A Taste Of Chinese Hospitality.............Part 11

中国的好客之道----11

As I said earlier, I and my wife had seats in the different but adjacent compartments, I helped my wife find her seat first and then came back to find mine. The bags that we were carrying were big for the racks overhead, so the cabin attendants, the women dressed in crisp, ironed, uniforms like stewardesses of airlines, helped me stack them in space thoughtfully provided for such baggage, next to the entrance to the compartments. The train was quick to gather speed, the scrolling display indicated.

就如我之前所说的那样，我和我妻子的座位没有连在一起，我帮她找到座位后回来找我自己的作为。我们带的行李包很大，装不进头顶的行李架，所以穿着经过整洁熨烫的制服的空姐一般的女乘务员体贴地帮我把行李包放在靠近车厢门口的地方。车厢内的滚动显示屏上的数字显示，火车很快提速了。

There were very few boarders at the stations and there were almost no people to be seen in the scenery racing by. It was so very different scene from, bright, sunny, endless plains of India stretching till horizon. The train would pass through a tunnel every now and then, sometimes through three-four of them one after the other in a row. It seemed to me that Chinese determination had drilled through the grit of the nature.

车站内逗留的人非常少，沿途几乎看不见人。这跟印度明亮的，阳光灿烂的，无边无际的延伸到地平线的印度平原的风景很不一样。火车不时地穿过隧道，有时接连穿过3-4个隧道。在我看来，中国发展的决心已经钻透了大自然的砂砾层。

Bringing industrialization to China was the wisest move the leaders could take for the country. Agriculture as such by itself cannot bring prosperity to a nation, but if the terrain in unsuitable and the climate hostile and unpredictable, it becomes all the more daunting to sustain an upward growth of prosperity indices, if the moods of the nature play a stellar role in it. Agriculture is still only source of income for major part of the Indian public but the government has to support it with subsidies because most of them are poor. However, the benefits of subsidies doled out to the agriculturists are enjoyed by the people having large land holding while the poor farmers live on hope. From reeling under debts to the prospects of committing suicides, when the crops fail, they live every day in despair and dashed hopes till they can’t take it anymore.

带领中国走向工业化是领导人为中国作出的最明智的选择。农业本身没办法为一个国家带来繁荣，但如果地形不适宜、气候不好又难以预测，那么维持繁荣指数的上升就会变得更加困难。农业仍然是印度百姓的主要收入来源，因为大多数印度人都很贫穷，政府不得不通过补贴来支持农业。然而，发放的补贴都被拥有大量土地的人拿走了，而贫困农民还是靠天吃饭。债务缠身，除了自杀别无希望，当作物歉收时，他们每天都绝望地生活，希望化为泡影，直到他们再也无法忍受。

They don’t have any other skills and don’t want to leave their lands for looking for jobs that pay regular income. But in China, I see armies of skilled, unskilled, semi-skilled workers, men and women, dressed in unisex uniforms to blur the differences of identities, all having roots in peasantry, which robbed them of their childhoods, contributing in building the nation, by working as welders, fitters, painters or petty labourers in ship industry and perhaps in every other industry. I can say about the ship industry only to which I am connected and know about but I believe it must be so in every labour intensive industry. They are all very industrious and focused. We Indians don’t work even half as much. True, our farmers slog on postage stamp sized plots of land holdings they have, our poor toil day and night for feeding their families but dependents in a family far outnumber the bread earners and the rich live by depriving the poor of their just rights. Every Indian, who can afford a servant or a driver will give one hundred reasons for not increasing their paltry salary but won’t think twice while splurging money on his son or daughter or even his dog.

他们没有其他技能，也不想离开他们的土地，寻找有固定收入的工作。但在中国,我看到大批熟练的、不熟练的、半熟练的工人，男人和女人穿着男女皆宜的制服来减弱身份的差异，他们的根都在夺走他们童年生活的农村。他们用工作为建设国家做贡献，比如电焊工、装配工、画家或航运业的散工以及其他很多工种。我只能说说跟我有关联的航运业，但我相信在每一个劳动密集型产业中都是如此。他们都非常勤劳和专注。我们印度人的工作效率可能都不到他们的一半。诚然，我们的农民在邮票大小的土地上劳作，日夜劳碌为养活家人，但家里等饭吃的人比赚钱的人还多，而富人则靠剥夺穷人的合法权利生存着。每个能请得起佣人或司机的印度人，都有一百个理由不愿增加他们微薄的收入，但却为他的儿子或女儿，甚至是他的狗挥霍金钱，眼睛都不会眨一下。

And the poor are more burdened by the social stigma, social values. They are more worried about providing for their family and their dependents, about giving decent dowries to their daughters, they are more bothered by “what people will say” and they have more dependents, more mouths to feed, more people who live off their earnings. So is it on the national scene as well ‘the muft khor (people who are used to getting things for free) far outnumber the people who contribute to the GDP of the nation. All such people, especially their leaders should be put behind the bars. There should be no quota and no concession, but will the compulsions of vote based de ocracy ever let it happen? I am afraid that the widening rift, the simmering anger between those living on quota benefits and those without it, will one day result in a conflagration that will burn the nation down.

而穷人则更受社会偏见和社会价值观的影响。他们更担心能否给他们的家庭和他们的家属提供什么样的生活，能否为他们的女儿提供体面的嫁妆，他们更担心“人们会说什么”。他们有更多的家人要养活，更多张嘴要吃饭，更多的家人依赖他们的收入过活。全国都是如此，“那些习惯于免费获得东西的人”远远超过了那些为国家GDP做出贡献的人。所有这些人，尤其是他们的领导人应该被关进监狱。不该给他们配额，也不该对他们让步，但以选民为基础的民*制度能否实现这一理想? 我担心日益扩大的社会裂痕，那些靠配额福利过活和没有配额福利的人们之间的一触即发的仇视，早晚有一天会迸发，摧毁这个国家。

China too had a very conservative society until early nineteenth century, but the real leap forward for Revolution was the liberation of women. From the begng of the revolution Chinese women participated enthusiastically for liberation against feudalism and imperialism which for millennia gave them subordinate station in the society and deprived them of any rights. The Co unists party pledged to give equal status to women if they came in power and once in power they ensured that they got it. These women, fought for their rights of equality, liberated their selves from the clutches of the male dominance where they were treated as objects of sex, their feet were broken and wrapped in bandages to stunt their growth, where it was fashionable for the rich to keep them as concubines. Now the women in China walk in step with the men and in many fields are ahead of them. I think, Indian society will come of age when Indian women too would be able to assert their right of equality with men as emphatically as the women in China have done but a lot more needs to change along with that. First of all, the outlook of men must change. They have to stop seeing women as objects of lust.

直到19世纪初，中国仍是一个非常保守的社会，但革命真正的飞跃是妇女解放运动。从革命一开始，中国妇女就积极地参与反对封建主义和帝国主义的斗争。数千年来，封建主义和帝国主义使她们在社会中处于从属地位，她们被剥夺了任何权利。承诺如果他们掌权，会给予妇女平等的地位。上台后，她们的平等地位得到了保障。这些女性为了她们的平等权利而奋斗，把自己从男性统治的枷锁中解放了出来，她们曾经被视为性对象，被裹足，富人以纳妾为风尚。现在，中国的女性与男性平起平坐，在很多领域甚至领先于男性。我认为，印度社会也终将走向成熟，印度女性也能像中国女性一样强调她们的平等权利，但现在还需要做很大的改变。首先，男人的思想观念必须改变。他们必须停止将女性视为发泄性欲的对象。

China of today is zooming past the world that thought that the yellow race was too far behind to post a challenge, it didn’t have the capability of being the world leader as it was still living in its outdated wisdom of its ancestors, eating with chopsticks and speaking unintelligible dialect, but putting faith in their leaders as gospel truth, working with assiduity of the ants, they have given the clarion call of their arrival. I as an Indian don’t see them as our rivals. I don’t see India as a competitor, I don’t think, we, as we are today, have the capacity to challenge them. I want my countrymen to learn from them but what I take pleasure in (you may call it a streak of sadism) is the dent that it has made to the obtrusion of the Caucasian race that considered itself superior as until now there was none to question its claim.

今天的中国高速发展，将世界远远甩在身后。其他国家曾经认为黄种人太落后，不可能成为世界领导者，还活在祖先过时的智慧中，用筷子吃饭，说着难以听懂的方言，但中国人像信任绝对真理一般信任他们的领导人，蚂蚁一般勤勉工作，他们为他们的进步振臂高呼。作为印度人，我并不认为他们是我们的对手。印度也算不上一个竞争对手。我不认为，今天的我们有能力挑战他们。我希望我的同胞们能向他们学习，但我喜欢的是(你可以称之为一种残忍)它对白种人的打击，白种人自认为优越，但直到现在也没有人质疑这个说法。

【印度网友和Navneet的互动】

来源：三泰虎 http://www.santaihu.com/44645.html

Eric

Navneet

Chinese saying goes, there is time to squeeze squeeze.

中国老话说，时间挤一挤还是有的。

Navneet

Thanks but I have no time Eric

谢谢，但是Eric，我真的没时间

Eric

Sailor Uncle I think you should register a Chinese micro-blog, so you can better and China's ordinary people exchanges.

水手叔叔，我想你该注册一个微博账号，这样你可以更好的和普通中国人沟通。

Navneet

Thanks Eric for your wise comments. Yes, I agree with you as I am sure most of the people who read my blogs will that there should be co-operation and peace between the two great neighbours. The war indeed was a very unfortunate happening but as you have rightly said, it's a thing of the past, we should forget about it and look forward to a healthy and mutually benefiting relationship.

谢谢Eric的建议。是的，我同意你的想法，我相信大多数看我博客的人都支持我们两国之间的合作与和平。之前发生过的战争太不幸了，但就像你说的，这是过去的事了，我们应该忘记过去，放眼未来，建立健康互惠的两国关系。

M.V. Balaji

Navneet it is an admirable feat to read Conrad in a noisy train. He is one writer who needs full attention and you can miss the thread even through a slight distraction. It must have been pretty distracting trying to read an English book with all Chinese sounds around you.

Navneet，在吵闹的火车上读康拉德的书，好佩服你。他的书需要全神贯注地阅读，不然稍微不注意就会漏掉线索。在一片中文声中读英文书，很让人分心吧。

Navneet

Hahaha Yes Balaji, even with full attention and no noise around me, I find it difficult to understand him and am often driven to the point of giving up 'writing' but then I think, if ever I could write like him, who would read me (at Sulekha) :)))

哈哈，是的Balaji，就算我全神贯注，周围也没有任何声音，我也觉得要看懂他的书没那么容易，我经常想要放弃写作，但是转念一想，如果我像他那样写作，谁能看得懂呢？

Suresh Rao

Navneet>

After reading several of your China anecdotes and travelogues, I am curious to know whether there is any people's movement back from overpopulated industrialised Chinese Cities (like Shanghai for eg,) to rural interiors on the part of hard working Chinese couples!?

What I mean is... some ageing couples who worked all their youth in Cities may get tired of living in big cities and want to move back to their villages.. is that happening in China?

Do aged couples get any pension from the Government? Are there any signs of 'move back to villages' to enjoy simple pleasures of rural life there from big city average Chinese people?

我看了您写的几片中国轶事和游记，我很好奇有没有辛勤劳动的中国夫妇从人口过密的工业化城市(比如上海)搬回中部农村?

我的意思是……这些在城市工作的老年夫妇有没有可能厌倦大城市的生活，搬回自己的老家。中国有这种的事吗?

上了年纪的夫妻能从政府那儿领取退休金吗？有没有什么迹象表明，普通百姓从大城市“搬回农村”享受乡村生活乐趣?

Navneet

Hahaha Sureshji, that's a very good point that you have brought up. I am not sure about this but I read in Peter Hessler's book that some of the industries were being moved farther in to the interior China. I am sure one of these days, it will need to be done because of increasing pollution and other environmental problems but I don't think that the Chinese are getting disillusioned by commercialism as to get back to the peace and tranquility of village life.

哈哈，Sureshji，你提出的问题很好。我不太清楚，但我读过Peter Hessler的书，里面就写到，有些工业北迁到更偏远的中部地区。我知道因为越来越严重的污染和其他环境问题，肯定要这样做的。但我不认为中国人会讨厌商业化，过回平静的乡村生活

Suchisree/ Sree Kumar

Dear Navneeth,

Your presentation is like a travel together. It is but natural the thoughts of comparison with the motherland arise. The mindset is entirely different as it appears. They, hard working and we here crave for a Government job to take rest.

Lovely pictures too.

Regards,

Suchisree.

看了你的描述就像跟你一起旅行一样。跟印度不同，这是一种自然的想法。这种心态是完全不同的。他们努力工作，我们渴望得到政府的工作来休息。

Navneet

Yes, Suchisree- That is a very hard working race and what's more is that they work sincerely. Eight hours of work means eight hours of output. No gala, no tea break, nothing except the afternoon meal break, so work for work the output of a person here is at least three times that of a worker in India.

是的，他们是非常努力工作的群体，更难能可贵的是他们工作起来很认真。8小时的工作就意味着8小时的产出，没有闲聊，没有茶歇，没有下午茶，所以工作就是为了产出，这里一个人的工作量可以顶得上印度三个人的工作量。

Prasad Ganti 

Navneetji, good thoughts indeed.

写的很好。

Navneet

Hello Ron, With changing economic equation and prosperity all those problems that have already visited the prosperous West will come too. It's to be seen whether the new entrants to this game can handle those or how well do they handle when it comes. It's easier to find faults in others. With a rise in economic status, getting cheap labour (which as such is not right) will not remain available to the employers, so the cost of production will go up. With rising awareness, people will demand equal rights and other benefits like social security and pension etc., which now they don't have. So I think, it all a matter of time

你好Ron，随着经济的发展和繁荣，西方国家在发展过程中遇到的所有问题也将接踵而至。我们可以见证刚刚跨入发展门槛的中国能否处理好这些问题，或者当问题来临时，他们能处理得多好。在别人身上发现错误更容易。随着经济地位的提高，对于雇主来说，不再可能获得廉价劳动力(这是不正确的)，因此生产成本将会上升。随着人们意识的增强，人们会要求平等的权利和其他他们现在还没有的福利，如社会保障和养老金等。我认为这只是时间的问题。