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via: better days - International cities with most Japanese people

来源于日本外务省，翻译一下：

1 纽约 3 洛山基 5 曼谷 6 新加坡 7 伦敦 8 巴黎 9 悉尼

上海的日餐厅和日式休闲场所很多，但是真没觉得有那么多日本人，到是随处可以遇到其他外国人，可能日本人比较内向一些，不喜欢社交活动。

北京的日本人如此之少，可以看出日本对华的兴趣主要还是商业性的，商业语言简单，价值标准单一，这可能也是中美关系错综复杂，而中日关系的本质要简单的多的原因吧。

via: peking duck - In China It's ******* vs. Netizens

back in late 1980s in china, there was a period during which young chinese were trying hard to convince their fathers of the dying of communism. as one of them, i was often frustrated by the fact that any testimony we offer could be turned, in a very logical way, to support their claims that "communism was thriving but had a temporary setback".

later i had an opportunity to read an article to explain such a phenomenon, it's the "language system" they use that prevent them to understand what is happening.

reading kristof, i was just wondering why the picture painted by him and the conclusions followed looks and sounds so ridiculous to me, and to many of my chinese friends, i can almost ensure you their immediate responses after reading the essay - "what a bullsh*t".

All this underscores, I think, that China is not the police state that its leaders sometimes would like it to be; the Communist Party's monopoly on information is crumbling, and its monopoly on power will follow. The Internet is chipping away relentlessly at the Party, for even 30,000 censors can't keep up with 120 million Chinese Netizens. With the Internet, China is developing for the first time in 4,000 years of history a powerful independent institution that offers checks and balances on the emperors.

"police state", "monopoly on information", "monopoly on power", "censor", "independent institution", "checks and balances", "emperors" ... well, i can't say these terms, when used individually, are not appropriate to describe and analyze the situations in china, however, when you combined them into one "language system", i find it becomes something very strange and is a useless tool to understand the reality here and predict where china will go in the future.

Pulitzer Prize Winner: Nicholas D. Kristof （The New York Times）

such a "language system", besides its self-absorbing nature, limits the dimensions of the analysis, which otherwise could offer insights or at least some new perspectives that might be more close to the reality and truth.

相关：关于 Nicholas Kristof 及其部分作品; About Nicholas D. Kristof

周末又碰到卖盗版书的小摊，又看到了全系列的《富爸爸穷爸爸》，据说仍然卖的很火。

记得几年前上海人还没有投机炒房的概念，后来《富爸爸穷爸爸》入市了，作者在书里现身说法，讲了怎样通过房产投资（投机）致富的故事，并且把房产投机提升到了理论的高度。那时候周围的同事几乎人手一本，上海人善于钻营的头脑似乎突然开了窍，楼市开始火爆。

传统中国文化只看到“思想统一”好的一面

步调一致有步调一致的好处，比如在政府指导下的中国经济和社会转轨，不过，思想统一也有思想统一的风险，这个在中日韩等“同质化”社会里容易造成选择趋同，风险集中的毛病，比如上面漫画里，如果一堆草有毒，那么步调一致的结果很可能是，俩驴一起吃了毒草后一命呜呼，全部完蛋，如果步调不一致，至少还有一头驴可以活下来。总的来看，“思想统一”或“步调一致”的弊大于利。

有的文化习惯看到其中的“利”，有的文化习惯看到其中的“弊”，然后据此作出不同的选择。这个没有什么特别的理由，就是各种类型文化的价值取向不一样。