中国文化似乎毫不掩饰地强调声望，这是为什么？ [美国媒体]

-------------译者：old_altar-审核者：龙腾翻译总管------------



For example I was reading over this descxtion of a CS program at Tsinghua:

例如我曾经通读的这篇有关清华大学一项计算机科学项目的描述：

Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS)

交叉信息研究院

Tsinghua Xuetang Special Pilot CS Class (Yao Class) was founded by Prof. Andrew Chi-Chih Yao world-leading computer scientist in 2005 with a view to nurture promising undergraduate students in the field of computer science who are to become top talents like students from MIT Stanford and other prestigious universities. Yao Class has set up a model for cultivating innovative talents in accordance with their aptitude and developed an extensive international teaching program. With the great effort of Prof. Yao Yao Class model and achievements have won full support from high-ranking officials of the Chinese government and the Ministry of Education. It has been a successful example in China’s endeavor to cultivate innovative talents. Yao Class students are now making remarkable achievements in the field of computer science.

清华大学计算机科学特别试点班（姚班）由世界顶级的计算机科学家姚期智教授于2005年创建，该班着眼于培养像来自麻省理工大学、斯坦福大学和其他国际顶级大学的能够成为计算机领域顶尖人才的大学生。姚班创造了一种协调人才的天资同时培养他们创新天赋的模式并发展成了一项广阔的国际教学计划。在姚期智教授的不懈努力之下，姚班模式及其成就得到了中国政府和教育部高级官员的鼎力支持。它成为了中国努力培养创新型人才的一个楷模。如今姚班的学生正在计算机科学领域作出卓越成就。

You don't see this kind of prose from elite or wanna-be elite universities outside China. Rather they tend to focus on talking about producing great students and are more modest about advertising themselves and comparing themselves to other schools. I'm assuming possibly unfairly that this reflects a general overt focus on prestige in the culture as a whole. How did it evolve this way?

你不会从中国以外的一流大学或者准一流大学看到这种枯燥无味的废话。与之相反的是他们更多注重于培养伟大的学生而且在推销自己以及和其他学校对比时要谦虚的多。我不会好意地臆测一下：这种现象反映了中国整体文化中对声望的不加掩饰的追求。它是怎么发展到这一步的？


-------------译者：old_altar-审核者：龙腾翻译总管------------

Godfree Roberts Ed.D. Education & Geopolitics University of Massachusetts Amherst (1973)
Written Fri R26; Upvoted by Xinchun Li lives in China
Prestige–widespread respect and admiration felt for someone or something on the basis of a perception of their achievements or quality–is based on admiration. So admiration is the obverse of prestige. We naturally admire those who are accomplished whether intellectually artistically athletically or morally. We admire certain people who in our eyes therefore are prestigious.

声望——基于某些人或事的成就或品质智商的广泛尊重和钦佩——以赞美为基石。所以赞美是声望的正面。我们天生钦佩那些精通智力、艺术、运动或者道德任一领域的人。我们钦佩一些人，于是他们有了声望。

Human beings are born into the natural hierarchy of older siblings parents and grandparents and find hierarchies extend into the adult world of talented and powerful people. But this conflicts with Westerners’ denial of hierarchies so Westerners don’t deal with prestige well. To us admitting that someone is prestigious places them ‘above us’–which probably stems from Christian doctrines that we are ‘individuals’ and all ‘equal in the sight of God’.

人类一生下来就处在年长的兄弟姐妹、父母以及祖父母构成的天然等级制度中，并且还会发现等级制度延续到由天才和能人构成的成人世界中。但是这和西方人对等级制度的否定冲突所以西方人不能很好地处理声望。对我们来说承认某些人享有声望就将他们置于“我们头顶”——这种想法可能来自于基督教条中声称我们是“个体”并且“在上帝眼中平等”。

-------------译者：old_altar-审核者：龙腾翻译总管------------

Westerners pretend that prestigious things like wealth learning and virtue are not important to them (especially if they lack them). But this is just harmless hypocrisy. If a billionaire or a famous entertainer will be attending your party you can bet that your guests will tell their friends because their prestige (and their friends’ envious admiration) will rise too.

西方人假装有名望的东西像是财富、学识和美德对他们来说无关紧要（尤其是在他们没有这些东西的时候）。但这只是无害的虚伪。如果一个亿万富翁或者知名演员将要出席你的聚会，你能打赌你的客人会告诉他们的朋友因为他们的声望（以及他们朋友们的羡慕嫉妒恨）也会得到提升。

Chinese culture is ‘overt’ in some ways that ours is covert some of the things they make public like salaries we keep private. The Chinese are very overt about prestige and hierarchy: they make no secret of their admiration for those they consider ‘above’ them and accord such people great prestige. Chinese society (like most militaries) makes great use of prestige as ‘currency’ too: Chinese government officials are poorly paid compared to their counterparts abroad but their prestige is far greater. Greater even than millionaires’ prestige. So government officials toil away endure much abuse live simply but feel happy because they have such prestige. It’s much cheaper than paying them properly so taxpayers are happy too.

中国文化在对待某些事物上和我们避而不宣的态度相比要开放的多，比如他们会公开薪水而我们则视之为隐私。中国人在对待声望和等级制度毫不掩饰：他们绝不会掩饰自己对那些他们认为在他们“之上”的人的敬佩并且给予这些人巨大的声望。中国社会（就像大多数军队一样）就像“硬通货”一样使用声望：中国政府官员们的薪资比起他们在国外的同行来非常低但他们的声望却远在国外官员之上。甚至比百万富翁们的声望还高。所以政府官员能够忍受劳累奔波、大量的工作和简朴的生活但却感到开心，因为他们拥有如此可观的声望。这比起付给他们对应的薪水来说便宜多了，所以纳税人同样也很开心。

-------------译者：tomandjerry-审核者：龙腾翻译总管------------

Paul Denlinger Have lived in China Taiwan and Hong Kong; fluent in Mandarin (written spoken)
Paul Denliger（在中国台湾香港生活过，普通话流利（书写和口语））
Written Sat
Because after China was united under the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE the nation was held together by a meritocratic hierarchical bureaucratic system which served the emperor; instead of a hereditary nobility as it was in the west.

因为中国由秦朝在公元前221年统一后，国家由为皇帝效力的精英官僚等级系统治理，不像西方是由世袭贵族治理的。

It was meritocratic in that anyone who took the imperial exams could join it; it was not based on blood as it was at that time in the west;
Because there was no blood nobility outside the imperial court there needed to be ways to signal rank and status especially within the bureaucracy.
Chinese philosophies such as Legalism and Confucianism are mainly focused on relationships and order which make it important to signal where one’s place in society is and what those relationships are.

它的精英制表现在，你只要参与科举就可以加入；它不是像同时期西方那样是基于血缘的；
由于朝堂以外并没有世袭贵族，那么就需要标记等级和地位的方法，特比是在体制内。
中国哲学，如法家和儒家主要专注于关系和秩序，这些对如何标记一个人在社会中的位置和相互关系而言非常重要。

In the Chinese vision of the universe the emperor is the Son of Heaven and the social universe is made of pyramid relationships with an elder at the top and family education farmer and business relationships all of which are defined by that same pyramid.

在中国的宇宙观中，皇帝是天之子，社会是由金字塔形的关系构成，长辈在上，而家庭成员、教育、农业、商业关系全都在同样的金字塔中定义。

When the elder in one pyramid dies he is replaced by a successor from the next generation. And so on and so forth.

当一个金字塔中的长辈死亡，他由下一代的继承者代替。如此往复。

-------------译者：tomandjerry-审核者：龙腾翻译总管------------

Rune Vejby Does being extremely nice make me an extremist?
Rune Vejby（极端地老好人会令我成为一个极端主义分子么？）
Written Nov 22 2014
With regards to the course descxtion you posted I agree that it's a bit too tacky. I don't see it necessarily being about prestige as such but about showing gratitude and giving props to two very important institutions in Chinese culture: teachers and government officials.

关于你贴出的课程介绍，我同意它有点太恶俗了。我觉得这不一定是要展示声望，而是要对两种中国文化中非常重要的人群表达感激和支持：教师和官员。

In Chinese culture teachers are highly regarded and well-respected individuals opposed to how they are perceived in the West sadly. Therefore if a popular professor with a great track record such as the professor mentioned in your question decides to start a new course and he is held in high regard among students and scholars it's not uncommon to see his name plastered all over. Students in China really care a lot about teachers and a good teacher can attract a huge following. 

在中国文化中，教师被认为是值得尊敬的人，悲伤的是在西方这恰好相反。所以，如果一个成就辉煌的知名教授，例如你的问题中涉及到的教授，打算开设一门新课程，而且他在学生和学术界间享有盛誉，那么不难见到他的名字会被到处张贴。中国学生真的非常重视教师，一个好教师能吸引大量关注。

-------------译者：tomandjerry-审核者：龙腾翻译总管------------

Government officials are also mentioned in the descxtion probably because they helped fund the class or helped the university ease the bureaucratic burden by leveraging certain official channels. Mentioning them in the course descxtion is a formal gesture to showcase gratitude to the ruling party. 

在描述里也提及了官员，很可能是因为他们帮助资助了这门课程或者通过一些官方渠道帮助大学减轻了行政负担。在课程描述中提到他们，是一种对执政党展示感激之情的形式化姿态。

You will come across these types of texts all the time in Chinese institutions. They form part of a broader patriotic metanarrative in support of the Communist Party and at the same time are ways for institutions to glorify and honor authorities that are important to them.  It's not really about prestige it's just a different narrative genre if that makes any sense.

你在中国各组织里总是能遇见这类文字，它们是更广泛的爱党爱国叙述的一部分，同时，也是各组织赞美和尊敬对其非常重要的政府的方式。这与炫耀声誉没什么关系，这只是一种不同的叙述类型，如果这说得通的话。

-------------译者：s555555555-审核者：龙腾翻译总管------------

Darryl Snow 1 upvote
Hehe I remember I once had to record a minor press release for the China Meteorological Administration. It was about 300 words on the topic of a new programme they'd set up with partner agencies in SouthEast Asian countries. The name of the director of the CMA was included 6 times and each time his name was appended with a list of his official title and qualifications making him the bulk of the press release.

呵呵 我记得我曾经给中国国家气象局记录一个小新闻稿。是关于他们与东南亚国家计划成立新的合作机构，话题大概有300字，其中气象局主任的名字被提及6次并且每次都附带上了一列他的官衔和资质，搞的他本人占了新闻稿的绝大部分。