美版知乎：你为什么喜欢中国

Why do you love China?

你为什么喜欢中国？

 以下是Quora读者的评论：

Michael Moldenhauer

Let’s see.

我们来看看。

1.For one, China is perhaps the only surviving ancient civilization in the world, in the sense of still strongly retaining its roots. From the language and distinctive writing system, to the philosophy, and the structure of government itself. Ancient Egypt, which can (depending on what your dating conditions are) be considered as originating earlier, also died out a long time ago and modern Egypt is very, very different. Nobody cares about the gods like Ra and Hathor anymore, and hardly anyone worships them. Hieroglyphics have been a dead writing system since 1500 years ago. The dominant language is Arabic. Egyptian, now called “Coptic”, is relegated to limited use in religious services. No modern Egyptian president or ruler will get a pyramid, or even a rock tomb of the traditional style in the Valley of the Kings.

1.首先，中国可能是全世界唯一幸存下来的古代文明，因为它仍然顽强地保留着自己的文化根基。从语言和独特的书写系统，到处世哲学和政府结构都是如此。古埃及的起源可能更早，但在很久以前就消失了，而现代埃及则已是迥然不同的文化了。没有人再关心像拉和哈索尔这样的神，也几乎没有人崇拜他们了。象形文字在1500年前就已经无人使用了。阿拉伯语成了主要语言。现在被称为“科普特语”的埃及语在宗教服务中得到极为有限的应用。现代埃及总统或统治者也不会拥有金字塔，也不会拥有国王谷里传统风格的岩石坟墓。

2.But in China, the native languages are spoken as much as ever, though having naturally undergone their own evolution just as English. The writing system in use bears a straight line of connection to the original one invented at least 3500, if not more, years ago. (There is good reason to suspect that the reason there aren’t earlier samples of writing is not that the script was invented at this point, but that this was the first point they were written down in durable media. Likely, before this point, all writing was on things like Bamboo, which decays away. The actual time, thus, is quite unknown and may not ever be known.) The old gods still get their worship at least by some - it’s called “Shenism”. Moreover, while foreign religions were introduced like Buddhism, and there are also non-theistic native religions like Daoism, all these go back far into history. While most Chinese are “officially” atheists, there’s some saying that goes something like that Chinese are, at different points in their life, Daoist, Confucian, Atheist and finally Buddhist at death, or something like that - don’t remember the details or the order of “stages”.

2. 在中国，人们自始至终都使用汉语作为母语，虽然汉语和英语一样也自然地经历了自身的演变。现在中国人使用的书写系统与至少3500年前发明的原始书写系统有着显而易见的关联。(我们有充分的理由怀疑，之所以没有更早之前的文字样本，并不是因为文字是这个时候才发明的，而是因为这是第一次使用了能抵御时间侵蚀的媒介来记录文字。很可能，在那之前，所有的文字都写在竹子之类的东西上，而时间一久，竹子就会腐烂。因此，真实的时间是未知的，可能永远也不会被发现。)有些人仍然崇拜旧时的神——这被称为“神论”。此外，虽然引进了佛教等外来宗教，中国也有本土的非有神论宗教，如道教等，这些宗教都有着漫长的历史。虽然大多数中国人是无神论者，但也有这样的说法：中国人在人生的不同阶段，分别是道教信徒、儒家门徒、无神论者，最后在去世前则是佛教徒，或者类似的说法——我记不太清具体说法或这几个“阶段”的顺序了。

3.China has made amazing progress compared to most other developing countries in building out a modern infrastructure, all while still retaining these strong traditional roots. While your typical Chinese city may not quite be up to snuff for the typical big cities in the West, they sure have come a long way and are well ahead of the pack.

3.与大多数发展中国家相比，中国在建设现代基础设施方面取得了惊人的进步，同时依然保留着强大的传统文化根基。虽然你看到的典型的中国城市可能不太符合西方典型大城市的标准，但他们确实已经取得了长足的进步，卓然于群了。

4.The Chinese philosophy toward foreign relations - despite all the much-ballyhooed concerns regarding so-called “debt traps” which are much less clear-cut but let’s just say that there are no pure saint countries anywhere - I’d say is still generally better than that of the West. It’s much closer to the “live and let live” kind of way I think it should go in most cases. China does not, despite all the media rhetoric saying otherwise, seek to destroy Western values or destroy “individual freedom”. It has its own standards for what freedom is does and doesn’t allow its own citizens, and it also applies those same standards against foreigners operating within its own borders. Those standards are at variance with Western standards, and while as a Westerner one may disagree with them, the point to make is that unlike the West, it is not seeking to demand others abide by those standards in their countries. China is not seeking military, economic or subterfuge operations to sabotage and destroy “Western democracies” and convert them into little clones of the CCP and its techno meritocracy. Instead, people ask for development, and China gives them development with no strings attached. If the West wants to compete honorably with this, it needs to make its development aid similarly unconditional and lose the colonizer/moralizer attitude.

4.中国对待外交关系的哲学——尽管外界大肆宣扬所谓的“债务陷阱”(这个说法并不那么明确)——我想说的是，全世界没有哪个国家是纯碎的圣人-要我说，中国比西方国家好多了。我认为在大多数情况下，中国都秉持着“待人宽容如待己”的信条。中国并没有试图摧毁西方价值观或“个人自由”，尽管所有媒体都故意抹黑。对于什么是自由，允不允许本国公民自由，中国有着自己的标准，而且对在本国境内活动的外国人也采取同样的标准。这些标准与西方的标准并不相同，虽然作为一个西方人可能对这些标准有不同意见，但需要指出的是，跟西方国家不同，中国并不强求其他人在他们的国家遵守这些标准。中国不寻求通过军事、经济或其他手段来破坏和摧毁“西方”，并把它们变成中国的小克隆体。相反，人们追求发展，中国给他们带去发展，没有任何附加条件。如果西方想要体面地与之竞争，就需要同样无条件地提供发展援助，并且放弃殖民者/说教者的态度。

5.Chinese food. What else can I say?

5.中国菜。对此我还能说什么呢？

 

Wish I could have some more DanDanMian :(

真希望我能再吃上担担面。

 

Kong Thao

I think my love for China stems from my research of finding out what I really am. It was quite a transition.

I didn’t start out loving China like today. I actually grew up with negative stigma against it, with the same reasons mentioned above. In fact, it took me a long time to open up and actually see eye to eye with it. I was already in a phase where I hated and felt shame about my background, and doing research on my origins helped a lot. I figured “well, I should probably look into my country of origin. It’s the least I could do.”

我想我对中国的爱源于我对自己究竟是谁的了解之旅。这是一个相当大的转变。

我一开始并没有像今天这样热爱中国。事实上，我是听着中国污名长大的，原因和上面提到的一样。事实上，我花了很长时间才打开心扉，达成共识。当时我已经处于一个对自己的身世背景既痛恨又羞愧的阶段，而研究自己的出身对我很有帮助。我想，“好吧，我应该研究一下我的祖国。这是我最起码能做的。”

Looking deep into China’s history gave me a lot of mixed feelings. For one, it’s long rich history gave me a tiny bit of pride, and looking up it’s Century of Humiliation, Nanjing Massacre, and Cultural Revolution gave me a lot of feelings. I cried, I was angry, I empathized with the victims. Many of my interactions here with Chinese people have been quite positive, some were even surprised that they were talking to a Miao American.

深入研究中国的历史让我百感交集。首先，它悠久丰富的历史给我带来了一点小小的骄傲，而回顾它的百年屈辱，南京大屠杀和文化大革命又给了我很多的触动。我哭了，我很生气，我同情那些受害的同胞。我在这里与许多中国人的互动都非常积极

 

Axel Felix

There are many things that I love and admire about China. But for me the most important reason is that China is one of the few nations in Asia that was able to transform itself for the better. China is one of the few countries in Asia that can, did and will continue to transform itself.

It had transformations like land reform, end of warlordism, end of backward costumes, radical change in the economic system, population control, order in society and so on. Not many nations have this ability. In some countries things are the same as they were hundreds of years ago with minor differences. What makes China unique is the scale of the transformation.

When we look at some other countries in Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India), let’s forget about transformation, they have not been able to reform themselves. Worse than that it seems like they have big fetish for everything traditional.

中国有很多我喜欢和钦佩的地方。但对我来说，最重要的原因是，中国是亚洲少数几个能够把自己变得更好的国家之一。中国是亚洲为数不多的能够、已经并将继续进行自我转型的国家之一。

中国经历了土地改革，结束了军阀统治，摒弃了落后的服装，彻底改变了经济制度，人口控制，社会秩序等等。没有多少国家拥有这种能力。有些国家现在就和几百年前一样，只是略有不同。中国的独特之处在于转型的规模。

当我们看到亚洲的其他国家时(阿富汗、巴基斯坦、印度)，我们就不用提转型这回事儿了，他们没有能力改革自己。更糟糕的是，他们似乎对所有传统的东西都非常痴迷。

 

 

Richard Kenneth Eng

Maybe you love China’s great 5,000-year history. It’s been very rich and interesting. China has achieved many wonderful things throughout its history.

Maybe you love China’s culture. It has many beautiful elements, as well as awful ones. Maybe you love China’s cuisines (there are many different ones, and they’re all diverse and fascinating). Maybe you love the language, which can be very lyrical and beautiful.

Maybe you love China’s magnificent achievements in modern times. In a span of less than four decades, China has climbed out of poverty to become the largest economy in the world (by PPP GDP), or the second largest by nominal GDP. Even by nominal GDP, China is expected to become the largest within the next decade.

In less than 40 years, China grew her economy sixteen-fold!!! That’s mind-boggling, even by American standards.

In less than 40 years, China elevated nearly a billion people out of poverty and into the middle class, the greatest economic achievement in human history!

也许你喜欢中国五千年的伟大历史，源远流长，非常有趣。中国在历史上取得了许多伟大的成就。

也许你喜欢中国的文化。它有着许多美丽的元素，也有可怕的元素。也许你喜欢中国的美食(中国美食流派众多，各不相同，令人着迷)。也许你喜欢汉语，如诗如歌，优美动人。

也许你喜欢中国在现代的辉煌成就。在不到40年的时间里，中国就摆脱了贫困，成为世界上最大的经济体(按购买力平价GDP计算)，或第二大经济体（按名义GDP计算）。即使按名义GDP计算，中国也有望在未来10年内成为全球最大的经济体。

在不到40年的时间里，中国经济增长了16倍！即使以美国的标准来看，这也是令人难以置信的。

在不到40年的时间里，中国让近10亿人摆脱贫困，进入中产阶级，这是人类历史上最伟大的经济成就！

 

Jean-Marie Valheur

I don’t know why you love China. Only you can answer that question. It could be the food. It could be the people. It could be the nature in certain areas, or the weather. It could be a million different things, and only you know. But I am glad you like another country and I hope you have fun in it. Me, I hate no country in this world. And I love pretty much all of them, although I do not always agree with the politics of every country. As for China… I’ve always wanted to visit the Forbidden City. Maybe some day!

我不知道你为什么喜欢中国。只有你自己才能回答这个问题。可能是因为食物。可能是因为人。可能是因为某些地区的自然环境，或者天气。原因也许非常多，只有你自己知道。但是我很高兴你们喜欢另一个国家，我希望你们在中国玩得开心。至于我，我对这个世界上的所有国家都不讨厌。虽然我并不总是赞同每个国家的政治观点，但我还是非常喜欢它们。至于中国，我一直想去参观故宫。也许未来某一天我真的能成行！

 

Donal Kirk

Lifestyle in China is good clean, safe and fast. As s Westerner who has lived in Beijing 20 years, always been treated respectfully and made very welcome but you must obey their laws, they apply them.

中国的生活方式很干净、安全、快捷。作为一个在北京生活了20年的西方人，我一直受到中国人的尊敬和欢迎，但你必须遵守他们的法律，他们有法必依。

 

Allen Allington

Lotta of reasons to love China..

If every American could go visit China for a few weeks we would return to fire all of our propaganda producing politicians, preachers and many of our journalists.

Then rewrite many of our book to correct them.

爱上中国有很多理由…

如果每个美国人都能去中国呆上几个星期，我们回美国后，所有的宣传政客、传教士和许多记者都得失业了。

然后还要重写书中的许多篇章来纠正它们。

 

Bing Bling

I only started to notice that I love China so much when I come to UK to study for some years. Life in China is much better than UK and I’ve no idea where is the proud that British have that they think UK is much better than China, every time when I go back to China I just feel like a countryside person going to downtown, but I got a bf in UK and he is from a poor country, he told me he worked so hard to come to UK so he wants his kids to be British, for me I’m so mad about that because China is much stronger than UK so why can’t my kid are Chinese??? will see how thing goes and decide later

当我来到英国学习几年的时候，我才开始意识到我对中国的热爱。在中国生活比英国好多了，我不知道英国人认为英国比中国要好得多的骄傲从何而来，每次我回中国，都有一种乡下人进城的感觉，但是我在英国交了一个男朋友，他来自一个贫穷的国家，他告诉我，他历尽千辛万苦才来到英国，所以他希望他的孩子是英国籍，我对此很不爽，因为中国比英国强，为什么我的孩子不能是中国籍呢？？再看看吧，以后再决定。

 

Mark Lai

I love China because of its people as many of them are gentle, kind and adorable especially the kids and elderly. Probably due to its long history of refinement and culture, they have learnt how to lived and treat each other accordingly to ensure a harmonious relationship in various aspects of relation whether is within the immediate family or distant and friends or work, school etc. Then there is also the beautiful landscapes all across the vast country with different seasons offering different experiences. Of course, not forgetting the many varieties of fruits, vegetables and cuisines of many different regions at different seasons. One would not be able to live all over China in one lifespan and get to taste the foods and have met and get to know it’s people.

我爱中国，因为中国人民都很温柔、善良和可爱，尤其是孩子和老人。可能是由于其悠久的文明和文化的历史，他们学会了如何生活、如何对待彼此，维护各个方面的和谐关系，无论是直系亲属或遥远的朋友或工作，学校等。中国还有美丽的风景，遍布全国各地，不同的季节给人们不同的体验。当然也不要忘记了许多不同地区在不同季节出产的水果、蔬菜和美食。一个人终其一生也无法走遍中国，尝尽中国美食，深入了解中国人民。