Author: 胡翌霖

[Reprint] Zhou Ruixuan: Lovers of wisdom, the things you don’t know — A note on Hu Yilin, a doctoral student in the Department of Philosophy, Class of 2010

Life & Notes2012.09.18
[Reprint] Zhou Ruixuan: Lovers of wisdom, the things you don’t know — A note on Hu Yilin, a doctoral student in the Department of Philosophy, Class of 2010
Note: The author is a girl I met back then when I was a TA for the “What Is Science?” course, and of course I was very honored to accept the interview. This should count as the first time I was written into an interview article, though of course one can still find an interview from when I was in middle school, as the “Dong Gezhi Star,” but that interview was fake; what I said was made up. This piece, however, really was the product of an actual conversation, and the author also used a lot of material from my blog. She showed it to me before publication, so it…
philosophy China autobiography Peking University
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2012年9月18日
A Philosophy of Cinema, Not a Philosophy About Cinema—Reading Technics and Time 3: The Problem of Cinema’s Time and the Pain of Existence

Phenomenology & Heidegger2012.09.17
A Philosophy of Cinema, Not a Philosophy About Cinema—Reading Technics and Time 3: The Problem of Cinema’s Time and the Pain of Existence
From robber to Pompidou director, the legendary Bernard Stiegler is also the hottest figure in French philosophy today after Derrida. All three volumes of his magnum opus Technics and Time have already been introduced into China by Yilin Press. Although this third volume was written after the first two, it can also be read independently; the author himself notes that, in a certain sense, this volume can serve as the “best introduction” to the first two. Compared with the subtitles of the first two volumes — The Fault of Epimetheus and Disorientation — the subtitle of the newly published third volume, The Time of Cinema and the Problem of the…
book reading technology media phenomenology
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2012年9月17日
On the Diaoyu Islands

Culture & Public Commentary2012.09.14
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….
culture China commentary state
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2012年9月14日
Media and Morality

Philosophy & Thought2012.08.29
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…
philosophy technology media value
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2012年8月29日
Olympiad Math: The Side Road to the Gaokao

Culture & Public Commentary2012.08.23
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…
culture China commentary education
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2012年8月23日
The Shameful Greek Spirit

Culture & Public Commentary2012.08.14
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…
China freedom autobiography pursuit
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2012年8月14日
The Whole-Nation System and the Pursuit of Excellence

Culture & Public Commentary2012.08.03
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…
culture commentary education pursuit
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2012年8月3日
Solving Problems and Institutional Reform

Culture & Public Commentary2012.07.28
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…
philosophy culture China history of science
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2012年7月28日
Disasters and Despotism

Culture & Public Commentary2012.07.26
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…
culture China politics democracy
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2012年7月26日
Chopsticks and Internet Addiction

AI & the Future of Technology2012.07.23
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…
technology media internet pursuit
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2012年7月23日