Book Review: '1984' by George Orwell

To someone having personal experience with the “Chinese Cultural Revolution” (or at least some second-hand experience from accounts of the older generation), this book was no political fiction, this book was political fact.
China in the 60s and 70s of the last century, resembled Oceania in its domestic life to an astonishing degree: fanatic worship and blind loyalty to the “Great Leader”, unfounded hatred to other countries with different ideologies, constant fear of all-out nuclear war with other major powers, fabrication of production numbers, denouncement of family members with suspected unorthodox thinking, destroy of all objects symbolizing the “Old Culture”, simplification of the traditional Chinese characters, and many more.
The “Chinese Cultural Revolution” is a closer resemblance to Oceania than the “Russian Great Purge” and the “Pol Pot Genocide”, as the latter two focused more on eliminating political heretics, rather than stupefying the general population through brainwash.
The first simplified Chinese edition didn’t come until 1985, and was positioned as anti-USSR book, and was classified as “Internal Material” only meant for certain group. It didn’t popularize in China until early 21 century.

Deviation from the Expected Utility Model

引---邬桑的眼泪

看了冯小刚的"非诚勿扰". 被其中一段情节打动. 本来想把这段的对白搜出来贴了, 却无意中找到了一篇相关的评论. 倒好, 省得我自己写了. 就是写,也不见得比人家写的好.

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【非诚勿扰】邬桑的眼泪 ----逆风青鸟

冯小刚已经迷失很久了，在他风格成熟的时候，丢开自己的东西，和别人扎堆的去拍古装片、战争片，虽然他后来曾经辩解说，他做这些仅仅是为了证明拍喜剧片才是最难的。不过对于他长时间的沉沦，我也只能给出一声叹息。

所以听到他又回归到自己的位置，拍出了冯氏风格的《非诚勿扰》，为了表示我的诚意，我决定买票到电影院里去观看。为了我期待已久的强强组合－冯小刚和葛优，就让我的钱包哭泣去吧。

电影没有让我失望，在有些沉重的现实生活背后，理想和纯真若隐若浮。调侃的台词和夸张的人物纷纷登场，电影院里时不时发出会心的笑声。

之后看到了很多影评，最让我吃惊的就是对邬桑眼泪的解释。说什么的都有，什么钱啊，同性恋啊......怪诞之致。不知道是网络愚弄了现实，还是现实愚弄了网络。当时在电影院里，秦奋留下钱，背对着邬桑挥手、擦泪的时候，影院里一下子安静起来，那样的寂静是观众的理解和共鸣。

邬桑驾车离去，唱着日语歌，一段一段向前开着，他唱歌的声音越来越大，其实只不过为了对抗自己的伤感情绪。最终，悲伤还是完全控制了他，他停下车，大哭起来。

邬桑为什么哭？

邬桑和秦奋是很好的朋友，要好的程度是，10年未见，他还是能抽出全部的时间和精力陪着秦奋周游北海道。为了秦奋，他去跟寺院一再请求；为了秦奋，他劝笑笑如果只是利用就早点离开；为了秦奋，他坐在教堂外面一等就是几个小时......你有这样的朋友吗？

邬桑背井离乡十几年，虽然他的言行举止都已经很有日本人的味道，虽然他娶妻生子定居在日本，虽然他已经变成了一个“北海道农民”。在见到老朋友后，尤其没有任何私心杂念的陪着朋友过了那么几天逍遥自在的日子。被压抑已久的内心的寂寞，在离开的时候特别强烈的冒了出来，一个人在路上，一个人在异国他乡漂泊，那颗游子的心，你能理解吗？

片中没有说邬桑是做什么的。不过他赶回去就是为了别让工作给辞了，说明他并不是有钱有闲一族。人到中年，为了家庭，为了自己，苦苦奋斗着。到如今，白发上头，一切已经定型，得到许多，也失去许多，这种种得失、感悟，说起来也只有“只道天凉好个秋！”啦。

其实，这个片子给我最大的惊喜就是邬桑的眼泪，笑着，哭了，擦干眼泪还要继续过活，人生就是这样。没有经历，就没有感伤。如果你不理解邬桑为什么哭？那我祝福你，永远都没有这样的伤怀。

最后想说的是秦奋的那句话，“我缺的不是钱，是朋友......我特想你们几个......感觉特别孤独。”曲终人散，再见一面又不知何年。

知床海峡边，玫瑰盛开时
君可记起否？共度好时光
酒笑一路直登顶
遥看国后天初明


游旅添诗情，醉香沁心脾
悠然见海滩，月光照轻波
今宵定揽君入怀
双影傍岩引人笑


别日终须到，此时更难离
目送君远去，渐逝山颠后
乌鸦知晓再会时
海鸥道别催人泪

邬桑停下的那一刻，我怀疑他是不是要回头，去找秦奋他们，不过稍微平复以后，他还是驾车离去了，回到了他的生活中。

我们都要继续生活。现实在理想之外。

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Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire

This movie tells a story of inequality, the unequal right to access wealth, and more cynically, the unequal right to compete in an already unequal world.

The "slumdog" Jamal was denied of the possibility of lasting until the final stage of the contest, even if this just could happen out of sheer chance, simply because he is "Jamal, the slumdog".

What a joke, and how sad such a joke is?

It is all too convenient to charge the price of such "misfortune" to a society dominated by a caste-based religion and with a history of hundreds of years of foreign invasion and colonization; and it is also all too easy to flatter the public opinion by dressing up a million-dollar-story with a purer motive of love. It would be harder to provoke your audience with the idea that they may share the very same prejudices.

I barely finished the movie, I barely had to.

Vincent Van Gogh

He cut off his left ear and sent it to a prostitute; he shot himself in the chest and lingered a slow death two days later. All these would be considered at least "bizarre" even in the modern democratic West, let alone the Victorian Europe he lived.

He was a genius. A genius is destined, or even "meant" to be misunderstood by his contemporaries.

It was not a tragedy, it was a fate.

Read This if You are a Parent

Read this if you are a parent:

"I was driven mad by the Chinese education system"

Cannot totally agree with the author, especially on the proposed solution of "keeping housewives busy, and automatically seeing kids back to being creative and independent" part. But I must say there is at least some truth in it: parents' tends to bring their own social anxiety into the their children's education.

For long, parents have been conveniently blaming the country or the education system for pushing their poor kids too hard, without realizing they are far more influential to their kids than all the other factors combine. Parents are their kid's first role model. Kids look at their parents for feedback for almost everything do and constantly adjust the way they think and behave. So if a girl killed herself because she got 4 marks lesser than the topper of her class, it is her parents convincing her it deserve such significance. Not the country, not the education system, but the parents are to be blamed.

Parents, you are the role model, lead with action!

Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I used to hear someone said, "Live looks clearer through the rear-view mirror." How about "through the wind shield on a revising car"?

Benjamin led such a curious life. He lived the same world as we are, yet his world was heading the opposite direction as he was. So instead of a life-long journey, he lived in brief moments, when his life and his world intersected, and long gaps between those moments. Those gaps are his curse as while as his blessing. They took away good parts of his time, but gave him long stretches to reflect on life's sweetness and bitterness through their after-tastes. Throughout the movie, we lived those "moments", but felt those "gaps", and that allows us to look at the world through his eyes: the world of life and death, the world of love and longing and the world of hope and despair.

Benjamin fell victim of his own tragedy. Forest Gump "chose" to run, and "chose" to stop. Benjamin had no other choice but to cruise along.