Suixuan

标签：intellectuals

  • Bottom-Up Reform

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Bottom-Up Reform

    During the “onlookers biting Han” incident (see my previous two articles), I took the opportunity to skim through the legendary “Han Three Essays.” I have to say, Han Han really is better suited to snark than to building arguments… But on the basic attitude toward these three big concepts, I completely support Han Han: oppose revolution, be cautiously skeptical of democracy, and emphasize and fight for freedom. Why am I “anti-revolutionary”? In middle school, I did indeed hold some sort of “quality theory” position: the civic quality of the Chinese people was still far too low, there was a lack of self-discipline, and once things got chaotic they would be…

    cultureChinafreedompolitics
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  • On “Knowledge Changes One’s Destiny”

    Culture & Public Commentary

    On “Knowledge Changes One’s Destiny”

    Recently I saw an article in Southern Weekend, “Do Poor Children Have No Spring? — Why Are Students from Humble Families Increasingly Farther Away from First-Rate Universities?” In the past few days, while eating with my family and relatives, this kind of topic has also come up often. Today someone mentioned that Fudan University may completely abolish admissions through straight Gaokao scores next year—that is, you would have to get in through independent admissions or other such routes. Such a move will of course further increase the difficulty for students from impoverished regions to enter top universities. Just the round-trip transportation and lodging costs for making a special trip to…

    cultureChinascholarshipeducation
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  • Media and the Externalization of “Knowledge”

    AI & the Future of Technology

    Media and the Externalization of “Knowledge”

    Reply to a netizen’s question: Why did knowledge change from a “virtue” into a “power”? Is it possible to reveal the root of this shift from the perspective of media? This is a great question ~ and it really can be revealed from the perspective of media. Roughly speaking, the media through which knowledge is displayed move from the age of oral speech, to manuscripts, and finally to printed books. In the oral age, the only or main way knowledge could be displayed was through speech; knowledge was displayed in lectures or debates. In such a situation, it is easy to imagine that the display of knowledge was always tied…

    culturetechnologymediaknowledge
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  • The Political Mission of College Students?

    Culture & Public Commentary

    The Political Mission of College Students?

    A few days ago I discussed this question with someone: is a college student’s mission to study diligently, or should one play some kind of political role? Of course, a university is not merely a vocational technical school; it is not meant to cultivate “talent” but to cultivate “persons,” and as a fully developed person, one naturally includes one’s social and political role as well as one’s historical mission. There is no question about that. However, when students bring up college students’ political role, what comes to mind are only all kinds of thunderous “student movements”; in other words, if one says that students should bear a political mission, it…

    culturescholarshipfreedompolitics
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  • Ji Xianlin: “Miscellaneous Memories from the Cowshed”

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Ji Xianlin: “Miscellaneous Memories from the Cowshed”

    Ji Xianlin: Memoirs from the Cowshed (manuscript edition), Zhongguo Yanshi Publishing House, 2006, 9787801288799 The ritual of mourning for Old Ji can be considered complete. By comparison, the book I would still recommend is *The Archive of Shuxingbei*, though *Memoirs from the Cowshed* has its own distinct flavor. If *The Archive of Shuxingbei* is a downright tragedy, then *Memoirs from the Cowshed* is more like a farce—dark humor, of course. How was the Cultural Revolution possible? This was the last question posed by Old Ji. The Cultural Revolution was a miracle; it gathered together every favorable condition of time, place, and people, and only then did it blossom in a…

    book readingChinanotesintellectuals
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  • The Inertia of the Bystander

    Site Matters

    The Inertia of the Bystander

    On the operation of blogs and the management of BBS forums, the most vexing problem is not that nobody reads, but that those who do read are often willing only to be “audience,” not to participate, and not even willing to leave a single word now and then (such as “great, upvote, dizzy, read, re, omg, orz,” etc.). But it is not that they are uninterested, or simply disdain it. In fact, many people come by frequently to have a look, and some of them will occasionally say “inspiring” (which, after all, is also a form of feedback, albeit an indirect one). But on the whole they are just too…

    scholarshipblogwebsitediscussion
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  • Reflections on Revisiting an Old Piece

    Life & Notes

    Reflections on Revisiting an Old Piece

    Looking back, I can’t help feeling something about those old pieces. Nearly three years ago now (time really does fly), in the discussions on my blog and in the dorm about “the state” (see https://yilinhut.net/2006/01/05/215.html and the several posts before and after it), in retrospect that round of discussion may have seemed like nothing much, but in fact, for my blog and for the development of my thinking, it was a landmark period with far-reaching influence. At that time I was in the process of deciding to take the academic path (there was no fixed day; this “decision” took place over roughly the six months before and after that point),…

    autobiographytraditionintellectualsstate
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  • Words and Fragments, Episode 4

    Philosophy & Thought

    Words and Fragments, Episode 4

    l What is called the conflict between theory and practice, or the contradiction between ideal and practice, and the like, has since antiquity been a hard-to-resolve opposition. But one cannot simply equate these oppositions with the irreconcilable opposition between philosophy and life; these are not the same thing. In the first place, the problems of conflict, contradiction, or opposition themselves—these views themselves—are already philosophical problems. Philosophy permeates life; a life with not the slightest bit of “philosophy” in it would not be human life. l The preceding paragraph seems to refer to a case I once saw in *Freakonomics*; I have occasionally thought of it lately, and it is still…

    philosophyreasonresponsibilityintellectuals
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  • Keke Forum Lecture 41: Two Kinds of Local Knowledge (November 2)

    History of Science & Scholarship

    Keke Forum Lecture 41: Two Kinds of Local Knowledge (November 2)

    The task of activating KKBBS begins… Last week I tried testing the waters by posting a report, only to discover that there isn’t just a shortage of water there—it’s a complete desert! Where on earth am I supposed to begin………… Let’s be a little honest first and finish the basic task of reporting on each instance of the KeKe Forum~ But this post of mine doesn’t seem to be a news report; rather, it’s a discussion. I think news copy is pretty dull anyway, and besides, I’m not good at writing it. So I might as well keep hurling bricks and see whether I can stir up even a tiny…

    philosophyculturescienceknowledge
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  • On the Discussion on the Teachers’ Blogs: An Interpretation of the University

    Culture & Public Commentary

    On the Discussion on the Teachers’ Blogs: An Interpretation of the University

    One Interpretation of the University 2007-04-28 09:19:49 http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/48c5bb42010009ql Tags: university Confucianism education general education personality formation one interpretation of the university Mei Yiqi [Tsinghua Journal] (The main text omitted) Comments (16)┆Quotation┆Reads (45)┆Circle┆Print┆Rewarded Report Article Comments The following comments from netizens represent only their personal views and do not represent the views or position of Sina.com [anonymous] Xinzhai Old Jiang 2007-04-28 16:39:14 Tired from working, I’ve come up to chat a few words: my office is Xinzhai, so I took it as a condition for my screen name, because among the teachers working in Xinzhai, I’m the only one surnamed Jiang. Next door are Mingzhai and Shanzhai, and in front are…

    cultureeducationConfucianismuniversity
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