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1. Polarized impression of the Republic of China

According to the information we read in traditional textbooks, the period of the Republic of China, from the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, was the darkest period in China's modern history—the loss of sovereignty, poverty and weakness, constant disasters, starvation, warlordism, foreign powers, and Japanese invasion...... Famous revolutionary mainstream literary masterpieces such as "The Body Worker", "The White-Haired Girl", "The Wanderings of Sanmao", "The Teahouse", and "Camel Xiangzi" all reflect the tragic reality of social turmoil, cruel exploitation, and the misery of the people's livelihood and precariousness in the Republic of China era from different angles.

However, after the reform and opening up, with the inflow of modern literary works from Taiwan and overseas, the works of Zhang Ailing, Zhou Zuoren, Hu Shi and others have also been turned out of the pile of old papers, allowing us to see a completely different Republic of China from another perspective.

Especially a series of Qiong Yao novels with the background of the Republic of China era, such as "Deep Love and Rain", "Between the Water and Clouds", "Tears in the Sky", etc., after the big 6 was sought after and remade into a TV series, we saw a Republic of China era full of petty bourgeoisie - a virtuous lady from a church school, an elegant young master who went abroad to study abroad, a cunning maid with deep love for master and servant, a kind and generous wealthy wife, a country man who is serious and benevolent, and a capitalist boss who loves the country and the people......

In short, the ideas there are progressive, love is free, life is leisurely, the mood is petty bourgeoisie, courtship is romantic, the government is barely passable, foreigners are polite, and there are all kinds of balls, drinking parties, calligraphy and painting competitions, cultural and entertainment activities, charity activities, I feel that it is a modern society with civilization and progress!

Uh-huh? It turns out that the old society that was dark and cruel in the textbooks and the people were struggling to make a living, actually had such a harmonious and beautiful side?

For the life of the people in the Republic of China, there are more and more "new thinking", as well as all kinds of "refreshing" "new appearances". For example, "in 1927, the monthly salary of female textile workers in Wuhan was more than 3o yuan, and they could buy 6ooo-9ooo eggs, and there was no pressure to feed a family of four"; "Apprentices in the old society were far better paid than modern sweatshops, with 72 days of paid leave per year"; "The 'food and clothing' of the Republic of China period has long been no problem, and the 'employee welfare' is much greater than any period of New China"; "In the 6o years of New China, the income level of the middle class has not yet reached the poverty line of the Republic of China"......

So, after seeing the above "new appearances", we can't help but wonder: Wow! Since the old society before liberation was so beautiful, social welfare was so advanced, and the landlords and capitalists were so conscientious, why did the workers and peasants in China, as well as many intellectuals, all be "brain-dead" at the beginning? Don't even want your life, do you have to make a revolution? Do you give up your high salary, shatter your stable life, and bury this "happy" old society?

-- If this qiē is the real society of the Republic of China, then I am afraid that the entire modern history of China will have to be read upside down.

Naturally, many "public intellectuals" jumped out and shouted in unison: With the help of the Soviets, all of them studied cults and engaged in propaganda and agitation, deceived these "incomparably happy" workers, peasants, and students into rebelling, smashed the national government established by the elites, and ruined their own free and democratic life. As a result, China ushered in a long period of tragedy, as well as one horrific disaster after another, such as "30 million starved to death", "ten years of catastrophe" and so on.

-- In their eyes, feelings are equivalent to Aum Shinrikyo?

In the end, according to a joke circulating on Weibo, the basic concept of modern Chinese history of contemporary "public intellectuals" can be roughly summarized as follows: "...... Now a few people know such a great government: it overthrew the decaying feudal dynasty, established a multi-party bicameral democratic government, had a modern army comparable to a country, founded many free and modern universities, brought a golden age to national industry, and regained Outer Mongolia by its own strength, but it was wiped out by a barbaric army armed with guns and money and advisers by foreigners! ”

- Alas, it's really speechless......

Why is there such a huge difference in the depiction of the previous and the latter? Which side is talking nonsense?

How so? Neither of these two sides can be regarded as absolute nonsense, but only that their class positions are very different.

-- Old China in the Republican era did have two completely different faces to observers of different classes. The difference is only in who holds what position and from what perspective that society is viewed.

You know, everyone is selfish at heart, and usually only thinks about things from the perspective of personal interests.

To put it simply, it is the ass that determines the head, and it also determines everyone's thinking.

To take a more extreme example, the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves in the United States in the mid-19th century were milestones in the history of the United States. The two great works in the history of American literature, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Gone with the Wind" (adapted into a movie and later named "Gone with the Wind"), also reflect and describe the views of both sides on the slavery system from the perspective of the Northern and Southern camps, respectively.

-- Even people who stand in different positions and positions on the same history certainly have completely different views and feelings.

Compared to "Gone with the Wind", "Uncle Tom's Cabin" may be a more realistic reflection of that era. After all, "Gone with the Wind" is a work half a century after the end of the Civil War, and it feels more like the current Chinese writing about the Republic of China era.

Written and published before the Civil War by Mrs. Stowe, an abolitionist writer from the North of the United States, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" mainly describes the life of Uncle Tom, a kind-hearted and pious black slave, full of misfortune and suffering. The book profoundly exposes the evils and cruelty of slavery, and describes the various sufferings endured by black slaves in this country that advocates the creation of all human beings - female slaves are wantonly raped and trampled by slave owners, male slaves work in the dark like cattle, slave children are still slaves forever, they are always punished by slave owners, they are picked and picked like commodities in the exchange, and they are forced to break up after the slave auction is over......

Therefore, as soon as Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published, it was like a thunderclap on the ground, which completely shook the entire American society, intensified the resistance of the American people to slavery, and further promoted the abolitionist movement and the outbreak of the Civil War.

At the beginning of the 2O century, more than half a century after the end of the Civil War, another world-famous classic novel, "Gone with the Wind", which is also set in the background of southern plantation life, tells the turbulent history of that period from the perspective of southern slave owners.

Margaret, the American Southern authoress who created this book? Michelle, in addition to describing the twists and turns of the romance of the two heroes and heroines, Scarlett and Rhett, did not forget to sing the praises of black slavery in the American South. In a tone full of superiority, she depicts the enslavement of black slaves by white people in a harmonious and romantic way, and also imagines their harmonious coexistence with white slave owners, but turns a blind eye to their suffering and resistance. At the same time, he lashed out at President Lincoln's emancipation movement, believing that it was the invasion of the Northern army that destroyed the idyllic and peaceful life of the Southerners, causing social chaos, moral turpitude, and misery of the people......

Between the lines of the novel "Gone with the Wind", it is obviously full of nostalgia for the life of the slave owners in the past. In the author's pen, the manor life in the South is exquisite and wonderful, and the men of the upper class of the South are all gentlemen, fighting bravely against the invading enemy (the Yankees), and treating the ladies politely, even if it is a prodigal like Rhett who has been kicked out of the house, he will shoot and kill people in order to protect the reputation of the ladies. The black slaves, on the other hand, were stupid and happy, with little resistance, and most of the estates were friendly to the black slaves, who had basic security and were mentally comfortable from cradle to grave. If these black slaves were to be driven out of the estates, they would have to worry about whether they would be able to live independently in society......

In order to show the "harmony and happiness" of the southern slave society and deny the justice of the emancipation of black slaves, Michelle also borrowed the mouth of the heroine Scarlett to write such a strange passage that erased the historical facts of slave escape: "...... When the women heard that the landlords in the south kept fierce hunting dogs in case they chased the escaped black slaves, they believed it...... They also asked about the kind of soldering iron that burned the faces of slaves, and the kind of nine-toothed thistle used to beat slaves, but in fact the southern landlords did not have these things, and they were only propaganda materials for the northerners. ”

But what are the facts? One has only to walk into the archives and look through the old newspapers of the Southern states before the outbreak of the American Civil War, and you can easily see that these newspapers are full of pages of advertisements for the arrest of fugitive slaves almost every day. And, according to the characteristics in the advertisement, almost all of the black fugitives had branded faces, and their chests and backs were covered in whip marks and scars. In addition, there were many armed gangs of thugs in the South at that time, who specialized in hunting down fugitive slaves for the wealthy, and there were even advertisements selling fierce hounds that had been specially trained to hunt down fugitive slaves!

Obviously, Margaret? Michelle certainly hadn't seen these things before writing Gone with the Wind, or even if she did, she deliberately ignored them.

There is also one noteworthy point: after the defeat in the Civil War, white Southern diehards, who strongly opposed abolition, formed the Ku Klux Klan, which pursued white supremacy. The Ku Klux Klan is a world-recognized organization of racial terrorism that has committed countless crimes, and some remnants of it continue to commit violence against people of color in the southern United States. However, in "Gone with the Wind", the Ku Klux Klan is portrayed as a chivalrous group defending white women, and the legendary "heroic deeds" of the Ku Klux Klan are also described at length. According to the novel's advocacy, almost all the "real Southerners" at the time, including the heroine Scarlett, her husband and friends, were part of the Ku Klux Klan......

- From this point of view, according to the modern point of view, it seems that the identity label of Scarlett, the heroine, should be a descendant of a hardcore reactionary, a member of the ** organization, and an extreme racist...... Plus armed terror sub-child leaders? Isn't it a little too exciting?

Regrettably, no matter how brilliantly Ms. Mitchell writes in Gone with the Wind, reversing black and white, trying to put on a warm cloak for the cruel slavery system, the so-called "happy slave life, harmonious slave society" is still just a very absurd false proposition - how can anyone in this world be willing to be a slave unless they are forced by violence and death? And what happiness is there in the life of a slave?

In short, the slave society was a paradise for slave owners and a hell for slaves. The pen was always in the hands of the "conscientious slave owner......

Therefore, for the over-glorification of the former southern slave society in the book "Gone with the Wind", there is a black female writer Alice? Randall expressed his strong displeasure and indignation, and wrote a fanfiction called "The Wind Blows Away". The book uses a black slave girl instead of Scarlett, a rich white lady, as the protagonist, and reinterprets the story told in "Gone with the Wind", through guò's adaptation of a large number of characters, plots and dialogues in "Gone with the Wind", with a spicy and satirical tone, exposing the cruelty, hypocrisy and depravity of those white gentlemen under the glamorous clothing, so as to express the tragic fate of black slaves and the resistance of black slaves to this unjust fate, so it caused great repercussions in the United States once it was published.

Seeing this, some people may say that black slaves in the United States have been emancipated for more than 100 years, and this kind of old thing is not to be mentioned. So I'll give you another modern example: in New Delhi, India, there was a female professor of the Brahmin caste, who had a rich family and hired a lot of servants. Not long ago, she wrote a short blog post with a photograph boasting about how kind and generous her family was to their servants -- specifically, allowing them to stay with her in the living room and watch American soap operas on the big LCD televisions when they weren't on duty.

But the problem is that while watching TV, the female professor herself sits on the sand, and the servant has to kneel on the floor. And that Changsha can seat at least four or five people, and there are a few chairs next to it...... But the servants could not sit because they were of a low-caste race.

If this is placed in our China, it is simply unimaginable - if you let your nanny at home have a stool and are not allowed to sit, you can only kneel on the floor and watch TV with you, and it is strange that people are not angry!

However, even such a personal insult can be regarded as a sign of tolerance in today's so-called "democratic and free" Indian society.

If the current Chinese society suddenly becomes like this, then some rich and "elites" who lack discipline may like this unequal social atmosphere very much, but when it comes to the ordinary people, I am afraid that they will explode with anger!

In the era of the Republic of China, I am afraid it will be the same: for the toiling masses, it must be a hell of dire straits; And for a few "elites", it is indeed a paradise that can act recklessly!

Therefore, as far as the various strata of the entire society are concerned, the Republic of China is good as the Republic of China, and the new China is good as the new China, and it depends on the social status and personal income of each person, and it cannot be generalized.

Moreover, the old Chinese society of the Republic of China era was probably much worse than the current Indian society in terms of polarization, class antagonism, stereotypes, and disregard for human rights, so that it was so dark that we can hardly imagine it now.