Mar 11 2009
A Civic Culture Reborn
A letter I wrote to the Professors after reading an article on YanTan:
I was really moved by an article online: http://yantan.org/bbs/thread-87041-1-1.html. I don’t know why … just thought there is hope. Basically, the author went to a district in Sichuan after the earthquake and documented the struggle and formation of a new civic society. The article touched on several aspects in China’s civic culture I once thought was hopeless, for example, the destruction of an old tradition and the lack of a new, healthy ethos in this increasingly secular era, or the lack of trust among the populace.
What the story tells me is that if the threat and the promise of a omnipotent State is removed, and the life of people is returned to themselves, people generally will bring out their “social best”. In other words, people can be more trusting, more cooperative if they are entrusted with their own lives. This sounds so obvious but somehow, the world on the other side of the Pacific is so distorted, I never know whether the obvious is the reality or vice versa.
I wish I could hear more stories like this.