were you that your accusation was correct? How certain are you now?
If not 100%, do you think that you should have made such a strong and constant accusation targeting one person?
You cited a message that was not directly linked to the incident last Saturday. Do you think that might reflect that you were biased before evaluating the incidence?
Were you aware that citing an irrelevant case might cause biased judgment among the message recipients?
Do you remain biased towards the person outside the soccer games? Specifically, do you consider him as a generally violent person, or one with violent tendency?
As the Committee member of the said person, do you agree that you are in the de facto higher level of the hierarchy in any possible interaction with him?
Do you agree that the power structure never really disappear, no mAtter how the context or scenario changes?
If so, do you think as a person with more power in this hierarchy, your accusation may cause unnecessary pressure and stress on the person?
Do you agree therefore you should be more cautious than making an ill-evidenced accusation, which may be a crime that breaches the said person's reputation, at the same time causing a conflict of interest?
Since you are constantly making moral and even legal judgment of the person without factual ground, how certain are you that such personal biases would not interfere with your role as influencing and evaluating the said person's academic performance?
I was thinking about some possible changes to the way of teaching 304 next semester. So I am writing myself a note. Here is the thought:
I will start to encourage my students to come up with their research questions in Week 1. Probably will provide them with some potential fields/areas, just to inspire their ideas.
Based on their interests, I will put them into groups, and assign them with research articles which investigate theories or phenomena in that specific field which they are interested in.
Each group will replicate the study in the assigned article with the rest of their classmates as participants. That means that in the first third of the semester there will be one day of lectures and one day of such activities every week.
In the second third, we will work on their original study ideas; and in the last third, we will analyze the data and report results.
This new plan demands me to teach really interactively: Class readings have to be prominent to students' respective interests; More thoughts will need to be put into class design beforehand; More effort will be needed to ensure the replication studies work out well, and that these studies better represent different kinds of research methods! I and my students have to work together very efficiently to complete all these tasks within 16 weeks! I will also have to think of a way to evaluate their performance and learning collectively and individually.
But by doing so, students will be able to learn by doing. I always believe that it is the best way of learning. More importantly, they get to work on things that really interest them from Day 1. I hope that they will find it enjoyable than a "traditional" method class.
I went to a dinner party at a friend's home last weekend, and met her five-year-old daughter for the first time.
Little Maya was all curly brown hair, doe-like dark eyes, and adorable in her shiny pink nightgown. I wanted to squeal, "Maya, you're so cute! Look at you! Turn around and model that pretty ruffled gown, you gorgeous thing!"
But I didn't. I squelched myself. As I always bite my tongue when I meet little girls, restraining myself from my first impulse, which is to tell them how darn cute/ pretty/ beautiful/ well-dressed/ well-manicured/ well-coiffed they are.
What's wrong with that? It's our culture's standard talking-to-little-girls icebreaker, isn't it? And why not give them a sincere compliment to boost their self-esteem? Because they are so darling I just want to burst when I meet them, honestly.
Hold that thought for just a moment.
This week ABC News reported that nearly half of all three- to six-year-old girls worry about being fat. In my book, Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World, I reveal that 15 to 18 percent of girls under 12 now wear mascara, eyeliner and lipstick regularly; eating disorders are up and self-esteem is down; and 25 percent of young American women would rather win America's Next Top Model than the Nobel Peace Prize. Even bright, successful college women say they'd rather be hot than smart. A Miami mom just died from cosmetic surgery, leaving behind two teenagers. This keeps happening, and it breaks my heart.
Teaching girls that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything. It sets them up for dieting at age 5 and foundation at age 11 and boob jobs at 17 and Botox at 23. As our cultural imperative for girls to be hot 24/7 has become the new normal, American women have become increasingly unhappy. What's missing? A life of meaning, a life of ideas and reading books and being valued for our thoughts and accomplishments.
That's why I force myself to talk to little girls as follows.
"Maya," I said, crouching down at her level, looking into her eyes, "very nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too," she said, in that trained, polite, talking-to-adults good girl voice.
"Hey, what are you reading?" I asked, a twinkle in my eyes. I love books. I'm nuts for them. I let that show.
Her eyes got bigger, and the practiced, polite facial expression gave way to genuine excitement over this topic. She paused, though, a little shy of me, a stranger.
"I LOVE books," I said. "Do you?"
Most kids do.
"YES," she said. "And I can read them all by myself now!"
"Wow, amazing!" I said. And it is, for a five-year-old. You go on with your bad self, Maya.
"What's your favorite book?" I asked.
"I'll go get it! Can I read it to you?"
Purplicious was Maya's pick and a new one to me, as Maya snuggled next to me on the sofa and proudly read aloud every word, about our heroine who loves pink but is tormented by a group of girls at school who only wear black. Alas, it was about girls and what they wore, and how their wardrobe choices defined their identities. But after Maya closed the final page, I steered the conversation to the deeper issues in the book: mean girls and peer pressure and not going along with the group. I told her my favorite color in the world is green, because I love nature, and she was down with that.
Not once did we discuss clothes or hair or bodies or who was pretty. It's surprising how hard it is to stay away from those topics with little girls, but I'm stubborn.
I told her that I'd just written a book, and that I hoped she'd write one too one day. She was fairly psyched about that idea. We were both sad when Maya had to go to bed, but I told her next time to choose another book and we'd read it and talk about it. Oops. That got her too amped up to sleep, and she came down from her bedroom a few times, all jazzed up.
So, one tiny bit of opposition to a culture that sends all the wrong messages to our girls. One tiny nudge towards valuing female brains. One brief moment of intentional role modeling. Will my few minutes with Maya change our multibillion dollar beauty industry, reality shows that demean women, our celebrity-manic culture? No. But I did change Maya's perspective for at least that evening.
Try this the next time you meet a little girl. She may be surprised and unsure at first, because few ask her about her mind, but be patient and stick with it. Ask her what she's reading. What does she like and dislike, and why? There are no wrong answers. You're just generating an intelligent conversation that respects her brain. For older girls, ask her about current events issues: pollution, wars, school budgets slashed. What bothers her out there in the world? How would she fix it if she had a magic wand? You may get some intriguing answers. Tell her about your ideas and accomplishments and your favorite books. Model for her what a thinking woman says and does.
Aversion to preachers is no aversion to religion, but to suffocating preaches with no room for objection or holding-back. The metaphor goes beyond those who believe in god: There are people all over the place preaching their belief(s) as if it is the only and the only worthwhile truth. However, good will does not always lead to good deed; best feast that lasts a week will surely stuff people to burst!