Mother’s Day is celebrated worldwide. It was originated in America. In 1912, Anna Jarvis persuaded her home state of West Virginia to adopt an official Mother’s Day. Two years later, President Wilson established a national Mother’s Day. Since then Mother’s Day has been celebrated by Americans on the second Sunday in May. As to why it is observed worldwide is a mystery. We might think this is another American influence. But this occurred in early time of 20th century, well before the America becoming a world superpower. To set aside a day for mothers is actually a very natural idea since the bound between the mother & children is very strong. Why didn’t this idea come from China? If we take into consideration of Chinese culture & its tradition of cherishing mother’s love, we almost think this day must have been created from China. Perhaps Chinese think it is their duty to show piety & filialness to mother & so every day must be mother’s day. This kind of attitude works against Chinese interests. Chinese invented a lot of things but took them for granted. When time goes by, other people picked them up, refined & polished them. Without making them routines, other people took them seriously & eventually claimed them as theirs, ie part of their culture. We may point out the following: 圍棋,茶道,武術 etc. Lately, Korean claimed 端午節 event is theirs & 孫逸仙 is partly Korean. It sounds absurd, but it happened before our eyes. Japanese claimed a lot of stuffs theirs even most of them were originated from China. Chinese should change their thinking. Don’t take things for granted. Don’t make something meaningful a routine. It reminds me of a book by 張繼高(吳心柳), "從精緻到完美". The Chinese culture is 博大 (broad & comprehensive), but lack of the quality 精緻(refine & polish). 博大& 精緻 lead to 完美 (impeccable & finished).
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
母親節有感
Mother’s Day is celebrated worldwide. It was originated in America. In 1912, Anna Jarvis persuaded her home state of West Virginia to adopt an official Mother’s Day. Two years later, President Wilson established a national Mother’s Day. Since then Mother’s Day has been celebrated by Americans on the second Sunday in May. As to why it is observed worldwide is a mystery. We might think this is another American influence. But this occurred in early time of 20th century, well before the America becoming a world superpower. To set aside a day for mothers is actually a very natural idea since the bound between the mother & children is very strong. Why didn’t this idea come from China? If we take into consideration of Chinese culture & its tradition of cherishing mother’s love, we almost think this day must have been created from China. Perhaps Chinese think it is their duty to show piety & filialness to mother & so every day must be mother’s day. This kind of attitude works against Chinese interests. Chinese invented a lot of things but took them for granted. When time goes by, other people picked them up, refined & polished them. Without making them routines, other people took them seriously & eventually claimed them as theirs, ie part of their culture. We may point out the following: 圍棋,茶道,武術 etc. Lately, Korean claimed 端午節 event is theirs & 孫逸仙 is partly Korean. It sounds absurd, but it happened before our eyes. Japanese claimed a lot of stuffs theirs even most of them were originated from China. Chinese should change their thinking. Don’t take things for granted. Don’t make something meaningful a routine. It reminds me of a book by 張繼高(吳心柳), "從精緻到完美". The Chinese culture is 博大 (broad & comprehensive), but lack of the quality 精緻(refine & polish). 博大& 精緻 lead to 完美 (impeccable & finished).
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A broader question is how does the Chinese as a race (whatever you define it) stand among other races. When I read the book「醜陋的中國人」 by 柏楊, I felt so depressed that it seemed that the whole race was hopeless. It has been immerged in a 醬缸. Actually, if you describe Chinese as 「髒，亂，吵，窩裡反」, it is quite accurate.
On the other hand, despite all the weakness, Chinese are quite successful if we use the apparent measure of success – biological proliferation, 適者生存
We all feel that the Chinese is not as disciplined as the Japanese, but if you look at how the Chinese spread in the world, the Japanese is much behind. Similar observation can say to the Koreans.
I happen to have a book called “The Chinese Are Like That,” by an American businessman Carl Crow. This book was written in 1938, when China was in the most humiliated state, defeated by the Japanese and other Western nations in every aspects. Yet Crow felt that the Chinese was the greatest race on the earth. Before writing the book, he had spent many years in China, the China in 1910s, and of course had observed all the weakness of the Chinese. In this book, he mentioned that when most American women arrived China, they almost fainted because everything, including people, was so dirty. Yet, Crow could live with it. He reasoned this as economical, because people could not have the money to buy soap. Every time I read this book, I feel sorry for him, because he could live to see that China finally stands up.
Has China stood up? I don’t know. The assessments are always on either extremes. It is very ironic that my children are very proud of their Chinese heritage, but I am still confused.
Here we are not talking about the superiority of the culture among China, Japan & Korea. Both Japan & Korea lack the broadness of Chinese culture. In fact, cultures of Japan & Korea are branches of Chinese culture. However, in certain area they are able to focus & improve to some extent that they can claim it theirs. For example, Japanese adopted 漢字 (Kanji) during Tang Dynasty. However, they also developed 平假名 & 片假名 (Kana). Most ancient Japanese men used Kanji in writing (bound by custom). Japanese women use Kana that was better suited to the Japanese language. Thus, ideas flowed much more smoothly from women’s pen. The most noteworthy one was Murasaki Shikibu (紫式部). She wrote the famous “The Tale of Genji (源氏物語), AD 1021”, which has been called the world’s first true novel. A modern edition of it fills over 4,000 pages. China had to wait several hundred years to come up something equivalent, that is “紅樓夢, AD 1791. It is debatable whether Japanese language in the current stage is better than Chinese language. Some schools seem to think the Japanese language is better in writing novel.
Every race or country has its ugly side as well as bright side. I have read “醜陋的中國人”, “The Ugly American” & “The Ugly Japanese”. They are true to the points & some are very entertaining. As long as people understand their shortcoming & try to avoid them or face the problem & try to improve the situation, it is all to the better in reading the “Ugly Books”.
As to the biological proliferation as a measure of success of a race or people is interesting. In the field or jungle, the deer, gazelle & buffalo proliferate as well as the big cats like lion, tiger etc. The cats are the hunters, the deer are the hunted. Although the deer outnumber the cats, most people rather want to be cats instead of deer. If we use the area people occupy (not just the number of people) & control as a measure of success, then the German people (日耳曼民族) are the most successful in the history. They occupy the Europe, the north & south Americas, Australia, New Zealand, most of south pacific. In addition to this, they are the master or the hunter where they occupy. Chinese are successful in proliferation, but they are not the masters in most of the area outside of China they reside. Sueecssful or not, perhaps the better question to ask is: Do you want to be a cat or a deer?
I agree. The shortcomings of different races are just suggestions. Actually, many of them are human shortcomings in general.
Are you sure that German people occupy the Europe, the north & south Americas, Australia, New Zealand, most of south pacific? South America is basically Spanish people. Do you call them German? Yes, Germans seemed to be a master race before World War II. But without any doubt that they were defeated by the Russians.
As to your question, "Do you want to be a cat or a deer?" From individual point of view, most people want to be a lion, but form nature point of view, it depends on which speice can survive longer. Dianosaurs are much stronger than samll primates 70 million years ago, but it is better to be a primate than a tyrannosaurus - the strongest dianosuar.
Go back to my original agrument, quality, unless it can change to quantity (remember we 批判 all these 唯物論 in 成功嶺?), it is a loser in biological competition.
If I remember it right, the Mother’s Day was first celebrated in Taiwan when we were in junior high, at least in Puli, since my classmate’s mother was the first Mother of the Year in our little town. Having a Mother’s Day is good; but having a Mother of the Year is not – there are going to be unhappy people whose mothers were not chosen. It is interesting how it started in America and spread worldwide in such a short time. Well, it certainly is good for gift shop, flower shop and the likes; and good for restaurants as well. If it’s good for business, it is good for human soul; so why not follow the Americans. There were attempts in Taiwan to counter Mother’s Day with a Father’s Day and designated August eighth as the date, Ba-Ba in Chinese, but it never became popular. It wasn’t until early 1970’s that Father’s Day became popular – again by Americans (Google is convenient).
Interesting! What a turn of discussion, from the history of Mother’s Day to the comparison of human races. Yeah, this is what blog is meant to facilitate.
Here are my two cents. To me, comparing the superiority among human races is quite a messy exercise. My bottom line is that as long as I have a decent life, meaning having enough to eat, a shelter to live, a school to go and some basic freedom, being a Chinese is quite nice. In other words, I am an American and feel pretty good to be a Chinese. I don’t really envy the Germans, the Romans, the Japanese, etc.
If you measure the greatness of a race based on how far it has “conquered”, then the Mongolian would have to be at the top. But since they didn’t do anything to better the lives of the conquered, Chinese included, they were just a bunch of stupid barbarians; they didn’t even know how to occupy. At its peak, the British Empire really dominated the world, so much so that the Japanese tried so hard to copy almost anything British, from top hats to tuxedos to tea cups. I am not surprised to see the Japanese has the inferiority complex towards British and Americans, even today. The Romans had been quite dominant in Europe for a long time; they probably were the first to colonize foreign territory; to some extent the British had copied that. The Romans had such huge influence on Spain and Portugal during their occupation, eventually through these two maritime powers their culture and Catholicism were spread all over the world. The Italians today don’t seem to brag about their own race; maybe they have enough troubles right now. Now, about us Chinese race. Our race has spread quite far and wide. The most striking thing is that the migration has been peaceful instead of by force; or survival as opposed to aggression. In this regard, I would say our race is good. Besides, overseas Chinese have been doing well overall.
I don’t know how to answer the question “do you want to be a cat or deer”. I didn’t and couldn’t ask or choose to be a Chinese, my parents decided that for me.
The rise and fall of a race really depends on its leadership. Of course there are other factors involved, but leadership is central, in my opinion. A race rises when it leaders have the determination and the smart to better the lives of its people. If the leaders can meet the challenge of doing what need to be done or what must be done, the race will rise. Actually, knowing what need or must be done (survival phase) is easier than knowing how to keep up and do better (maintenance phase). A race falls if the leaders of a successful race fail to know what to do next. We don’t have to go too far to see all that; our own history has plenty of examples. Today, the leadership in China seems to meet the challenges of the need or must to dos. Maybe in our life time, we can see that Chinese are the envy of the world again; just maybe. America is a racial melting pot, so it can be viewed only as a country not a race, but similar. As the wise words say, “when you get to the top, the only way for the next step is down.”
MarkYang has some good arguments. Mostly I don’t disagree with him. I just add some remark about what I said before. When I said German People, I didn’t mean 德國人. What I mean is 日耳曼民族, a broader definition of Germanic Tribe. We all know from studying history that the barbarians moved southward to destroy Roman Empire. During that period of time, Angles & Saxons occupied England, Celts moved to Ireland & Scotland, Franks & Burgundians sacked the area south of Rhine River (include the area of current France), Lombards & Visigoths pillaged Italian Peninsula. And finally Vandals & Visigoths conquered Iberian Peninsula. These so-called barbarians were all part of 日耳曼民族 with some common languages & blood. So general speaking, the nations like Spain, Portugal, Holland, British, France, Germany are all Germanic Nations. With this definition, they occupy most area of the earth today. 日耳曼民族 is part of Indo-European People & Indo-European people is part of Caucasian. So when Spanish (from south), Russian (from north) & American (from east) finally faced each other in California coast, the Caucasian conquered the earth. California is a living museum of the event. People here speak English but Spanish is widely used. Most of the street names are in Spanish, like El Camino Real, de las Pulgas. You also hear towns like Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Gatos etc. Then you also hear Russian River & the Seward’s Folly, the purchase of Alaska from Russia at 7.2 million dollars.
Without America, it is doubtful that Russian could resist Japanese, let alone German in the west front. Most people tend to agree that the US was instrumental in defeating Axis in World War II. This reminds me one story. In a party, someone asked: “日本無條件投降”,猜一中國古人名? If you are interested to know the possible answers, read the PS.
The old land frontiers are gone, no more lands to conquer or occupy. So the only criterion to judge the success is the area of the earth people occupy today. This is the Quantity & partly Quality, since more land in general yields more resources. But this is not the end of the world. The new frontiers are Ocean & Space. Our earth is actually a water sphere. No wonder British ruled the world in the last four centuries before the airplane appeared. The sun will die eventually, so the only way to survive in the far future is the space exploration. Based on this, it seems the US is still leading in the race, although Russia & China are not far behind. It remains to be seen which race or people going to be the winner in the exploration of the next new frontiers.
The extinction of dinosaurs occurred about 65 million years ago. Although primates existed near the end of the Cretaceous period, the modern human being was merely around 500,000 years ago. The cause of the dinosaur’s extinction due to mammals is questionable. Most scholars believed the impact of a large meteor may caused the extinction of the big reptiles.
“Quality, unless it can change to quantity, is a loser in biological competition”. This is an interesting argument. This begs the following question: what is the definition of Quality & what is the definition of Quantity. Evolution has no pre-determined purpose, so the quality may only mean the better fit for existence. Quantity is just the number. But how do you count the number of bacteria or micros? We may find million & million of bacteria in a tiny organ. The bacteria use shorter period of time to exist, mutate, multiply & die gracefully. The mammals can’t match this kind of competition no matter how hard they try. Ironically, China is limiting quantity of population in order to achieve higher quality of life. Obviously some balance needs to be maintained just like most other human events.
Father’s Day is no match to Mother’s Day. The reason is obvious since usually the bond between mother & children is stronger than father & children. The Mother’s Day is getting commercialized. In fact, the Anna Jarvis was very upset about it & she was against sending a card to mother. I don’t know what her preference was. No matter what we do, it is likely to incur some commercial activities.
Wei has several good points about the race & life. I agree with him on most of them. As an individual, we all concern about the pursuit of happiness & the quality of life. What we are talking about here is something in a larger scope. Looking from the top with historical viewpoint may yield some insight about the future of our species.
PS1:
左派人士: 蘇武
右派人士: 屈原
PS2:
Viking was also a branch of Germanic Tribe. Some of them settled down in Normandy of current France. They eventually crossed the English Channel & occupied England by defeating Saxon.
Talking about the future of the human species always leads us to a murky territory. There are all sorts of scenarios and speculations. With today’s ever more powerful computers, so many models have been created, and there are more coming everyday from all the universities and institutions. This is a fantastic subject for writing theses because its variations are almost inexhaustible. In the end, to choose the more likely models or scenarios among them will inevitably become political.
Just to express how much it is beyond me, let me follow the scenario of space exploration. I am not sure what it would do for the humans on this planet. To find some more space for humans to live? To find some more resources and transport them back to this earth to support humans? I can’t imagine that we have some farms in some planets providing food for us. I can’t even imagine what food we will be eating. Do we eat something like those in the space shuttle in the future? Do you think some day humans will not be enjoying good food and wine (water for Mark Yang, please) as we do at dinner instead just to eat those space “bento”- Japanese lunch box? That would be horrible.
I am glad that for sure I am not going to eat space bento in my life time. But how about our future generations, do we worry about them? Though I worry a little sometimes, I hope the future generations will be far smarter than us (at least me) to solve the problems that we think they may have. “A boat will straighten itself when if goes under a bridge”, let’s hope that will be the case.
It is quite strange. When I talk about future generations, what is really in my mind is the picture of Chinese people, not that of Caucasian. Well, when you are born a Chinese, you live and think as a Chinese.
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