The literary era since 1979

Chapter 270: A white-haired man and an old thief with a gray beard!

"..."

At this time, the room was silent and everyone had complicated expressions.

"Mr. Bai, aren't you overthinking this a bit?"

Fangyan looked unhappy.

"Not at all."

Bo Yang acted like a sober person while everyone else was drunk: "I know that when I say something like this, everyone will find it hard to accept it at first, and may even feel angry, but I didn't say it casually."

Then he took a sip of water and said, "I have repeatedly read "Ugly Japanese" and "Ugly Americans" written by Japanese and American writers respectively, and combined with my own experience, I made this conclusion."

“Ugly Americans, I haven’t seen it.”

Pan Yaoming frowned, "But I read The Ugly Japanese. Takahashi Shiki analyzed and reflected on the entire Japanese people and Japanese society, and gave many strong arguments. I wonder what basis Mr. Bai has for making this judgment?"

Bo Yang said: "My basis is first of all the 'soy sauce jar culture' mentioned by Mr. Lu Xun."

"Soy sauce culture?"

Wang Anyi, Pan Yaoming and others were very surprised.

Bai Ruoxue asked softly: "Teacher Fang, did Mr. Lu Xun also say something like this?"

"You probably mean the dye vat culture."

The dialect immediately corrects the error.

Mr. Lu Xun once wrote in "Letters from Two Places" that China is too old, and everything in society, big or small, is terrible, like a black dye vat. No matter what new things are added to it, it will turn black. But that was the Republic of China period when warlords were fighting each other.

"Yes, yes. Mr. Lu Xun has not elaborated on the bad roots of the nation. I think 'the sauce vat' is more appropriate than 'the dye vat'."

Bo Yang poked the ground with his cane and talked incessantly.

"Chinese culture is a 'jar of sauce'!"

“A ‘sour and smelly’ jar of sauce!”

"The sour smell in the jar was so strong that it wiped out all the fragrance of the orchids, and ultimately made all the different ingredients put into the jar emit only the same smell."

"We have been stuck in this jar for too long. Our thoughts, judgments, and vision are all polluted by it. We cannot escape from it. Up and down, big and small, most people are just 'jar maggots' living in this 'sour and smelly' jar."

"........."

"The result is such an ugly situation today, so I call Chinese people 'ugly Chinese people'!"

He said a lot of things, and the more he listened to the dialect, the more he was sure of what this guy was made of. This was no longer just an ordinary reflective monster.

He is simply the originator of the reflective monster, comparable to Long Yingtai.

So there is no time to hesitate, we must strike hard.

How can one do art well with insects like these?
(ps: Bo Yang and his "Ugly Chinese" are the originators of reflective weirdness in reality)

…………

As expected by Fangyan, in Bo Yang's eyes, all Chinese cultural traditions should be abandoned, because the stinking jar of Chinese culture makes people ugly, so we should learn from the West.

"Slow down."

Fangyan interrupted directly, "You have been talking for a long time, but you still haven't made any scientific analysis, nor have you provided any convincing arguments. Can you be more specific?"

"Then let me give you an example, foot binding!"

Bo Yang severely criticized bad habits such as "foot binding".

Fangyan curled his lips and said, "I am not against criticizing 'foot binding', but there is no record of 'foot binding' before the Song Dynasty, and it has been abolished in modern times. This bad habit cannot be elevated to the level of traditional Chinese culture."

"But if there were no Anglo-Saxons, no Western civilization, and no Opium Wars, would women not have bound their feet?" Bo Yang said, "At least everyone here might still have a braid on their heads, and everyone would still wear a long gown and a jacket."

"You are speaking for colonial aggression!!"

Bai Ruoxue slammed the table and stood up, looking at him coldly.

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant."

Seeing everyone's unfriendly looks, Bo Yang quickly changed his words and said, "I just want to say that there is another great nation in the world, and that is the Anglo-Saxons."

"This nation has established a framework for world civilization, such as their parliamentary system, electoral system, judicial independence, judicial jury system, etc., which has established a good structure for human society. This is its greatest contribution to civilization..."

(ps: from Bo Yang's "The Chinese and the Jar of Soy Sauce")
"Mr. Bai, do you know that the British in the Victorian era regarded tuberculosis as the standard of female beauty?"

"To whiten their skin, these women applied masks containing opium, washed their faces with ammonia, used poisonous cinnabar as lip glaze, and even bathed in arsenic water. So I want to ask, how could such a cruel custom, even more cruel than foot binding, arise in Western civilization?"

Fangyan stood up and his eyes became sharp.

"This..." Bai Yang was stunned. He had been in prison on Green Island for 10 years and had only studied Chinese history, but had never systematically studied Western civilization.

"Also, in order to cater to the morbid beauty of thin waists, women at that time wore corsets that did not conform to the human body structure for a long time. If foot binding is a bad habit, then what is corsets?"

Fangyan walked up to him, looking down at him.

"Well, the culture of any nation is like the Yangtze River, flowing endlessly. Because over time, many filthy and dirty things in the Yangtze River, like dead fish, dead cats, and dead mice, begin to settle, making the water unable to flow and turning it into a pool of stagnant water. The more it settles, the more it rots over time, and it becomes a sauce jar, a mud pit, sour and smelly..."

Bo Yang tried to explain, but the more he explained, the more confusing it became.

That's it?

The dialect tone was full of contempt. "Since even you said that 'any nation' will become a rotten jar of sauce, why do you only regard 'jar of sauce culture' as a label for us Chinese people?"

Then he asked: "Mr. Bai, what are your intentions?"

"I, I am right. I want to say that it is because the Anglo-Saxons in Britain were also immersed in the sauce jar that they were replaced by the new Anglo-Saxon civilization of the United States."

Bo Yang argued vigorously, putting forward various arguments.

"Then why did American writers write "Ugly Americans"? According to you, aren't they also 'maggots in the sauce jar' living in this 'sour and smelly' sauce jar?"

“Then why are there so many equal rights movements?”

“If it’s civilized, why are the Indians crying!”

Fangyan refuted one by one, gradually raising his voice.

Bai Yang was at a disadvantage in the confrontation and felt very upset.

Bai Ruoxue watched it from beginning to end with her eyes shining. If she hadn't been hesitant, she would have applauded Teacher Fang.

"Forget it, forget it. You can't convince me, and I can't convince you either. Let's just put everything we said at the report meeting and let the audience and students judge it."

Bo Yang's face flushed and he ended the topic forcefully.

"of course can."

"I believe that when they make their judgements, they should be fair and clear, without too much bias and emotion."

Fang Yan said something in a sarcastic tone.

If it weren't for Nie Hualing and the others, and if it weren't for Bo Yang's old age, he would have covered his chest and died on the ground if he got excited, just like Zhuge Liang scolded Wang Lang:
You old bastard with grey hair! You old thief with grey beard! How dare you talk nonsense here!
Don’t you know that people all over the world are scolding you for being a weirdo?
It’s such a waste to live to the age of sixty-three!

I have never seen such a brazen person!
…………

The atmosphere in the kitchen was visibly solemn and depressing.

Bai Yang felt the attitude of the crowd and decided not to continue to make trouble for himself. He limped out of the kitchen, saying that he was not feeling well and needed to take medicine, and returned to his room with a lot of anger.

"He really should take his medicine."

Dialect sneered.

Liu Wuxiong sighed and said, "He wasn't like this before. Maybe because his legs were broken and he spent ten years in prison, he must be feeling resentful."

"Then he shouldn't simply attribute this dissatisfaction to the inferiority of the Chinese people." Fang Yan said disdainfully, "He doesn't dare to point out the names of the people, but instead generalizes that everyone is ugly and uses his cowardice as a scapegoat. I really feel sad for him."

"Yanzi, stop saying things that will spoil the fun."

Pan Yaoming said: "Let's talk about the discussion meeting."

Seeing everyone chatting, Bai Ruoxue interrupted and said, "Teacher Fang, since everyone is equal, why are there such big differences between the nations of the world? This difference is not only reflected in cultural customs, but also in intelligence, morality, character and many other aspects."

“It’s a complicated issue.”

Fangyan said seriously: "Let's talk about the American Indians and the local indigenous peoples in the South Pacific first. Why are they so primitive and backward? Because they are isolated overseas and lack communication and interaction with the outside world. China and Europe, whether it is the Silk Road or the Maritime Silk Road, have influenced and promoted each other. This kind of communication has greatly accelerated the development of human culture and science."

Pan Yaoming said: "Indeed, Chinese civilization, such as the Four Great Inventions, did promote the development of European science."

"I think that one of the fundamental reasons why different ethnic groups have followed different paths in their history is the differences in their ethnic environments. As the saying goes, people are shaped by their environment."

"That's interesting. Please continue."

"The ecological environment is the basis for human survival, and the geographical environment determines the development of civilization. For example, areas suitable for farming develop agricultural civilizations, while areas with shallow soil develop nomadic civilizations. Take Huaxia for example, why did it originate in the north?"

In dialect, he said, "Because with primitive agricultural technology, the hot and rainy climate in the south is not suitable for farming..."

The views on geopolitical determinism and the debate that broke out in the kitchen also reached the ears of Nie Hualing and Paul Angell.

"It seems that we made the right decision to invite Fangyan to come to the United States!"

Paul Angell was very excited, but he noticed that Nie Hualing was not in high spirits, and sighed: "It was the right thing to invite him, but I wonder if it was a mistake to invite Bo Yang to the United States."

(End of this chapter)