Let the Games Go On

By Joan Chen
Wednesday, April 9, 2008; A19

I was born in Shanghai in 1961 and grew up during the Cultural Revolution. During my childhood, I saw my family lose our house. My grandfather, who studied medicine in England, committed suicide after he was wrongly accused of being a counterrevolutionary and a foreign spy.

Those were the worst of times.

Since the Cultural Revolution ended in the late 1970s, however, I have witnessed unimaginable progress in China. Changes that few ever thought possible have occurred in a single generation. A communist government that had no ties to the West has evolved into a more open government eager to join the international community.

A state-controlled economy has morphed into a market economy, greatly raising people's standard of living. It's clear that the majority of the Chinese people enjoy much fuller, more abundant lives today than 30 years ago. Though much remains to be done, the Chinese government has made rapid progress in opening up and trying to be part of the international community.

Last month I went to China and spent four weeks visiting Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Chengdu. The people I met and spoke with are proud and excited about the Beijing Games. They believe that the Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to showcase modern China to the rest of the world. Like many Americans, most Chinese people are disturbed by the recent events in Tibet. But after watching the scenes of violence and arson by the rioters, the Chinese believe that the government is doing the right thing in cracking down to restore order.

The Olympic torch is in California and is to be carried through San Francisco today. In a resolution criticizing China, Chris Daly, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said that demonstrating against the torch relay would "provide the people of San Francisco with a lifetime opportunity to help 1.3 billion Chinese people gain more freedom and rights." To his credit, Mayor Gavin Newsom did not sign Daly's resolution.

This statement could not be further from reality. For one thing, the Chinese are a proud people. They want freedom and greater rights, but they know they must fight for them from within. They know that no one can grant them freedom and rights from afar. The stigma of Western imperialism and the Opium Wars also remains a strong reminder of the past, and Chinese people do not want their domestic policies to be dictated by outside powers. They also do not want the United States to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Games. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow and the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles accomplished nothing. A U.S. boycott of the opening ceremonies in Beijing would be counterproductive for relations between the two countries.

For decades, anti-China human rights groups in Washington have spent millions of dollars denouncing China. To many Chinese, it seems that this lobby is the only voice that's acceptable or newsworthy in the U.S. media and to the U.S. government. But times are changing. We need to be open-minded and farsighted. We need to make more friends than enemies. Remember what a little ping-pong game did for Sino-U.S. relations in the 1970s? Let's celebrate the Olympics for what the Games are meant to be -- a bridge for friendship, not a playground for politics.

 

 

 

记得小的时候，我总是做鬼脸气妹妹，我一做鬼脸她100%会哭，我总是很得意，因为我得出的“定律”没有被打破过。

上学之后，我们一起玩的时间就变少了。只是周末在姥姥家聚聚。

妹妹写得一手好字和一手好文章。每次放寒暑假我都是前松后紧， 前面天天看电视，出去玩，快开学了开始补作业，我最头痛的就是假期日记，因为每个假期都是在吃喝玩乐中度过的，我上哪儿找那么多有意义的素材啊？我上五年级的时候妹妹上一年级了，我就捧着她的假期日记抄得津津乐道。

 

 

 

 

开学整整一个月了。功课虽然不难，却很繁重。留作业和考试是我们老师的嗜好。

说实话，当我们老师操一口“山东英语”说第一句话的时候，我真挺失望。怎么弄个移民给我们讲课呢？可别把我们给耽误了。

事实证明，虽然她的英语比不上当地白人，但教我们还是绰绰有余的。老师无论好不好，学校安排她做老师是有道理的。

抱着这种想法听课，心里舒坦很多。

班级里好多菲率宾人，词汇量大得都能当我的英语词库了。我总是奇怪那么一个小国怎么可能占据我们班级的半壁江山呢？问了才知道，原来英语是他们官方语言，孩子都是从幼儿园开始学英语，学校所有课程都是英语授课。这都得“归功于”菲率宾曾经是英国殖民地。哈哈，我能和英语是官方语言的人一起学习，说明中国人都是天才。

最近我好像阿Q了不少嘛。。。。。。

 

近来是春天和冬季斗争时期，天气时常是早上艳阳高照，下午风雪交加。这里的冬季实在是太漫长了，比哈尔滨还要长。很多长周末我只能在家“包窝”。现在才明白北美为什么暑假有三个多月。这短暂的夏季的确应该好好珍惜。