Do younger Chinese, especially the well educated Chinese born after 1990, support the Chinese government more?
答主：Liam Shui, Lives in Beijing, China
I am born in the 90s, a small town in the southern China.
我出生于90年代中国南方的一个小镇。
-
I was a firm anti-CCP teenager back in my junior high to high school time, social media in China were just taking off, most of the young ones used QQ and nothing more.
我在初中和高中时是一名坚定的反共学生，当时，社交媒体在中国刚刚起飞，大多数年轻人都在用QQ，仅此而已。
That was roughly 15–20 years ago, when a type of Chinese people we today call ‘the public intellectual’ were at their highest activeness. They were well educated and occupied in decently-paid jobs, and often exposed to overseas experience, studying abroad, visiting scholars, doing international business or working in MNCs. They were seen by the general public as people with international vision and are well established.
那是大约15-20年前，是一类我们现在称为“公共知识分子”的中国人最活跃的时候。他们受过良好的教育，有收入体面的职业，通常还有海外经验，比如留学、访问学者、从事国际商贸或者在跨国公司上班。在普通大众眼里，他们是有国际视野的人，并且得到认可。
They loved putting themselves out there and acted like they speak for the benefits of Chinese people, they praise western countries, western political systems, western educations, western innovations and technology, western people, western civilization and basically everything western, in a seemingly neutral, rational, sane and objective tone and manner, following with a comparison with how China does, concluding in a point that the west does everything right while the CCP government does everything wrong.
他们喜欢站出来表达自己的观点，表现得好像他们在为中国人民的利益发声。他们用看似中立、理性、明智、客观的语气和方式，表扬西方国家、西方政治体系、西方教育、西方创新与科技、西方人、西方文明和基本上西方的一切，然后再拿它们和中国作比较，最后得出一点结论，就是西方做对了所有事情，而中共政府什么都做错了。
For instance a very famous case was the piece on the city sewer system in Qingdao, a former German colony in Shandong province of China.
举例来说，有一个著名案例是一篇关于青岛下水道系统的文章，那个城市在中国山东省，曾经是德国的殖民地。
The piece talks about how the sewer system built by the Germans during the colonial time still works today after a century, and how Qingdao never once suffered from city being flooded during heavy rain thanks to the German-built sewer system, while China today doesn’t even have the urban planning capability that the Germans had 100 years ago, leaping forward to how superior the German manufacturing was and still is today, being proved by how Chinese people love German-made cars nowadays, and how China was way behind Germany and can’t never catch up, moving on to how superior the Germans are as a people compared to the Chinese.
这篇文章说的是，德国殖民时期建造的下水道系统如何在一个世纪后的今天仍然运转，青岛又是如何因为德国下水道而在大雨中从未遭受城市积水之苦，而今天的中国甚至还没有100年前德国的城市规划能力，中国人如今对德国汽车的喜爱就是这一点最好的证明，最终从中国如何落后于德国并永远不可能追赶上德国，转移到德国人作为人与中国人相比是如何优越。
Such a piece was largely based on selective facts, some of which were true and made the piece believable in a way that fits people’s common sense, you’ll just think ‘oh yeah Qingdao has never been flooded by pouring rain’, then you read the part about German cars and you go ‘oh right the German cars are indeed most reliable and of excellent quality’, and you read the part comparing German and Chinese people you just go ‘yeah we cannot do what the Germans do, we are so far behind’.
这样的一篇文章很大程度上基于选择性的事实，其中一部分是真的，并且让文章看起来可信，因为符合人们的常识，你只会想“对呀，青岛确实从未被倾盆大雨淹没”，然后你又读到关于德国车的部分，就想“是啊，德国车确实很可靠、质量非常棒”，最后你看到对比德国人和中国人的部分，只会想“确实，我们做不到德国人做的，我们还很落后”。
You see the interesting part?
你看到有趣的部分了吗？
The truth is, the Germans-built part counts for roughly 0.1% of today’s city sewer system, and the one that is running well under Qingdao’s ground was built by Chinese government. The reason that Qingdao doesn’t get flooded is because the city government has implemented a thorough plan based on scientific study to prevent flood in light of heavy rain or hurricane, as well as an emergency action plan, being a coastal city also helps in some cases.
事情的真相是，德国人建造的部分只占青岛下水道系统大约0.1%，如今在青岛地下运行良好的下水道系统其实是中国政府建造的。青岛没有遭受洪灾的原因其实是市政府贯彻了一项基于科学研究的在大雨或飓风中抵御洪水的周密计划。除了紧急行动计划外，城市濒临大海在一些时候也起到了帮助。
The knowledge of foreign countries was taken advantage by those ‘public intellectuals’ to make themselves look good and admirable, it plays the similar role as luxury items to showcase your social status and gain social currency.
关于外国的知识被那些“公共知识分子”利用来让他们看起来更好和更值得赞赏，这和利用奢侈品来展现你的社会地位、获取社会财富是相似的。
Back in that time, stuff like this was everywhere, from newspaper to magazines, from state media to local television, and of course the internet.
回到当时，像这样的东西随处可见，从报纸到杂志，从国家级媒体到地方电视台，当然网上也有。
People post and repost such articles on social media, driving a wide spread belief that western world is heaven: the freedom and political superiority of America, the manufacturing of Germany, the taste and gentlemen spirit of UK, the fine art and romance of France and Italy, the craftsmanship of Japan … the list goes on and on.
人们在社交媒体发布和转发这些文章，推动了广泛蔓延的“西方就是天堂”的信仰：美国自由和政治的优越性，德国的工业，英国的品味和绅士精神，法国、意大利的艺术和浪漫，日本的工匠精神……这个列表不断延伸。
Such contents usually embedded indications that CCP government lacks of tons quality to pull off what the west can do, and you get the impression that the CCP government isn’t leading the country to a better place.
此类内容通常会把一个标志深深刻在你脑中，那就是中共政府距离成功赶上西方，在品质上差了十万八千里，同时你还会有一个印象，就是中共政府没有领导国家走向一个好地方。
You find yourself in a hopeless position when you look around and see only western cars, western airplanes, western computers, western applications, western movies, western music, western coca cola … Everything you seem to like or enjoy is from the western world.
当你环顾四周，只看到西方的汽车、飞机、电脑、应用程序、电影、音乐和可口可乐时，你发现自己处在一个无助的境地……任何看上去你喜欢或享受的东西都来自西方世界。
And you aspire towards the collective west, and you wonder what if China becomes ‘westernized’:
然后你就渴望加入西方集体，并且想知道如果中国变得“西方化”会怎么样：
are we better off if we employ the western system?
如果我们使用西方体系，经济会不会更好？
isn’t it better if everyone can vote?
如果所有人都能投票，是不是更好？
will it be better if we can do whatever the law doesn’t forbid, like in the west?
如果我们可以做任何法律没有禁止的事情，就像西方那样，会不会更好？
You gradually turn against CCP government, you just can’t understand why you aren’t getting what the west has, why China isn’t going as good as the west, and what is with the great fire wall? is CCP trying to hide its incompetence?
你最终逐渐转向反对中共政府，你只是不理解，为什么你没有那些西方拥有的东西，为什么中国没有变得和西方一样好，以及网络防火长城究竟伴随了什么？中共是不是企图隐瞒它的不称职？
It started as disagreement, leading to oppose, and eventually becomes hatred and anti-China/CCP-ism with a pro-west sentiment.
它始于意见分歧，走向对抗，并最终转化成憎恨和带有亲西方观点的反华、反共主义。
This is what happened with me.
这就是发生在我身上的事。
—
When I started my university time, I had the chance to finally go abroad on international internships and backpack trips, and see for myself what it truly was out there.
当我上大学之后，我终于有机会出国参加国际实习和背包旅行，亲自看看外面的世界到底是什么样。
My point of views started to change as I found every country has tons of problems, some are way worse than China.
当我发现每个国家都有成吨的问题，其中一些比中国还严重时，我的观点开始有所转变。
I visited the *best countries* like USA, Germany, Singapore, and I visited *okay countries* like Thailand, Vietnam, India, Russia, and then I visited *bad as hell countries* like Iran and North Korea, and after graduation from college I moved to New Zealand.
我去了传说中“最好的国家”，如美国、德国、新加坡，以及一些“还行的国家”，像泰国、越南、印度、俄罗斯，甚至去了“地狱般的坏国家”伊朗、北朝鲜。终于，大学毕业后，我去了新西兰。
I find that Beijing has filthy streets so does New York, Guangzhou has slums so does LA, I also find that Auckland has crystal clear sky so does Shenzhen, Singapore has amazing skylines so does Shanghai, big cities all suffer from traffic jams and have angry drivers and it has nothing to do with ‘being civilized’, the best urban traffic condition I found was in Pyongyang, no jams, no idiots running in red lights, no angry taxi drivers giving you the finger, just pretty traffic policewomen.
我发现北京的街道很脏，纽约也是；广州有贫民窟，洛杉矶也有。我还发现奥克兰有水晶般清澈的天空，深圳也有；新加坡有令人惊讶的城市天际线，上海也有。大城市们全都遭受交通拥堵之苦，有着和“文明”毫不相干的路怒症司机。我看到城市交通条件最好的是平壤，没有拥堵，没有跑步闯红灯的白痴，没有愤怒的出租车司机对你竖中指，有的只是漂亮的女交警。
You see, when you go there and actually see it, you pick up the other side of the coin, and you realize how blinded and misjudging you were before.
你看，当你真的去看了它之后，你才会看到硬币的另一面，然后发现之前的你到底有多瞎，有多误判。
I finally realized that, China was not doing bad, we were just in a shitty place to start with, and for a fact that the CCP government was doing good in pulling a country of 1.4 billion people from hell to earth.
我终于意识到，中国做得并不差，我们只是从一个过于糟糕的起点出发，而且实际上中共政府在把一个拥有14亿人的国家从地狱拉回地表这方面做得还不错。
As Chinese people continuously sharing the benefits of their motherland’s rapid growth, they become wealthier and can afford overseas trips to see the ‘western wonderland’ those public intellectuals once bragged about, and guess what? They are all like ‘oh so this is it? oh ok well…’ With 140 million outbound visits every year, the Chinese quickly gain a full picture of what the world actually looks like, the good and the bad, what others do better and lesser of China.
当中国人不断地从他们祖国的快速成长中获益，变得越来越富有并且能够承担出国旅行的费用时，他们终于可以去看看一度被公共知识分子们吹上天的“西方仙境”，你猜发生了什么？他们都觉得“好吧……就这？”通过每年一亿四千万人次的出国旅行，中国人迅速获得了世界真实的全貌，好的，坏的，其他国家比哪里比中国做得好，哪里又不如中国。
Putting the puzzles together, it only makes sense to have a fresh, rational and sane understanding of Chinese government and the CCP, they aren’t great for sure, but they have done some really amazing shit to get the Chinese to where they are today, and consider where they begin with and how fast they do it, it is nothing short of spectacular.
把这些拼图拼在一起，它只会帮助你对中国政府和中共有一个新鲜、理性和明智的理解，他们当然不是谈不上伟大，但他们确实做了些令人赞叹的逼事，才使中国到了如今的位置，而且考虑到他们的起点以及实现的速度，可以说是惊人的。
I still won’t consider myself a supporter of CCP, but I do appreciate how well they are running this country.
我依然不会把自己看作中共的支持者，但我十分赞赏他们管理这个国家的成就。
Perhaps some of the western fellows can also go to China and see for yourself, whether it is an evil regime as some of your media insists on, maybe you will also pick up the other side of coin like I did, who knows.
也许一些西方的伙计们也可以去中国自己看看，到底那是不是你们媒体坚称的那个邪恶政体，也许你也会像我一样看到硬币的另一面，谁知道呢。
单词表
firm adj. 坚定的
take off 起飞
and nothing more 仅此而已
intellectual n. 知识分子
decently adv. 体面地
occupy vt. 占据
MNC = Multinational Corporation 跨国公司
well established adj. 得到认可的
put oneself out there 勇于表达自己的观点
innovation n. 创新
neutral adj. 中立的
sane adj. 明智的
objective adj. 客观的
tone n. 语气
manner n. 方式
conclude v. 推断出
piece n. （作品）篇
sewer n. 下水道
urban adj. 城
conmon sense n. 常识
flood v. 淹没
implement vt. 贯彻
thorough adj. 周密的
showcase vt. 展示……的优点
take advantage of 利用
currency n. 通货
drive vt. 推动
fine art n. 美术作品
embded vt. 把……牢牢嵌入
indication n. 标示
pull off 努力实现
aspire vi. 追求，渴望
collective adj. 集体的
what if 如果……将会怎么样
wonder v. 想知道
better off adj. 经济状况更好的
employ v. 使用
gradually adv. 逐渐地
incompetence n. 不称职
disagreement n. 分歧
sentiment n. 观点
hatred n. 憎恨
internship n. internship n. 实习期
filthy adj. 肮脏的
slum n. 贫民窟
uirban adj. 城市的
condition n. 条件
idiot n. 白痴
give ... the finger 对……竖中指
shitty adj. 糟糕的
for a fact 确实地
wonderland n. 仙境
brag vi. 吹牛
outboud adj. 向外国去的
make sense 有意义
nothing short of 可以说是
spectacular adj. 惊人的
appreciate v. 欣赏，感谢
regime n. 政权
译自：https://qr.ae/prWE25
时间：2020年3月28日