Friday, February 27, 2015

News and commentaries, 15-02-27

“Salt theory” (盐论) sounds the same as “speech” (言论)
The writer Zhai Zhenming is a professor at Sun Yat-sen University’s Department of Philosophy


Zhai mainly praised Secretary General Han Zhen of Beijing Foreign Studies University’s Party Committee. Secretary General Han published an article on “Being the avant-garde to lead social values” in Beijing Daily and it was reposted on People’s Daily


His direct quotes on “salt theory”:
For ideology education work, soft infiltration is better than hard penetration. Equal dialogue is better than condescending lectures. To strengthen the ideology education of socialist core values we must change the discourse system. We can’t always rely on the top-down approach. Socialist core values should be like an ingredient, or like salt. It should be mixed into all kinds of dishes, so it will be healthy for everyone when they eat it. If you ask teachers and students to eat salt directly, the result won't be good anymore.  
思想宣传工作,软性渗透比生硬的直接灌输好,平等对话比居高临下的效果好。加强社会主义核心价值观的宣传教育,一定要改变话语体系,不能一味依赖纯灌输的方法。社会主义核心价值观应该像调味品一样,或者像盐一样,调在我们做出的各种佳肴里,让大家吃下去有利于健康,如果让师生直接吃盐效果就不好了.


Popular sexist intellectuals
(“Straight man cancer”, according to The Nanfang, refers to a fictional non-curable disease that straight men can get. Patients infected with this disease usually show symptoms such as having terrible fashion sense, feeling good about themselves and holding disrespect to women. The term is now more often being used in man of male chauvinism)


(Xue’s note: This article came out in mid-January but I didn’t read it until today because I didn’t know what “straight man cancer” was until yesterday.)


Famous and prolific writer Zhou Guoping (he mostly writes essays of philosophy - one of ZX’s favorite authors from her mid teens to mid-twenties) wrote some stuff on his Weibo account and got seriously attacked by Netizens. He wrote: “Women are closer to nature than men, which is why women are so precious. Men could have a thousand ambitions and believe they could have many complicated missions beyond nature. Women only have one very ambition, which is to love, to give birth to and to take care of children - this is the most important task in their life. For a woman, as long as she follows her true nature, no matter when she is madly in love, or happily doing housework, or attentively nurturing her baby, she is truly beautiful.”


女人比男人更接近自然之道,这正是女人的可贵之处。男人有一千个野心,自以为负有高于自然的许多复杂使命。女人只有一个野心,骨子里总是把爱和生儿育女视为人生最重大的事情。一个女人,只要她遵循自己的天性,那么,不论她在痴情地恋爱,在愉快地操持家务,在全神贯注地哺育婴儿,都无往而不美。”


After being mocked by Netizens, he responded: I am not saying that women should go back home. I applaud emancipation of women and the equality of men and women. If a woman is very talented and accomplished, I would appreciate her much more. However, now matter how talented or accomplished she is, if she is not willing or does not know how to be an affectionate lover, how to be a caring wife or loving mother, her beauty to be is much less attractive.
我的意思不是要女人回到家庭里。妇女解放,男女平权,我都赞成。女子才华出众,成就非凡,我更欣赏。但是,一个女人才华再高,成就再大,倘若她不肯或不会做一个温柔的情人,体贴的妻子,慈爱的母亲,她给我的美感就要大打折扣。”


Writer’s note: among intellectuals who are supposed to respect women most, there are lots of comments that undermine women. Zhou Guoping is not alone. A lot of these comments actually usually appear in classrooms, newspapers, as well as policy proposals.
在本该最具有尊重女性意识的知识分子群体中,存在着大量矮化女性的奇葩言论,周国平并不是一个人在战斗。而且这样的言论还常常堂而皇之地出现在课堂、报刊乃至于政策建议中。


Some typical intellectuals with “straight man cancer”.
Ambitious “straight man cancer”:
Translator Lin Shaohua, who has translated most of Haruki Murakami’s work into Chinese. He is also a professor of Japanese language at Ocean University of China in Qingdao.
His representative speech: “Some male students asked me how do I find time to translate so many books and articles in my spare time after teaching. My answer is simple: no housework! Male students laugh triumphantly and female students stay silent. I turn to female students and say: pots and woks are fatal tear and wear for men -- they would ruin men’s high aspirations and masculinity. Therefore there are so many feminine men, and so many masculine women.”
代表言论:“有男生问我上课之余为什么译那么多书写那么多文章,我回答四个字:不做家务!男生朗笑,女生不语。我转向女生说:锅碗瓢盆对男人的磨损是致命的——会磨掉男人的高远之思和阳风之气。所以才会有伪娘现象,也才会有女汉子。”


Dictating “straight man cancer”:
Writer Han Han
Representative speech: When answering the question of what does he think is the most important quality for women, smart, virtuous or beautiful? Han Han said: “Em, just don’t cheat on me. Cheating on me does not only mean sleeping with other people. It is not allowed for girls to flirt with other people. It is a very high requirement for women not to be flirtatious.”
代表言论:在回答“你认为女性最重要的品质是什么?聪明、贤惠还是漂亮”时,韩寒说:“嗯,就是千万不能给我戴绿帽子,不要以为和别人上了床才是给你戴绿帽子,女孩子和别人暧昧不清也不行,要女孩子不要水性杨花,这实在是很高的要求了。”


“Straight man cancer” with concern for the country and the people
Tsinghua Sociology professor Sun Liping
Representative speech: in his Reconstructing Gender Roles, Sun Liping believes: (1), The biggest bottleneck for China is the sheer amount of population, and one of many solutions is to reduce women’s employment. Sun believes this is the most cost-effective and most pragmatic solution. (2) Taking the political system into consideration, there are two ways to reduce women’s employment: one is to make them retire early - but Sun Liping thinks this is a little difficult to implement; the other is to encourage periodical employment.
代表言论:孙立平在《重建性别角色》中认为:(1)中国最大的瓶颈问题是人口众多,解决这个问题的方法之一就是减少妇女就业的数量。并且孙立平认为这是目前代价最小,最可行的方法。(2)考虑到体制问题,减少妇女就业的具体的方法有两个,一个是提前退休,但孙立平认为这个方法实行起来有一定的困难;还有一个就是鼓励阶段性就业。


The self-interested “straight man cancer”
Assistant Professor He Guangshun of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies’ Department of Chinese Culture
Representative speech: “Female students should have ample time to make themselves look beautiful. It would be good if they could catch the second class starting at 10am. From 7am to 9am they should dedicate this time to putting on make-up. And then they could walk into the classroom with grace. Therefore male students would be touched and encouraged by their beauty and they will have more initiatives to strive.”
代表言论:“女生应有充裕的时间来打扮自己,能跟上10点的第二节课就好了,从7点到9点的时间应该用来化妆,然后再优雅地进入学堂,于是男生因为美的感动和鼓励,就会赢得奋斗的动力了。”


Retroist “straight man cancer”
Neo-Confucian Qi Yihu, lecturer at Southwest University of Science and Technology’s School of Political Sciences in Mianyang, Sichuan Province
Representative speech: To reconstruct the Confucian family, we need to change this abstract kind of gender equality that dismisses gender differences. We should come back to the system that distinguishes male and female functions in the family. I have an idea: maybe we could have the half-day work system for women. They work outside for half a day, and for the other half of the day they come back home to take care of their parents, husbands and children. Therefore, not only don’t they get cut off completely from society, they would also have time for their family. This really is killing two birds with one stone.
儒家要重建家庭,就得改变这种抹杀性别差异的抽象男女平等观,重新回到夫妇有别的内外分工制,回归家庭。我有一个设想,能否实行女性半日工作制,半天在外上班,半天回归家庭,照顾父母、丈夫和子女。这样,既没有完全断绝妇女和社会的接触,同时又兼顾了家庭,可谓一举两得。

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