Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article: A1292-W908

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1292-W908

Release Date: May 23, 2020

发布日：2020年5月23日

Topic: The Experiences and Lessons of the May 4th Movement in China (Part 3) -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：五四运动的经验与教训（之三） -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

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The Experiences and Lessons of the May 4th Movement in China (Part 3)

-- Wei Jingsheng

Many friends nowadays like to compare the Little Pink Nationalist Movement in China now to the Boxer Rebellion (120 years ago). In fact, the two are very similar but different. The Boxer's goal was religious, or a by-product of traditional imperialism. This is not the same as the modern Little Pink Nationalism fanaticism in China.

Modern nationalism, which originated from foreign thoughts, is also a product of the movement learning from the West. Although literary and artistic works including modern novels like to describe nationalism being in China since ancient times, that is just modern propaganda, instead of reality. Because the ethnic and racial components of the Chinese people have been very complex since ancient times, a regime calling for racism was basically untenable in China, and the Mongols’ “Yuan Dynasty” in China was already the limit, while the Manchuria’s Qing Dynasty was more obedient than the Yuan Dynasty – they were almost completely made into Chinese when ruling China.

So what really was this nationalism? Looking at Japan before the Second World War will make people understand many things. Don’t you think that the Japanese at that time were looking like the current little pink Chinese nationalists in the mirror? Their Nationalism was fanatical to such a degree, and it was completely unreasonable. Looking back at the May 4th Movement and the Cultural Revolution, they are in the same vein as nationalism.

By the time of the May 4th Movement, the trend for China to learn from the West had been transformed into learning from Japan. This shows the inherited relationship between the two fanatics. For example, the young people in China now can’t wait to have a white lineage, which is more obvious in online novels, especially in the novels that involve time travel. These youths even dye their hair yellow, as although they do not really have Caucasian genes at least they want to pretend that they have.

This trend of thought was already popular in Japan at the beginning of the last century, and some people even called for genetic modification in Europe. This is the same as the Chinese Communist regime’s claim that the Chinese race does not deserve democracy and freedom. Of course, the literati groomed by the Communist Party used more clever terms called Asian special values, or something special, to avoid being condemned as racists.

Also from Japan, the national inferiority complex popular in the May 4th era was strengthened under the complete Westernization policy of the Communist Party. In order to tout the supreme sacred position of the object of their copying, and to give themselves a layer of undoubted aura, these speculative scholars who did not fully understand what they were reading created a national cultural inferiority mentality for the ideological circles of that era.

Let us recall that from the May 4th Movement to the Cultural Revolution, there was much clamor of “smashing Confucianism” and “traditional Chinese culture is a cannibalism” sort of things filling the newspapers and books published by the Communist regime. From this, one could understand why the excellent ingredients in traditional Chinese culture are gone, along with the Chinese morals. These speculative literati who wanted to completely westernize China didn't fully understand the books they read and simply didn't understand that the western morality is essentially the same as the traditional Chinese morality. Although one is maintained by religion, the other was maintained by more pure ideological values.

The moral system of a nation and a society evolved gradually over thousands of years and can only be improved by a small amount. Moreover, regardless of ethnicity, the fundamentals are the same. Once it was completely smashed according to the call of the May 4th literati, what would it become from something built from scratch? It reverted to the selfishness, greed, cruelty and betrayal of human nature. This is the portrayal of modern Chinese society and is the result of the May 4th youth represented by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping who studied the West and yet went astray.

The result of reading without fully understanding, and eager to gain fame and benefit is bound to go astray. The result of the choices made by these so-called passionate youths must be to choose the one that was able to fool the most. The Communist Soviet Union became the goal of many May 4th youths. In the contest between correct learning from the West and the one that was able to fool the most, Japan ’s aggression against China and the Soviet Union ’s intervention in the Chinese civil war played a decisive role in changing the historical trajectory.

Of course, it cannot be denied that the political short-sightedness of Western democratic countries led by the United States, coupled with the so-called utilitarian policy of “no eternal friends but only eternal interests”, has resulted in the loss of several opportunities to promote democracy in China, including preventing the opportunities for China becoming a Communist state.

It was not that the Chinese did not work hard by themselves, but that the Chinese literati brought the country into the ditch. The friends in the West were just watching from the side, resulting in the sacrifices of the Cold War and the Korean and Vietnam Wars later on. It seems that racism is indeed very harmful.

(This English version is translated by Ciping HUANG, without any compensation. Wei Jingsheng and the Wei Jingsheng Foundation appreciate her decades of contribution, especially for allowing the use and distribution of her translations of these commentaries.)

Original link of the commentary broadcasted by Radio Free Asia:

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-05222020155352.html

To hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's related commentary, please visit:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2020/WeiJS200522onMay4Movement3.mp3

(Written and recorded on May 22, 2020. Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia on May 22, 2020.)

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中文版

Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article: A1292-W908

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1292-W908

Release Date: May 23, 2020

发布日：2020年5月23日

Topic: The Experiences and Lessons of the May 4th Movement in China (Part 3) -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：五四运动的经验与教训（之三） -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问：

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2020/report2020-05/WeiJS200523onMay4Movement3A1292-W908.htm

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五四运动的经验教训（之三）

n 魏京生

如今的很多朋友，喜欢把小粉红民族主义运动比作义和团，其实这两者很相似却不同。义和团的目标是宗教性的，或者说是传统的皇权主义的副产品。这和现代小粉红的民族主义狂热不是一回事儿。

现代的民族主义，起源于外来思想，也是学习西方运动的产物。虽然现代的小说等文艺作品，喜欢把民族主义描写成是自古以来，但那只是现代宣传而已，并不是什么自古以来。因为自古以来中国人的民族、种族成分就很复杂，号召种族主义的政权，在中国基本站不住脚，蒙古人的元朝已经是极限了。清朝就比元朝更乖，几乎完全汉化。

那么这种民族主义是怎么回事儿呢？看看第二次世界大战之前的日本，会让人明白很多事儿。大家不觉得那时候的日本人，和现在的民族主义小粉红就像照镜子一样吗？民族主义狂热到了要死要活的地步，而且完全不讲理。再回过头看看五四运动和文化大革命，那就是和民族主义一脉相承。

再联系到中国学习西方潮流，到了五四时代已经转变为学习日本，就可以知道两个狂热之间的传承关系了。举例说明，现在的小青年们恨不得自己有个白人的血统，在网络小说，特别是什么穿越小说里表现得比较明显。他们甚至把头发染成黄色，当不了真的当一把假的也要过把瘾。

这种思想潮流在上世纪初的日本已经流行，甚至有人号召到欧洲去换换人种。这和现在共产党说中国人种就不配民主自由，可谓是异曲同工。当然，共产党的御用文人们使用比较巧妙的说法，叫做亚洲特殊价值观，或者特色什么什么的，避免了种族主义的指责。

也是从日本传来的，在五四时代流行的民族自卑心理，在共产党的全盘西化政策下得到了加强。为了吹捧自己抄书对象的至高神圣地位，为了给自己照上一层不容置疑的光环，这些读书不求甚解的投机文人，为那个时代的思想界制造了民族文化自卑的心态。

回想一下从五四到文革，充满报章书刊的砸烂孔家店，传统文化就是吃人文化的叫嚣，就知道中国传统文化里的优秀成分为什么会荡然无存；现在中国人的道德为什么会荡然无存。这些读书不求甚解的投机文人，根本就不懂他们要全盘西化的西方道德，和中国传统道德本质上没什么区别。不过一个靠宗教维持；一个靠比较纯粹的思想价值观维持。

一个民族一个社会的道德体系，都是几千年来逐渐演化形成的，只能小幅度改良。而且不分人种民族，基本面都是相通的。一旦按照五四文人们的号召彻底砸烂，从头建设的是什么呢？就是回复到人本性的自私、贪婪、残酷和背信弃义。这正是现代中国社会的写照，是以毛泽东、邓小平为代表的五四青年学习西方走向歧途的结果。

读书不求甚解又急于得名得利的结果，必然是学习走向歧途。而这种所谓的热血青年选择的结果，必然是谁最会忽悠就选择谁。共产主义的苏联，就成为很多五四青年的目标。在正确学习西方和大忽悠选择之间的较量中，日本对中国的侵略和苏联对中国内战的干预，起到了改变历史轨迹的决定性作用。

当然，不能否认：以美国为首的西方民主国家政治上的的短视，加上所谓的没有永远的朋友，只有永远的利益的功利主义政策，丢掉了几次促使中国民主的机会，包括阻止中国共产化的机会。

不是中国人自己不努力，而是文人们把国家和民族带到了沟里。西方的朋友们只是在看热闹，以至于后来才有了冷战、朝鲜战争和越南的牺牲。看来种族主义确实害人不浅。

(本评论的英文版本由黄慈萍翻译。魏京生和魏京生基金会感谢她数十年来有关的无偿贡献，特别是使用和发布此译文的许可。)

本篇评论在自由亚洲电台的原始链接：

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-05222020155352.html