标签：equality

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
The Left and Right, Chinese Style

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2012.05.15
The Left and Right, Chinese Style
Recently I’ve been mentioning the left and the right quite often, but always rather cautiously, always wanting to add a couple of lines: I don’t like taking sides, I only use labels because I have no choice, and so on. To keep on like that is not really a solution, so I might as well write an article and talk through my understanding of the so-called left and right. My first acquaintance with the concepts of left and right probably came in middle school political class, where the teacher explained that the left was progressive and reformist, while the right was backward and conservative. We children, brainwashed by China’s rote-learning…
China freedom autobiography tradition
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2012年5月15日
“The Kingly Way” — The Road to the Supreme Good

Chinese Civilization & the Way of Chinese2012.01.26
“The Kingly Way” — The Road to the Supreme Good
You can read this article as a continuation of this earlier one: Freedom vs. Equality—I Am a Right-Wing Socialist In that essay I expressed a certain resistance to “equality”: equality in the sense of a condition for freedom, or equality as the rules that must be observed for the game of competition to unfold—those senses of equality I certainly support. But equality for equality’s sake, taking equality as a principle, is not something I agree with. So if one does not champion equality, must one necessarily tolerate “inequality”? Not necessarily. One reason for opposing “equality” is that it is an overly abstract concept; in fact, equality always requires a standard…
philosophy China freedom autobiography
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2012年1月26日
Freedom vs. Equality — I Am a Right-Wing Socialist

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2012.01.17
Freedom vs. Equality — I Am a Right-Wing Socialist
Last month I posted an article talking about my impressions of the two Wu teachers’ gathering, and as a result a commenter who was criticizing Professor Wu Tong showed up and we exchanged several rounds in the thread below. It’s not that I absolutely had to defend Professor Wu Tong; after all, my dealings with him have mostly been public and not much private, and I wouldn’t dare pound my chest and guarantee that he himself is beyond reproach. But taking the matter strictly on its merits, and judging only from the circumstances presented by the accuser, I still couldn’t help wanting to defend him: not only Professor Wu Tong,…
freedom autobiography value politics
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2012年1月17日
What Is Democracy? Livelihood? Equality? Democracy Is Article 35 of the Constitution

Culture & Public Commentary2011.03.02
What Is Democracy? Livelihood? Equality? Democracy Is Article 35 of the Constitution
This article had been planned before winter vacation, but in a moment of inattention it has dragged on until now. Let me finish a section first: I previously posted a status update, and although it seemed to get stuck on follow5 for quite a while, it finally synced successfully: “In my view, democracy is neither universal suffrage nor some kind of equality. Democracy is Article 35 of the Constitution. Freedom of speech and freedom of association. That is the core of democracy. Electoral systems and distributive systems are separate issues. Democracy is a matter of power, not of rights.” There were a few replies on the school intranet, but…
culture freedom democracy trust
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2011年3月2日
Communication and Chess

History of Science & Scholarship2009.09.12
Communication and Chess
At times, people put to me a question in different ways: in communication, how do I view or handle the status relation between the two sides of a dialogue? For instance, in speaking with teachers and elders, must one inevitably look up to them, or, correspondingly, when speaking with juniors, does one unconsciously have to look down from a position of superiority? This is especially so lately with some younger students who communicate with me: they cannot help but face such a contradiction. They expect some kind of equal dialogue and do not wish always to be in a weak position, yet to try to counter my own forcefulness in…
scholarship discussion equality experts
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2009年9月12日
The replacement of “freedom” by “equality” is the common root of the predicament of modern science and modern democracy

Culture & Public Commentary2008.10.07
The replacement of “freedom” by “equality” is the common root of the predicament of modern science and modern democracy
This little essay was scribbled down when I had an itch to comment on a recent post by Professor Wu; see: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_51fdc0620100bi39.html#cmt_1382340 Since the issues involved are rather important, I am not recording this passage in the usual “repost—archive” way, but tentatively pasting it here again. Since this passage is both rough and hasty, there is plenty of room for questions. ———————— Science and democracy can be said to be of the same origin and current, with their roots in ancient Greece, their modern versions in the Enlightenment, and their contemporary forms both taking the United States as a model. And their contemporary forms both differ markedly from ancient Greece….
culture freedom modernity equality
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2008年10月7日
A Few Words on “Olympic” — “Olympic Game”

Culture & Public Commentary2008.08.08
A Few Words on “Olympic” — “Olympic Game”
I had long said I would write some articles about the Olympics, but the reason I kept putting it off was mainly that I had read far too little, whether primary or secondary sources, on ancient Greece, so I would certainly be speaking without much confidence. Recently, in a last-minute dash, I read a few introductory books; of course that does not really solve anything, but in order to get something written before the opening of the Olympics, I could only make do. Though I lack confidence, I have always had ancient Greece and the “Olympic spirit” on my mind, and I have a large heap of related thoughts. Because…
culture freedom tradition religion
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2008年8月8日
Everything Is Unprepared, Yet the East Wind Blows Quite Fiercely—Disappointed Once Again in Education Reform

Culture & Public Commentary2006.08.30
Everything Is Unprepared, Yet the East Wind Blows Quite Fiercely—Disappointed Once Again in Education Reform
Hayek: In this world, there is always a difference between treating people equally and trying to make them equal. The former is a prerequisite of a free society, while the latter, as Tocqueville described it, means “a new form of servitude.” This passage is truly well put. Freedom, democracy, equality—these concepts sound stirring, and of course they are all good words. Yet how exactly are they to be understood, and how are they to be pursued? That is a big question. The United States, waving the banner of freedom and democracy, carries out its “new form of servitude” across the globe, and in China, too, the concept of equality is…
freedom commentary education equality
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2006年8月30日