陈冲在华盛顿邮报撰文:Let the Games Go On

By Joan Chen

Wednesday, April 9, 2008; A19

I was born in Shanghai in 1961 and grew up during the Cultural Revolution. During my childhood, I saw my family lose our house. My grandfather, who studied medicine in England, committed suicide after he was wrongly accused of being a counterrevolutionary and a foreign spy.

Those were the worst of times.

Since the Cultural Revolution ended in the late 1970s, however, I have witnessed unimaginable progress in China. Changes that few ever thought possible have occurred in a single generation. A communist government that had no ties to the West has evolved into a more open government eager to join the international community.

A state-controlled economy has morphed into a market economy, greatly raising people's standard of living. It's clear that the majority of the Chinese people enjoy much fuller, more abundant lives today than 30 years ago. Though much remains to be done, the Chinese government has made rapid progress in opening up and trying to be part of the international community.
Last month I went to China and spent four weeks visiting Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Chengdu. The people I met and spoke with are proud and excited about the Beijing Games. They believe that the Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to showcase modern China to the rest of the world. Like many Americans, most Chinese people are disturbed by the recent events in Tibet. But after watching the scenes of violence and arson by the rioters, the Chinese believe that the government is doing the right thing in cracking down to restore order.

The Olympic torch is in California and is to be carried through San Francisco today. In a resolution criticizing China, Chris Daly, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said that demonstrating against the torch relay would "provide the people of San Francisco with a lifetime opportunity to help 1.3 billion Chinese people gain more freedom and rights." To his credit, Mayor Gavin Newsom did not sign Daly's resolution.

This statement could not be further from reality. For one thing, the Chinese are a proud people. They want freedom and greater rights, but they know they must fight for them from within. They know that no one can grant them freedom and rights from afar. The stigma of Western imperialism and the Opium Wars also remains a strong reminder of the past, and Chinese people do not want their domestic policies to be dictated by outside powers. They also do not want the United States to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Games. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow and the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles accomplished nothing. A U.S. boycott of the opening ceremonies in Beijing would be counterproductive for relations between the two countries.

For decades, anti-China human rights groups in Washington have spent millions of dollars denouncing China. To many Chinese, it seems that this lobby is the only voice that's acceptable or newsworthy in the U.S. media and to the U.S. government. But times are changing. We need to be open-minded and farsighted. We need to make more friends than enemies. Remember what a little ping-pong game did for Sino-U.S. relations in the 1970s? Let's celebrate the Olympics for what the Games are meant to be -- a bridge for friendship, not a playground for politics.

The writer is an actress and director. She became a U.S. citizen in 1989.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040802907_pf.html




　1961年我在上海出生，并在文化大革命期间长大。在童年时代，我目睹了自家的流离失所。我的祖父曾经在英国学医，却被错判为反革命和外国间谍后而自杀身亡。那是一段最糟糕的时期。

　　但是，自从七十年代末文化大革命结束以来，我亲身经历了中国翻天覆地的变化。对于这些变化，没有人能想象过会在仅仅一代人中就发生了。一个跟西方不相干的共产党政府，已经变成一个更加开放的政府，并且期待着加入到国际社会中来。

　　中国的国营经济已经蜕变成市场经济，并且大大提高了人民的生活水平。相对于三十年前，很清楚的事实是，今天绝大多数的中国人享受了更充分，更富足的生活。 尽管还有更多的要做，但是中国政府在对外开放和融入国际社会中已经大大进步许多。

　　就在上个月，我用了四个星期去了中国的上海，北京，香港和成都。对于北京奥运会，我所遇见的中国人都很自豪也很兴奋。他们相信奥运会是一个很绝好的机会来向世界展示一个现代中国。正如许多美国民众一样，大多数的中国民众也为最近在西藏发生的事件而不安。但是，在观看了骚乱分子的焚烧和暴力行为之后，中国民众相信政府做了一件正确的事情，那就是平息骚乱恢复社会秩序。

　　奥运火炬已经到了加州，今天还要在旧金山传递接力。在一项批评中国的议案中，旧金山市监察局的克里斯·戴里，声称对火炬接力的抗议会“为旧金山民众提供一个一生中难得的机会来帮助十三亿中国人获得自由和权利”。好在葛温?纽森市长并没有签署这项决议案。

　　这项决议案根本不顾现实情况。首先，中国民众是自豪的民众。他们想要自由和更多的权利，但是他们知道这些必须从自己内部争取。他们知道没有人能平白赠与这些自由和权利。过去西方帝国主义和鸦片战争所遗留的阴影仍然还在，中国民众不需要自己的国内政策被外部政权干涉。他们也不希望美国抵制奥运会开幕式。一九八零年的美国抵制莫斯科奥运会和一九八四年的苏联抵制洛杉矶奥运会根本没有用。美国对北京开幕式的抵制只能会对两国关系不利。

　　几十年来，反华人权组织在华盛顿花费上百万美金来诋毁中国。对很多中国人来说，这些游说只是为了赚取美国新闻媒体和美国政府的眼球。但是，时代不同了。我们需要开放思想并放长眼光。我们需要交更多的朋友而不是制造更多的敌人。还记得一个小小的乒乓球比赛为中美关系在七十年代做的贡献？让我们来庆贺奥运会作为一个运动会应该成为的——一条友谊的桥梁，而不是一个政治的竞技场。