Wildfire Collection: Thirty Years Anniversary Edition

Chapter 5 Starting from "1" ([-])
Chinese, why are you not angry
Originally published in "China Times Human World" on November [-], [-]

In the 23s, most of the successful Taiwanese students would stay in the United States.In the autumn of [-], I received my Ph.D., but decided to return to Taiwan.My friend asked me why. I said that when I left Taiwan, I was [-] years old and grew up on campus. I had never looked at my country with "adult" eyes. "I want to go back and really understand my own society."

Really go back.We really watched.I can't believe that people can endure the injustice and lack of dignity so much, so "live", so I wrote this article and sent it to the "China Times", which I have never met before, by "submission".Yes, written in blue ink with a pen on [-]-character grid paper, put in an envelope, and affixed with a stamp.Go to the post office and drop it in the mailbox.The standard envelope at that time had the slogan "Anti-Communist and Anti-Russian" printed on the back.

When I wrote it, I didn't think much about it: underneath the so-called environmental, social, transportation, and consumption issues, there is a political lock.

On the TV news last night, someone said with a smile: "You exposed all the manufacturers that failed the inspection, how can you tell these businessmen to eat?"

I feel sick, I feel angry.But the object of my anger is not this person, but the 800 million cowardly and selfish Chinese in Taiwan.

What I can't understand is: Chinese, why are you not angry?

In the English original of Bao Defu's "The Rest of the Sea of ​​Bitterness", there is a passage of his experience in Taiwan: He saw a car hit a child and his face was covered with blood.There were many people passing by, but no one stopped to help the injured child or condemn the perpetrator.When I read this paragraph in the United States, I once said to my friends with certainty: Impossible!The Chinese consider themselves humane, and this situation is simply impossible!

After returning to Taiwan for a year, I opened my eyes wide and realized that what Bao Defu described was not only possible, but also a normal life that happens every day and can be seen anywhere.In Taiwan, the easiest thing to survive is not cockroaches, but "bad guys", because Chinese people are afraid and selfish, as long as they don't kill them on their beds, they would rather sleep with their eyes closed.

I saw street vendors occupying the arcade of your house, burning fires and washing pots there, leaving a thick layer of oil stains on the corridors, and rotten vegetable leaves stuffed in the corners.In the middle of the night, the diners drank and played games of boxing and punching, which made the dogs restless.

Why are you not angry?Why didn't you tell him "Get out"?
oops!Don't dare!These street vendors are hooligans who can use knives.

So why not call the police?

The police are familiar with the street vendors, so it is useless to report them; if it is exposed by then, it will really cause trouble.

So?

So bear it!Anyway, the Chinese talk about patience!You shrug and shake your head!

In a society where the rule of law is on track, people have the right to be angry.You who are being tortured should first put your hands on your hips and angrily say to the street vendor: "Please get out!" If they don't leave, call the police.If the police and hawkers are found to be in collusion - that's even more serious.This mass of anger should be burned upwards until the police are cleared of discipline and the vendors leave your house.But you don't do anything; close the doors and windows coweringly, shrug your shoulders, and shake your head!

I saw hundreds of people go to the Danshui River to enjoy the sunset and go fishing.I also saw the houses by the Danshui River pouring the foul-smelling garbage into the river in whole cages; the excretion pipe of the toilet directly leads to the bottom of the river.As soon as the river water rose, the filthy smell pressed into his breath.

Lovers, why are you not angry?

Why don't you have the courage to say loudly to the boy who threw the soda bottle: "If you dare to throw me, I will throw you in too?" You sit there quietly fishing (the fish that is already full of cancer cells), thinking about what happened tonight Fish soup, pretending not to see that soda bottle that couldn't be dissolved for hundreds of years.Why don't you drop your rod, get up, and tell him you're mad?

I saw taxis going back and forth, and finally stopped at the right-turn line, but they didn't mean to turn right.A whole column of cars trying to turn right stopped, causing a big blockage.You sit at the wheel and sigh, feeling helpless.

Why are you not angry?

Oh!You can't argue with taxis!The newspaper said that the drivers all carried flat drills.

The question is not whether he has a flat drill or not.The problem is that the twenty of you who are hindered by him have no way to open the car door and decisively let him know that you despise his behavior, you are very angry!
Passing through the suburbs, I smell the acrid smell of burning chemicals.As we approached the beach, we saw large streams of factory waste flowing into the sea, dyeing the sea a strange color.Small businessmen in the bay burned cables, causing many brainless babies to be born in the bay.Our next generation—the bright-eyed, young-voiced, rosy-cheeked generation that will learn to swim in the middle of chemical waste, will have toxins in their veins that we can’t even name—

Why are you not angry?Do you have to wait until you hold a brainless baby tenderly in your own arms, and you cry to the sky without words?
When Westerners come to Taiwan for sightseeing, their travel agencies frequently warn them: Never eat food from stalls, and it is best to avoid restaurants; it is best to drink bottled drinks, but don’t drink locally produced drinks in Taiwan, their drinks are not safe...

This is the reputation of the beautiful treasure island, but the reputation is really second.The most important thing is our own health and the health of our next generation.One hundred Jiaotong University students got food poisoning—is it really just a joke?Are Chinese lives so worthless?Finally, a few people got angry and organized a consumer group.Now there is the Department of Health who "occupies the latrine and does not shit", and the "legislator" who is lobbying for someone who does not know who wants to kill this organization that has not done much.

How can you not be angry?Why do you still have the conscience to hide in the corner and be the "silent majority"?You think you are a good person, but because you are not angry, you are patient, and you give in, the street vendors turned your home into a dilapidated compound, the traffic in Taipei is a mess, and the Danshui River is a rotten intestine; it is because You don't talk, swear, or express opinions, so your beloved doll eats, drinks, and breathes chemical toxins every day, and you still dream about the day he graduates from college!You have forgotten that there were many pregnant women in the south a few years ago. In the middle of the ninth month of pregnancy, they also closed their eyes and dreamed of the day when their children would grow up, but they did not expect that after eating Didi pure salad oil, the children would be born blind and black. of!
Don't think that you are a university professor, so doing research is more important; don't think that you are a butcher, so no one will listen to you; and don't think that you are a student, not qualified to manage social affairs.If you don’t get angry today and don’t stand up to speak out, tomorrow you—and me, as well as your next generation, will become victims and victims of silence!If you have the guts and conscience, tell your public servants "legislators", the Department of Health, and the Environmental Protection Agency: you are fed up, you are angry!

You must say it very loudly.

Is it useless to be angry?
Originally published in "China Times Human World" on December [-], [-]

People's letters were brought in in rolls by postmen.All kinds of handwriting, all kinds of paper, all kinds of people: housewives, elementary school teachers, taxi drivers, civil servants, doctors, college students... It is obviously the first time to write a letter to an author.Handwritten notes - almost none were typewritten or computer-generated.

Thick ink, light ink, rough handwriting, round soft handwriting, the tone of each letter is very excited and painful, groping for a way out, looking for a space to breathe freely.

I just knew it.

When I said "I refuse to live in a barbaric society where the police do not enforce the law and officials do nothing; I refuse to live in a barbaric country", I have actually received a set of secret codes from readers.

Between the reader and the author, there is an interaction and tacit understanding that does not need to be explained.

Think about it, what would it be like to put a hundred chickens in a cage that can only hold ten chickens?Taiwan is such a cage; you and I are the chickens strangling their necks and unable to breathe in this cage...

If you live in Taiwan, if you have not immigrated to the United States or Paraguay, if you feel that your parents will be buried here and your children will be born here, then this is a letter from me to you.

After writing "Chinese, Why Are You Aren't Angry", some people shook their heads and said to me with pitiful eyes: It's useless to be angry!forget it!

They may be right.I have been away from Taiwan for ten years, and during the year I returned to Taiwan, I had too many experiences of "angry" failures.Some are small frustrations that happen every day:

At the post office window, I said, "Will you line up, please?" The man gave me a hard look and squeezed his hand through the window.

Passing by a dog breeder, I saw a huge St. Bernard stuffed in a small cage; its nose and tail were pressed against the iron bars, unable to move.When I found the owner of the dog, I said in a low voice, "This is so pitiful!" He turned his face away and said nothing.The dog whined nearby.

Someone threw empty cans in Datun Mountain, I stretched out my head and shouted: "Such a beautiful view, don't throw garbage!" There was no response, so I had to walk over, pick it up myself, and put it back in my car.

Businessmen in the south slaughtered tigers. I asked the Environmental Protection Agency: "Is there no law to protect these rare animals?" The answer was: "No."

Some are more serious and drastic failures:

On the second day after returning to Taiwan, when the taxi passed the intersection, I suddenly noticed a man lying in the middle of the road, wearing a black shirt and black pants, wearing a bamboo hat, like an old farmer from the countryside, lying on his back stiffly.The chariots and horses passed him carefully and skillfully like flowing water, and no one stopped.I hurriedly yelled: "Stop the car quickly, I'm going to call the police!"

The driver spat betel nuts out of the window, turned around and laughed at me: "Forget it! He must have died long ago. What's the use of calling!" He stepped on the accelerator and sped away.

The "English-language China Post" published a message: If you find a "squid", please copy the license plate number and call the two environmental protection bureaus.A few weeks later, I called one of the numbers and was about to say "Squid" when I was interrupted:
"Is there such a thing? Which newspaper published it?"

"China Post in English," I said, and re-explained.The other person was clearly at a loss and asked me to dial another number—another number I didn't know what to do.Finally, the person who answered the fourth call hesitated and said:
"Then you give me the number, and we will deal with it."

I didn't give him the Squid number; I dropped the phone.

For a while we lived on the tenth floor facing the street.After moving in, I found that the night stall across the street played drums and popular songs every midnight.So I called the police station every night; the other end of the phone always said: OK, send someone.However, standing on the balcony and watching, I knew that no one was going.

After suffering from insomnia for a month, I directly called the branch chief and asked him to explain to me, a small citizen, why he did not enforce the law.The gentleman said impatiently: "This is the real situation in Taiwan, and it is impossible to ban it."

Not long after, I opened the door and found a man with a long face standing at the door, and said fiercely: "Wow, you should report it to the police. Let me tell you, Wow will kill people. Wow, don't be shocked to death!"

Walking on the sidewalk, a taxi flew past my arm, and was immediately blocked by a red light.I angrily walked over to him, asked him to roll down the window, and said, "You are disrespectful to pedestrians when you drive like this; our society does not want you to be a low-level citizen..."

Ridiculous, intellectual tone, I know.When the light turned green, the driver parked the car at the intersection, opened the door and came out, holding a two-foot-long iron rod, walking towards me...

Analyze these experiences.There are roughly three reasons why I failed to "get angry": First, there are too many violent people in this society, which is unreasonable.When the driver came towards me with the iron bar, I could only walk away silently.Second, our laws and regulations are incomplete.If there is no legislation to protect tigers, it is meaningless to talk about humanity and ecology with profit-seeking people.Third, those who enforce the law appease.It is clearly stated that vendors are not allowed to set up stalls anywhere and pollute the environment, but when the law enforcement officers themselves have no idea, what should you do?
These all caused my failure, but, you know what?These are not the main reasons.The main reason is that there are too few "angry" people.

If I am not the only one who calls the Environmental Protection Agency, but there are [-] phone calls and [-] letters a day, do you think the Environmental Protection Agency can still hesitate?If I am not the only one who protests against the branch chief, but every citizen who is unwilling to be angered -- can he still insist on saying "Taiwan is like this"?If the family that raises dogs has passers-by saying to him every day: "Change the cage!", can he still turn a blind eye?If this person named Awang was criticized when he jumped in the queue, and protested when he threw rubbish, how many times can Awang make a fool of himself in a day?
Think about it, what would it be like to put a hundred chickens in a cage that can only hold ten chickens?Taiwan is such a cage; you and I are the chickens strangled in this cage and unable to breathe.We can neither change to a larger cage nor kill half the chickens (however, our chaotic traffic is effectively weeding out the population for us).Under such circumstances, if we want to maintain some basic human dignity, we have to rely on a reasonable social order.This social order not only requires us not to do things that harm others and benefit ourselves, but also requires us to stop others from doing things that harm others and benefit ourselves.You have only fulfilled half of your responsibility by not doing evil yourself. The other half of your responsibility is that you cannot condone or tolerate others to disrupt this social order.

Recently, I met a European scholar who came to Taiwan to hold an academic conference.Since [-], he has come to Taiwan for inspections or meetings about every five years.Taiwan's prosperity is booming, he said, but Taipei is getting uglier every year.I smile - what do you want me to say?I have lived in New York in the United States, Munich in West Germany, Rome in Europe, Athens in Europe, Istanbul in Europe and Asia, Casablanca in Africa, Cairo in Egypt, and Tokyo in Japan; The ugliest, messiest city ever.When I stood at the crossroads and saw the murderous faces rushing across the street in the smog before the red light was turned off, I felt horrified: What made this city full of violence and resentment?

But I love Taiwan, hopelessly in love with this land that I hate, because I was born here, because of my parents and brothers, my friends and colleagues, the workers at school who poured me a cup of hot tea every day, and the people in the market. The women who always give me two handfuls of green onions—they, and generations of their children, still have to grow and live on this devastated island.However, I am a "person" who longs for dignity; I refuse to live in the exhaust gas of locomotives and factories, the filth of street vendors and markets, and I refuse to live in a barbaric society where the police do not enforce the law and officials do nothing; I refuse to live in a barbaric country.

I can take out my passport from my wallet and walk away, but I am not reconciled. I don't believe that "Taiwan's real situation" is dirty and chaotic, and I don't believe that people's efforts cannot change the environment.

I'm not asking you to be a martyr -- martyrs are made by fools.See that man coming with an iron rod, put your tail between your legs and run!I just hope that you will not be superstitious about "submissiveness"; if Taiwan's environment continues to deteriorate like this, this place is really not worth living.I just humbly hope that you will do some "insignificant" things every day: pat the driver on the shoulder and ask him not to get in the way; call the Environmental Protection Bureau and tell him that someone is cutting down trees to build graves on Danshui Mountain; Write a letter to the police station, asking him to ban the underground factory that popped up out of nowhere under your house; pick up a piece of rubbish on the red brick road, help a blind man cross the street, ask the neighbors not to smoke, ask Awang to line up to buy tickets... …

I just want to be a civilized person and live in a civilized society.Are you saying that my request is too much?
(End of this chapter)