Life and Death in Shanghai - 书评

囧葱

　　正好，纽约的今天还没过完，今天这个日子，和书也有莫大的关系。
　　
　　起初注意这本书，就是因为提到了上海，其他的一切，好像都离现在的我很遥远。其实就过了四十多年，却因为没有经历和无人提起而感到陌生。我在纽约奔波的日子，常常想念上海，再破旧的地铁上读这个发生在上海的真实故事，挺穿越的。
　　
　　刚开始读的时候，我还评论过郑女士非常中国的文笔，没有华丽的辞藻，就像一个英文很好的中国人写的普通故事。后来随着悲剧的演化，才知道最朴实的文字带来的真实感受。我第一次落泪是郑女士被迫和女儿“隔离”，女儿每天都会偷偷在院子里扔一个纸团，里面写着“我爱你妈妈”之类的。到后来确切知道美萍死了，却流不下泪来了。
　　
　　写这篇书评，主要是想摘录一下郑女士在她的经历里，对文革历史、中国文化、政治的一些评价。由于读的是kindle，没有标页码。
　　
　　1. "The capitalist class is the skin; the intellectuals are the hairs that grow on the skin. When the skin dies, there will be no hair."
　　       毛主席语录里的原文，把资本主义和学者比作唇亡齿寒，彻底地开始了打压学者的十年。
　　
　　2. Is it not true that we all possess some destructive tendencies in our nature? The veneer of civilization is very thin. Underneath lurks the animal in each of us.
　　       很多人读这本书，都是被郑女士的气场所震慑，我也是。整本书中，不管郑女士经历了什么批斗、囚禁、被监控，她总是在思考，她总是祈祷，她总是相信真理和真实；同时，她又经常换位思考，体会对方的困境，体会对方的软弱，并原谅了很多很多人。她从来没有恨谁，没有诅咒谁，也没有厌倦生命。
　　       以上的这段文字，让我想起了斯坦福监狱实验《The Lucifer Effect》。这个经典的心理实验证明任何人被放到特定的角色里，其道德标准是不堪一击的，心中的邪恶和破坏欲是很容易被唤醒的。文革无疑是唤醒了不少人心中的魔鬼，为了求生、为了自己少受上海，而让无辜的人，甚至家人朋友，受尽折磨。可是，没错，每个人在那样特定的环境下，都很有可能变成那样。我们没有什么资格评判别人。
　　
　　3. "... A Chinese woman degrading her country by having a love affair with a barbarian from the West deserves incarceration in a Reform through Labor Camp."
　　Chinese throughout the ages have suffered from racial arrogance. Those who never went out of the country and had no close contact with other nationalities often thought of people in other lands as alien, therefore uncivilized creatures with strange habits and called them "foreigners" or even "foreign devils". The self-imposed isolation during Mao Zedong's reign and Party propaganda on the evils of capitalism greatly reinforced the Chinese people's unfortunate state of self-delusion. When Deng Xiaoping threw China's door open to the rest of the world and a flood of well-meaning and obviously affluent "foreigners" came to China with money to invest and ideas to share, the Chinese people suffered such a traumatic awakening that they sank into shame and self-reporach, only to emerge with an eagerness to jettison everything Chinese in order to become thoroughly "civilized".
　　        这段文字表现了中国文化在六七十年代和当今的异同。“种族主义”是中国人根深蒂固的劣根性第一。直到今天，大部分人仍然如此。一开始大家是讨厌洋鬼子，到后来是崇洋媚外。可是，崇的是什么洋？是白人，是有钱的白人，是中产阶级或资产阶级白人。很多人的美国梦，是混入富有白人群体的梦。很多家长还是不能同意孩子和外国人（尤其是非白人）结婚生子，中国人是最喜欢评论“黑人”“阿三”“犹太人”的了，要是翻译成英文被听见，应该会被老美搬上法庭吧。尽管现在大把大把的家长把孩子往国外送，但他们只希望孩子“取其精华，去其糟粕”。这点说来容易做来难。
　　
　　3. "In fact, I don't know anymore what's crime and what's not a crime. But since you are here already, you must just wait. Someone will deal with you one day. You're not so badly off."
　　       郑女士被囚禁时，三番五次和狱卒争辩自己无罪的事实，这是狱卒后来某次的回话。郑女士熟记毛泽东语录，用他们的思维告诉他们自己无罪。可是，那十年毁了整个中国的是非观。
　　
　　4. It was a sad story of callous disregard for human rights and another instance of the readiness of the Chinese Communist Party to sacrifice individuals for political purposes.
　　        读这本书钱，我觉得我对文革了解很少。家里因为都是工人阶级小市民，就连奶奶辈都没有什么惊涛骇浪的故事（还好没有）。郑女士告诉了我很多我不知道的事，包括领导层各种阶级斗争对人民的影响，确实可悲。
　　
　　5. I wondered how one single person could have caused the extent of misery that was previaling in China. There must be something lacking in our own character, I thought, that had made it possible for his evil genius to dominate.
　　        丑陋的中国人。
　　        我们缺乏自省。
　　
　　6. Communist China during the Mao Zedong era was the Party's demand that people inform on each other routinely and denounce each other during political campaigns. This prctice had a profoundly destructive effect on human relationships. Husbands and wives became guarded with each other, and parents were alienated from their children. The practice inhibited all forms of human contact, so that people no longer wanted to have friends. It also encouraged secretiveness and hypocrisy. To protect himself, a man had to keep his thoughts to himself. When he was compelled to speak, often lying was the only way to protect himself and his family.
　　
　　7. “What's a back door?" I asked her.
　　    "That's a new way to get things done. It means making arrangements to see a doctor or to buy something one needs urgently through friends or acquaintances rather than going through the regular channels," she explained. "Of course, back doors generally cost more because we have to give presents, not money, to those who make the arangements. But in many instances, it's the only way to get things dones nowadays."
　　      我并不知道”后门“这个词是这么晚才出现的。没想到”后门“和”潜规则“至今仍然没有消失，并且愈演愈烈。人们不需要为了生计而去找”后门“，更多的是为了贪婪。
　　
　　8. For so many years, the official propaganda machinery had denounced humanitarianism as sentimental trash and advocated human relations based entirely on class allegiance. But my personal experience had shown me that most of the Chinese people remained kind, sensitive, and compassionate even though the cruel reality of the system under which they had to live compelled them to lie and pretend.
　　       郑女士的美，就在于她看到别人的美。不管对于谁，这都是一个美好的性格。
　　
　　9. I had forgotten how much Chinese men enjoyed having a woman do exactly what they wanted. It almost seemed that my innocent acceptance of his invitation to go to a flower shop had brought our relationship a step more intimate than it had been when he first crossed the threshold. Not only did he hold my hand a fraction of a moment longer than necessary when he took his leave, but he actually felt encouraged enough to offer me money.
　　        中国亘古不变的“男权主义”，甚至是很多男人和女人都没有意识到的“男权主义”。
　　
　　10. Zhang Yufeng was the last of a succession of young females who had shared Mao's bed. The Chinese people knew but never dared to talk about the fact that their "Great Leader" was a womanizer. In his dotage, the self-styled successor of Marx and Lenin, and the symbol of progress and enlightenment, believed, as some Chinese emperors had believed, that sexual liaisons with young virgins enhanced longevity in an old man.
　　        这本书另一个引人注目的点是毛泽东江青林彪等人的八卦。中国还有种叫“处女情结”的东西，至今死不了。中国的womanizer们，也丝毫没有因为历史的远离而减少。
　　
　　11. In Communist China, there was no law independent of Party policy.
　　
　　12. Instead f my refusing him, he was refusing me. This was the only way to deal with people who hated to be refused.
　　       郑女士的情商表现在她和各层人士的交往当中，这就是传说中的名媛吧。
　　
　　13. Chinese people are extremely sharp and cynical. They believe fine gestures and noble behavior are always motivated by selfish designs.
　　
　　14. I have recored John's visit here mainly because I think Lao Li's behaviro rather intersting. While he controlled my life, he did not want to appear to do so. It was up to me to anticipate his wishes and act accordingly. All Chinese Party officials behave in exactly the same manner towards the people. But of course not all of them are so touchingly human as my policeman, who was basically a very kind individual.