标签：culture

A Casual Repost from Teacher Liu’s Blog on Agriculture, Industrial Civilization, and “Progress”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.09.08
A Casual Repost from Teacher Liu’s Blog on Agriculture, Industrial Civilization, and “Progress”
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/485ea8790100051y Failed Planting 2006-09-10 17:40:00 This year I had two failed planting attempts, one with corn and one with chayote. The seeds of both plants came from Yunnan. The corn grew well at first, but it was too luxuriant, and the plants grew too tall—some even reached 3.4 meters! There were also some stalks without ears, and some were even covered with black mold. The reason may have been inappropriate seed selection. The seeds came from Simao, Yunnan. There, they were not tall either, and not overly luxuriant, but once brought north they changed. My father says that usually seeds from the south, when planted in the north, become too…
culture science Liu Huajie progress
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2006年9月8日
On Patent and Copyright Protection

Culture & Public Commentary2006.09.07
On Patent and Copyright Protection
This was originally a comment in response to the blog http://mistgalaxie.blogspot.com/2006/09/gnu-gnu-gpl.html, but after posting several times I still couldn’t get it through; it kept prompting, “We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request. ” I don’t know why. Since I’ve already written so much, and it would be a waste not to post it, let me put it here for now: An appropriate system of patents and copyrights makes sense both from the standpoint of justice and from the standpoint of practicality. If a new technology developed by an institution through countless hours and immense effort were given no protection at all, and immediately turned into a public…
culture science economy innovation
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2006年9月7日
Revere Without Worshipping, Believe Without Reciting, Transmit Without Teaching

Culture & Public Commentary2006.09.07
Revere Without Worshipping, Believe Without Reciting, Transmit Without Teaching
“Revere Without Worshipping, Believe Without Dwelling on It, Pass On Without Teaching”
culture faith tradition Confucianism
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2006年9月7日
Spoofs, Media, and Random Reflections

Culture & Public Commentary2006.08.24
Spoofs, Media, and Random Reflections
The biggest advantage of being in Shanghai is being able to enjoy air conditioning; the second is being able, now and then, to watch the TV news. I just saw two news items that were rather interesting. One was the “first blog lawsuit in China,” saying that an associate professor at some university had sued Blogcn because, in a certain blog post, someone had insulted him and attacked him personally by name…… In fact it was just a little log entry of three to five hundred characters, with a title like “Rubbish Book, Rubbish Person” or something of the sort. It said: today there’s an exam, so hurry up and…
culture blog internet
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2006年8月24日
Better to Be a Hypocrite Than a Real Villain

Culture & Public Commentary2006.08.23
Better to Be a Hypocrite Than a Real Villain
The title is certainly not inverted. Those familiar with my consistent position, or those who have heard Yangzi’s history of Chinese philosophy, will not find this surprising. The phrase “Rather be a true villain than a hypocritical gentleman” is quite fashionable now; many people even quote it with the formulas “as the saying goes” and “there is a common saying.” What does it mean? The fact that this phrase has been enshrined as “common sense” reveals certain features of current fashion. “Hypocritical gentleman” is of course a pejorative term. If by hypocritical gentleman one means someone whose lips are honeyed but whose heart is a dagger, who acts one way…
culture human nature Confucianism virtue
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2006年8月23日
A Few Random Recollections of My Growing Up: An Interlude on My Hometown

Life & Notes2006.07.22
A Few Random Recollections of My Growing Up: An Interlude on My Hometown
——————————————（continued from the previous post）—————————— Speaking of what happened after I entered Jingdezhen No. 1 Middle School, I then left my old home and moved to live in Pudong. Before recalling my junior-high school years, I might as well review the various “homes” I have lived in (of course, mainly in order to write about that old home of mine, the one that left me with the deepest memories and has already passed forever out of this world). Since these recollections have nothing to do with my student life, they can stand alone as a separate piece: When I was born, we lived at 677 Renmin Road, in a place…
culture autobiography Chinese city
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2006年7月22日
The Spirit of Sport and Human Culture

Culture & Public Commentary2006.05.07
The Spirit of Sport and Human Culture
When I was little, I didn’t like sports. On the one hand, I was lazy and didn’t feel like moving; on the other, I thought sports were too “violent,” nowhere near as quiet and elegant as intellectual activities. As a child, I did like playing chess, but what I never really understood was—why does chess count as “sports” too? As I grew older, I gradually came to understand what sports and chess have in common, and I also came to feel more and more deeply the charm of sports. Sports are not merely “exercise,” and even less merely a kind of “violence.” They can stand alongside philosophy, science, religion, and…
philosophy culture religion art
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2006年5月7日
Plato’s Café

Life & Notes2006.04.16
Plato’s Café
Lately I’ve been haunting Plato Cafe quite often. It’s a newly opened cafe, next to Wan Sheng Bookstore, on the same floor as Bifengtang. This is a rather unusual coffee shop. To be honest, I’m really worried it won’t be able to stay open. I come here often precisely because of how empty it is—such a sharp contrast to the Bifengtang next door! What does it feel like to walk into Plato Cafe? Hmm… strange… really… it’s almost like a study room in a library! Besides the arrangement of the tables and chairs and the bright lighting, there’s even a whole wall of books here! There’s also…
everyday life culture Plato
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2006年4月16日
Education, Reform, and Egalitarianism

Culture & Public Commentary2006.04.13
Education, Reform, and Egalitarianism
A while ago, the presidents of Renmin University and other universities raised the issue that the government’s policies toward Peking University and Tsinghua University are too heavily tilted in their favor. The government’s preference for Peking University and Tsinghua is indeed very obvious, showing up not only in financial support but mainly in the enormous tilt of admissions policy. This tilt in admissions is especially evident in Shanghai’s college entrance examination system: in Shanghai, Peking University and Tsinghua are the so-called “zero-choice” option, separate from the other preferences, with applications first processed for the zero-choice option and only afterward allocated among the others. In other words, you might as well…
culture China education mathematics
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2006年4月13日
If you can’t live without it, can’t you rebel against it?

Culture & Public Commentary2006.04.10
If you can’t live without it, can’t you rebel against it?
Many people are very disdainful of the so-called “anti-science cultural figures.” There is a very simple piece of logic: those who are always shouting about opposing science are themselves enjoying technology, using computers to write articles, and in no way can they do without technology—so isn’t opposing technology horribly hypocritical? This logic seems pretty reasonable? In fact, it is ridiculously childish. To use an analogy: we depend on tap water every day, but if there is a problem with water quality, should we not point it out and criticize it? Could a water company use this logic—“You criticize tap water, but can you do without tap water? You’re enjoying our…
culture technology scientism tech ethics
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2006年4月10日