Intelligent Being

The last day of 2005 saw snow in Beijing, reported the internet news. But when I looked through the window of my apartment, I saw a cloudy day with no snow at all.

But today’s Beijing is several times larger than it was some 25 years ago when the city remained the basic scale over the past century. Today’s CBD is the suburban area where crops were planted.

My place is 13 km east away from the CBD, exactly where the 8-nation alliance army was stationed before they invaded Beijing and broke into the forbidden city.

But it is now only 10 minutes drive, given the traffic is smooth.

When it snows in Beijing, people who live in the outskirt do not necessarily are aware of that.

Hello,2006.

Americans are addicted to rankings, all sorts of ranking. Here we got the top words of the year 2005.

 This year, Integrity is topping the list of Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Year 2005, followed by 2. refugee 3. contempt 4. filibuster 5. insipid 6. tsunami 7. pandemic 8. conclave 9. levee10. inept. The ranking is a result of dictionary publisher’s 10 most frequently looked-up words among some 7 million users of its online site, according to a report from USA Today.

 The fact that Integrity is the most sought word by Americans likely indicates Americans are very concerned of their value and morality. Merriam-Webster president John Morse told the newspaper,” I think the American people have isolated a very important issue for our society to be dealing with”.

 But some Americans don’t think Integrity matters so much. New Oxford American Dictionary have selected “podcast”, defined as “a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar programme, as the Word of the Year for 2005, because so many people are going podcasting this year. However, the runners-up of NOAD’s selection is less convincing.

 Word Spy doesn’t compete with the word ranking game, but it stands well to do so. It lists the top 100 words as measured by page views from the past seven days. This top 10 list is the most convincing as 9 of them have been top 11 for at least 2 years, except that Black Friday just rose to No.3 from No.84.

China was not a country that could be managed on numbers, says Huan Renyu, a China-born-America-trained historian in his best-seller “A Year of No Significance”, of the Chinese economy and finance in Ming Dynasty and  ever before.

He is justified to say so about today’s China’s economy.  China today announced that its economy was significantly larger than previous official measures following a national economic census that showed its thriving and mainly private service sector had been underestimated, according to FT.

Western economic guru and journalists have long time critised China for its seemingly unreliable statistics and blamed the official statistic methology.

In China, numbers/statistics is one of those least reliable and respected, next to the party’s politician.

Big parties are held in Beijing and Shanghai everyday in  the name of charity, fashion, or business. But not for the sake of homosexuality.  

I was over-optimistic on Chinese authority’s stand on gay issues. The gay and lesbian culture festival that was scheduled to take place on Friday was shut down after police’s raid. 

But it was not unexpected anyhow.

京城书市的一个特点就是总在寒风料峭中。去年在地坛，今年换在工人体育馆。另外一个特点就是好东西越来越少。

今日以半价购得陈寅恪《金明馆丛稿初编》及《金明馆丛稿二编》，十分满足。三联出了陈寅恪文稿丛书，《柳如是别传》和《唐代政治史述论稿》太长太专，目前无法读进去。这两册以及早前买的《寒柳堂集》均为短篇集，至少还有耐性读完数篇。

最早知道陈寅恪还是大三时与同窗好友袁锦程彻夜畅谈清华国学院四大导师时的知识。后来零星阅读了一点有关他的文章，大概4，5年前，国内兴起了陈寅恪热，出版了一些他的传记，如《陈寅恪的最后二十年》等。真正读他的传记却是今年5月在深圳罗湖海关口买的汪荣祖写的《史家陈寅恪》（没想到那个地方居然有这种书卖！），趁回家乡的那段时间读完。该传记不事细节，评述最为出色。终于对这个被称为中国史学界可能无法跨越的颠峰的陈寅恪有些基本全面的了解。

最近看《剑桥隋唐史》，而陈寅恪是所有当代撰写隋唐史不能回避的一个大师。因此在众多不如我目的书籍中，唯有这两册让我觉得对得起寒风中寻寻觅觅的工夫。

这样的书市终究是难得见好书的。多数是教人经济的，或作为家庭摆设。基本符合当前的大众文化格局。

另外淘见《脂砚斋重评石头记》，出版于70年代的影印本，居然开价100，简直如打书生的劫。此书唯一买点无非是出版年代稍早点，也在我出生的年代。如今红楼产业发达，新出的《脂砚斋重评石头记》影印版和甲戍校本我也有的，不是什么洛阳纸贵的东西，居然换了身衣服就这么要价。抵制之。

其他多数书在我眼中如蔽帚，旧书中没有什么宝贝，基本雷同；新书如陈寅恪，且5折者，终究难得一见。

不过，这就是寒冬下午淘书的乐趣了。

The business titles in Asia and Europe would celebrate, more happily, this Christmas without BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill, its parent publishing house, decided to close down its Asian and European editions to focus resources on its online product, according to Marketing Weekly.

 The recent two years saw international media companies were shrinking in Asia . In 2004, Dow Jones axed the weekly edition of its highly regarded Far Eastern Economic Review, disappointing many this region. The Asia Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones’ flagship product in Asia , went tabloid just weeks ago, and was hence renamed Wall Street Journal Asia. In the mean time, Dow Jones transferred interests in CNBC Asia, CNBC Europe and CNBC World to NBC Universal in an attempt to stem losses after posting a US$17 million loss in 2004.

 Forbes closed their European edition, and Fortune pulled out years ago. Asiaweek was closed in 2001. AsiaComputerWorld was shut down early this year.

 Such moves reflect that English-language newspapers and magazines more or less have been suffering in Asia , amid the difficulties and complication to print and distribute across wide geographies and low advertising margin.

 The following is the circulation of major business titles in Asia

 The Economist: 93,771, Fortune: 79,975,  AWSJ: 79,885 , BusinessWeek: 72,950 ,IHT: 83,231 Forbes: 66,124 ,Financial Times: 32,055

Of these 7 seven titles, 5 are originally American publications, the common characteristic of which is they are basically America-focused editorial, selling American story with little Asian spice (another form of American hegemony?)

Tim Pinnegar, Publisher at The Economist says,  “it’ll be challenging to get a good Europe and Asia readership as there’s a lack of relevance.

According to Marketing Weekly, BusinessWeek plans to replace its outgoing print editions with European and Asian online editions, and at the same time will begin distributing its edition as a global print edition. (But how on earth its international audience responds to the edition as a global print edition?)

 It will, however, continue to distribute local language print editions though partnerships with local publishers in , , and , among other countries. (What a surprise: how can the translated American edition maintain a read for locals).

 Who is the next? 

Elton John is about to wed with his partner, forming a civil partnership–Tony Blair prefers this term to gay marriage, which becomes legal in UK this week.

 In Beijing, some gay people are determined to come out of the closet, spiritually, this week that sees the first Gay Culture Festival to unveil the underground life of this community.

 The open show, which is Oked by the government, shows the authority is tolerant and open. Unlike in America, where there is so much fuss over this from the religious conservative, in China there are no distinguishing camps on gay issues. The authority shows no NO or Yes pose, simply in silence. And they gay marriage issue is far from the social agenda. All in all, they live an underground life.

 The 3-day event aims to help more people, gay or not, have a bias-free look at the gay community through oil painting exhibition, film shows, forums and other shows. This is the first opportunity for gay artists, who are said to live and work under great social pressure, to exhibit their work under the sun.

薛涌强调他希望通过他不久前出版的《美国是如何培养精英的》告诉中国读者“我们就必须理解美国教育最精彩之处，知道在那样的系统中如何成功”，他总结，美国精英是这样培养出来的，“在美国，教育首先强调学生的动机，要学生甚至在没有学什么东西之前，就走到生活中，懂得生活中到底需要什么，以及为了满足这种需要、自己应该学什么。他们从小就对自己在社会中的位置、所扮演的角色有高度的自觉。”

一个博克朋友说他很看不惯薛涌这样的二道贩子向中国读者兜售美国的信息。我不了解薛涌，但很羡慕他在耶鲁获得博士候选人学习的机会。不过，比较了The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton by Jerome Karabel的书评后，的确感觉薛涌看到的美国依然是表象的美国。他有些一厢情愿了。一些一知半解。

比较薛先生的总结与Mr Karabel的总结：

Mr Karabel concludes that the universities have always determined their merit criteria according to the admissions outcomes that would suit their institutional interests, rather than the other way around.

Mr Karabel argues, the concept of meritocracy itself is strategic and flexible, and often in outright conflict with egalitarian aims. “Those who are able to define ‘merit’,” he writes, “will almost invariably possess more of it, and those with greater resources—cultural, economic, and social—will generally be able to ensure that the educational system will deem their children more meritorious.”….. As the book concludes, the unsettling lesson to be learned from a century of purported Ivy League meritocracy is that “the ideal of a meritocracy…is inherently unattainable.”

美国出版的中文《华盛顿观察》newsletter也有同样对该书的书评。如此比较起来看，有点意思。 

其实，自古中国的教育就只有精英教育，直到最近才有更多人有机会进入大学。可惜，薛先生没有从历史根源透析中国扭曲的精英教育。因此，结论看起来就不会那么令人信服，没有建设性——我们的历史传统和文化传统与美国差异太大。中国也有培养精英的方式。

一本杂志刚刚死去，一本杂志刚刚诞生。然而不管死去的还是诞生的，他们除了华丽的皮肤，就是没有灵魂。

对《书城》的叹息未落，《生活》衣着绚丽地诞生了，而且意外地安静。第一看到这本杂志Ironically是在它在北京的大本营，圆明园遗址东门的单向街书店——一个美丽的地方，书不多，质量尚可。

我惊讶于从书架上搬下来的沉重的杂志——这居然是杂志，而不是一样陈设。反动，对杂志形式的反动。

经心设计的封面上分明写着：不要读我。

对与一个对文字极其挑剔的人来说，此书的出版人的发刊词简直引导了一场灾难。它的编辑人员名单上有很多熟悉的名字。

就如阅读我老婆的时尚杂志一样，我用1分钟就翻完了这本售价50的杂志。非常困惑，那些编辑人目录里的人试图通过这本综合了怀旧，前卫，理性，杂乱，严肃，玩世不恭等诸多元素的杂志“诚实的面对生活”，然而他们空洞的文字和图片告诉大家——生活不在这里，也不在别处。

不能如此生活。

同样也惊讶于投资方的头脑。似乎这年头打扮漂亮了就能找到有钱人做老公。奢侈品广告自然应该放在看上去很美的杂志上——不管有没有人读。

最近有关储安平的书和文章越来越多，这位在５０年代百花齐放时一针见血指出党国天下本质（至今事实）的杂志编辑很快被整死。

现在那些死去和诞生的杂志报纸搔首弄姿，百般妖娆，却没有储安平之编辑思想和《观察》杂志灵魂的丝毫气息。

储安平的悲剧恐怕不会轻易再现，其他悲剧却再诞生。