This Generation (18 page)

Therefore, this incident could very easily have been resolved by the local authorities right from the start. If they had done an absolutely honest autopsy and verified that the victim had died of natural causes, then they could have persuaded the family; and if the autopsy had established that the victim had been murdered, then they could have arrested the culprit. Or, at the minimum, this issue could have been discussed openly, with everyone bringing forward their own evidence as part of the debate. But officialdom has always considered itself above that kind of procedure, for they think this would only lower their prestige. What's more, our officials always put themselves in a poor light as soon as they open their mouths: You simply never see them earnestly engaging in conversation using the kind of language that we human beings employ to communicate. They always revert to that robotic official jargon to resist ordinary people's appeals. Music aficionados will agree that tone is crucial, and when someone sings in a tone that you loathe, any song they sing is bound to be crap.

Now, how that girl died is no longer important—what matters is the verdict on those three rights activists. As for the crime of slander, it looks like prison terms are inevitable. Charges like this cannot be explained in legal terms—one needs to understand the outcome in terms of self-interest and established convention, because, to the government, face is so important. They've locked you up for all this time now—and on this pretext—and if you were now to be released, although the court may receive plaudits, how is public security going to manage in the future? They are all living in the same town and are bound to run into each other sooner or later, if not in the office then in the sauna, and how awkward that interaction would be. Actually, all these years, everyone has misunderstood the meaning of “the People's Court”—this doesn't mean a court that is of the people and for the people, what it means is a court that only makes
itself responsible for resolving contradictions among the people, not between the people and government agencies.

Now that these three rights activists have been sentenced to a year or two in jail, many netizens think a dark age for the Internet is about to arrive, that rights activists are going to get brought in for retaliatory sanctions, that critical commentary posted on the Internet is going to be prohibited and punished, that freedom of speech is going to completely disappear. But given that we're dealing with law enforcement in a small county town, I think it's a mistake to attribute to these people such profound motives. When it comes down to it, this incident has only one meaning and conveys only one message, namely: See what we're capable of doing.

All right, you want to show us what you're capable of, and we've seen and we're afraid, but what we don't understand is—what is it
you're
so afraid of?

April 19, 2010

Recently reporters have been bombarding
me with requests for interviews about the Shanghai Expo. This puts me in a difficult spot, because if I sing its praises my conscience won't rest easy, and if I find fault with it I won't be allowed to sleep easy. Since the expo is about to begin, I herewith provide answers to all the standard questions; please spare me any more inquiries.

What do you think the expo will bring to Shanghai and to China? What would you compare it to?

It's not a question, I think, of what the expo brings to China, but of what China brings to the expo. Because expos originally were never such big events, as information circulates more and more rapidly, the idea of the expo is increasingly outdated. It's China that has elevated the expo to a new level. If you really want an analogy, it's a bit like some international brand that's really popular in China—with all the hype it gets, when you are wearing one of those outfits
you think you are occupying the pinnacle of fashion and enjoying the ultimate in luxury, but then when you ask about it abroad, you find that it's second string.

What do you think of the expo mascot—Haibao?

I think Haibao is a real pain. Setting aside the question of whether it's an attractive—or an original—design, the version of it we first saw was flat, and that has been the source of great difficulty for people trying to make it three-dimensional. Just what should his rear end look like? Does he have a tail? Does he have an ass? Does his ass have cleavage? This is very unclear. So when we look at the figures of Haibao that have been erected around the city, their front view is identical but the rear varies.

Once the expo is over, the pavilions will be removed—do you think this is a waste?

No, I don't think that's a waste at all. The original properties in that area had to be cleared in the first place, and then the government funded the construction of the China Pavilion—and helped other countries build their pavilions—so the government has been spending money all over the place. To keep these pavilions in Shanghai serves no purpose anyway—they can't serve as government office buildings, after all—so they may as well flatten the whole area and sell it off as real estate. That way, in the end, the expo isn't something run by the government or by business, but by mortgage slaves and real estate speculators.

If that's the case, why is the government going to preserve a handful of pavilions?

Well, of course they can't demolish them all—if they did that, they couldn't call it the “expo parcel” and sell it off at the highest price.

Some people are saying that while the expo is on, cars from other places have to wait in line for inspection on the way into Shanghai—often generating traffic jams several miles long that take hours to get through. Do you think there is a better way of handling this?

No, I can't help you there, because the government applies uniform security procedures whether they are on the lookout for thieves, terrorists, reactionary forces, or ordinary citizens. Although I have no way of knowing who exactly they are on the lookout for when they search every car and every person, I do know that if I was a bad guy I certainly wouldn't just stand there in line obediently, waiting to be searched with a bomb under my arm. The demarcation lines between cities are not as clearly defined as the borders between nations, and often a rice paddy is all that separates them, so if you set your mind to it it's not difficult at all to pass from one to another. I don't believe these security measures will really detect people who are determined to do something bad. But maybe the government thinks this makes a good deterrent, intimidating the bad guys so that they lose all courage. In that case, everyone just has to do their bit and wait in line.

In any case, I certainly support better security. So long as the government makes a reasonable appraisal of the pros and cons, I am willing to accept any kind of security procedure. Indirectly, in the name of the expo, a number of Shanghai residents have been killed or injured by construction vehicles, and I hope that no other lives will be threatened because of it.

How many visitors to Shanghai do you think the expo will bring in?

That's hard to say. One needs to make a distinction between people who make a trip to Shanghai specially to see the expo and those who go and have a look since they are visiting anyway. According to official sources, sixty million people will enter Shanghai during these six months. But Shanghai attracts a lot of visitors in any case, and by my reckoning, even without the expo, there would probably be fifty-nine million people visiting Shanghai for other reasons. When I go abroad for a holiday, whether a city is holding an expo does not have the slightest effect on my decision to visit it, but maybe foreigners are so innocent that they'll all be eager to come. Of course I have lots of friends who are looking forward to going to the expo, and I can understand that. The expo should be a really big scene, after all, and Chinese people have always loved to go to a fair—just think of all the people who turn up at a car show, for instance. Of course, I can also understand why so many Shanghai people are eagerly anticipating the opening of the expo, because if a lot of foreigners and out-of-towners are there, they can put on a nice demonstration for them of what an amazing city Shanghai is: house prices at fifty thousand yuan a square meter, parking spots at twenty yuan an hour, gasoline at more than a dollar a liter, all basic living expenses really high, the cost of living five times yours, and wages a fifth of yours, but we've not just survived—we're all ready to greet with open arms sightseers from all over the place. The Shanghainese have to be the most impressive exhibition objects in this city. I propose that some city residents be selected as art works and put on display in the China Pavilion.

How would you rate the city of Shanghai?

I was born here and will always love Shanghai and hope that it can be one of the world's most wonderful cities, even though my old neighborhood is now ruined by pollution. It's fair to say that if you have money, Shanghai is a great place: In terms of dining and
shopping, entertainment and getting around, it's just fine. In more general economic terms, Shanghai is an adventurer's paradise, but hell for ordinary folks.

But Shanghai has no culture. If you go to a big city in another country, they'll tell you: We have such-and-such buildings, such-and-such hotels, such-and-such streets, such-and-such villas. . . . Administrators in Shanghai will proudly tell you: We have all that stuff, too. But when the others say: Here we have such-and-such writers, such-and-such directors, such-and-such artists, such-and-such exhibitions, such-and-such film festivals, our leaders go all quiet.

Why the lack of culture in Shanghai?

If you want real culture to develop, you need to loosen controls, and if you loosen controls that means allowing diverse voices to be heard, and if you allow diverse voices to be heard that's bound to raise the level of popular consciousness—and what a terrible thing that would be!

Officials tell us that on the one hand genetically engineered foods are harmless, but that on the other, these same foods are banned from the expo site, so that foreigners won't have to eat them. Isn't this a form of self-denigration?

What nonsense! This is an expression of confidence, confidence in the strong constitutions of us Chinese. Every day we breathe this air and drink this water, and we survive in all kinds of adverse conditions. Those foreigners would die after swallowing a single mouthful of weed-killer, but it takes three mouthfuls to kill us. So you're barking up the wrong tree.

May 2, 2010

Now, children at a Taixing
kindergarten have suffered a knife attack too.
²²
Thirty-two of them have been injured; the death toll is still unclear. Because news of this incident followed so closely on the heels of the stabbings at a Nanping kindergarten, I thought at first that this all happened at the same facility.

In recent incidents where disturbed individuals have launched fatal attacks on others, the targets have all been either kindergartens or primary schools: This has clearly become a fashion among those who feel they have a score to settle with society, because in such places one will encounter the least resistance and be able to kill the greatest number of victims and cause the greatest amount of pain and fear—it is the most effective way of exacting revenge. With the exception of Yang Jia,
²³
practically all these assailants have chosen
to target those weaker than themselves. This society has no pressure valves—killing the weakest has become the only way out. I propose that local government security guards be transferred to kindergartens, for a government that can't even keep children from harm doesn't deserve so much protection.

A major cause of these attacks is that this society is unjust and unfair. Yes, “to establish fairness and justice makes things brighter than sunlight itself.”
²⁴
But the sun doesn't come out every day. Don't you think maybe we have too many overcast days and dark nights? So, there's nothing so wonderful about suggesting that fairness and justice should be brighter than sunlight—the best thing would be to have sunshine all the time.