从ESWN上看到一篇采访Jimmy Lai的旧文,此君所创立的Next Media旗下拥有苹果日报等大众媒体。其中有这样一段:
Some experts argue that China does not intend to Westernize or liberalize, but only to modernize. Do you think people in China understand what democracy is and want it?
Not at this moment. But anyone who would differentiate between Westernization and modernization is just talking rubbish. Take out the western culture and what else is modern? Nothing. The technology is Western, the trendy culture is Western, all this modernization is Westernization. China is prosperous today because it deals and interacts with the West. No, democracy isn’t on normal people’s radars yet. China will be open to it only when the economic cycle turns down. And when that happens, China will be in chaos.
究竟有没有和西方化不同的现代化道路?我想我最关心的的问题是这个。这个人的话也许很不中听,
但是他说得很对。建立在这个高增长之上的合法性也许只是一个脆弱纸老虎。而在失去了经济增长这张牌之后恐怕稳定也就不复存在了。到时候像这样的亲西方的想法恐怕就得到了更多的合法性和生存空间。但是所谓西方化和现代性无法被分割本身就有一个悖论。中国人可能像西方人一样生活吗?Jimmy Lai所说的那些东西在一个13亿人口范围内能被达到(按他说的方式)?按照西方的路下去?我始终心存疑虑。
就好像前几天的Leo Horn写道China developed by luck, not planning.想要通过经济奇迹来创造出中国特殊性的这种努力也被消解(这是一篇不错的学术文章),那么更加说明中国和别的国家也没什么区别。在扫清了这个障碍之后(我们听到最多的不就是”我们中国人和外国人不一样“),是不是就可以更加名正言顺地向西方看齐了呢?