本帖最后由 aha 于 2009-4-20 02:41 编辑
【原文标题】For China's New Left, Old Values
【译文标题】中国的新左派,旧价值观
【来源地址】http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/18/AR2009041801939.html
【译者】aha
【翻译方式】人工
【声明】本翻译供Anti-CNN使用,未经AC或译者许可,不得转载。
中国的新左派,旧价值观
新兴运动认为国家权力可以医治自由市场带来的不平等
北京-左大培手握话筒宣称中国领导层走错了方向,国家变得太过资本主义了。要改善这种情况,他继续说,除非国家重新控制企业资产。
观众欢呼。约有220名观众来听左大培和别的作者学者就“中国不高兴”的话题发言。
越来越多的中国人认为,解决当前国家存在的问题——包括贫富悬殊以及司法系统的官商勾结等——需要回头去找方法,运用毛泽东的教导。
虽然作为这个国家的创立者,并将之带入世界强国的轨道,毛主席仍然受到人们的尊敬,但在过去三十年以市场为基础的改革过程中,共产党已经抛弃了他的很多思想。
并非所有人都支持这样的转变,随着全球金融危机的暴发,更多的人开始怀念过去的日子。其中最具影响力的批评者,作为一个集体被称呼为‘新左派’。他们不同于上一代的不同政见者或政治流亡者,他们不主张退翻公产当的统治。相反,他们的建议和批判基于这样一个信仰——国家力量可以矫正因自由市场、私有化及全球化所带来的不公正现象。他们的观点还经常表现为激烈的民族主义和对西方的批判。
虽然上世纪九十年代以来新左派就一直在杂志和网络上发表他们的意见书,但直到全球金融危机的爆发才让这个团体的领导人物们站在了聚光灯下。新左派崛起的背景中,共产党(1949年取得绝对权力)面临着各种各样的问题:失业导致日益强烈的不满情绪,受污染的婴儿奶粉造成30万儿童患病,建筑不合格导致去年四川地震时成千上万教学楼的坍塌,以及全社会各个层面的官员腐败现象。
在这样一个批评通常会被快速压制的国家,共产党官员容忍了新左派的声音。如今,中国人大胆的质疑官员,指出政府的失败已经成为广泛现象,而新左派的声音只是其中一部分。
有评论将之称为“爱国运动”,普通公民,即“老百姓”,越来越想方设法希望能够参与到政府之中,并改善之:去学习政策是如何制定的,去影响立法机构,增加其透明度,明确其责任。
这种新的政治热情在各种公开的座谈会上(像本月左大培讲话的这种)都可以感觉到。在一些畅销书中也显而易见,比如《中国不高兴》(一本批评政府政策的文章结集,反对越来越多的国际合作以帮助世界摆脱金融危机,认为中国的力量应用来提升自己。)还有一种新的非常受欢迎的小说类型叫做“官场小说”。
官场小说主要描写中国高层政府幕后的肮脏作为。其中一个系列《驻京办事处》讲一个负责监管房地产的市府官员的故事,故事中企业管理者向其行贿或行性贿赂以换取好处。另一本《市长助理》,通过助理的眼睛,讲述一位副市长如何一步步走向腐败的深渊,并最终,被判处死刑。
新左派的成型建立在一些著名学者的理论之上,包括中国社科院58岁的左大培,清华大学教授47岁Cui Zhiyuan和50岁的汪晖。他们在年轻人、农民及下岗工人中尤其受到欢迎。
汪晖是一位人文学科教授,他被认为是新左派的领军人物之一,他曾经说中国陷入了两个极端:“走入歧途的社会主义”和“权贵资本主义”
他说“中国新左派的共同目标是为当前政策的全部影响达成一个谅解(The common objective of China's New Left is to create an understanding of the full implications of China's current policies. 这句不太确定,请大家帮忙)。我认为如果人民真的看到正在发生的一切,他们大概不会对改革如此兴奋了。”
左大培一直批评那些从国企私有化中图利的强盗大亨。因为他们既不用偿还国有银行的贷款,也不付给工人足够的补偿,左认为他们根本就是在窃取国家资产。
“看看医疗体制改革、房地产市场,还有教育改革——所有这些都背离了中国普通民众的利益,而那些施加巨大影响力的利益集团们却口口声声改革开放。”左在演讲后的一个采访中说。
王小东,55岁,《中国不高兴》的五位作者之一,和左大培一同出席了这次座谈会。在一次采访中他表示对当前的领导层大失所望。
“今天的中国,精英们懒惰,一事无成。花了大把纳税人的钱,一点创新也没有。”他说“中国今天的成就更多是靠那些辛勤的工人努力得来,靠民工得来。”
乌有之乡书店——以托马斯摩尔所设想的完美的社会政治经济体系命名,位于北京天安门广场的西北边——已成为这些知识分子和他们的支持者的主要聚会场所。
成员当中包括环保积极分子,歌曲创作者,网络程序员和企业家,他们每周聚会,有的人因为害羞并不发言。虽然座谈会的参与者被有区别的形容为泛左派、毛派和民族主义者,不过多数人表示他们拒绝标签,并表示他们因热情联合起来,这种热情希望保证中国的发展能够平等的造福于全体公民。
博客写手Yang Songlin,60岁,过去在河南经营自己的生意,说他参加这些聚会是因为看到中国已经违背了当初创立时帮助普通民众的宗旨,他感到担心。他说“官僚、老板和精英知识分子们组成了一个强大的利益集团,而中国老百姓,如工人和农民,却被边缘化,从改革中受益很少。”
另一位经常参与者,29岁的Chang Xiangle,在山东省开复印店。说他开始对这些聚会感兴趣是因为观察到了他所谓的“资本主义体制的不治之症”。他跟家乡的政府官员和开发商展开了斗争,在他看来,他们非法的侵占农民的土地。在毛时代,他说,很少有腐败因为有强大的监管和平衡体系。
乌有之乡书店书架上摆满了《美国秘史:经济打手,走狗以及全球腐败真相》、《债务帝国》,《反资本主义》这样的书,反映了这个团体的哲学思想。
Fan Jinggang,32岁,乌有之乡经理,毕业于北京大学马克思主义专业。他说经济危机以来有关毛的书籍销售量已经增加到原来的十倍。
三十年来,在邓小平开创的资本主义式的经济改革期间,Fan说,“我们一直坚持一个目标:美国的今天就是中国的明天,我们要为此而努力”但如今,美国陷入危机之中,他说,“中国人开始反思这种现象——经济危机倒底仅仅是因为经济或金融的问题还是说因为发展道路的问题,这样的话我们追求那个道路就有问题了。”
For China's New Left, Old Values
BEIJING -- Zuo Dapei took the microphone and declared that China's leaders were going in the wrong direction. The country had become too capitalist. Things would improve, he continued, only if the state reasserted its control over corporate assets.
The crowd of about 220 people, who had come to hear Zuo and other authors and academics speak on the topic of "Unhappy China," cheered.
For a growing number of Chinese, the solutions to the problems of the country's present -- including the income gap between rich and poor and the manipulation of the court system by state officials and company executives -- lie in its past, with the teachings of Mao Zedong.
Although Chairman Mao continues to be revered here as the visionary who founded the country and transformed it into a world power, the Communist Party has broken from many of his ideals through market-based reforms over the past three decades.
Not everyone has been supportive of this shift, and a nostalgia for the old days has increased amid the global financial crisis. The most influential critics, known collectively as the New Left, are not like the dissidents or political exiles of a previous generation. They are not calling for an overthrow of the Communist regime. Their
recommendations and criticisms are, instead, based on a belief that state power can redress the injustices created by free markets, privatization and globalization. Their views are also characterized by a fierce nationalism and criticism of the West.
Although the New Left has been publishing position papers in journals and on the Internet since the 1990s, the global financial crisis has brought the group's leading figures into the spotlight as never before. Their rise comes as the Communist Party, which has held absolute power since 1949, faces growing discontent over unemployment, contaminated infant formula that has sickened more than 300,000 babies, shoddy construction that led to the collapse of thousands of school buildings during last year's Sichuan earthquake and corruption among public officials at all levels.
In a country where the state is often quick to crush criticism, Communist officials have tolerated the New Left, which is just one part of a broader phenomenon of emboldened Chinese questioning officials and speaking out about the failings of their government.
In what commentators have called a "patriotic movement," ordinary citizens, or "laobaixing," are increasingly seeking to find a way to participate in government in order to improve it: to educate themselves about policymaking, to influence legislation and to increase transparency and accountability.
The new passion for politics can be seen in the existence of public seminars such as the one at which Zuo spoke this month. It is apparent in the popularity of such books as "Unhappy China" -- a collection of essays that reject the government's policy of increased international cooperation to help the world out of the financial crisis and argue that China should use its power to further its own position. There is also a new, wildly popular genre of fiction called "officialdom novels."
The books focus on the messy, behind-the-scenes workings of high-level government in China. One series, "The Beijing Office Representative," tells the story of a municipal official who observes real estate developers and company executives offering bribes or sex to government officials in exchange for favors. Another, called "The Mayor's Assistant," is told through the eyes of the assistant to a deputy mayor who watches as his boss gradually becomes more and more corrupt and, in the end, is sentenced to death for his crimes.
The New Left's appeal is built on the work of prominent academics, including Zuo, 58, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Tsinghua University professors Cui Zhiyuan, 47, and Wang Hui, 50. They have become especially popular among young people, farmers and laid-off factory workers.
Wang, a professor of humanities who is considered the leading New Leftist, has said that China is caught between two extremes: "misguided socialism" and "crony capitalism."
"The common objective of China's New Left is to create an understanding of the full implications of China's current policies. I think if people see what is really happening in China, they might be less excited about reforms," he said.
Zuo has been critical of the robber barons who took advantage of the privatization of state enterprises. He has argued that because they did not have to pay back government-run banks and did not adequately compensate workers, they essentially looted the state's coffers.
"Look at health-care system reform, property market, and education reform -- all of them have deviated from benefiting the ordinary Chinese public under the huge influence of those interest groups that argue in the name of reform," Zuo said in an interview after his talk.
Wang Xiaodong, 55, one of five authors whose works are included in "Unhappy China" and a speaker at the event with Zuo, said in an interview that he has been disillusioned with the current leadership.
"Today in China, those elite are lazy and do nothing. They failed to generate any innovations even after spending all that money from taxpayers," he said. "China's current achievements are more a product of efforts by industry workers, rural workers."
The Utopia bookstore -- named after the perfect sociopolitical-economic system of Sir Thomas More's imagination and located northwest of Tiananmen Square in Beijing -- has become the premier gathering place for these intellectuals and their supporters.
Members include environmental activists, songwriters, Internet programmers and entrepreneurs, few of whom are shy in speaking out at the weekly meetings. Although attendees of the seminars have been variously described as pan-Leftists, Maoists or nationalists, many participants say they reject labels but are united in their passion to make sure the rewards of China's development are shared equally among all its citizens.
Blogger Yang Songlin, a 60-year-old who used to run his own business in Henan province, said he began to attend the meetings because of his concern that China had veered from its founding principle of helping the ordinary man. "Bureaucrats, big bosses and intellectual elite formed a joint, strong interest group while Chinese laobaixing, like workers and rural farmers, were marginalized and benefited little from the reform process," he said.
Another regular, Chang Xiangle, a 29-year-old copy shop owner from Shandong province, said he became interested in the meetings as he observed what he called the "uncured disease of the capitalist system." He has been fighting government officials and developers in his home town who have, in his view, illegally seized land from farmers. In the Mao era, he said, there was little corruption because there was a powerful system of checks and balances.
Filled with books such as "Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals and the Truth About Global Corruption," "Empire of Debt" and "Against Capitalism," the Utopia bookstore is a reflection of the group's philosophies.
Fan Jinggang, 32, Utopia's manager and a former graduate student in Marxism at Peking University, said sales of books about Mao have increased tenfold since the economic crisis began.
During 30 years of capitalist-style economic reforms pioneered under Deng Xiaoping, Fan said, "we had been sticking to one goal: America's today is China's tomorrow, and we should work for that." Now, with the United States in crisis, Fan said, "Chinese people are beginning to reflect on this phenomenon -- whether the financial crisis is not only purely economic or financial but something that arose because of a development-path issue, that there might be a problem for us to pursue such a path."
Researchers Wang Juan and Liu Liu contributed to this report.
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