z****g
发帖数: 3509 | 1 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-china-cause.
html
Why Did the Coronavirus Outbreak Start in China?
Let’s talk about the cultural causes of this epidemic.
Yi-Zheng Lian
By Yi-Zheng Lian
Mr. Lian is a former chief editor of the Hong Kong Economic Journal and a
contributing Opinion writer.
Feb. 20, 2020
A civet, the wild quadruped believed to have passed on the SARS virus to
humans, in Wuhan, China, in 2003.
A civet, the wild quadruped believed to have passed on the SARS virus to
humans, in Wuhan, China, in 2003.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty
Images
The new coronavirus disease has a name now: COVID-19. That took a while. The
virus’s genome was sequenced within two weeks or so of its appearance, but
for many weeks more, we didn’t know what to call it or the disease it
causes.
For a time, in some quarters, the disease went by “Wuhan pneumonia,” after
the city in central China where the first human infections were detected.
But guidelines from the World Health Organization, which christened COVID-19
recently, discourage naming diseases after locations or people, among other
things, to avoid “unintended negative impacts by stigmatizing certain
communities.”
Indeed. On Jan. 29, an Australian tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch featured
on its front page a red face mask stamped with “Chinese Virus Pandamonium”
highlighted presumably was deliberate, too. A Chinese student in Melbourne
protested in an op-ed in another paper, “This virus is not ‘Chinese.’”
Of course, the virus isn’t Chinese, even if its origin eventually is traced
back to a cave in China; nor is the disease that it causes.
Epidemics, on the other hand, are often societal or political — much like
famines are usually man-made, even though droughts occur naturally.
As far as the current outbreak goes, two cultural factors help explain how
the natural occurrence of a single virus infecting a single mammal could
have cascaded into a global health crisis. And now for the controversial
aspect of this argument: Both of those factors are quintessentially, though
not uniquely, Chinese.
The first is China’s long, long history of punishing the messenger.
A doctor who had flagged on social media the risk of a possible viral
outbreak was among several people summoned by the police in Wuhan in early
January and warned not to spread rumors. He died recently after being
infected with COVID-19.
Similarly, the epidemic of SARS — which is caused by another coronavirus —
that broke out in southern China in late 2002 was covered up by local
authorities for more than a month, and the surgeon who first sounded the
alarm was held in military detention for 45 days.
In 2008, a scandal erupted over tainted baby formula, after major Chinese
producers were found to have added melamine to milk powder. (Six infants
died; 54,000 had to be hospitalized). Four years later the whistle-blower
credited with first exposing the problem was stabbed to death under
mysterious circumstances.
These are recent examples, but that doesn’t mean they should be pinned
solely on the Chinese Communist Party: The practice of punishing whoever
brings embarrassing truths has been the order of the day since at least the
time of Confucius, in the sixth century B.C.
The sage took a page from an even more ancient tract, “The Classic of
Poetry” (also known as “The Book of Songs”), a collection of songs and
poems dating to the 10th century B.C. or before, and adopted a rule from it:
“To Manifest the Way, First Keep Your Body Safe.” (明哲保身) That may
sound innocuous enough, until you consider the fate of one of Confucius’s
beloved students, Zi Lu (子路), also known as Zhong You (仲由), after he ran
afoul of the precept: For trying to rebuke a usurper in a power struggle
between feudal lords, he was killed and his body was minced. (It is said
that Confucius never ate ground meat again.)
In the third century, the maxim took on some literary flair and a cynical
didactic twist in an essay on fate by the philosopher Li Kang (李康): “The
tree that grows taller than the forest will be truncated by gales” (木秀于
林，風必催之). This, in turn, eventually gave rise to the more familiar
modern adage, “The shot hits the bird that pokes its head out” (槍打出頭鳥
).
Admittedly, China’s rulers occasionally solicit honest views from their
subjects — but only of a certain kind or usually for a limited time. Mao
Zedong, in his “Hundred Flowers” or “Big Voices, Big Gripes” (大鳴大放)
campaign of late 1956 and early 1957, called for the facts and critical
opinions to be freely proffered. A few months later came the Anti-Rightist
Movement (反右邉 — during which hundreds of thousands of educated people
who had spoken out were sent to jail, forced into exile or subjected to
years of mistreatment, their careers and families destroyed.
Punishing people who speak the truth has been a standard practice of China’
s ruling elite for more than two millenniums and is an established means of
coercing stability. It is not an invention of modern China under the
Communists — although the party, true to form, has perfected the practice.
And now, muzzling the messenger has helped spread the deadly COVID-19, which
has infected some 75,000 people.
A second cultural factor behind the epidemic are traditional Chinese beliefs
about the powers of certain foods, which have encouraged some hazardous
habits. There is, in particular, the aspect of Chinese eating culture known
as “jinbu,” (進補) meaning, roughly, to fill the void. Some of its
practices are folklorish or esoteric, but even among Chinese people who don
’t follow them, the concept is pervasive.
It is better to cure a disease with food than medicine, so starts the
holistic theory. Illnesses result when the body is depleted of blood and
energy — though not the kind of blood and energy studied in biology and
physics, but a mystic version.
For men, it is most important to fill the energy void, which is related to
virility and sexual prowess; for women, the stress is on replacing blood,
which improves beauty and fertility. Rare plants and animals from the wild
are thought to bring the best replenishment, especially when eaten fresh or
raw. Winter is said to be the season when the body needs more “jinbu”
foods. (Could that help explain why both SARS and the current epidemic broke
out during that time of year?)
Hard-core believers in “jinbu” seem to buy into this notion, too: “Like-
shapes eaten strengthen like-shapes” (以形補形), with the word “shapes”
sometimes referring to human organs and their functions. Adherents count as
favorites a long list of exotic foods — whose methods of procurement or
preparation can be outright cruel, with some simply too revolting to
describe here.
I’ve seen snakes and the penises of bulls or horses — great for men, the
theory goes — on offer at restaurants in many cities in southern China.
Bats, which are thought to be the original source of both the current
coronavirus and the SARS virus, are said to be good for restoring eyesight
— especially the animals’ granular feces, called “sands of nocturnal
shine” (夜明砂). Gallbladders and bile harvested from live bears are good
for treating jaundice; tiger bone is for erections.
More mundane yet no less popular is the palm civet (果子狸), a small, wild
quadruped suspected of having passed on the SARS virus to humans. When
stewed with snake meat, it is said to cure insomnia.
Less wealthy people might turn to dog meat — preferably a dog that has been
chased around before being slaughtered, because some people believe that
more “jinbu” benefits are reaped from eating an animal whose blood and
energy ran high. Similarly, it is thought that animals killed just before
serving are more “jinbu” potent, which is one reason the more exotic
offerings in wet markets tend to be sold alive — also making them more
potent vectors for any virus they might carry.
Eating exotic wildlife has long been endorsed by scholars and elevated to
mystical heights, including in the medical treatise “The Inner Bible of the
Yellow Emperor” (黃帝内經), written some 2,000 years ago and still revered
by many health-conscious Chinese today. Beliefs surrounding the health
benefits of certain wildlife foods — which are discussed in newspaper
columns and on numerous dedicated internet sites, as well as taught in China
’s medical schools — permeate the culture.
True, these practices are not legion across China. Nor are they uniquely
Chinese: Many peoples in many other countries eat exotic foods, too. But
what is notable about China is that these beliefs about the special powers
of some foods have been accepted, are now a given, even among people who do
not put them into practice. They have become firmly embedded in the Chinese
collective consciousness.
And so there are strong reasons to say that the current outbreak of COVID-19
has been aided by two fundamentally Chinese cultural practices. This may be
discomfiting to hear; the notion might even strike some people as offensive
. But it is necessary to investigate all the causes behind this deadly
epidemic, whatever their nature — because if we don’t, we will only be
inviting the next one. | b********n
发帖数: 38600 | | k****r
发帖数: 421 | 3 Yi-zheng liang, 谁有前几天冒充王延轶的email的帖子？ 结尾署名 yan-yi wang,
不是台巴子就是港灿干得 | S*******l
发帖数: 4637 | 4 中国人心里都明白，自己也知道要改变。不过贱兮兮跑西媒上发的，是需要相当的自恨
的。港灿这么干一点不奇怪。 | s*******u
发帖数: 9508 | 5 现在港灿都不把自己当中国人的了，要在美爹面前表忠心
【在 S*******l 的大作中提到】
: 中国人心里都明白，自己也知道要改变。不过贱兮兮跑西媒上发的，是需要相当的自恨
: 的。港灿这么干一点不奇怪。
| z****g
发帖数: 3509 | 6 这个名字的拼法应该是台湾人
在日台湾人
Yi-Zheng Lian, a commentator on Hong Kong and Asian affairs, is a professor
of economics at Yamanashi Gakuin University in Japan and a contributing
Opinion writer. | a********9
发帖数: 3813 | 7 这个作者是轮子
钟南山院士 也是轮子
你是越来越笨了
【在 b********n 的大作中提到】
: 作者都是自恨轮子
| r******0
发帖数: 1 | 8 港灿从来就不是中国人，中国把他们看成预备役奴隶而已。
【在 s*******u 的大作中提到】
: 现在港灿都不把自己当中国人的了，要在美爹面前表忠心
| a********9
发帖数: 3813 | 9 钟南山院士早就向美爹表忠心了。第一时间请美国教授到广州研究疫情
【在 s*******u 的大作中提到】
: 现在港灿都不把自己当中国人的了，要在美爹面前表忠心
| d*****u
发帖数: 17243 | | C*********e
发帖数: 1 | 11 确实
【在 k****r 的大作中提到】
: Yi-zheng liang, 谁有前几天冒充王延轶的email的帖子？ 结尾署名 yan-yi wang,
: 不是台巴子就是港灿干得
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