"I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known"
Yesterday, I spent almost the entire day in Jurong West public library reading Plato's Republic, and my miserable record was having gone through just 140 pages, or the first five books.
It was totally a shock to me that a public library in Singapore could actually become so crowded during the weekend. From about noon, not only were all the seats taken, but even on the floor sat groups of three or four students doing their homework and lonely readers burying their heads in books. Later I was to be reduced to be one of them - and I assure you that sitting on the ground and leaning against cement wall was not the best position to read The Republic, even though it wasn't Benjamin Jowett's translation, which was unfortunately the one that I first read several years ago.
In any case, seven hours of reading was not to be unpunctuated by toilet and/or meal/cigarette breaks, and therefore I walked in and out of the library several times. I noticed this PRC-looking guy in his early 30s sitting on an area not far from the toilets on the third floor of the library, and he sat there alone almost the entire day too, only to disappear after dinner time. In the morning and early afternoon, he was reading a Chinese language tabloid, but did not look very engaged with the reading. Around dinner time, when I passed by him again, he was eating a self-packed dinner, while playing loudly some very mainland-China sounding pop song with his--I can tell--shanzhai mobile phone. He didn't have very much of a facial expression - in fact I would say he was totally blank, just eating the dinner from transparent bento boxes, on the floor, with the Chinese music coming out from his mobile phone. But, looking at him, tears suddenly filled my eyes. It was, of course, the pathetic tears of self pity, as I felt, at the sight of him on the floor, eating alone and listening to music, that I have seen my very self.
My guess is that he is what in Singapore is called a 'guest worker', or temporary immigrant worker. Sunday is perhaps his only day off in a week, and he is alone, so he sits on the floor in a public library, seeing, I'm sure as he does, busy families, student couples, noisy children passing him by. Many would have thought that his playing music loud was bad manners and annoying, though where he sat was outside the glass wall bounded library area.
We are not really different... We are going through very much the same thing in our totally unrelated and non-intersecting lives. In a place which is not home, all by oneself, fighting and struggling at the moment, hoping to make life a little bit better in the future. That, of course, is the heroic narrative. The reality for him, let me guess, is that there is little he can do on a Sunday, as he does not have money, that's why he is here to make it. Neither does he know many people here, and perhaps he hasn't made friends from the workplace - who knows, his workmates might be indian or Bangladeshi guest workers with whom he cannot converse, or even Chinese people from different parts of China. He has nowhere to spend his Sunday - I suppose his dormitory is not very comfortable either. So he finds the public library, a space that belongs to ostensibly everyone. There is free air-conditioning here, you see, and it's much easier to pass a day's time - at least he doesn't need to sweat. He doesn't want to read anything serious - after a week of what must be quite tiring work. He knew he'd be hungry at meal times, so he had brought packed meals, to be eaten while playing music that comforts him - those music had been in his phone before he came here. They travelled with him to Singapore. They were memories and comforts from home....
As for my reality: university libraries don't open on Sundays, and where I live - a room rented from a local family - has no aircon either. I have been working for an entire week too...Two weeks in fact! since I arrived in Singapore....read articles to revise an article draft, and then read for writing another piece. I'm tired too, but I can't rest, as I have set myself the task of reading for a module on literary theory on weekends- they have to be finished with in the weekend, they mustn't interfere with my main work, but I want to learn literary theory too. I couldn't help falling asleep at one point in the afternoon on the sofa in the library, but after that I gorged on a super thick sweet kopi and carried on with Socrates's unending discourse.
We are just the same, really, the two of us. Working reasonably hard, hoping life will turn better one day, meanwhile compromising to get whatever little bit of comfort that is within our reach: he by listening to music from motherland, I by inhaling cigarette smoke and hearing the familiar sounds of British accented English from the BBC world service. We are doing substantively different things, but I can recognise myself when I see him sitting on the floor, bearing whatever life means. Our days, this ordinary Sunday spent in a community library in the west part of Singapore, are negligible drops in the deluge of human history; but we each, in our dogged naivety and doomed optimism, believe that we are walking towards our dream goals.
"I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
Opening Remark
Recently I had a conversation with a good friend, in which I expressed my opinion that all academic pursuits are basically fraud. He disagreed by saying 'autheticity is my middle name'. This prompted me to question myself what would be mine, and I find no more suitable word than Cynicism. Hence, from today on, my name is Peidong C. Young, C for Cynicism. 9/7/10
Monday, 15 August 2011
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
关于人类学与文化的保护/传承

云南大学很可以代表的一种传统的民族人类学,似乎有一个默认的价值观,即少数民族的文化要尽力保护,尽力传承,仿佛文化的剧烈变迁是不好的,更不要说文化的消亡。
但是我的后现代主义价值观(这点reflexivity我还是有的)让我不能同意这一默认,于是乎也就不太能与大多数云大派人类学家的学术精神产生共鸣。
自然,文化的消亡就像物种的消亡会降低我们人类社会生态系统的多样性,由此也就会带来很多弊处。可是不要忘记,古老、偏远的少数民族文化不可逆转地消亡的同时,新的亚文化、支文化也在我们的现代/后现代社会中不断地诞生着。这些应运而生的文化往往比古老的原生态的文化更加radical,更加能够有效地与权力抗争—而不是我们想象的:似乎全世界都被全球资本主义这一力量同一化、简单化。全球资本主义同一化的力量越大,各种亚文化反抗的接触点、反抗的策略也就越多。文化的多样性不一定是减少了。
文化在历史的洪流中诞生、发展、繁荣、变异、衰弱、消亡。。。这些都是亘古以来就一直发生着的过程。以保护和传承文化为默认价值观的人类学也会因此而变得无力、无趣。
当然,作为一门学科,我觉得坚守它的一些学术传统还是有好处、有必要的。当今学术界有名气的“现代人类学家”(anthropologists of the contemporary,例如:Paul Rabinow, Aihwa Ong)很多原来受的都是最传统、最严格的人类学训练。他们现在move on了,但有义务让下一代人类学家受到同样好的anthropological pedagogy。这就是为什么剑桥牛津的人类学在doctoral阶段的训练上还有非常大一部分传统的成分。这是好事!云大的传统/经典人类学教育也是非常好的事!但是!常常造成的结果却是很多人类学家自从受了这种训练后,眼界就变窄了。借用邵京博士(南京大学)的话来说就是,这些人类学家只会平视,而做不到俯视和仰视,而这后两种视角才是我们全球化形势下真正有趣、有意义、有关联性(relevant)的分析角度。真正有能力的社会学家/人类学家应当做到能在这些不同的视角中游刃有余地穿梭、切换。
最后,当然还有一个很重要的一个维度,即历史的眼光。这样也就是一个四维的观察框架。(如上图)
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
滨江实习期间的迷你讲座:通过看电视想到的关于中国社会的几点

无所不在的法治节目
从至少十年前起,中国的电视就充满了各类“法制/治”内容的节目。最有代表性的应当是央视的“今日说法”和现在的“法制在线”、“经济与法”,其时收视率是很高的。但仔细看这些所谓的法治节目,我发现它们的内容日益趋向猎奇和讲故事,而偏离了解释法理、普及法律常识的初衷。叙事的语调也从辨析法律上的疑难点移向平俗的感情化的叙事。这里一个很简单的原因当然是,世上没有那么多法理角度上复杂的案例,可是节目还是要每天每天办下去,于是不得不什么案子都播。但更深一个层次,中国目前充斥着“法制节目”的现象可能也正是国家处于法治建设进行时的一个表征。有趣的是,法制建设本来应当通过普及一些法律的概念和法理学的原理,而现在的节目做的是感情化的说教:用惨状来吓你,用眼泪来煽你,用语重心长、用忏悔来戒你。。。。避开冷静、超脱的分析,而依靠感召的力量,似乎是我们中国人思维的一个特征。至于这到底是多年来共产主义式的宣传方式造成的,还是有更深层次的“文化”解释,则是一个更难回答的问题。
广告中的奥秘
一般我们看电视,看到广告就觉得boring。有些拍得稍微有创意一点的广告,我们则会欣赏一下。但是,从“社会符号”的角度来说,广告其实蕴含了非常丰富的社会信息。因为广告的目的就是要抓住人的注意力,而后打动人心,所以广告中的一些主题和叙事方法力求反映消费者乃至整个社会的欲望、理想和追求。而且,通过 一个国际比较的视角,我们更看出不同国家和社会在文化和在追求上的不同。
我第一次有这个体验是一年多以前在印度做社会学调研。那时在旅馆里看电视,发现印度电视广告里最大的一个主题就是野心(ambition)和憧景(aspiration),大多数广告都围绕憧景美好生活,而后实现美好生活这一主题展开叙事。比如信用卡MASTER CARD的一个广告,几个朋友在一起追忆当年穷的时候,一起聚餐后互相不肯付账,想推到别人身上,时过境迁,现在这些朋友们个个事业成功,西装革履,都有信用卡,吃完饭后抢着用MASTER CARD付账。
印度的广告中还有一个特征就是个人主义比较突显。叙述成功通常是个人成功,偶尔会有三口之家的情景,但从来没看到三代四世同堂这种叙事主题。这与中国的广告产生鲜明对照。我们常常在中国的广告里看到成了年成了家的孩子买一些产品送给高堂老母,来尽孝道。比如说买补品,或买一个空调,让父母开心。所以家庭观念在中国文化中的中心地位就在这个对比之下突显出来。
印度的广告中也有“家”这个话语元素。但是它的作用方式比较不同。他们主要把家看作一个美好生活的代号,所以很多整体厨房、家具和家居装修的广告都是在“家”(home, not family)这个主题下开展的。中国也有这类,比如说最近我常常看到的一个除甲酫空调的广告,这反映了我们国民对拥有一个属于自己的温馨舒适的家的追求,也从另一个侧面表现了中国房地产和私家购房的热度――大家都买新房,所以甲酫才是一个问题。
最后还想说一个批判一点的观点:广告中我们还可以看到社会上的不平等和压迫。还是以印度为例。印度是一个多民族、多文化、多语言的国家,各个地域的人其实长得很不一样,习俗、习惯,经济发展程度也不一样。比如说印度东北部几个邦的人长得像中国人,南部泰米尔邦的人皮肤则非常黑,而北部新德里附近的人皮肤相对颜色浅一些。印度的广告里我从来 没有看到皮肤深黑或是长得像中国人的面孔。演员青一色的是英俊漂亮的皮肤白皙的印度人――比平均还要要白皙很多。这就说明,在印度人的想象中,皮肤白皙也代表高贵和美。虽然他们自己国家的其实肤色很深。这种对白肤色的向往和欲望,其实与全球范围内的肤色政治不谋而合。总而言之,广告虽小,但它往往是解读一个社会和一个文化的一扇窗户。
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
杂感几则
一。关于“真理”
真理是碰撞的火花,转瞬即逝。真理在任何一个话语体系中都找不到,而应该由一个思想自由的人通过自己对各种思想、理论的比较和相互批判中去寻找。比较和批判的过程是无止境的,“真理”的形态也是永恒变化的。在这个永恒的动态中,我们可以不停地逼近真理,但永远不要认为我们可以抓住真理。你认为你抓住真理的瞬间,其实已与它相去十万八千里了。
二。社会发展阶段的问题
中国现在处于社会主义初级阶段暨资本主义初级阶段。与此相对,欧美西方处于资本主义高级阶段。主要体现是目前中国的个人资本积累在很大程度上还依赖于不法、违规、和不道德的经营或敛财方式。中国的新闻媒体,特别比如新闻频道,可谓充满了各式各样五花八门的明察暗访,来揭露公私部门中各种各样的违法缺德资本积累方式。这与马克思描述的资本主义原始积累相呼应。在西方社会中,多数这样的积累方式早已是过去时。盈利活动都是规范化、合法化的,也因此,经济活动中的技术革新、创意的重要性尤为突出。而在初级资本主义中国,由于经营活动中的社会秩序没有内化到人,从不法行为中有利可图,于是互相效尤。与此相对,西方资本主义中现在的不法、违规或非道德通常发生在一个非常高和不透明的层面。一个很明显的例子就是次贷危机和由此引发的全球金融危机。其他可以想到的例子还有基因和医药领域科技创新的商业化。这些都是资本主义通过技术革新开疆辟土,强化和升级资本积累的做法——故谓之资本主义高级阶段。
三。The Chinese Rhetorical Habit
有时候我真觉得中国人就是要被忽悠才高兴!这就是为什么有“外国专家”一来,英文一说,他们就诚服了,因为听不懂嘛。这跟天真的中国家长追捧“外教”是一个道理。探讨一个问题,你要说得他们听得懂了,而且用一个谦虚的语气跟他们说,他们反而觉得你底气不足,没有权威。他们喜欢听荡气回肠的高谈阔论,对于论据的虚实却不多过问,逻辑的严密也无所谓。对于事实了解不足就高谈阔论、传教布道,这不只是一个学术态度和习惯的问题了。不过我们对中学教师可能也不能要求太多吧。
The Unimportance of Being Oxford

This is an experience I had after returning to my home town in China.
Although people generally lavished praise on me upon hearing that I am now a doctoral student at Oxford University, in private they have actually very specific and already formed idea of success. The Chinese society (or perhaps East Asian societies in general) is now satuated with a cultic attitude towards personal financial success. And the dissemination/circulation of discourse therein seems a point of interest. Students who have gone abroad to study (usually in the U.S.) are typically viewed as having absorbed the advanced technological expertise, capitalist concepts, ideas, and innovative/entrepreneurial spirits. Thus, the successful entrepreneur returning from the US with advanced concepts and who makes fortunes based on the application of those concepts in China is the archetypal heroic overseas-educated student figure in the Chinese imagination.
From their reading of news papers, listening to news and browsing the Internet, many halfwitted Chinese people have become very familiar with such a figure, and can usually list examples, sometimes even among their own acquaintances.
If another academically successful individual who has gone abroad to study in prestigious institutions does not conform to their conceptual stereotype, instead of moderating their views, the Chinese actually view this atypical individual, such as myself, with suspecion.
So, when I disclosed that I was interested in no more than becoming a university academic, I was immediately greeted with ambiguous smiles, and sometimes downright disapproval, for 'lacking ambition' or for 'being complancent with petty comfort and security'--that they don't know inseurity is in fact rapidly becoming a hallmark of the academic profession is, of cousre, not their fault.
Fair enough, what I usually do not disclose is my academic ambitions, which I admit are rather hollow and unrealist but not necesssarily more so than most entre/technopreneurial ambitions, but I doubt they would understand even if I did. Perhaps an 'academic ambition' is a contradiction in terms for them, because, in these Chinese people's mind, being an academic teaching peacefully in a university is a sign of mediocraty, if not prima facie failure. Ambitious people, in contract, go out into the world and make billions. Of course, such a misconcpetion is forgivable, because these people themselves have never in their lives met a truly brilliant academic, nor have they ever actually opened their eyes to the world of ideas and contemplation, which is almost a spiritual world, if we are talking about a sufficiently high level. Their myopia is a historically determined condition, which is not to be blamed. But I am at least glad that I have a more open mind, thanks to a broader vision and experience of the world -- on in certain senses, of course.
But my point remains, that people DO actually have their already formed ideas of success and achievement and, speaking more broadly, of normativity. They won't easily alter these ideas, if at all. One of the attendant merits of being intelligent should be the capacity of imagination--imagining alternative forms of living and meaning, and sadly they aren't capable of it.
Monday, 2 August 2010
Ambition and Friendship

This is not some sort of new insight, but I think I have my own two pence worth to add. Ambitious people seem to find it hard to enjoy friendship, but perhaps not only for the usual cliche reasons we assume, namely, that ambition leads to greed, selfishness, megalomania, and betrayal, which all keep one away from friendship. Put it Biblically, it is more difficult for an ambitious man to have a true friend than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. While these reasons are undoubtedly valid, they are usually only applicable to people with more extreme forms of ambition, such as political and monetary ones.
However, for the less belligerently ambitious people, the above may not always apply. In fact, more positive forms of ambition, such as determination at self-improvement and self-refinement, may equally render one unsuitable for enduring friendships. The self-conscious and self-critical are trapped in a constant anxiety to improve his current state minute by minute, and thus suffers from a disturbing, sometimes suicidal, remorse regarding the stupidities that he has committed in the past, including yesterday, or perhaps several hours ago. Such a perverted form of ambition at self-improvement usually leads to a highly conscientious individual, who has no time to waste, because each second wasted is a chance lost for improving himself.
Herein lies his incapability for friendship, for the latter is a form of emotional attachment which implies certain duration. If one does not anticipate a friendship to last, one is not entering into one in the first place. That could be better termed as contingent companionship. Friends coming from one's past trouble one because they mercylessly remind the conscientious individual of his 'stupid' past, and his inability to shake off that dreaded past. When old friends appear, one is naturally required to reminisce, and to conjure up memories of the past, which, for that ambitious individual is a fetter to his constant self-transformation to greatness - however that is defined. There is something self-contradictory in the essential features of human condition and the emotional needs that human beings commonly perceive imperative or virtuous.
If sex can be had for ever, without the urge and longing before it and the contrasting disaffection and apathy (and for some even guilt) after it, will sex still be enjoyable?? All human relations in that regard are actually like sex. It is enjoyable, but it's going to end; it is enjoyable, because it's going to end. And in particular relation to friendship, a friendship that has outlived its expiry date becomes an encumbrance, a fetter to progress. This rule applies to in fact all people, but is naturally more acutely felt by the ambitious. To say friendships are like clothes, to be worn and indulged in for a period, but to be deserted after some time, is likely to cause repugnance in many; but there seems hardly a better metaphor. People grow, and their old clothes become no longer fit; or when people's taste changes, the clothes become no longer desirable. It is as apt as such.
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
From Food to Foot: Facebook and the Contemporary Individual

Despite the above title which sounds sonorous enough to make the title of a book critically assessing the complicated relations between facebook and individuals and what they say about contemporary culture and society (--what an ambitious topic!), what I will present below are just some observations and tendentious opinions.
It seems there are primarily two reasons why people join facebook and visit it frequently. The obvious and functional one is clearly to get to know and keep up with friends, as is indeed the original intention of this social networking site. The second, not unrelated to the first, seems to be psychological and emotional. Facebook provides a space in which one is able to peep into others' lives as well as to display that of one's own. It satisfies at one stroke both the pleasures of voyeurism and self-exhibitionism. People who indulge in these two kinds of pleasures are either lonely or un/under-occupied (either physically or intellectually, or both) or both. Which ever it is, the common feature of all Facebook frequenters must be a lack, a deficit of some sort, which does not seem to have been met in real social life. Such psychological or emotional deficits are to find addition and hopefully remedy in the virtual social space of Facebook.
However, the tricky point here is that once facebook has become a normal part of our way of life, it increases the needs of the individuals instead of meeting them. This is not dissimilar to, when someone draws a small circle and then a larger one to demonstrate that the more you know, the more you know you do not know, and therefore the more you want to know. The same logic applies to the use of cameras. More than a century ago when technologies were basic, taking photos was an event to happen only on festive or special occasions. Today, however, when the technology became easily available, people feel the need to take picture every now and then, almost endlessly. The same happens with facebook. In the pre-facebook historical era, people do things (such as travelling, or eat out at restaurant) and think about things (such as feeling sad, or wanting to buy certain things); today, they do not only do and think about things, they also have to SHOW, to LET OTHERS KNOW what they have done and what they are thinking. Doing and thinking are just not enough any more; they are not complete without also being published.
Consequently, we see various forms of self publishing on facebook. Indeed, my writing this article is not any different. However, self publishing can also be of different characters, ranging from the salubrious, to the meaningless, and to the revolting and ridiculous. I'd like to think those who publish news, disseminate useful information or intellectual opinions belong to the first category. 'Food' as mentioned in the title belongs to the second. People constantly show where they have visited and what they have eaten. I am pretty sure for many people, even before they start to travel or eat out, they already anticipate the pleasures of putting up those pictures. Facebooking is now integral to the pleasures of eating or traveling, and things alike. One more perverted form of exhibition however, involves showing more intimate things. I have many months ago seen a friend of mine showing a picture of her slightly injured foot, with some bleeding. Today, I saw another person displaying her bleeding hand, perhaps after an office accident involving stationery. One has to ask, what is the point of showing these literally bloody stuff? The fact that both exhibitioners were ladies encourages the speculation that this is a form of appeal for sympathy and emotional support. However, have they really become so desolate that they must show these pictures for every 'friend'--and indeed how many facebook friends are really friends--to see? Is there nobody to care for them in real life? Or is there nothing they care enough in real life so that they can forget about these minor injuries? The same applies to expressing intimate feelings in the 'what's in your mind' box. If one is sad enough to have to publish their intimate emotions or desires on facebook to seek support, they will not get any. In fact, my criticisms here also extend to the second category of publishing, namely, the meaningless category. Is not eating food, visiting places of interests, or holidaying with partner already enjoyable enough? If so, why the need to show those pictures for everybody to know?
There can be two possible explanations to this. First, they are really not enjoying those activities enough, and they need every 'friend' to know that they have done those. This is rather sad, imagine that food cannot be enjoyed by just eating them, places cannot be enjoyed by just visiting/viewing them, partner(s) cannot be enjoyed by just being with them. If I were the food, places of interests, and partners to the exhibitioners, I'd feel sad, for myself and him/her as well. People who refuses to find enough pleasure in originally pleasurable things will never find enough pleasure. Alternatively, maybe they have enjoyed, but they just want to show off a little, so that the facebook display of one's enjoyment becomes a 'cheery on the cake', enhancing the original enjoyment. But this really reminds me of one of my erstwhile housemates, who, after a night of raucous sex with his girlfriend, asked me the next day whether I heard them, and apologised for the noise.
From Pre-Facebook civilisation, to food, and then to foot, we mankind have traveled a long way. And now I realise why I feel such an attraction to conservative philosophies.
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