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Published: November 9th 2007
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Another Brick in the Wall
After entering the south gate of campus, you come upon this wall. I walk by it when I venture to the lake. I figure I should make an honest effort to understand what it means. As with any other language (but maybe especially with Chinese), direct translations are often garbled, if not unintelligible. With that being said, I have given my best translation of the wall. When you read translated Chinese poetry, literature etc., you are always given the name of the translator because there exists a certain degree of creative freedom given to the interpreter in order to fill in the gaps between the two languages. Of course, the language with these inscriptions are quite straightforward Chinese Communist jargon, but you get the idea. Some of the inherent meaning is lost and simultaneously some English words are added for the sake of giving a better representation of the meaning, rather than the literal translation. So here's the story of a little seed called the Petroleum University... I want to talk a bit about a couple of books I've been mulling over. Both of the books are about Chinese political icons and thus are at present still quite politically sensitive. With the idea of "not biting the hand that feeds me," I'm not going to go into detail about these books and people, yet it's important to address them in the least. The first, entitled "Sun Yat-Sen and Communism," refers to the first revolutionary leader of the modern era named Sun Yat-Sen (west) or 孙中山 or Sun Zhong Shan (east). China in the 20th century can mildly be characterized as tumultuous. It saw the overthrow of the last dynasty, imperialism by foreign countries (eastern and western), a period of virtual lawlessness, civil war between the Communists and the Nationalist Party (国民党 Guomindang) and of course the Mao Era. Sun Yat-Sen is often referred to by Chinese as the father of China because he (along with many other accolades) overthrew the foreign-ruled dynasty and laid the foundation for Communism. His untimely death in 1929 was quite premature both in terms of the revolution and in terms of the maturation of his own doctrine. Although this may be the case,
Wall of History #1
"October 1st, 1953-- The former petroleum engineering department, a main branch of Qinghua University, becomes Beijing Petroleum College." his ideas are unquestionably a part of Chinese political ideology and an integral part of history leading up to the Mao era. Many of his principles and indeed his terms were adopted by the Communists, however it is said that he had quite a different view of the future direction for China. Additionally, it is safe to say that China would be a very different place today if he did not die before his mission was completed. I think this passage is especially useful in understanding him:
Throughout his revolutionary years, Sun Yat-sen tried to work out an organic synthesis of Western democracy and Confucian traditions. Illustrative of these efforts are his ideas of a Five-Power Constitution and of promoting Chinese nationalism by associating it with the family, the clans, and the ancient virtues of China. Unfortunately, Sun did not have sufficient time and assistance to digest all he wanted to absorb in order to produce a working synthesis, nor did he have the opportunity to experiment with his program and to perfect it accordingly. Still worse, after his death his program became stagnant because his followers either paid only lip service to it or considered it as Wall of History #2
"November 1969Beijing Petroleum College moves its campus to Dongying, Shandong Province, consolidates even more to be Hua Dong Petroleum College." an eternal truth above and beyond the realm of criticism and modification. Nevertheless, Sun's efforts undoubtedly have a great historical significance in that they represent the first serious attempt of an Asian statesman to adapt Western democratic concepts and practices to the special environment and traditions of his country. The pattern which he had in mind was by no means clear, even to himself, and it would have been too much of a mixed system--combining in uncertain proportions elements of a controlled democracy and state socialism--to please a Western devotee of political and economic liberalism.
All in all an incredibly interesting, charismatic Chinese gentleman who sowed the seeds of change and did some pretty incredible things in his truncated lifespan.
The second book that I've been working through--and I mean working, it's a mammoth of a book-- is entitled "The Private Life of Chairman Mao." The book was written by Mao's personal doctor of 22 years and is by far the most interesting book I've read lately. It would be quite foolish of me to publish in depth any of my findings about this book because of its obvious political sensitivity so I'm just going to
Wall of History #3
"February 1988Hua Dong Petroleum College changes its name to the Petroleum University." share a brief quote from the book which I think sums it up pretty adequately. The opening of chapter 11 reads:
Mao described himself best. I am heshang dasan, he told Edgar Snow in 1970, literaly meaning "a monk holding an umbrella." But heshang dasan is only the first half of a couplet. The second, more important and meaningul, half, wufa wuatian--is always left unsaid. The sound wufa wutian, meaning "without hair, without sky," is the same as an expression that means "without law, without god"--a man subject to the laws of neither man nor god. Mao's interpreter that day was a young woman without a classical education, and she translated the Chairman's self-description as "a lonely monk walking the world with a leaky umbrella." Edgar Snow and numerous scholars after him concluded that Mao had a tragic, lonely view of himself. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Mao was trying to tell Edgar Snow that he was a god and law unto himself, wufa wutian.
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