为什么中国文化与西式民主“不兼容”，中国文化与日韩文化在此方面有哪些不同？ [美国媒体]

What about China's culture makes democracy"incompatible", and how does Chinese culture differ from Japanese orSouth Korean culture in this way?

为什么中国文化与西式民主“不兼容”，中国文化与日韩文化在此方面有哪些不同？

I have seen many Chinese quora users saythat Chinese culture and democracy are incompatible. Many have said lack ofChristian influence was a major part of it, but prospering democracies in SouthKorea and Japan had no Christian influence.

我看到很多中国人在论坛上说中国文化和西式民主不兼容。许多人还说主要是因为中国没有被基督教影响，但日本和韩国也没有受到基督教影响西式民主却也搞得风生水起。


Robin Daverman, World traveler
Answered Jul 10 · Upvoted by Xinchun Li,lives in China
What about China's culture makes democracy"incompatible", and how does Chinese culture differ from Japanese orSouth Korean culture in this way?
I have seen many Chinese quorausers say that Chinese culture and democracy are incompatible. Many have saidlack of Christian influence was a major part of it, but prospering democraciesin South Korea and Japan had no Christian influence.
Sophistication. The averageChinese population are just a tad too smart for a simplisticsolution as represented by the current structure of “democracy”, as it ispracticed.

Robin Daverman，世界旅行者。
“为什么中国文化与西式民主‘不兼容’，中国文化与日韩文化在这方面有哪些不同？
我看到很多中国人在论坛上说中国文化和西式民主不兼容。许多人还说主要是因为中国没有被基督教影响，但日本和韩国也没有受到基督教影响西式民主却也搞得风生水起。”
这个问题很复杂。按中国人口现在的平均水平来说，当前的“西式民主”结构和实践方式都太复杂无法成为一个简单的解决方案。

Contrary to what was presented in the OP,democracy is in fact a crucial element of the Chinese polity. It’s importanceis listed as the No. 2 of the Core Socialist Values. But the way it’s practicedright now, especially in the UK and the US, well, you have the same problem ashaving a 5-year-old buying a car - he doesn’t know how the car works, he hasnever driven a car himself, he can’t really see anything except the color andthe shape of the car, and he’s the one paying with his blood and treasure forit. Because he is handed a token, called a “vote”, and he must pay with hismoney and his life. So you have BREXIT and Trump.

和题干描述的相反，西式民主在中国政体中一个非常重要的元素。其重要性被列为社会主义核心价值观的第二位。但就现在西式民主实行的状况，尤其是英国和美国的状况来看，就好比是五岁的孩子买汽车一样——他不知道汽车是如何运转的，自己也没开过车，他现在除了车的颜色和外观以外什么都看不到，而他却要为这辆车献出鲜血和财富。因为他手里被塞了一张叫“选票”的东西，他就必须贡献出的自己的钱财和生命。所有就有了英国脱欧和川普当选。

The way the Election System was originallyset up in the UK, with Lord A against Lord B, might be fair for the Lords, butnot so much for the Commoners. China, in a sense, lucked out,because in 1949, the general population of China had a life expectancy of 36years, and literacy rate of 20%. There was no illusion that the average Chineseshould be able to read and judge for himself whether something like the TTIP (TransatlanticTrade and Investment Partnership) is going to be good for himor not. There was a big gap between expert knowledge and the common knowledgeof the people, and yet, the people must choose, because China was beinginvaded, half of the country was lost, together with 20 million lives. So theypicked the best way, the only way possible, under the circumstances. It’scalled -

现在的西式选举制度源于英国，A领主对B领主，可能对领主们来说很公平，但对平民来说可就不是了。中国从某种意义上来说很幸运，因为1949年的时候中国人的平均寿命只有36岁，识字率只有20%。普通中国人根本就读不懂也不知道TTIP（Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership跨大西洋贸易与投资伙伴关系协定）对他到底好不好。有专家知识的人和只有普通知识的人之间是有巨大鸿沟的，而此时人们又必须做出选择，因为当时中国正在遭受侵略，一半国土已经沦陷，2000万人失去了生命。人们选择了最好的，在当时那种情况可能也是唯一的选择，叫做——

YOU GO FIRST
This is the most fundamental deal betweenthe CCP as a party, and the common people of China. The CCP will go first, andleave last. That’s the deal. By the time PRC was established, over 300,000 CCPmembers had been killed. 6 members of Mao’s own family were killed, includinghis wife, his brothers and sister, and his nephews. Zhou Enlai, the first PrimeMinister of China, lost his children. Zhu De, the first President of China, sawhis pregnant wife tortured and killed, and her head nailed on the city wall.When the CCP was forced to retreat from their capital in Yan’an, Mao himselfled a small guerrilla force to stay behind and attracted the main KMT force,and gave the main force the opportunity to retreat unmolested.

你先上！
这是中国和普通中国人之间达成的最基本的共识。中国会最先冲上去，最后撤下来，这就是共识。当时中华民国已经建立，超过30万名党员被杀死。毛的家里也有六人被杀，包括他自己的妻子、兄弟、姐妹、侄子。中国首任总理周恩来失去了自己的孩子。中国的首任主席朱德【原文如此】看着自己的妻子被折磨致死，头被钉在了城墙上。当中国被迫从延安撤离的时候，毛亲率一支游击队断后吸引国民党主力，让中国主力部队得以安全撤离。

This is the main deal. In a fire, the CCPmembers are asked to go up first. In a flood, the CCP members are asked to staybehind. In a war, the CCP members go to the front. In a disaster, the CCPmembers are asked for donation first. And when they do something wrong, the CCPmembers will pay for it.
I’ll give you a random example: GrenfellTower fire - Wikipedia. The London firefighters were very good, gotthere in 6 minutes. The London police was very good. The London real estatemanagement sucks. The UK politicians suck. The end result is that 80 peoplepresumed dead, it took weeks to arrange for temporary housing for theresidents, and a month later, still nobody knows how many people died, and whatto do next. This is what it looks like now.
Silence over whether Grenfell Towermaterials passed safety test

这就是中国和人民之间的共识。着火的时候，党员会被要求先上；发洪水了，党员被要求断后；战争中，党员会冲在前边；有了灾情，党员要捐款。党员要是犯了错，就要付出代价。
我随便给你举个例子：格伦菲尔大楼大火，伦敦的消防员非常给力，六分钟就到了现场。伦敦的警察也很给力。伦敦的房地产管理很差劲，英国的政客很差劲。事件最后估计有80人遇难，花了好几个星期才给无家可归的人安排好临时住所，而一个月后，仍然没有人知道到底死了多少人，接下来该做什么。这就是大楼现在的样子。

 

关于格伦菲尔大楼的建筑材料到底有没有通过检查所有人都讳莫如深。

Shanghai had a similar high-rise fire 7years ago. In 2010. http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=... 58people died from the fire.
The police and firefighters were not asquick as London but they made up with volume (1300 police and firefighters inShanghai vs. 250 in London). Beijing sent a Politburo member who rushed on siteat 1 am and held a coordination meeting at 2 am, Firefighters, police,hospitals, finance and insurance, housing, donation, psychological counseling,criminal investigation, local school district, etc., all arranged on the sameday. The fire was caused by unlicensed construction work, so afterwards, 26people, most of them government officials with supervisory responsibilities,were indicted (most of them got prison sentences, including 2 of them got 16years), and another 28 government officials got fired or demoted. New ruleswere implemented where you can’t do construction without a fire extinguisheron-site. Insurance started paying out in 3 days, and the residents startedmoving back a little over a month.

上海七年前也发生了一起高楼大火事件。链接：In 2010. http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=... 58 people died from thefire.
警察和消防员来的没有伦敦那么快，但是他们数量更多（上海1300名警察和消防员vs伦敦250名）。北京派了一位政治局委员凌晨一点到达了现场，两点开协调会，所有消防、警察、医院、金融保险、住房、捐赠、心理咨询、犯罪调查、当地学区等等一切工作在当天就都安排好了。大火是由违章施工引起的，事后26人（大多数都是负有监督管理责任的官员）受到了起诉（大多数被判了有期徒刑，其中两人判了16年），另有28位政府官员被开除或降级。新规则马上开始实施，工地没有灭火器禁止施工。三天内保险就得到了理赔，一个月多点时间，居民就搬了回来。

This is what happens if you are ultimatelyresponsible. You do everything to fix it!
So it’s not that the Chinese are againstdemocracy. It’s that they are more aware of the fact that “some people have theinformation that I don’t, some people have the expertise that I don’t, and Istill have to find a way to hold you responsible. Not me. Becauseit’s not fair for me to shoulder the responsibility when I don’t have theinformation and the expertise”. The way I hold you responsible is simply, “Yousay this is a good thing for all of us? Then you go first.” Democracy is vitalamong the informed people to get the right answer, but it’s not helpful toenable the snake oil salesmen to swindle thepublic and call it democracy. You say we have to have One Child Policy? Then Xican have only one child then. And he does. Who was the guy who saidNHS would get $300 million pound a week if UK did BREXIT? Then pleasemail in thecheck! What, nobody would? The difference is that the people inUK and the US are led to believe that they know everything, and the Chinesestarted with the belief that “I don’t know everything but I still want to get afair deal for myself”.

这才是负责到底的人该做的事，你要尽全力来处理！
所以说，不是中国人反对民主。而是他们更明白这样一件事“有人比我掌握的信息更多，有人比我更专业，我需要找个人来负起责任来。肯定不是我，因为我既不掌握信息又不是专家，让我负责很不公平。”找人负责的方式很简单，“你说这事对我们好？那你先来。”当一群见多识广的人想找到最好的答案时，民主是很重要的，但是不能把一群推销员忽悠大众的行为也叫民主。你说我们需要实行独生子女政策？那国家领导就也只能有一个孩子，而他确实只生了一个孩子。是谁说的英国脱欧后NHS（英国国民保健体系）每周会得到3亿美元的？那请把支票邮过来！什么，没人承认？中西方最大的不同就是英国人和美国人以为自己什么都懂，而中国人一开始认为的是“我不是什么都懂，但是我仍想得到最公平的交易。”

The way Democracy is practiced today, isbasically “I use somebody else’s money and blood to gamble. If I win, thebenefit is mine. If I lose, it’s your responsibility to pick up the tab.”The common people don’t have a choice to run away or move their money to someother tax heaven in time. They have to pick up the tab no matter what the voteis. And you even have people moralizing away with “they voted forit so they deserve it”! Well, then, I guess each got what theywant then. But the dirt-poor people in China, they actually got a fairly good deal.

现在的民主实践基本上就是“我用别人的金钱和鲜血来赌博。如果我赢了，好处是我的。如果我输了，那你们负责买单。”普通人根本没有逃避的选择，或是把钱及时放到某个避税天堂去。不管投票结果如何，他们都要买单。甚至有些人还用道德说教来开脱说：他们自己投的票，他们活该！呃，那我觉得每个人都得到了自己想要的东西。但是中国的穷人们却真的得到了一个很好的交易！