Category: Social

After settling in Sweden, I changed my default search engine back to Google and started looking for possible Google services.

The last time I used Google Docs was in college, when we shared materials for the Jessup Moot Court. Before the competition even started, the site was blocked. Fortunately, our college team had advanced and was traveling to Washington, D.C., for the final round.

After hearing that I was from China, a bus driver said: “Chinese people don’t like Google.” I corrected him: “It’s not the Chinese people, it’s the Chinese government.” He then repeated my words to himself.

On Monday, Google Translate announced it was shutting down operations in China, marking the end of a twelve-year farewell. It reminded me of the past. One team member later went to work for Google in Singapore.

“This marks the almost complete withdrawal of the US technology giant from the world’s second-largest economy…” I wonder if the driver I was talking to will start muttering again when the news comes on the radio.

On a rare clear Sunday afternoon, we walked along the lake trail we discovered last time and saw flocks of mallards resting on tree stumps in the water. Still wondering if we should bring some bread next time, the ducks fluttered and jumped to the shore, and it turned out that a young mother was handing out food on the shore. Her daughter watched from a stroller as her mother fed the ducks. The sunlight filtering through the mottled shadows of the trees made for perhaps the most serene scene in life.

We hurried past and saw that the girl’s neck was bent, and her mother helped her up from time to time, but soon her head was lowered again. But there was no sadness on the mother’s face, and she happily scattered the food in her hands. The ducks, waddling and reaching for food, seem to cure everything.

I am reminded of the brother and sister Shi Tiesheng once wrote about, also in a beautiful park on a sunny Sunday. The young girl was bullied because of her mental deficiency, and her big brother rode desperately to protect her, and then took her home without saying a word. The author said, almost in despair, “Being speechless is right. If God had given this little girl both the beautiful and the retarded, only being speechless and going home would be right.”

This statement may be impeccable from a realistic point of view, but If the disadvantaged groups are treated unfairly and they can only hold their breath and conclude that “there is no justice when it comes to fate,” then we may forever live in an unjust world.

The first time I saw Greta’s photo was on the company printer, which at least showed that her image in China is not always negative – it can still be used when needed.

During my college years, I interned at a foundation funded by the owner of a famous real estate company in China that focused on environmental and sustainability research. I was shocked when I talked to the director of the foundation, who told me that “global warming” is a lie made up by developed countries to oppress developing countries.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m in Sweden, but lately I’ve been getting articles about Europe starting to demonize Greta, but they’re not true and they’re very inflammatory. Compared to a decade or so ago, the cynicism towards those who are active in public affairs has not diminished, but has become more and more uncontrollable with the help of the Internet.

Recently, the PSG manager was widely criticized by French society for a joke he made in response to a reporter’s question about whether the team could choose a greener way to travel (with Mbappe laughing on the table next to him). Conversely, Chinese fans’ comments on the news were overwhelmingly directed at the questioner, with one comment saying the journalist was an “environmental girl” garnering nearly a thousand likes.

Europe’s geopolitical influence on climate and energy policy is a necessary rethink, not a wholesale rejection of past values. On the contrary, a society that rejects all morality and dissolves all values is more worrying.

In his song “New Songs with Old Tales,” Jonathan Lee introspectively examines the father-son dynamic, candidly stating, “Two men can end up looking the same all their lives.” This observation extends beyond familial bonds, alluding to the superficial connections we often maintain with our so-called “siblings”.

In yesterday’s social media feeds, filled with sad pandemic videos, the familiar call to “unite and stand together against the outside” still prevailed. This reflects a refusal to introspect, with some choosing instead to deflect blame onto external forces despite the tragedy.

The anger in these stories is ambiguous. Is it directed at the “foreign devils,” as the characters Wei Chunfang and Wei Xiaobao describe, or is it a reflection of what Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich described in “Second-Hand Time” – a population ingrained with the socialist gene, identical and distinct from the rest of humanity?

Perhaps it is time to free ourselves from the duty of the “awakened dragon, eyes alight with vigilance,” to move beyond the confines of an imagined community and truly live for ourselves. This shift encourages not only personal liberation, but also the cultivation of a perspective that values introspection over outward blame, fostering a more nuanced understanding of our place in the world.