Sunday, February 26, 2012

陶傑文章:「壁上觀」讀後感





陶傑是香港著名之評論家,對最近傳媒熱炒之「大陸遊客不文明行為」話題發表文章。拜讀之後感到戚戚然,不吐不快。

陶先生出門搭乘飛機,二十年來所見的都是:”坐在同一機艙內的中國遊客喧笑譟嘩打撲克”。他對此情此景肯定大感不快,而未曾及時好言相勸大概是生怕與這等遊客交談有損於自己的紳士風度。殊不知他的吝嗇卻助長惡風,使國人習非成是。事後挖苦是於事無補的。

敝下亦曾為了工作與旅遊而搭乘飛機。記得改革開放前和開放早期,在來往國際航班上絕少見到中國乘客,而在國內航班上咱們的同胞亦寥寥無幾。如今搭乘飛機不論到那裡去,中國乘客都不再罕見,尤其是國內航班上幾乎清一色全都是本地客。我從未預感此種變化會來臨得這麼快,目睹國人追上世界潮流亦興奮莫名。他們出門看世界或出外公幹,坐飛機再不是遙不可及之夢想!

奇怪,陶先生所見的怎麼會滿眼都是國人之弊端和陋習。他不但不甘與他們為伍,還以嬉笑怒罵、冷言冷語的方式盡情挖苦。樹大有枯枝,更何況中國有十三億人口,其中良莠不齊在所難免,但害群之馬是絕不可能在同一時間傾巢而出的罷!陶先生有沒有誇大其辭呢?明眼人自有分寸。

陶先生文中把批評大陸遊客不文明行為之話題突然扯到中日領土的爭端上。他說:”日本政府把幾個海上小島劃歸名下,中國抗議,日本的腰板挺得硬直,宣布中方抗議無效,為什麼?因為有八成日本民意,對中國人沒有好感,這就是日本強硬的最大後盾。”

可惜陶先生沒有指明哪幾個小島,但暗示島上有民居。據聞這些中日各自宣示擁有主權的小島多屬無人居住之珊瑚礁,何來民意呢?縱使有人居住,未曾深入調查又怎可未卜先知其民意取向呢?陶先生站在日本一方之心態,一目瞭然。

即使退一步說,他那”民意”指的是全日本,而非島上居民之意,那麼,十多億中國人的民意就不够”強硬”,放不進陶先生之眼中嗎?

黄啓樟 2012/2/16於Fort Myers

8 comments:

  1. David,
    What mentioned by 陶傑 in his article about our Chinese Tourists is quite true. People like us travelling around in these past 30 to 40 years already knows. Just as what he has said, this is the 「儒家燦爛文化」. Not only mainland Chinese, even Taiwan Chinese and most Hong Kong Chinese all possess the same characters. Within them, some are the 風俗, like 熱熱鬧鬧 (easily becomes 喧嘩).
    Others are 陋俗, like 吐痰及打尖等, due to farmer background and lack of civic mentality.
    The problem is who is 陶傑, or how he positions himself when writing this article. He sounds like a non-Chinese "中國人不是唯一的民族。你喜歡嘈吵,那麼回去唐人街好了", not even a Hongkonger "身為香港人的你" 而不是我們.
    And then, he advocated and divided Chinese into we-they. We HongKonger and they Chinese like two races or two countries. The whole article does not have any sorry or concerning or embarrassing feeling of this Chinese 陋俗, 進而提供一些 positive suggestion to help it out, 反而try to alluring them to "要站到國際,也就是西方文明這一邊來", to alienating them away from their own people.
    The world is getting smaller, different countries and races should not alienating each other but to help each other, don't talk even within ones own race. 陶傑 seems to have certain 中文文釆, but with a narrow mind like those 憤青, or 憤中,憤老. 那麽他所讀聖賢書,所為何事。就算他讀飽四書五經,滿肚佛偈聖經,又有何用,都是白讀.
    又或者他很清楚上面各點,以及他這篇文章的作用,而別有用心,則其心可誅。
    Eddie

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  2. Eddie,
    Yours is one of the very good articles I have seen in this Club.
    "positive suggestion to help it out,"
    The suggestion is simple without the need to spell it out; just getting rid of those 陋俗. I think we should ask why it is so difficult for some Chinese to get rid of it.
    「儒家燦爛文化」
    I am sure Tao Kit understands Confucianism, especially about 禮. 有禮就沒有陋俗. He is mocking those Chinese who do not adhere to the teaching of Confucius, as negative education.
    He sounds like a non-Chinese
    He is a Chinese all right. He just makes it clear that he, among those like him, is not one of those Chinese who cannot kick the 陋俗
    but with a narrow mind like those 憤青, or 憤中,憤老. 那麽他所讀聖賢書,所為何事。就算他讀飽四書五經,滿肚佛偈聖經,又有何用,都是白讀.
    I don't think he is narrow-minded. He knows where the soft spots of some people are and he pokes them. My observation is that wise as he appears to be, he is prepared to be whipped. He understands that his enemies love to read what he writes so that they have the pleasure of whipping him. He does not want to lose these readers besides his supporters. Truly, he 讀飽四書五經,滿肚佛偈聖經. However, as a professional writer of essays and books, he can present himself to the readers in a different personality.
    If he writes with no substance, how come many newspapers, magazines carry his articles, and how come some of his books are bestsellers. I would not judge him casually.
    PF

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  3. Eddie,
    There are things, of course, the Chinese need to improve, there is no question about it. But put it this way, every nation have its bad apples and need to improve too.
    "中國人不是唯一的民族。你喜歡嘈吵,那麼回去唐人街好了". Having said that this person had never been to an Italian Restaurant at all. If he did, he will never have this commend. The Spanish conversation is also a loud one.
    My saying is not just how the Chinese behave in public. We all know education down the road is going to improve these images for sure. Going back 50 years ago, the same thing is happening in Hong Kong too, if we can pull that out from our memory. It is the question of the eye balls from a yellow skin person looking down on our own skin. Things don't happen overnight and there is 1.3 billion people in China. What can you do? Turn the boat upside overnight. Be reasonable. Western people are doing bad things too but make it looks more civilize only. Look at what they are doing in the Middle East. Are they doing the right thing? They are doing that to one country and then another and then another again.
    I totally agree with you in your last paragraph. What a man......
    Frankie Wai

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  4. Mike,
    Please read again my last mail more carefully and try to understand what I have writen.
    There are basically two parts in my mail. First part is about the bad behaviour of some Chinese (actually, from my experience it is quite a lot, not some). Many people know about it and certain writers have writen about it. In my first paragragh I agreed with 陶傑 on this as it is a well known fact by most people anyway.
    As this is the common bad habbit of Chinese (including those living in HongKong, Taiwan and even overseas), 陶傑 tried to use it to alienating the Chinese living in Hong Kong to those living in Mainland China is not correct. If the purpose of his writing the article is not to try to help and correct his fellow Chinese (if he is a Chinese), but to alienating the Chinese, then there is a problem. If he not aware of this, he is not worth the "才子". If he knows but deliberately wrote it out of his own mind, he is only a "有才而無德無智之人". Last and for all, if he wrote it because of other people or organisation for a purpose, not out of his own, that is even worse.
    In your other mail, you told us you only care about your own children, not your neighbours.
    Well, in 陶傑's case, the story should be:
    Once in a house, the family was sick and weak, a robber intruded into the house, beat up the family and occupied a room. When the family members getting better, they drove away the robber and regain the room. As the family members outside that room has just been recovered and still not yet healthy, 陶傑's article is tantamount to advocate the children in that room to alienate the other children of the family, and to treat them like strangers.
    Of course, the world should be better if we could also care about other neighbours, but at least we should care about other members of our family. Though "各家自掃門前雪'' is one of our Chinese character, and "關我屁事" is some Hongkonger's tradition, but Chinese also has the spirit of "一方有難, 八方支援" 的美德.
    Eddie

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  5. David:
    Your written Chinese is professional. Why don’t you submit your articles to the Chinese press besides your own blog. Particularly to the paper in which Tao writes. If the mainland Chinese love to play cards on the plane, let them do so as long as they don’t bother the other passengers. If so, put a notice on the plane like we do on our buses: “No loud conversations, No food or Drinks, When you see anything suspicious, tell the driver, etc. etc.” Now, these No’s No’s are not only directed to a certain group of people, but all bus riders.
    We ethnic Chinese have been looked down on for over a century by other ethnic peoples who don’t give a damn whether we are Chinese-Americans, Chinese-Canadians, or “Hong Kongers!”
    Joe

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  6. Do not waste your time on 陶傑. He does not worth a damn.
    Glen

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  7. Thank you for another very thoughtful and thought provoking piece.
    Always a pleasure to read your essays.
    I agree because in my high school class, we have a constant flow of email discussion about current topics. Several of them disapprove of everything Chinese and it has become a topic of ridicule among most of the other classmates. But these people have absolutely no insight into their own character.
    Peter

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  8. Dear David,
    Thanks for your messages and your personal views which I share with you always. I always enjoy what you write, correct and precise.
    Many thanks.
    Stanley

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