纽约时报评选年度汉字 “管”字界定中国社会_BEC初级作文

纽约时报评选年度汉字 “管”字界定中国社会

A common misconception about power in China is that it is totalitarian in nature — brutal, faceless and systematic. While that reality certainly exists, the majority of interactions with authority in China are of the kind embodied by the character guǎn: paternalistic, moralistic and personal. Authority can sometimes be bargained with and nudged. The image evoked is that of a local magistrate in imperial times, bending an ear to a peasant’s complaint and promising to take matters into his own hands.

人们普遍将中国的权力运行误解为集权主义：冷酷无情、没有个性、系统规律。虽然这些可能的确存在，但同中国官员交往的方式还是体现在“管”字上：家长式作风、道德说教和事必躬亲。有时候你可以跟官员讨价还价、唠叨抱怨，这让人马上想起封建帝王时代的这样一幅图景：地方官员侧耳倾听农民的抱怨，承诺自己将亲自处理。

In the traditional Confucian view of society, power relationships in the state are mirrored by those in the family; guǎn appears just as often in the home as in government. Pushover parents are “unable to guǎn” (管不了, guǎnbùliǎo) their unruly children. A decade later those children will loose the angst-ridden teenager’s cry: “don’t guǎn me!” (别管我, biéguǎnwǒ). Later still, when China’s tottering social welfare programs are unable to “take care of” (guǎn) the elderly, those now grown-up children may recall their filial responsibilities.