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北京奧運會快結束了，風風雨雨也快成歷史的一部分。我讀過的評論當中，有兩則算是比較公道，也有點分量的。現摘錄于此，既公諸同好，也算留個紀錄。
其一﹕美國《新聞周刊》Newsweek 2008年8月4日號
文章是根據Orville Schell在New York Review of Books的一篇書評改寫的
原文﹕http://www.newsweek.com/id/148997
轉貼在我的資料庫﹕China’s Agony of Defeat (Newsweek – Aug 4, 2008 issue)
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While honest criticisms should not be muted just because Chinese leaders find them grating, we foreigners should be mindful of this complex psychological landscape. In reacting to contemporary events, we tend to forget just how deeply implicated we are in how China came to experience and view the modern world. This long relationship has created a still rather unyielding tension as each country interacts with the other. Despite the fact that China has gotten closer than ever to escaping from this past, it’s important to understand that its leaders and people are still susceptible to older ways of responding to the world around them. Now is not the time to provoke them further and impede their progress toward a new, more equal and self-assured sense of nationhood.
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These Games are a perfect metaphor for China ‘s emerging competitiveness in areas beyond athletics. For centuries, it was focused on keeping the world out. Not anymore. Beijing is aggressively engaged in the world, in ways that hold lessons for Americans who’ve grown doubtful about their nation’s ability to solve problems and achieve great goals.
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What is new, or certainly changed, is the perspective of what China has become. Americans, from politicians to business executives, have a tendency to be awestruck by China ‘s rise. The China debate has an undertone of panic to it, much as when the U.S. feared being overtaken by Japan in the 1980s — fears that proved overblown when Japan fell into a swift and prolonged economic slump.
Unquestionably, the U.S. can learn from China ‘s path to new wealth and success in what essentially is a case of the teacher learning from the student: Competition starts with a willingness to set goals and work hard to achieve them. This can require commitment and sacrifice of the sort the USA needs to bring its trade and budget deficits under control.
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是的，現在不是時候進一步挑釁和妨礙中國新領導層推行的深化改革，讓和諧的社會運動得以發展。也不要詆毀國內民族主義的亢奮，因她會加強一個積弱已久的民族自信。 像先生喜飲紅酒，總會有個喜好，那酒的產地、年份，還會說說那個酒莊、那年的日照是否少了點時間，喝上一口又會談談味蕾的感覺。 多元化的社會允許自由的表達，而我們中國的歷史正缺乏了這一點點！
[版主回覆08/24/2008 08:22:00]謝謝你的意見。
I feel we still have a long way to go to get accepted as equal, though we were and have been great regardless.
[版主回覆08/31/2008 09:51:00]True, but the point is really to "reinvent the wheel", as I tried to argue in my last blog: http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/wonghouseng/article?mid=1217 . I know this is hard, but no harm trying or at least thinking in these terms.
Thanks for visiting.