The staff of the Royal Concert Hall brought a chair and lowered the height of the microphone.

Zhou Hexuan was helped to sit down, glanced at the more than 1,000 people in the audience, and said in English: "Distinguished members of the Swedish Academy of Letters, honorable Majesties the King and Queen, ladies and gentlemen: I am from China, a country called 'porcelain'. What I want to talk about today is also related to this. Next, my remarks will be divided into two paragraphs. The previous paragraph is in Chinese, and it is addressed to my compatriots, and you here do not need to understand it or find anyone to translate. Thank you! ”

Wang Nianzu, Lu Zhaoxin, and Sun Fang, the three diplomats, craned their necks and pricked up their ears, and when they heard these words, they suddenly felt some happiness in their hearts.

They have a high degree of education and a high IQ, and such people often think very highly of themselves and dream of doing a big career. But they have no backing and no background, and they are sent by the government to Sweden, a place where birds don't, to be ridiculed, ignored, and forgotten, and their once great ambitions have been frozen cold in the wind and snow of Northern Europe.

Today, finally a Chinese stood on the stage and said that he wanted to speak Chinese.

Zhou Hexuan's tone was very flat, not arrogant and domineering, but in the ears of the three diplomats, it was like a big shock.

Zhou Hexuan's Chinese words came, and he said with a serious face:

"I counted carefully, and there were about 1,500 friends sitting in the Royal Concert Hall at the moment, and less than 100 yellow Asian faces. Including me, there are at most 20 Chinese. I hope that the following words can be transmitted to China and heard by more compatriots. ”

"From the Opium War to the First Sino-Japanese War, to 918 and 128, China has been repeatedly bullied by foreign powers, the state has declined, the country has been lost, and it seems that it has fallen into a situation from which it will never recover. Indemnity, land cession, land cession, indemnity, one after another treaties that lost power and humiliated the country interpret China's modern history. The Japanese came again and seized one-fifth of China's land, and we were in a panic, and even some of the main and peacemakers sang the tune of surrender. This seems to be a cowardly China. ”

"But what I see is an exciting China, because we have never stopped catching up!"

"The West went through the Enlightenment of Ideas before it came out of the darkness of the Middle Ages, and since then science and culture have been changing with each passing day, and Western civilization has risen as a result. Ideas are important, above and guide the polity, culture, and science. Why do I say that China has been developing and progressing, because the thinking of the Chinese is changing rapidly. ”

"After the Opium War, the Chinese people began to open their eyes to the world. Mr. Wei Yuan compiled the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom", and since then the Chinese people have taken the first step to integrate into the world. The book "Atlas of the Sea Country" had a great impact on Japan's Meiji Restoration, and the Japanese regarded it as "the medicine that does not take care of the turtle's hand", and the Chinese also began to "master the art of self-improvement". ”

"Next up is Mr. Yan Fu, whose "Theory of Heavenly Evolution" brings the idea of evolution, telling us that if we fall behind, we will be beaten. He translated "The Wealth of Nations" to let us know that the strength of a country depends not only on its land and army, but also on its labor, technology, and wealth. ”

"The Chinese nation has always been a nation that is good at learning, eating a trench and growing a wisdom, which is the wisdom left by the ancestors. The defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War shocked the whole country, and the royalists pursued a constitutional monarchy, and the revolutionary party pursued democratic statehood. Whether it is Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Sun Yat-sen, or Huang Xing, regardless of their morality and ability, for China, they are all sages, guiding the Chinese people to pursue a more advanced political system and society. ”

"The Paris Peace Conference was another turning point, and its even more far-reaching impact was to mature the May Fourth New Culture Movement. In my opinion, the May Fourth Movement is the enlightenment movement that belongs to China, and it has liberated the minds of the Chinese people to a great extent. From the Opium War to the May Fourth Period, China has basically completed its ideological enlightenment. ”

"Modern China is like a patient who is confused and weak. Now, our spirits have improved, our consciousness has become clear, and only our bodies have not yet recovered. We are still working hard, trying to use Western science and culture to nourish China's body well and make it stronger. ”

"I always believe that one day, China will become a giant with a healthy mind and a strong body."

"And today, there is a short man named Japan in the east, who is ready to take advantage of China's weakness to take advantage of the fire. Don't panic, don't compromise, don't surrender, although our bodies are weak, we must grit our teeth and persevere. Pick up the stick, pick up the hoe, and just drive the robber out of the house, and we will have a new life. If we don't even dare to resist, then China will never be able to get nutritional supplements, and will always be weak and become a slave of others! ”

"I'm proud at the moment, not because I won the Nobel Prize. But mine, my poetry, can arouse the spirit of some Chinese people, make their thoughts clearer. Literature may seem meaningless, but for China, it is precious. Our generation of authors shoulders the mission of ideological enlightenment. Our bodies are still weak, but our spirits cannot give in, and our will must be strong. ”

"Finally, I would like to say to my compatriots that there will be a war between China and Japan, and China will win. On the day of war, I will give it all! ”

Zhou Hexuan raised his fist, his voice was not loud, but he shouted very firmly: "Long live the Chinese nation!" ”

"Long live the Chinese nation!"

The three diplomats stood up and shouted with Zhou Hexuan, their cold hearts seemed to be burning again.

Yu Peichen, a communist, burst into tears when he heard this, his fist crossed his chest, and he repeatedly recited this slogan silently.

The foreigners in the concert hall looked at each other, not knowing what the Chinese were shouting, China was too strange to them.

After speaking in Chinese, Zhou Hexuan began to speak English again: "The value of literature lies in the exchange and dissemination of ideas, and Mr. George Bernard Shaw has a sentence that I agree with. He said, "If you have an apple and I have an apple, exchange them with each other, and each of us will still have only one apple; If you have a thought, I have a thought, exchange with each other, each of us has two thoughts. The exchange of ideas can eliminate misunderstandings and make us happy with each other. ”

"Westerners have a great misunderstanding of China, and I have talked to many Westerners who have three stereotypes about China, namely: China is stagnant, Chinese culture is conservative and xenophobic, and Chinese lack religious feelings. This is very wrong. ”

"The idea of China being stagnant and unchanging is almost common knowledge in the West, and Hegel believes that China is 'the eternal singularity'. Five years ago, Professor Tony of the University of London went to China to conduct research, and in his report, he continued Hegel's observations. He said: "Until yesterday, China was acting on China's own track, neither influencing nor being influenced by the West'. How fallacious is this statement, without China's four great inventions, how could the West have made great voyages, made guns and spread science? This is China's influence on the West. Without Darwin and the separation of powers, how could the Xinhai Revolution break out in China? This is the influence of the West on China. To say that China is stagnant is a lack of ideological and cultural exchanges, which leads Westerners to misunderstand China. ”

"Saying that Chinese culture is conservative and xenophobic? In fact, it is Japan that is really conservative and xenophobic. The core of Chinese culture is tolerance and absorption, and now our intellectual youth speak English and French, and wear suits and leather shoes. Even at weddings, more and more young people are choosing to wear wedding dresses and make vows to the Bible. ”

"To say that Chinese lack religious sentiment is even more wrong. The embodiment of Chinese religious sentiment is not Buddhism, Taoism, or Confucianism, but siniticism (which can be translated as Chineseism, Chinese religion, Huaxiaism), that is, the beliefs and customs born in the Shang and Zhou dynasties of China, which were formed between 1300 and 700 BC. In the pre-Qin era of Confucius and Lao Tzu, as well as the Eastern Han Dynasty where Wang Chong lived, 'Huaxiaism' matured. We revere the 'heavens' and 'ancestors', that is, the 'heavens and ancestors', and this is our unique religious sentiment. When a person does something bad, the first thing that comes to mind is that God is going to blame, or that the ancestors will be disgraced, isn't this a religious emotion? ”

"So, the stereotypes that Westerners have about China are all wrong. You don't know China, and all your understanding of China is hearsay and your own imagination. Literature, on the other hand, is the bridge between us. In the book "Divine Daughter", you can see the changes in modern China, the learning of the West in modern China, and the religious feelings of the Chinese themselves. ”

"I hope that my work can help more Westerners know and understand China. I also hope that more and more Chinese works can be translated into Western languages. ”

"Thank you!"

As Zhou Hexuan stood up from the chair, the audience suddenly burst into warm applause.

Indeed, as Zhou Hexuan said, there are too many misunderstandings about China in the West, and this kind of East-West exchange is necessary.