Suixuan

Year: 2012

  • On the Diaoyu Islands

    Culture & Public Commentary

    On the Diaoyu Islands

    Recently the internet has been filled with cries for killing and slaughter, with rancor spilling everywhere; it’s heartbreaking to watch, and I can’t help but state my own position as well. First, I have always clearly leaned toward the “traitor to the nation” camp. I do not think that so-called “sovereignty” is anything particularly important, especially “territory.” Unless it is a place like Qufu, which is indeed a cultural or religious shrine, territory is nothing “sacred” at all. The foundation of a country is its people; land without people is at most just some property, and in diplomacy it is a bargaining chip in a game of strategy, nothing more….

    Chinaculturecommentarystate
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  • Media and Morality

    Philosophy & Thought

    Media and Morality

    In the previous article, I said I wanted to make a transition from one thing to another; in fact, I only wrote half of it. I had originally planned to move from the Olympics to media, but the Olympics piece ended up being about the right length, and the latter half was a bigger theme. So let me pick it up again now. At the time I mentioned that, although on the one hand we were paying attention to the reeducation-through-labor case and satirizing politics, on the other hand we were also thrilled by the Olympics’ gold-medal contest. That is not a contradiction, much less something shameful. Recently I reposted…

    philosophytechnologymediavalue
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  • Olympiad Math: The Side Road to the Gaokao

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Olympiad Math: The Side Road to the Gaokao

    After talking about the Olympics, I wanted to talk about Olympiad mathematics. Today I happened to see a report again, so I might as well write down a few thoughts. When I was talking about the Olympics, I was also reflecting on myself: is my enthusiastic support for the Olympics related to my own Olympiad-math experience? The answer is yes. When I have recalled my growing-up years, I have also mentioned many times how important Olympiad mathematics was to me. My experience with Olympiad math not only helped me get into school on recommendation all the way, but, more importantly, gave me the exhilaration of peering into truth and the…

    Chinaculturecommentaryeducation
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  • The Shameful Greek Spirit

    Culture & Public Commentary

    The Shameful Greek Spirit

    The London Olympics are over, and I should also turn my jet lag back to the timezone of my graduation thesis. This essay can count as a bridge between what came before and what comes after~ Let me give a heads-up first: this should be a fairly loose, freewheeling conversation, not entirely centered on the title. During the Olympics there were obviously two kinds of people on Weibo: those watching the Olympics, and those not watching the Olympics. Among the latter were a considerable number of people who were either cursing the Olympics or using the Olympics as a pretext to curse the system. Basically speaking, the left in China…

    Chinafreedomautobiographypursuit
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  • The Whole-Nation System and the Pursuit of Excellence

    Culture & Public Commentary

    The Whole-Nation System and the Pursuit of Excellence

    At Olympic season, it feels awkward not to talk about the Olympics; but four years ago, in “Four Takes on the Olympics”, I already said more than enough, and for the moment I don’t particularly feel like rewriting anything. As for the recent badminton match-fixing-through-passivity incident, I’ve said quite a lot about it on Weibo. First of all, this match was of course disgraceful; the question is whose disgrace it was. Obviously not the athletes’—the athletes were simply trying to adopt the best possible strategy for eventual victory, which is perfectly understandable. The first to be embarrassed is the International Badminton Federation’s bullshit rule: setting up such a weird rule…

    culturecommentaryeducationpursuit
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  • Solving Problems and Institutional Reform

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Solving Problems and Institutional Reform

    The previous article mentioned that a despotic system constantly needs imminent crises to overcome, with hatred and struggle as its basic posture. Of course, a democratic system too must keep solving immediate problems; “solving problems” is the normal state of governance. However, the basic paradigms for solving problems differ under different systems. This is not merely a matter of keeping pace with the times or adapting measures to local conditions—for example, Chinese people solving China’s special problems, Americans solving America’s problems, and so on. The difference in paradigms is not limited to that kind of distinction; it also includes differences in standards of judgment, such as what counts as a…

    philosophyChinaculturehistory of science
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  • Disasters and Despotism

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Disasters and Despotism

    A few days ago Beijing was hit by torrential rain. Unfortunately, I had just returned to Shanghai and missed this rare spectacle. Once a rainstorm turns into a disaster, there is inevitably all sorts of praise for skillful command and unity of purpose, and then a call for donations appears, something we have long since grown accustomed to. Calls for donations are of course met with a flood of abuse online, but the reality is that they will still work. Setting aside the many uninformed people who are only too happy to donate, just think of how much can be wrung out by those “progressive” Party-state organs, enterprises, and schools…

    Chinaculturepoliticsdemocracy
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  • Chopsticks and Internet Addiction

    AI & the Future of Technology

    Chopsticks and Internet Addiction

    A few days ago I ate two Western meals, using knife and fork, and thinking of chopsticks; I always felt that something was missing, and I was also very unaccustomed to it. So, am I addicted to chopsticks? Is a life in which one depends on chopsticks every day a kind of obsession? This way of putting it seems a bit absurd; I’m afraid no one would seriously reflect on a symptom like “chopstick addiction.” Besides chopsticks, there are things like showers, flush toilets, and so on: many things in our lives on which we depend even more, and without which we feel uncomfortable all over. They are fully embedded…

    technologymediainternetpursuit
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  • My Book-Writing Plan

    Life & Notes

    My Book-Writing Plan

    Yesterday, at a dinner gathering, we happened to mention publishing books. I heard that in some places one book counts for the equivalent of three papers; in others it counts for nothing at all. But in any case, it can at least be regarded as one kind of achievement. For me, perhaps writing three books would be easier than publishing ten papers, so if writing books could also earn me some credit, that would be a good thing. Of course, I am indeed willing to write books, and not only for the sake of credit. Although, in my view, philosophical texts in the pre-network era may have been mainly in…

    everyday lifescholarshipmediablog
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  • Youth and Politics

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Youth and Politics

    Today Huanqiu Times published a good commentary, “Young Students Should Not Be Encouraged to Rush to the Front Line of Conflict,” which says: Middle school students are minors. Their minds are not yet mature enough, but they are full of enthusiasm and highly sensitive. They have few worries and little social pressure, so they fear nothing and have strong explosive force and impact. They have no clear political interests to demand, nor any stable beliefs, so they are easily pushed along by adults, either becoming an expression of the correct social psychology or being led in the wrong direction. Since the founding of New China, the most striking eruption of…

    Chinaculturecommentaryeducation
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