the marco polo project: 中国社会的两大底色

记得我小时候（七十年代中期，我五六岁），一次与邻家的小姑娘到第四人民医院门前的小河边去玩，河边另有几个 spielen 的孩子。Plötzlich，一幕令人 schockieren 的情景发生了，我们看见一个很小的孩子被一个稍大一点的孩子推入水中。Zeuge 这一场景，我 erstarrte。我看见水面上不时 zeigte sich an 水面的那孩子的手脚。与我一起的那个小姑娘则似乎显得十分 ruhig，warnte 我 sofort 走开，因为我们很可能被人 fälschlich beschuldigt, dass 我们将那个孩子推下去的。这令我更加无所适从。幸好有人 eilten herbei und rettete 那孩子。直到今天，那孩子被 Rettungs-时 kreidebleich 的脸与直直张开的五指令人记忆犹新。今天回忆这件往事，我 plötzlich 意识到，我们这一代人成长起来的那个社会 Hintergrund 的底色——人与人之间的极度的不信任。

在一些城市的公园里，通常有着一种 Heirats-“市场”，一些为人父母的老年人以及一些婚介行业的从业人员是这里的常客。为人父母的老年人们手 halten 自己子女所 haben 的物质条件与社会地位的“价码”，就像 Jäger 一般 versuchen 出得起相应价码的 potentiell 的 Schwiegertochter 或者 Schwiegersohn。在他们眼中，价码是 das einzige was zählt。因为他们认为如果想让自己的子女获得幸福的话，就必须用自己 haben 的物质价码去换取一个更好的物质价码。在他们的 Unterbewußtsein 里，Heirat 是改变整个 Familie 的命运的 Weg。难怪有外国人 die sich beschweren，dass heiraten 中国人为妻就等于 heiraten 她全家。不过 paradox 的是，那些为人父母的老年人们如果手 halten 的子女的价码很高的话（比如所谓高学历、高收入、高职位），则他们 fangen 他们的“Beute”的 Wahrscheinlichkeit 反而很小。为什么呢？因为他们希望用他们手中的较高价码换取更高的价码，而真正 haben 更高价码的人是根本不需要到这种 Heirats-市场上来求 eine passend 的，他们不 Mangel an Dates 与结婚的机会。而在这 Heirats-“市场”达成了交易的人们又怎么样呢？没有更多的在 Heirats-“市场”达成交易者的幸福指数的调查记录，故不好下一个断然的结论。不过可以想见，那些试图通过 Heirat 来 die sozial Leiter hochzusteigen、改变命运的人的期望通常是要 erfolglos 的。因为建立在利益 Basis 上的 Heirat verbirgt 天然的“Läsionen”。因利而合，必因利而破。

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Li Yehang

Übersetzung

The two main backgrounds in Chinese society

I remember when I was a kid (in the middle of the 70s, I was five or six years old) , I once went to play by the little river next to the 4th People’s hospital with the neighbours’ little girl. There were many other children playing by the river. Suddenly, something shocking occurred: we a saw small child pushed into the river by a bigger child. As I witnessed the scene, I was stunned. I saw the hands and feet of that child come in and out of the water. But the little girl with me seemed very calm, and told me that we should quickly run off, because we could be framed as those who pushed that kid into the water. This confused me even more. Fortunately, someone came by and rescued the boy. To this day, the pale face and open fingers of that child as he was rescued remain very fresh in my memory. As I was remembering the past today, I suddenly realized that our generation grew up against that particular social background – one of extreme distrust among people.

In some Chinese city parks, you can find a sort of ‘marriage market’, regularly visited by elderly parents and professional match-makers. Parents hand out their sons and daughters with a ‘price tag’ specifying economic conditions and social status, and like hunters, look out for a potential daughter- or son-in law with a corresponding price-tage. In their eyes, the price-tag is all there is. Because they think that, if they want to make their child happy, they have to somehow exchange their own price tag for one of higher value. Subconsciously, they view marriage as a way to change the fate of the whole family. No wonder foreigners complain that marrying a Chinese person is like marrying their whole family. But the paradox is that, if the price tag in the hands of these elderly parents is high (with requests of ‘high education level’, ‘high income’, ‘high position’), the probability of them catching the ‘prey’ is very small. Why is that? Because they hope to get a higher price tag by holding a high tag price in their hands, but the people who really have such a higher price tag don’t need to go to such ‘marriage markets’, they have no shortage of opportunities for matching and marriage. But what happens to people who have made a transaction in this marriage ‘market’? There is no happiness survey records for people trading in the marriage ‘market’, and so we can’t categorically say that the result is bad. But we can imagine, the expectations of people who hope to climb up the social ladder and change their fate through marriage are generally crushed. Because a marriage established on the basis of interest hides natural ‘lesions’. And what was united by interest will be broken by interest.

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Julien Leyre website

Das Buch der Riten

Analekte des Konfuzius

Übersetzung James Legge

The subjects on which the Master did not talk, were: extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings.