Confucius influences

“孔子”间谍论出台内幕
2007年5月28日，大洋彼岸的加拿大通讯社记者吉姆·布朗斯基（Jim Bronskill）写了一篇关于孔子学院的报道，结果，中国刮起了一阵“蝴蝶风暴”，孔子学院被加拿大人看作“洗脑机构”。

忍不住给这个记者写了个email说了几句。

'jbronskill@cp.org'
Title：Confusing Confucius influences

When I first read your article, I was quite upset. I did a search on the internet and read some of your articles about China and realized that you are looking at China through a pair of tinted glasses, a very tinted pair. I was not upset anymore. When prejudice comes to such a point that nobody cares about the truth, readers should not be upset anyway. Truthfulness is probably of no interest to you. What you need is to bring Westerners up to a point where/when they should keep away all Chinese influences. Who cares about Confucius? You? I doubt. How long have you been in China? How much do you know about China?

I was born in China in the 60’s and had been through the times when we were taught to always keep a vigilant mind against Western influences. We were told that we had to keep away all those influences because they were decayed, rotten, degenerate, etc. (whatever bad words you can put there.) One day, when we were able to look outside through slowly opened door, we realized that’s not true. Ever since then, we have been laughing at Chairman Mao’s calling on his people to Never forget about the class struggle (as the enemy never ceased to think about sabotaging our country, eh). We have been open to all Western influences and totally forget about Chairman Mao’s calling.

To my surprise, in the 21st century, when all the western countries are blaming China for its tight control over Western influences (which is not true, because Western influences have dramatically changed people’s daily life in China), you have brought up such a serious concern about some sort of Chinese influence over “Westerners.” You article certainly caused some ripples in the Chinese community, maybe in a way other than you were hoping for. You helped some Chinese people to understand why Chairman Mao was saying “Never forget about class struggle,” and why the communist party still needs some agency to keep an eye on the Western influences, because Westerners do the same thing.

I would suggest you write another article to call on all Westerners (at least Canadians, I mean real Canadians) to “Never forget about …!” Maybe a campaign or something would be more efficient in your goal.


Best regards,