Wildfire Collection: Thirty Years Anniversary Edition

Chapter 12 Starting from "8" ([-])
However, with a "bang bang", Kaohsiung citizens also jumped onto the stage.Those who write letters, those who make phone calls, clearly tell the world who plays the master in this play: We citizens want a clean environment, and we citizens want a quiet community; ", but the will of "below"—that is, my petty citizen.Don't forget that you have a role on stage today just because I asked you to do it!Don't forget who's the boss!

What a delightful play.I applaud every Kaohsiung citizen who has written a letter, made a phone call, or expressed their condolences.It is often said that Taiwan cannot implement true democracy because the people of Taiwan are not yet at that level.The behavior of Kaohsiung citizens this time can be used as a counter-evidence to this statement.Our people are apparently coming to understand that the "silent majority" is actually an evil.When queuing up to buy tickets, what is really hateful is not the one or two people who jump in line, because they are a minority; what is really hateful is the long line of dozens of people who wait patiently in line to watch the few people disrupt order without saying a word talk!No courage to speak, no sense of justice!And when I walked out of the station, I still complained: It's useless!Messy, useless!
When Chinese travel to Europe, they often admire the elegance and cleanliness of the European environment. While admiring it, they never think that the beautiful environment does not fall from the sky, but is achieved through the efforts of every citizen.When a German citizen walks on the street and sees a pothole, he will be angry at the city government for not doing a good job of maintenance, and will call to demand immediate improvement.To have this attitude, he must first have two basic concepts: First, he is the master.The beauty of the city depends on his supervision. The government is employed by him and has the obligation to do things well.Second, he cannot be "silent". If he is silent, no progress can be made.

It is not wrong to say that the quality of the people leads to the quality of the government, the quality of the society, and the quality of the environment.A dirty and harsh environment means that the people here are incapable of creating a better society.What kind of people are we?Kaohsiung citizens' refusal to be a "silent majority" is an encouraging indicator.No, silence is not a virtue, it is a disgrace.

what!red!

Originally published in "China Times Human World" on August 29, [-]

This is still a terrible age, and you don't know when it will end; you often hear people whispering that an announcer has bitten a word wrong, or put a piece of music wrong, causing "red associations", so People just disappear.

"Is the director of the art museum an artist or a political officer?" In one sentence, "a group of political officers" wrote a letter in the "Youth Daily", strongly criticizing Long Yingtai for "insulting political officers" and "doing nothing to the country." understanding" is problematic.

Critical language of this nature makes my friends nervous.Started telling me to "be careful".

Soon, the "Department of Political Affairs and Warfare" sent a message, asking me to "dinner".

After the book "Wildfire" was published, I received a letter from the current political and combat officer, telling me that he had received an order that "Wildfire Collection" was explicitly banned in the army, but the day before he received the ban, he was still discussing "Wildfire" with his brothers. "Article, so I don't know what to do now.

Is the director of the museum an artist or a political officer?
If the news reports are not biased, then the situation is as follows: Li Zaiqian’s sculpture was exhibited in the Municipal Art Museum, and someone wrote a letter saying that the painting was painted red, which looked a bit like the red star of the CCP; curator Su Ruiping was kind, and immediately put the work on display. He paid 8000 yuan to change it to silver, which caused protests from the sculptor himself.Is it a small thing?I think it is very serious, because "little things" expose two mentalities that cannot be tolerated in a civilized society: the first is the extreme contempt for art, and the second is the political leadership that only exists in a totalitarian system.

Not long ago, I received a "Newsletter from the Chinese Catholic Cultural Association" and found that it reproduced an article "Looking at the West" in "Wild Fire Collection".The article is mine, and my name is indeed mine, but a strange sentence suddenly appeared in the content: "Christianity--Catholicism, the belief in Christianity, because it was first in the West, and we think it is a foreign religion, it is not suitable to believe in, in fact, God Son Jesus Christ, the savior of mankind, was originally born in the Middle East..." This passage was sneakily mixed into my article, but I did not write it!But no reader can see that this text does not belong to the original text.

This Catholic publication published other people's articles without obtaining reprint permission from the newspaper or the author in advance. This is an act of plundering other people's intellectual property.However, altering the works and deciphering them to achieve their own goals is deceiving the readers and framing the authors.If a religious group can redact my article, then a politically ambitious group can also insert its propaganda language into my text-how can an author clarify to the world what he has written?Who will bear the consequences of writing?
I believe that the Catholic Association has no malice in altering my article, but what such behavior reveals is extreme contempt for the creator.As a writer, I am responsible for every word I write; each essay is the result of my whole-hearted effort and all my intellect.It is a crime and an insult to arbitrarily alter a work.If Li Zaiqian's works are red, then he must have his most sincere reasons; only that color can truly express the meaning of his creation, if the color is changed, that sculpture will no longer be his work.Su Ruiping changed the creation of an artist without permission, just like the Catholic Association changed my article without permission. The article that has changed beyond recognition is no longer my work, and the red-to-silver sculpture is no longer Li Zaiqian’s. hard work.This behavior is called deception, called theft.It seems to me that the Catholic Association's behavior is just the result of ill-consideration, which may be forgiven; it is unbelievable that a curator of an art museum would do such a thing!
What is even more worrying is that this "little incident" of coloring clearly shows that Taiwan's art is still shrouded in the vague political shadow.First of all, we have such a person who goes to the art museum, what he looks at is not the artwork itself, on the contrary, when he sees such a red work, he immediately feels political fear (fear that the sculptor is a "spy"? Fear Red has a brainwashing effect on viewers? Afraid that the Communist Party will take pictures of this work for publicity?) and wrote this suspicious letter to the museum.

Secondly, we have such a brainless curator of art museum.There are generally only two possible motives for her altering the works: First, she also has the fear of the contributor; because she agrees that red has a political crisis, she changed the color.Second, she disagreed with the author's statement, but in order to avoid the possible sensitivity of "relevant units" and because of her status as an "official", she thought that changing the color was the safest and least troublesome way.

And finally, there is the sculptor himself.In his protest, he said, how could it be counted if only one person voted for it!This means that if two people or a hundred people voted that red is "political", then the act of changing the color is not wrong.

This coloring event is performed by three people: citizens, cultural officials and artists.None of the three felt that there was anything fundamentally wrong with politics interfering with art.How is this going?The citizen who submitted the letter suffers from a phobia. We can say that he just doesn't understand the importance of artistic independence, which can be forgiven.So what about Su Ruiping?Did she have any artistic training?Did she understand the responsibilities of being a curator of an art museum?Is she a political officer or an artist?As for Li Zaiqian, whose work has been altered, does he really think that politics has a reason to control art with a few more letters?

This is really like a society that treats a deer as a horse.

The generation that will not "make trouble"

- for college students

Originally published in "China Times Human World" on September [-], [-]

Using the word "problem" brought back the memory of the panic of the Kuomintang losing the power in the mainland due to the student movement. The editor discussed with me that using these two words, it is very likely that "an accident" will really happen, and it will "explode". Then the space for continuing to write and continue to exert influence will be lost.

I am reluctant to let go of these two words, because it is very important.

We decided to take a risk.

Not long after, the "Ministry of Education" called: "Professor Long, would you mind meeting with the minister?"

The May 27th issue of The New Yorker magazine had this article:
My mother was born in Berlin and narrowly escaped the Holocaust.On Mother's Day this year, I invited her to a movie.The film was very popular, and the story seems to be related to black people in Africa.The line to buy tickets is long.There was a young white man passing leaflets between the ranks, advising everyone not to buy tickets, because the film was produced in South Africa.The people in line probably thought the same thing as me: "It's up to me to see it or not, you don't need to tell me." So no one paid any attention to him.

After entering the venue, the lights went dark, and the film was about to start. Two young girls in the front seat suddenly stood up to face the audience, and gave a loud speech, explaining how this film despised the plight of black South Africans, and hoped that everyone would boycott it.There were boos in the audience, and someone shouted impatiently: "This is America; you have to protest outside!" There were also angry voices shouting: "We paid five yuan for a movie ticket, let us decide whether we like it or not." Look!" Occasionally a faint voice said, "Listen to what they say!" But the shouts of the crowd grew louder: "Get out! Get out! Get out!"

The mother sitting next to me looked upset and turned to me and said, "These two young girls are willing to pay ten yuan for a ticket to come into a place where everyone is screaming and beating-maybe they have a reason. "

Amid everyone's applause, the theater staff brutally carried the two girls away.The lights went down again, but within a few minutes a young man, with a thick British accent, stood up and said: "This is a racist film—" The angry audience interrupted him, and someone shouted The police, but the young man showed no fear, and continued to say loudly: "If you don't let me finish my sentence, I won't leave!" The crowd shouted: "Get out! Get out!" Finally, two policemen came, smiling He invited that guy out with a full face.

The mood of the audience has not yet stabilized, a young man in his twenties with a beard suddenly stood up in the back row and said, "No, no, I am not with them; I just bought a ticket just like you I just thought that maybe we should have a firm moral stance on such an issue that affects tens of millions of people's lives, instead of just pursuing entertainment. If people 50 years ago had the same attitude towards being punished as these few people just now If the persecuting Jews are persistent, my grandfather might live to this day and not die in a German gas room." Then I heard a very familiar hoarse voice suddenly: "He is right; don't you Trying to shut me up!" I noticed my 64-year-old mother stand up and face the theater; she was shaking.

This unremarkable little story can raise many debatable questions.For example, do these young people driven by moral sense have the right to prevent others from watching this "racist" movie?If I had been in the theater, I would have been one of the outraged crowd telling them to "fuck off" mainly because they had no right to dominate my thoughts—it was up to me to decide what to do with the movie after seeing it.Secondly, if this small group of "moral sense" as an excuse can interrupt my film, then a religious group, political party, business group, etc., can wantonly force sell its ideals, that person What freedom is there?

Right and wrong in South Africa is also a thorny issue.Its apartheid policy is now condemned by thousands of people and spurned by thousands of people.South African whites are nothing short of a blot on the twentieth century.The other side of the matter is: if South Africa is self-determinated by blacks, the discrimination and massacres will be more severe than the current situation-look at Uganda!Look at the whole continent of Africa!
But it was the behavior of these young protesters that made me ponder for a long time in this short article in The New Yorker.They are not in the minority; Columbia University has invested money in South Africa, and Columbia University students have also demonstrated enthusiastically against the school's "good and evil" style of peace.And these young people who "make trouble" in the theater actually spend five yuan to buy a ticket one time at a time-for students, five yuan is not a small amount; Get kicked out one at a time.Among these people, it is inevitable that there will be a few for childish heroism or pure playfulness, but most of them are for a moral standpoint, choosing the good and stubborn ideals.Before a person decides to go to the theater to "make trouble", he must first meet three conditions.First, he cares about the world; because he cares, he pays attention to the plight of black South Africans.Second, he can make value judgments.With mixed coverage of racial issues in South Africa, he had to decide for himself which side to take.Third, he has enough moral courage to move him to action.So he went to the theater to buy a ticket; for five dollars, he could well skate or eat.

What about our young people?Or, narrowing it down a bit, what about our college students?How many people have these three qualities?
From my limited observations, very, very few.In terms of social concern, our students live self-sufficiently within the four walls of the university and don't often stick their heads out.A few months ago, when fourteen MLAs resigned en masse, I tested hundreds of students and asked them to write down the reasons for their resignation. As expected, a few gave fragmented and vague answers, obviously It is the residual impression after browsing the newspaper. 80.00% answered bluntly: "I don't know!"

Why don't you know?Of course it was out of lack of interest, not caring.The "beauty" on the university campus selected by a magazine in the market, when asked about social issues, said delicately: "It's scary!" Sticking out her tongue.There are quite a few such "cute" and "pure" college girls, and they are likable.Our students not only have a vague impression of Taiwan's own social and political issues, but are even more unfamiliar with the international situation outside of Taiwan.The famine in Ethiopia, the coup in Uganda, the guerrilla warfare in South America, the Catholic Church's stance on abortion and divorce, the military brutality in the Philippines, etc., do not exist and do not make sense.

Without concern, there is naturally no need to make value judgments.I don't know that South Africa has serious racial problems, so of course I don't have to think about who is right, because there is no way to think about it.There is no moral courage and no moral action without caring.Babies in Africa can die and armies in South America can rape women because it's none of their business.The coal mines in Haishan can collapse again and again, the historic sites in Taoyuan can be demolished and demolished again, and the garbage mountains in Neihu can be burned and burned again.During the four years of college, there are only two things worth caring about: one is to make good friends, so that you will have a marriage partner in the future;Concern for society, the ability to judge right and wrong, and the courage to choose the good and be stubborn are all within the walls of the university.

In other words, our young people are innocent, simple, and obedient; they will never go to the theater to "make trouble".

(End of this chapter)