Hiding in Words

Lian Yue: Pessimism is Immoral (a hasty trans)

Lian Yue is a Chinese blogger, columnist, writer, especially a liberal opinion leader. On the evening of Nov. 16, some of the participants in Cnbloggercon met in Tophour (凸凹酒吧, owned by another widely read columnist Beifeng北风). Beifeng invited Lian Yue to give a surprise, and Lian Yue did gave a good short speech.

I found the video clip of Lian Yue talking on YouTube. And I made a haste (and somewhat inaccurate) translation by taking down quick notes (think of this as a quick interpretation). It was only after I have finished this translation when I found a Chinese transcript on Tophour’s blog (you can also read this on Cnbloggercon blog). Please read my not-that-complete-or-accurate translation:

I attended a forum held by Southern Urban News (南方都市报), in which I discussed a lot with other two professors for 3 hours.

I feel the themes of this forum is quite similar with this Blogger Conference, as both focuses on the formation of civil society. And what blogging does is to foster civil society.

There are pessimistic sentiments that everything is just insignificant and meaningless. Yet, as this senior chief said to me this afternoon, in the current stage of China, pessimism is something immoral. Why don’t we hide our possible pessimism in our heart instead of talking sadly about it?

In the very early stage of social change, when the Internet first came into being, when you first began blogging, people might very easily get frustrated and believe those efforts are just meaningless, stupid and vain. If you press hard on those efforts and say there’s no point, such negative attitude might kill civil society in its infancy.

That is why I believe pessimism is immoral at this time in China.

Why all of us blog and attend this Chinese Blogger Conference where we can have a better communication? That is because we believe the power that we have and we can change the society. So please believe in yourself.

In the beginning you really don’t have power and influence, you would wonder how much power the several dozens of us have and how we can change this society. Frankly speaking nothing, for the time being.

And what is the value in it? Think you are a neutron, keep going and one year later, you would have influenced dozens of people, and one more year later, you would have influenced thousands of people.

There are some common negative attitudes that we might have. One is to say to your self, no one would listen to what I say or act like I propose anyway, and think there is in fact no point in going on.

Please remember social transformation is by no means a quick task.

In a democracy like America, very person has one and only one vote. B. Obama has one vote, G. W. Bush one; and a rich man one vote, a poor guy also one vote. If you have a blog and keep writing on it, express your opinion, that is your social responsibility and civic duty being done. Even if there are only 2 readers, your are making quite a move. A civil society would come into being by such gradual influence. Please be optimistic.

I used to say no one can save China, and whatever effort you make, that is meaningless. But after 2007, I would never say that again. We need to encourage the people who act. We shall not give them pressure. If you think a blog cannot influence very many readers or make real change, and even if you sometimes would think it is just some effort in vain, please do not say, just conceal it in your heart. If you are a pessimist by nature, and I believe quiet of few among us are, please conceal pessimism in the heart. Don’t say it.

We shall not fall victim to the delusion of persecution either. I guess quite a few among us might be somewhat persecuted. We need to learn how to keep a normal happy life.

Last year I panicked from time to time if someone is wiretapping on me. Later I began to think, it won’t be possible for the public power not to deny what it has done and listen on one’s phone who criticize the government. OK, we allow the public power such bad behavior. Don’t let it mess up your temper and ruin your day. Move on with your life.

Even if you feel oppressed or persecuted, move on with your life, be happy and keep blogging. Try your best not to be affected by oppression or fall victim of the delusion of being oppressed.

Thank you!

Here comes the video: more »

Web 2.0 & Cop 2.0

Chinese Blogger Conference 2008 was held on Nov. 15-16 in Guangzhou. Cnbloggercon (@cnbloggercon) marks the latest trend and development of Web 2.0 in China, in the sense that blogging/bloggers is a symbol of Web 2.0 and the way it is held (non-centralized self-organization) is also a real-world parallel of Web 2.0 way of socializing.

And this year, there is something new: the Public Security Bureaus and National Security Bureaus of this most populous country are trying to transform from totalitarian top-down control to a more Web 2.0 way.

Cnbloggercon is almost the largest grassroots gathering in the country. And blogging does help transforming this country to be freer and less under central control. This is why the authority had always sought to restrain Cnbloggercon (as I recall, the organization faced certain restrictions in 2006 in Hangzhou).

This year the police have certainly paid more attention on this rather liberal event. The police called one of the organizers (Shizhao was also present) to “have a tea” (it seems they really had a tea, and quite peacefully) on 15th. It turned out that the day before Cnbloggercon 2008 began, the Internet Surveillance Sector of Guangzhou Police notified district station on this event. This may be because some “sensitive” people were present on the conference (Lian Yue, Zola), which made National Security people uneasy. The organizers denied any possibility that this event might have anything to do with any political or reactionary (gosh, what a word) purpose. And were finally let go after a detailed report.

Attorney Liu Xiaoyuan (recently blogged a lot on Yang Jia’s trial and death penalty review. His blog will most possibly be awarded the best Chinese blog in the BOBs contest) also noted on his blog that an “uninvited guest” came in police car claiming such a event shall be reported to police station in advance. To avoid hassle, the organizers cooperated with the cop. And on 16th, another “uninvited guest” came to the conference quietly and weirdly – he didn’t want to exchange business cards and avoided casual talks & camera.

On 16th, when Yang Hengjun was giving a speech on the importance of Internet and blog for the society, there was an “uninvited” cop 2.0 listening, and clapping. (participating in like a grassroot?)

PS: view photos on Flickr/tag:cnbloggercon