2006年12月4日 千年一叹-Book Riview November 2006 A Sigh of a Thousand Years （《千年一叹》）Yu Qiuyu 余秋雨
Outline: In 1999, months before man entered the new millennium, Yu started a journey with the Phoenix TV crews, over the rims of Europe and Africa, and the West and South Asia, all of which once bred glorious civilizations, but now have become deserted or less prosperous. They started from Greece and Egypt, to the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal and finally back to China. Mile by mile across the deserts and borders, they were on auto wheels, penetrating through the areas of extreme poverty, disorder, and above all, dangers which kept on threatening their lives. Every night throughout the journey Yu kept writing an essay of their sights and feelings, which would be faxed and published at once the next day. This book is a collection of these essays.
These feelings are valuable because the respected Yu, being no amateur traveler, had learned what he could all his life on the history, legends, and the present situations of all these civilizations before setting out. And among those who have learned in China, few would risk their lives like he did.
Response: The memories are miserable, the most miserable being the memories themselves being cut off, and the residents now, being scarcely aware or able to recover the wound. Greek and Egyptian civilization thrived, but would later be conquered and destroyed by the Romans. Jerusalem, happening to be sacred city of the Christians and Muslims at the same time, has been burned to ground and buried deep below several times. Iraq, once the glorious Babylon, was now being sadly impoverished by Sadam’s regime and punished by the international society. The Indians abandoned Buddhism themselves, which can be felt as a religion of wisdom, and entered centuries of confusion. In comparison, the Chinese are lucky. In spite of the recent hundreds of years of painful memories, along with the crash of western values, we have our national history and cultural characters well preserved.
Reading this book can help us learn about those civilizations at a quick glance, but it is not a tool for you to made judgments, which can only be drawn based on sufficient experience and evidence made by yourself. 22:05
10月16日 What's up man
Seeing a girl walking off the pavement as I sped my bike down the avenue, passing by in a flash. She was too concentrated on, or rather, too distracted by the colorful banners on the side to notice me, that I had to swerve to avoid her. "Freshman," I said to myself, "Unbearably romantic."
If freedom is what I need, I should be saving up before I can pay for it, the price probably freedom itself. A man may have lost freedom forever in his heart, luckily, however, he'll still be able to buy it for somebody else.
The generation in a hurry. Get used to things which we thought was disgusting, but try not to pass them on to the next one.
But this may be wrong. You're invisible because u're not connected, and u're not a man, bcz u failed to come up with the solution. The ability to change and make things happen may be universal, for men. You're honorable in moral, well; you're deep in thoughts, nice. But nervous to talk to people? Unwilling to meet strangers? lost your ideas over a lot of things or on being a leader? I'm sorry, but you're out.
What's wrong with me? Just feeling excited about the new faces we chose into our asso., but meanwhile so sorry for those who were out. This entry may be in memory of the same days last year when earthquakes took place in so many people's minds. But are such earthquakes necessary? But, you know, any town will be all right before it is struck. 19:19
9月15日 Things that I've learned in my first College Year
1. People are different. We come from different places and have had different experiences.
2. Things need to be done by heart, which you have only one.
3. As adults, we have secrets which are not to be let out, no matter what cultural background we are in.
4. Value time. Try to plan everything but love.
5.Value friendship, but withdraw illusions upon love. It's expensive.
6.Try to know how the whole thing works, and what answers are expected, at least before the day you're somehow free.
7. Don't lose your dream, or you'll never be free.
I'm not here to judge, but these are true to me, and are the only thing I've possibly got to teach, as a "Senior". 19:17
8月30日 Don't Be Ugly
Just finished the freshmen board of MASU last night. It was really a close call. I don’t know what I’m doing here again because, admittedly, they’re all back.To be a language learner, one must withstand loneliness. And for the past whole year, I’ve been no language learner. I have no sooner recovered from the tire boredom than I’m faced with the school’s freshmen reception work again.
I felt terribly “unincluded” again this afternoon, among all of them. It’s quite beyond me why some people, me included in some ways, could appear to be so cheerful all the time while in fact doing rather poor. They pretend to enjoy work which, to them, doesn’t seem real.
But it does seem great, giving you a sense of achievement which no textbook directly provides. I don’t wanna get lost again, this year.
Confident, enthusiastic, unexhausted, how ugly all these may seem if they are not what you are, but just what you think you need to be.
9:13
8月18日 To Start With...
I'll start this space as the second page of my original one where, from now on, only contents in Chinese will be shown. Those who r interested and have come here to read what my friends once complained as "hard to understand", well, thank u really. You are most welcome here. I'm a college student in my sophomore year, majoring in Business English in Sun-Yat-sen University in the city of Zhuhai, China. I'll be learning French soon. I'm interested in various types of music, singing, literature, movies and computer skills. Sometimes I write my own songs too. Though work will be much tougher this year, I'll still be happy to share my thoughts and experience in, well, anything here with you my friends. And BTW, as a student dreaming of studying abroad, I always long for chances to practice both my spoken and written language, Ha-ha.
Welcome to my space, and DO leave comments! 11:50
