Straight News: Mr. Liu, what do you think of the recent categorical refusal of The Excerpt of Bai Yang's book "The Ugly Chinese" to be included in the language teaching materials of the first grade of Taiwan's junior high school, and demanded that publishers on both sides of the strait stop publishing the book "The Ugly Chinese" forever?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: I think that before answering your question, we must first clarify another question that will confuse many people, that is, whether Mr. Bai Yang's book "The Ugly Chinese" itself is suspected of discriminating against Chinese and whether it is suspected of insulting China. Before we can understand this question, we must first clarify two basic facts and basic ideas.
The first is the question of whether human nature is good or evil. My basic point of view on this is that if human nature and the human heart are regarded as a circle, there are two things in it, one black and one white, one good and one evil, one of which is called good and the other is called evil. This is somewhat similar to the Chinese Tai Chi Bagua diagram. No matter what kind of person you are, no matter what race you are, what kind of country you come from, what kind of skin color you have, what kind of language you speak, as long as you are a person, its humanity and human heart are the combination of these two things. Moreover, when the evil side of human nature expands, the good side is suppressed, and when the good side of human nature expands, the evil side is suppressed. The task of cultural scholars is to expose the evil in human nature and promote the good in human nature. This is also the eternal theme of all literary works in ancient and modern China and abroad.
Second, since human nature and the human heart are a collection of good and evil, people who have lived on the same land for a long time will naturally form different national cultures, different national characteristics, and different national natures, and at the same time, such national nature and national nature will naturally form specific advantages and disadvantages. There is a Chinese saying: Love is deep, responsibility is cut. This means that as a cultural scholar, he will not only reveal the evil that is prevalent in the humanity of each individual, but also regard it as his historical mission to reveal the bad side of national and national nature. This is like a doctor who needs to help the patient recover by constantly diagnosing and revealing the lesions in the patient and actively treating them. A cultural scholar should also promote the civilization and progress of this nation and this country through continuous self-criticism and self-disclosure.
Understanding these two points, we can know that Bai Yang's act of writing the book "The Ugly Chinese" not only does not discriminate Chinese there is no insult to China, on the contrary, this is still his duty, which is the expression of patriotism and love for the nation. I think that's the root cause of Chinese mainland allowing this book to be published as early as the 1980s.
Straight News: Since the book "The Ugly Chinese" does not involve discrimination Chinese and does not involve insulting China, then why does Bai Yang's widow, Zhang Xianghua, angrily refuse to select his excerpts into the language textbooks of the first grade of Taiwan's junior high school, and demand that publishers on both sides of the strait stop publishing the book "Ugly Chinese" forever?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: I think the reason behind this is that when Mr. Bai Yang wrote this book, he would not have dreamed that the book "Ugly Chinese" would become a tool for the Tsai Ing-wen authorities to advocate "cultural Taiwan independence" and engage in "de-Sinicization." Because when Bai Yang wrote this book, the vast majority of people on the island still had a strong sense of national and national identity, and "Taiwan independence" had not really formed a climate. However, after more than thirty years, the political ecology on the island has undergone major changes, and under the deliberate manipulation of the DPP and "Taiwan independence elements," "de-Sinicization" has become "cultural and political correctness" to some extent.
In my opinion, the ulterior logical reasoning behind Tsai Ing-wen and the "Taiwan independence" forces' use of Bai Yang's book "The Ugly Chinese" to promote "de-Sinicization" and "cultural Taiwan independence" is as follows, that is, the Chinese of the book "The Ugly Chinese" refers only to the Chinese living in the Chinese mainland and the part of the Taiwanese who are in favor of cross-strait reunification, which does not include "Taiwan independence" elements. This also means that in the eyes of the Tsai Ing-wen administration and the "Taiwan independence" forces, the Chinese living in the Chinese mainland, as well as the part of the Taiwanese who are in favor of cross-strait reunification, have ugly human nature, while the human nature of the "Taiwan independence" elements is perfect. They attempted to educate Taiwanese students with such a logical reasoning to further create an atmosphere of public opinion that disgusted Chinese and Chinese culture, and then disgusted China and the Chinese nation, and finally came to the conclusion that "Taiwan must achieve independence from China." That is to say, the Tsai Ing-wen authorities and the "Taiwan independence" forces are not only educating the Taiwan people to resist the political system and ideology of the Chinese mainland, but also educating the Taiwan people to dislike and resist the national and national nature of the mainlanders. I believe that this is another new trend that deserves our attention in promoting "cultural Taiwan independence" by the Tsai Ing-wen authorities.
However, what the Tsai Ing-wen administration did not expect was that such an act had the opposite effect of "there is no silver in this place for three hundred and two", making It an irrefutable fact that Taiwan culture originated from Chinese culture and that Taiwan is part of China. Because if Taiwan's culture is not part of Chinese culture, and Taiwan's is not part of China's, why should you be a thief and do anything to engage in "Taiwanization" and "de-Sinicization"? At the same time, I believe that what the Tsai Ing-wen authorities are engaged in to "Taiwanization" and "de-Sinicization" is also an impossible task. Because whether it is Taiwan's "aboriginal culture" or the Minnan culture that was later transplanted, its roots are in Chinese culture and are part of Chinese culture. This also means that no matter how you change, you can't do without its origin. This is like the "Taiwan independence" elements claiming that they are not Chinese, but they are constantly cutting the Chinese blood and genes in their bodies.
From this point of view, we also have to admire Mr. Bai Yang's extraordinary insight into human nature. In his book "The Ugly Chinese", he focused on criticizing the inferiority of some Chinese who like to engage in "nest fighting" and "cannot unite", and attributed the reason to "there is a filter virus in traditional Chinese culture, which has infected our children and grandchildren and cannot be cured to this day." The Tsai Ing-wen authorities engaged in "Taiwan independence" with the Democratic Progressive Party, dragged the United States and Japan into this muddy water with their own weight, and entangled themselves with the Kuomintang and the mainland on the island for decades.
The author 丨 Liu Heping, special commentator of Shenzhen Satellite TV's "Live Broadcasting hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan"
Typography 丨 Wang Xiaotong