分类：Culture & Public Commentary

The Rationality of Whig History and the Possibility of an Anti-Whig Approach

Culture & Public Commentary2013.09.18
The Rationality of Whig History and the Possibility of an Anti-Whig Approach
In the first week of the Wendao seminar at Wu, junior brother Liu Renxiang, a promising new talent, took the initiative to give a talk on “The Poverty of Anti-Whiggish Historiography.” There were many discussions in class at the time, and I even went up to the podium to draw a diagram, but afterward I kept busy writing my travel notes on Mount Lu and preparing my own seminar report, so I never got around to writing anything down. Still, this topic is quite important, so I’m taking a little time now to add some thoughts. Just from the title of Liu Renxiang’s article, you can tell that the junior…
science history of science philosophy of science history
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2013年9月18日
Post-80s: The First Generation of Young People in an Age of Twilight

Culture & Public Commentary2013.05.18
Post-80s: The First Generation of Young People in an Age of Twilight
People’s Daily published an article, “Do Not Let Youth Be Stained by a Mannered Decline,” saying that the post-80s generation had aged overnight and become listless and dispirited. Of course, the internet quickly produced many rebuttals, but many of those rebuttals were in fact still echoing People’s Daily: yes, the post-80s are dispirited, but that is because the environment has forced them into it. Those rebuttals simply blamed the environment a bit more fiercely, that’s all. Those rebuttals missed the point entirely. The key question is: are the post-80s really dispirited? Are the ones who are truly dispirited really the post-80s? The pressure of the environment—this much even People’s Daily…
culture China commentary self
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2013年5月18日
The Paradox of Fairness—On Halting Ticket-Grabber Plugins

Culture & Public Commentary2013.01.19
The Paradox of Fairness—On Halting Ticket-Grabber Plugins
I had just seen in the afternoon that the Ministry of Railways said they would not, and in fact had no authority to, prohibit browser ticket-grabbing plugins, and I felt somewhat relieved. I never expected them to go find the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to ban them instead. I can only sigh. The reason for banning ticket-grabbing plugins sounds very high-minded: the plugins are indeed effective, but they are unfair to other passengers. Is that so? Indeed it is. A ticket is released and within a few dozen seconds it has been snatched up by ticket-grabbing software—what are the other passengers supposed to do? But the key issue…
culture China freedom commentary
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2013年1月19日
Contempt and Locality

Culture & Public Commentary2013.01.05
Contempt and Locality
This article had actually been ready to write half a year ago, or even earlier. It was during the Olympics, and I wrote a few articles in the form of “…and …”, including two bad-stub pieces; I only wrote down the title “Contempt and Locality” and never went on. Now, although I’d like to change it to a more provocative title—say, “Why Do We Contempt Migrant Workers?”—after thinking it over, I still decided not to go in for clickbait. At first I wanted to start from international contempt in the Olympics (for example, how Chinese people look at Koreans and Japanese). Recently, when I thought of rewriting it, I tried…
culture China value sociology
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2013年1月5日
Equality or Freedom: On the Question of Attending School Outside One’s Hometown

Culture & Public Commentary2012.12.17
Equality or Freedom: On the Question of Attending School Outside One’s Hometown
Recently, the case of the non-Shanghai girl Zhan Haiter has drawn a lot of attention, especially because it happened in Shanghai, so I can’t help but offer a few comments as well. Of course, I support Zhan Haiter’s struggle, and I support every citizen’s open expression of his or her demands; but as for the content of those demands, I do not support it. This matter involves too many questions, all tangled together, making an already complicated issue even more complicated. So first we need to break down the questions involved. There are two big issues: one is education, the other is regionality. It should be noted that the problem…
culture China freedom commentary
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2012年12月17日
On the Discussion of Intentional History and Actual History

Culture & Public Commentary2012.11.10
On the Discussion of Intentional History and Actual History
Recently the blog update has come almost to a standstill, mainly because three mountains are weighing on me: first, the discussion-group paper (which also doubles as a submission for the phenomenology and philosophy of technology conference, as well as part of the introduction to the doctoral dissertation); second, the plan to turn the blog posts into a book (*A History of Science and Culture*); and third, using WordPress to build the soon-to-be-relaunched website of the Center for History and Philosophy of Science. These things will probably all be finished within a week. Years of not updating have already caused my blog’s PR rating to drop…… Today, to celebrate my birthday,…
technology history of science media history
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2012年11月10日
On Elitism and Esoteric Truth

Culture & Public Commentary2012.10.18
On Elitism and Esoteric Truth
Today I went to sit in on the World Congress of Chinese Philosophers, took a look at some academic celebrities whose names I had only heard before, and was greatly disappointed. I’m too lazy to go again tomorrow. That Tang Yijie was unreliable I already knew; that Chen Lai was reliable I also already knew. But I didn’t know many of the other famous figures very well. After listening to one round today, basically the only one of any interest was Chen Lai; the others, such as Lin Yusheng, sounded academically fairly sound, but the reports themselves were a little dull. As for the much-vaunted Gan Yang and Liu Xiaofeng,…
philosophy culture China media
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2012年10月18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
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