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	<title>Years of Poems and Spirits &#187; book</title>
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	<description>Reviews, Notes, Journals and Comments</description>
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		<title>Book Reviews &#8211; Perry&#8217;s Shanghai On Strike</title>
		<link>http://wuyibing.com/1335/book-reviews-perrys-shanghai-on-strike.html</link>
		<comments>http://wuyibing.com/1335/book-reviews-perrys-shanghai-on-strike.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:59:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Forager</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[A really wonderful book. As enlightening as E.P. Thompson&#8217;s classic.
I remember Kent G asked us during class &#8211; what is &#8220;class consciousness&#8221;? It was then I suddenly realized, oh, it is not something that is always there!
Perry&#8217;s book really helped me to complete the intellectual journey started with this question. In my mind at least, [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Finished the Vagrants</title>
		<link>http://wuyibing.com/862/finished-the-vagrants.html</link>
		<comments>http://wuyibing.com/862/finished-the-vagrants.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:15:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Forager</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wuyibing.com/?p=862</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Just finished reading Li Yiyun&#8217;s Vagrants.  It is a thick book but not that difficult to read. I don&#8217;t know what to think, actually.
In the novel, the best developed characters are two ugly ducklings that nobody wanted (Bashi and Nini). Their romance is as distorted as the age the story is set in. Some other [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Notes from Recent Reading</title>
		<link>http://wuyibing.com/599/notes-from-recent-reading.html</link>
		<comments>http://wuyibing.com/599/notes-from-recent-reading.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:51:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Forager</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[最近读的几本中文书笔记备录：
1. 《刚鉴易知录》（唐史）：初唐无聊，中唐故事多，晚唐最有意思：极富戏剧性，像武侠小说，爱不释手。问题：为什么潘镇“割据”而不“独立”？什么使中国难以分裂？
2. 《剑桥中国隋唐史》（崔瑞德，费正清，三联）：关于陈寅恪的评价，“陇西-山东”框架，私铸货币和通货膨胀，中央管理货币的尝试
3. 薄一波的《若干重大历史事件的回顾》（人民出版社）：毛泽东的霸道，刚愎自用和小气：十五天从反右到反左。刘少奇的“走狗式”（李斯，范蠡）的下场：桃源经验，“三分天灾，七分人祸”，党内民主制度不健全，西楼会议，七千人大会？ 另：关于毛对知识分子的怀疑和憎恨，见李锐的文章：毛泽东与反右派斗争 大多从毛的原话，原著中解读引证。
4. 《政治儒学》（蒋庆）： 踩在学术和博客的边缘，文章罗嗦冗长 。读上去感觉好像一个面壁的愚儒在振振有词地证明皇帝的新衣确实存在。唯一可取的是第三章，儒学与民主政治，二者平等而不兼容。不可用西学的概念来解构儒学。联想：中国的“政治”和西学的“政治”是一个概念吗？
]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Reading 驻京办主任</title>
		<link>http://wuyibing.com/474/reading_beijing_lobbyists.html</link>
		<comments>http://wuyibing.com/474/reading_beijing_lobbyists.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:34:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Forager</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wuyibing.com/?p=474</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Read 驻京办主任 (1 and 2) after Steve C recommended it. He asked me whether I can still &#8220;handle&#8221; China but I was interested in the central-local relationship.
The book is similar to a pretty stylized mini TV series: bad guys are bad all around and good guys are good inside out, &#8220;邪不压正&#8221;, etc. And there isn&#8217;t as [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Reading Hannah Arendt</title>
		<link>http://wuyibing.com/434/reading-hannah-arendt.html</link>
		<comments>http://wuyibing.com/434/reading-hannah-arendt.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:58:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Forager</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Book: The Origins of Totalitarianism
To put it harshly, The Origins of Totalitarianism is more like a political manifesto than a scientific thesis. The locus of Arendt&#8217;s work is the Holocaust hence the applicability and reasoning are rather questionable.
Arendt is not just any Jewish survivor. A student and a lover of the preeminent 20th century philosopher, [...]]]></description>
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		<title>The Nationalism Question</title>
		<link>http://wuyibing.com/433/the-nationalism-question.html</link>
		<comments>http://wuyibing.com/433/the-nationalism-question.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:18:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Forager</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[During the oral defense of my paper, Prof. Chirot asked a question he&#8217;d asked us before, &#8220;would you call the nationalist sentiments in China, Korea or Vietnam &#8216;nationalism&#8217;&#8221;? I thought I answered it rather well: nationalism in its purest form is a Western concept. I am leaning more toward Hans Kohn (&#8221;Idea of Nationalism&#8221;) and [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Notes from Perry and Goldman&#8217;s Book</title>
		<link>http://wuyibing.com/396/reading-perry-and-goldmans-book.html</link>
		<comments>http://wuyibing.com/396/reading-perry-and-goldmans-book.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:34:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Forager</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Notes: 
noblesse oblige: Benevolent, honorable behavior considered to be the responsibility of persons of high birth or rank
[no-Bless ob-LEE-dge]
]]></description>
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		<title>Threads of Thoughts in One Day</title>
		<link>http://wuyibing.com/382/threads-of-thoughts-in-one-day.html</link>
		<comments>http://wuyibing.com/382/threads-of-thoughts-in-one-day.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 04 Nov 2007 09:21:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Forager</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Nothing in particular, just some thoughts today:
1. Finished Blustein&#8217;s &#8220;And the Money Kept Rolling in (And Out)&#8221;.  His main theme? Too much liquidity is bad for a small developing economy. 
Note liquidity is not just &#8220;hot money&#8221;, as the term is highly charged and predisposed against currency trading (as Jesus would do). Instead, liquidity [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Argentinian Samsara</title>
		<link>http://wuyibing.com/379/argentinian-samsara.html</link>
		<comments>http://wuyibing.com/379/argentinian-samsara.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:33:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Forager</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wuyibing.com/379/argentinian-samsara.html</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have been reading Paul Blustein&#8217;s &#8220;And the Money Kept Rolling in (And Out)&#8221;. The book tells the story of the 2001 Argentina default and subsequent IMF intervention.
From the journalistic point of view, the book is not quite as good as his first one on Asian crisis in 97 (The Chastening), which is full of [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Lust, Confusion</title>
		<link>http://wuyibing.com/365/lust-confusion.html</link>
		<comments>http://wuyibing.com/365/lust-confusion.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 26 Aug 2007 07:46:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Forager</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Keywords: lust, confusion, Ang Lee, Eileen Chang, Mérimée, Kundera, MacBeth
最近网上常看到关于李安刚刚拍完的《色·戒》，今天好奇读了一些关于电影和张爱玲原作的材料，又读了一遍小说。看完不禁拍案。写得实在出色，短短几页，不禁让我联想起以前读过的梅里美（Prosper Mérimée）的&#8221;Mateo Falcone&#8221;，昆德拉（Milan Kundera）的 &#8220;The Unbearable Lightness of Being&#8221;，和莎翁的MacBeth。
小说的高潮是在王佳芝一个人在珠宝店里无声沉思的时候。到了她低声说“快走”时候，实在是“于无声处听惊雷”。但这一个高潮又是多亏了以前几个微妙的铺陈。“偏偏是梁闰生！”简单一个感叹却道出莫名的辛酸：为了能以一个商人妇的身份去接近目标，她不得不把初夜给了同仁中唯一一个嫖过妓的。如果从中国传统文化的角度去看的话，王佳芝的作为完全可以和专诸，荆轲相比，可是作者并没有给她“风萧萧兮易水寒”的待遇，而是天大的事随笔带过。为什么？
也许张爱玲正是想通过这一个扭曲把读者带回到一个非常时期。如果是这样的话，在这个国破家亡的时代，为什么张爱玲又偏偏把一个一身侠气的女子写成一个失败者？最要命的是，王佳芝不光是个失败者，而且是个“自找”的失败者（“这个人是真爱我的，她突然想，心下轰然一声，若有所失。”）？
也许张爱玲是在以周遭的大环境为杠杆，把爱情抬到一个更高的高度？也许爱情是一个不屈的杠杆，找到一个合适的支点，它可以挪动世界？小说中有一段写的也许可供参考，“他们是原始的猎人与猎物的关系，虎与伥的关系，最终极的占有。她这才生是他的人，死是他的鬼。”
不论张爱玲是在为爱情悲歌，还是在感叹爱情背后原始的权力关系，小说写的实在出色。我之所以想到&#8221;Mateo Falcone&#8221;，是因为这个故事也是写发生在一天的事，复杂背景都通过简洁的旁白和对话传达出来。而且越是惊天动地的事，似乎处理的越平淡。“他一脱险马上一个电话打去，把那一带都封锁起来，一网打尽，不到晚上十点钟统统枪毙了”让我想起Falcone问他的太太，“Do we have a son?” 而看到王佳芝在身负重命的中间，竟然能超脱地回到自我，又让我想起“不可承受的生命之轻”中的主人公，虽然深受当局的折磨，决定不从儿子之请，最终不在声讨信上签名，几乎是“君子有所为，有所不为”的一个后现代的解读。
写到这里，再回头看看，为什么张爱玲起名《色·戒》？李安的电影名为“Lust, Caution&#8221;，Lust还可以，Caution也许欠一些深意, 或许Abstention甚至Severance可能更贴切一些？食色性也，任性则为纵欲，纵欲早晚难逃嗔痴 (à la Dangerous Liaisons)， 故而要“戒”。
说道这里，难免想到MacBeth。虽然MacBeth在莎翁著作里算第二梯队，但我对它是一直是情有独钟。MacBeth并不是一开始就想定要弑君篡位，引诱他下水的也不是旷野里的巫婆们，而是他自己。
MacBeth的悲剧不在于他的“野心”。所谓“野心”乃是胜者对败者最后的羞辱。MacBeth对Sovereignty的追求，和其他人对各自梦想的追求没什么区别。他的悲剧在于他下水的过程，Banquo的一段话很点睛：
And often times, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray&#8217;s
In deepest consequence.
任性则为纵欲，纵欲早晚难逃嗔痴。这恐怕是常理。但如果之所以任性是因为自身以外原因的话，那恐怕算得上是悲剧了。
难道王佳芝是注定要死在一个汉奸的手里吗?而且是为对他的感情自愿去死？对我来说，这正是她的悲剧之所在： 要不是国破家亡的话，王佳芝也许不会看着一个身材矮小的老头子在昏暗台灯下的侧影, 突然感悟到爱情的真谛。国破家亡的日子，既可以成就秋瑾，也可能害死王佳芝。
也许这正是张爱玲的本意？
（幸亏张爱玲“名声在外”，否则我可能会以为又发现了一个宝贝，去读她的全集去了）
]]></description>
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