Believe.
Believe: Uniquely Baltimore
Yayy I finished my book review! Now 55% done :)
When I was reading the book I suddenly thought of something interesting.
When I last talked to Shireen she mentioned Hogfather, Terry Pratchett and teenage fiction, and I told her that I grew up reading Chinese books.
I realised that there is NO SUCH THING as teenage fiction in Chinese, at least not in my era. Children's books in Chinese are around Chinese historical figures, simplified versions of 西游记、三国演义、水浒传、聊斋志异 and as usual, fable stories translated from English.
When I entered secondary school, I went on to read to fiction and essays by 倪匡、蔡澜、李纯恩, and even though there are authors for teenagers such as 刘墉, their books are more like self-help books than anything else. Other authors recommended by teachers such as 张小娴、梁凤仪、亦舒 etc are essentially for adults too, though I don't read them.
And of course 武侠小说... they are even more for adults actually because of all the politics involved. Then we will dig up books like 东周列国志、康熙大帝、雍正王朝 etc. I don't essentially read these, but I read a lot of other historical texts and stories.
Then we progressed to write 2 full A4 pages of 报章读后感, competing with each other (for fun) and see who can get the 0.5 points extra from 卢老师, and try to prompt her to say the classic "不可以这样写" :P (Yeah we are crazy.)
Though the Chinese texts lack one thing: the idea of 'BELIEVE'.
Aren't fairy tales all about believing that these wonderful things exist? Santa Claus, Peter Pan and Harry Potter appeal to people because of our inherent hope that these things really exist.
I was taught to believe not by the stuff that I read; I don't know where I learnt it from but I guess I do.
Hope in human society builds upon the foundation of believes. I need to believe in humanity, love, and justice because it gives me hope... my hope that nice things will necessarily happen. I have full respect for individual autonomy because I believe everyone has a soul which makes him/her different from the rest; I do my best I can because I believe that honesty and hard work will be rewarded; I take the weird classes I am taking now because I believe that with the knowledge I attain from them I will be able to serve society better.
Without these I don't know what I'll be. I will keep asking myself why (not as if I am not asking, but oh well, at least I am not asking why for everything) because I cannot predict what the outcome will be, I don't know why I end up in that situation, and I have nothing to depend on.
Yeah people get disillusioned... all the time. Well, if you are disillusioned right from the start, what kind of world would this be? I can foresee that it would be really miserable to see the world utterly critically, not trusting anyone and hence unable to love and be loved.
Alright, enough of these universalist ideals. Anyway, the book that I read was The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon by Dorothy Nelkin and M. Susan Lindee. It is a cool book... check it out.
Labels: Values
