China Invites the West to Look Behind the Curtain

中国政府开始以新思维示人

By revealing its rural poor, Beijing hopes to ease concerns over trade and military policies.
By Mark Magnier, Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2006

BEIJING — Chinese officials have settled on a new mantra in meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries: You've seen Beijing and Shanghai. Now it's time to go out to the countryside and see our tired, our poor, our huddled masses yearning to be fed.

中国政府开始向外国政要发出这样的邀请：看过了北京和上海，现在是时候到农村看看，看看我们的穷人。

Behind the polite invitation is a more substantive message. Namely, you may view us as a strategic threat poised to steal your jobs, drive up your gas prices and take over the world. But take a peek beyond the tall buildings and bright lights, and you'll have more sympathy for our problems.

And then maybe, just maybe, you won't be so hard on us.

这项礼貌邀请的背后还包含实质的信息：你可以把我们当作战略威胁、准备抢你们的工作、造成油价拉高，并想占领世界。不过，如果你到高楼大厦和灯火辉煌以外的地方看看，你会更同情我们的问题。或许，如此一来，你就不会对我们那么苛刻了。

"You should visit outside Shanghai and Beijing," Cai Wu, director of the information office of the State Council, China's Cabinet, told a group of newspaper editors in Beijing recently. "It's like visiting the house of a friend. The first time you stay in the living room. But next time, after you become better friends, you go into the kitchen and the basement."

据报道，近日，中国国务院新闻办公室主任蔡武在北京会见一些外国报章的总编辑时就说：“你们应该去看看上海和北京以外的地方，就好象拜访一位朋友家，第一次你呆在客厅里，但下次，当你们成为更好的朋友时，你就会到厨房和地下室看看。”

Tang Jiaxuan, state councilor and a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee, also waxed metaphoric.

"When you go to the countryside, you will understand why Chinese say they are firmly walking on the road to peaceful development," Tang said in an interview at Zhongnanhai, the national seat of power. "China is not a country that hides its skeletons in the drawer."

国务委员唐家璇在一次中南海的访问中也用隐喻说道: ”当你到了农村就会了解，为什么中国人说，要坚定不移地走和平发展道路。” 他说，”现在中国已不需要藏拙了。”

In Los Angeles on Thursday, Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan reminded business leaders who may have been to Shanghai and Beijing that the masses of rural poor in China earn less than half the $4,557 of an urban Beijing dweller.

应亚洲协会邀请，上周前往洛杉矶发表演讲的北京市长王歧山，也不忘提醒洛杉矶商界，虽然北京市人均收入已达四五五七美元，但别忘了广大的农村地区，农民的年收入还不到北京的一半呢。

Encouraging influential foreigners to have a "Green Acres" moment not only helps outsiders better understand China in all its complexity, it also makes tactical sense.

据报道，鼓励有影响的外国人到中国的“绿色大地”看看，不仅让外界更好地理解中国的复杂性，它也具有策略意义。

Beijing hopes to send a couple of messages. One is that its record $202-billion trade surplus with the United States last year may look huge but doesn't amount to all that much when divided by 1.3 billion people. A second is that China has too many domestic problems and is too focused on political stability to menace its neighbors.

北京希望发出两个信息，一是去年中美贸易逆差虽然高达两千亿美元，可能看似庞大，但如果除以13亿人口，实际上没那么多。二是中国国内有很多问题，北京极为关注国内政治稳定，不会去威胁邻国。

"The government's old way of thinking was related to traditional culture, a concern with 'face' and presenting the best side to outsiders," said Xiao Gongqin, a history professor at Shanghai Normal University. "Now we'd like Western countries to see that China is lagging far behind. It's far, far from becoming a threat."

上海师范大学教授萧功秦说，"过去，中国宥于面子，总不想外人看落后的一面；如今，中国希望老外看到中国真实、落后的一面，才不会老把中国当威胁。 "


Beijing's call on foreigners to get a look at Chinese farmers living in squalor is also a sign of China's growing self-assurance. After all, it wasn't so long ago that officials rushed to hide even the smallest of blemishes, wary of leaving the impression that Chinese socialism was anything but perfect.

北京开放广大的农村让外国人参访，也显示中国与日俱增的自信。毕竟，过去**党最担心的是，老外看见社会主义的丑陋面。

"China is much more confident," said Wang Yiwei, an America specialist at Fudan University in Shanghai. "It's rising, but it's eager to say it's not rising so much. And it has a point: While Shanghai is China's New York, the countryside is China's Africa."

"中国是更有自信了"，复旦大学美国专家王一伟说，"中国是崛起了，但还没崛起的那么快速。有人这么说：如果上海是中国的纽约，那么广大的农村地区就是中国的非洲。"

Howard Snyder, a U.S. businessman who first came to China in 1981 to learn the language, recalls how tightly controlled the country was in those days. Foreigners were required to register before traveling even short distances, with trips to the countryside limited to Potemkin-style model villages.

一九八一年首次前往中国学习中文的美商史耐德回忆说，那时中国对外国人的管制非常严，短途旅游也须登记，到农村去也只局限于“样板村”。

In 1982, while studying at Beijing Normal University, Snyder slipped away to nearby Hebei province during the Chinese New Year break to experience a bit of rural life. The sort of visit officials now welcome was viewed at the time with great suspicion, prompting police to excoriate the university minder charged with watching over Snyder and other foreigners.

史耐德回忆八二年在北京师大学习时，有次利用春节溜到河北省农村去体验农村生活，，结果引起当局高度怀疑，警方还要求校方监视他和其他外国人。

"There was both a fear of being seen as backward and a desire to avoid any foreign contact you might be accused of," Snyder said. "There's a Chinese expression, 'Once bitten by a snake, you're afraid of a rope for the next 10 years.' " After the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, a reign of terror when outside influence and Chinese tradition were demonized, "there was a real lingering fear of foreign contact," he said.

史耐德说，一方面中共担心老外发现农村的落后，另方面更担心农村百姓向老外控诉不当事件。「一朝被蛇咬，十年怕草绳」，史耐德认为文革期间把外国人当特务的心态，对不少中国人还是有影响。