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我1961年出生于上海，成长于文革期间。在我的童年时期，我目睹家庭失去房子。我的祖父在英国研习医学，因被冤枉是反革命和外国间谍而自杀。
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那是最糟糕的时代。
然而，自从文革于20世纪70年代末结束后，我曾亲眼目睹中国不可思议的进步。在仅仅一代人的时间里，发生了很少人能够想象的变化。跟西方没有任何联系的共产主义政府已经演变成一个更加开放、力图融入国际社会的政府。
国家控制的经济已经演变成市场经济，大大提高了民众的生活水平。显然，如今大多数中国民众的生活比三十年前要丰富得多，富裕得多。尽管要做的工作还很多，但中国政府在开放方面进展迅速，并尝试成为国际社会的一部分。
我上月去了中国，并花了四周时间访问上海、北京、香港和成都。我所接触的人都为北京奥运感到骄傲和兴奋。中国人认为奥运是向全世界展示现代中国的极好机会。和很多美国人一样，大多数中国民众为最近的西藏事件感到不安。但看过暴徒使用暴力和纵火的场面之后，中国人认为政府予以打击以恢复秩序的做法是正确的。
奥运火炬如今在加州，今天（4月9日）将经过旧金山。旧金山市监事会议成员戴利（chris daly）在一项批评中国的决议中表示，针对火炬接力的抗议活动将“给旧金山民众提供一生难得的、帮助13亿中国人获得更多自由和权利的机会。”可幸的是，市长纽森（gavin newsom）并没有签署戴利的决议。
这项声明脱离实际。一方面，中国人是骄傲的人们。中国人想要自由和更多的权利，但中国人知道自己必须从内部争取。中国人知道自由和权利不是外人所能给予的。西方帝国主义和鸦片战争带来的耻辱仍然未能忘怀，而且中国民众不希望外部势力指示自己的国内政策。中国人也不希望美国抵制奥运开幕式。美国抵制1980年莫斯科奥运，苏联抵制1984年洛杉矶奥运，两败俱伤。美国如抵制北京的开幕式将会给两国关系带来适得其反的效果。
几十年来，华盛顿的反华人权组织耗费数百万美元谴责中国。对许多中国人而言，美国媒体和美国政府只接受这些游说者的声音，或者认为这些声音才有新闻价值。但时代变了。我们需要放开胸襟，放长眼光。我们需要更多的朋友而不是敌人。还记得20世纪70年代小小的乒乓球赛给中美关系带来的变化吗？让我们为奥运的意义庆贺奥运——它是友谊的桥梁，不是政治的场地。
来源：美国《华盛顿邮报》 来源日期：2008-4-9
英文原文 let the games go on
by joan chen
wednesday, april 9, 2008; a19
i was born in shanghai in 1961 and grew up during the cultural revolution. during my childhood, i saw my family lose our house. my grandfather, who studied medicine in england, committed suicide after he was wrongly accused of being a counterrevolutionary and a foreign spy.
those were the worst of times.
since the cultural revolution ended in the late 1970s, however, i have witnessed unimaginable progress in china. changes that few ever thought possible have occurred in a single generation. a communist government that had no ties to the west has evolved into a more open government eager to join the international community.
a state-controlled economy has morphed into a market economy, greatly raising peoples standard of living. its clear that the majority of the chinese people enjoy much fuller, more abundant lives today than 30 years ago. though much remains to be done, the chinese government has made rapid progress in opening up and trying to be part of the international community.last month i went to china and spent four weeks visiting shanghai, beijing, hong kong and chengdu. the people i met and spoke with are proud and excited about the beijing games. they believe that the olympics are a wonderful opportunity to showcase modern china to the rest of the world. like many americans, most chinese people are disturbed by the recent events in tibet. but after watching the scenes of violence and arson by the rioters, the chinese believe that the government is doing the right thing in cracking down to restore order.
the olympic torch is in california and is to be carried through san francisco today. in a resolution criticizing china, chris daly, a member of the san francisco board of supervisors, said that demonstrating against the torch relay would provide the people of san francisco with a lifetime opportunity to help 1.3 billion chinese people gain more freedom and rights. to his credit, mayor gavin newsom did not sign dalys resolution.
this statement could not be further from reality. for one thing, the chinese are a proud people. they want freedom and greater rights, but they know they must fight for them from within. they know that no one can grant them freedom and rights from afar. the stigma of western imperialism and the opium wars also remains a strong reminder of the past, and chinese people do not want their domestic policies to be dictated by outside powers. they also do not want the united states to boycott the opening ceremonies of the games. the u.s. boycott of the 1980 games in moscow and the soviet boycott of the 1984 olympics in los angeles accomplished nothing. a u.s. boycott of the opening ceremonies in beijing would be counterproductive for relations between the two countries.
for decades, anti-china human rights groups in washington have spent millions of dollars denouncing china. to many chinese, it seems that this lobby is the only voice thats acceptable or newsworthy in the u.s. media and to the u.s. government. but times are changing. we need to be open-minded and farsighted. we need to make more friends than enemies. remember what a little ping-pong game did for sino-u.s. relations in the 1970s? lets celebrate the olympics for what the games are meant to be -- a bridge for friendship, not a playground for politics.
the writer is an actress and director. she became a u.s. citizen in 1989. |
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开花的树 
发表于 2008-4-11 13:18:32
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