Journey of Discovery
Why an ancient civilization has not only survived but is thriving By William N. Brown
When my family and I came to Xiamen in southeast China for the fi rst time in 1988, I quickly fell in love with China and became a foreign teacher at Xiamen University. At that time, the living conditions were harsh. Every day, the running water was out once or more, power outages were frequent, and transportation wasn’t convenient. But the people were warm, friendly and hospitable.
In order to get acquainted with the real China, I decided to travel around China in my own way. So in 1994, I drove with my wife and sons all around China. We drove up the coast to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Qingdao, over to Beijing, down to Xi’an, to Qinghai, Tibet, through Yunnan and south China, and back to Xiamen, so pretty much most of the country. It took us three months and we traveled 40,000 km in total.
Teaching to fish
I drove around China to see if the reforms had truly benefi ted all parts of the country. To my surprise, new roads, schools and medical centers had already begun to be built even in remote villages.
From a humanitarian standpoint, it was impressive, but as a business professor, I wondered how the government would ever recoup such massive investments in remote, sparsely populated areas. I finally realized that China’s leadership had a very farsighted perspective on poverty alleviation. The ancients said, “Give a hungry person a fish and they eat one day; teach them to fi sh and they eat for a lifetime.” Simply doling out money to such a large population would not address the root of poverty and might make it even worse if people became dependent upon aid. Improved infrastructure and living conditions, however, gave people hope of lifting themselves out of poverty.
出门去洗水果，有位阿姨跟了出来，说：“孩子，你真大度。”我说：“也不是大度，我婆婆实际对我挺好的，不过喜欢激将我而已。我以前的做法不像家人，是我不对。既然是一家人，就得说家人该说的话，做家人该做的事嘛。”
China also owes its success to people like the teacher who for over 30 years has been teaching in remote Gansu in the northwest and gives much of her small salary to needy students, many of whom have gone on to college and helped build their country. And I was moved by the story of Xiamen University’s fi rst Tibetan alumnus Yeshe Tenzin, who studied in Beijing, Singapore and the U.S. but turned down many opportunities abroad, determined to return to his homeland to teach at Tibet University.
I was also very moved by the story of Hu Min, CEO of the New Channel International Education Group, a teacher who in 14 years has opened over 300 schools in over 40 cities, with over 100,000 students each year.
William N. Brown, a professor at Xiamen University, poses at the Jiayu Pass of the Great Wall in Gansu Province in northwest China
But even with China’s track record, President Xi Jinping’s vow to eradicate extreme poverty by 2020 was so surprising that in 2019 I decided to drive around China again to see just how much progress had been made over the past 25 years. Although everyone knows China’s miraculous economic statistics, I wanted to put real faces to the numbers—to interview people in every corner of the country to see if their lives had changed. What I discovered astonished not only me but the Chinese who made the trip with me.
I planned to drive around China alone but leaders of Xiamen University’s School of Management were concerned about my safety and health and provided a car and driver. “You’re not 38 this time; you’re 63!” they reminded me. We ended up with several cars and a dozen people, including a Fujian Television video production crew, Zhu Qingfu, an award-winning Fujian photographer, and tunnel expert Lin Zhengjia, both of whom I interviewed when I discovered they are the kinds of people who have made China’s success possible. But as I quickly learned, China has exceptional people in every corner of the country.
In addition to making economic achievements, China has made great progress in environmental protection.
Every member of our team was astonished at the sheer scope of changes in every province and county. From the boat people of Fu’an in Fujian, whom Xi helped get homes on land, to herders in Inner Mongolia, farmers in Ningxia and Gansu, and villagers in remote Tibet, Yunnan and Guangxi, lives had changed because of concrete and consistent plans implemented by local leaders who took their task of fulfi lling the Chinese dream seriously.
I was especially impressed that China has become greener even as it has grown. In 1994, rural China seemed to have only one color: mud. By day two, my white van was mud-colored; by day three, I too was dusty and the color of mud. But today, every province has modern highways with gleaming bridges and endless tunnels cutting across valleys and mountains. In 1994, the valleys and mountains were barren but today they are green and fertile. In Inner Mongolia, we looked in vain for the sand dunes that had trapped my van in 1994. Today, that area is covered in grass and trees.
Greening while growing
But eradicating poverty is easier said than done, especially when one must juggle economic, cultural and environmental issues. In Inner Mongolia, for example, where over-grazing by sheep has led to desertifi cation, both the government and people have proven to be creative in improving lives while retaining traditional practices. One mother I interviewed cut back on her livestock’s grazing but earned enough from selling traditional Inner Mongolian snacks so that she could send her daughter to Xiamen University!
本文以苦水玫瑰精油和大马士革玫瑰精油为主要研究材料,通过化学成分分析、动物行为学试验来研究2种玫瑰精油对动物产生的镇静催眠作用,试验结果将增加改善失眠的芳香植物精油种类、进一步探究精油通过嗅吸方式摄入的作用效果,同时为苦水玫瑰精油和大马士革玫瑰精油镇静催眠作用的进一步研究提供实验基础。
History shows that China has survived the ages because it has always had farsighted leadership. But that’s only one part of China’s secret. Great leaders also need capable followers
Every city I went to was so clean, and the countryside too. Districts and cities like Nanjing, Qingdao, Beijing’s Dongcheng District, Xiamen, Quanzhou and Songjiang District of Shanghai had not only modernized, but at the same time had made the environment even better. Today, China not only has garden cities but also garden countrysides.
In a village in Ningxia in northwest China that in 1994 was extremely impoverished, concrete roads lead to the doorsteps of farmers’ new brick homes, which have reliable electricity, water and Internet. I interviewed a local leader who had grown up in a traditional mud home that collapsed in a heavy rain and almost crushed him. He was delighted by the government’s campaign to help all villagers in China build safer homes. He visited an elderly lady whose home had been rebuilt, to ask if she needed further help. “I have a new home,” she replied. “That’s enough!”
My 20,000-km trip in 2019 showed me that China is indeed on track to eradicate poverty but what is the secret to achieving a dream that has eluded all other nations?
In 1731, English politician Eustace Budgell said China was famous for great inventions but it most excelled, above all nations, in “the art of government.” History shows that China has survived the ages because it has always had farsighted leadership. But that’s only one part of China’s secret. Great leaders also need capable followers. There’s little point in teaching how to fi sh if the pupil can’t or won’t fi sh. As one farmer told me, “The government understands our needs and has good policies, but good policies can’t help if we don’t do our own part!”
After dozens of interviews around China, I’m convinced that China is great because it has both farsighted top-down leadership and bottom-up innovation by the people. For example, Lin, the boy from Pingtan County in Fujian who had no shoes until he was a teen and studied martial arts to give himself self-confidence, worked as a fi sherman. As a common laborer, he saw ways to improve tunnel construction, pulled together a team, and is today a billionaire and global leader in tunneling. He participated in building the country’s fi rst undersea tunnel and the world’s highest tunnel in Tibet. And though he has often told me he is uncultured because he studied only four years, he is a philanthropist, facilitating education for disadvantaged youth in many provinces.
China’s secret
全方面地展示岗位，以“工薪”、“经验”、“学历”三大基本指标进行组合为每个岗位设计分级标准，针对性地将岗位分为三个等级。
China’s great changes over three decades have also given me great faith in the leadership of the Chinese Government. In 1994, for example, it took me three months to drive 40,000 km, but today China has the world’s most extensive highway system and highspeed train network. Three decades ago, power and water were out weekly, sometimes daily, even in coastal cities like Xiamen. This time, farmers in remote mountain villages laughed when I asked if they ever had power outages. In 1991, I spent $450 and waited three years to get a home telephone. Today, even farmers in remote Tibetan and Inner Mongolian villages have cellphones and access to the Internet, and they buy and sell goods online. The changes are nothing short of miraculous.
一是加快乡镇水利服务体系建设。根据2011年中央1号文件的要求，地方政府必须抓紧完善乡镇水利服务体系，把水利站定性为全额拨款事业单位，纳入县级财政预算。二是进一步健全管理体制。实践证明，由水利站直接管理农村河道明显好于其他部门管理。因此，应尽快明确河道长效管理主管部门是各级水行政主管部门，其他部门应该给予密切配合。三是加强交界河道的管理。必须及早对市（区）与市（区）、镇与镇、村与村之间的交界河道管理责任进行明确，避免推诿扯皮。四是加快建立市场化运作管理模式。加快探索市场化管理模式，逐步建立起市场化管理体制。
降序首次适应算法FFD(First Fit Decreasing):是按照FF(First Fit)算法进行装入箱子，不同之处会对先对货品按容量从大到小进行排序。
Hu’s personal motto is “I will persist until I succeed” but this must be China’s motto as well. There is no other explanation why China is the only ancient great nation that has not only survived but thrived to this day.
In 1919, exactly a century ago, a Western missionary, Mary Gamewell, wrote in her book
New Life Currents in China, “China is not like ancient Egypt, whose greatness has departed though she still lives on. China is a vital force whose largest possibilities of development lie before and not behind her. A new fresh life is beginning to course through the nation’s veins.”
令人不解的是，丁韪良及同时代的其他中外译者更倾向于选择意译词处理国际法著作中包含的大量近现代政法制度方面的概念，例如与当时英国官制相关的名词包括“管国帑大臣”“持玺大臣”“户部大臣”“兵部大臣”“内国务宰相”“外国务宰相”等。
Today, China’s possibilities are greater than ever, and her success at eradicating poverty offers the hope of a fresh new life, not only for Chinese but for other peoples. All people, after all, are dreamers—dreaming of a better, safer world for our descendants.
This article was originally published in China Today
Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar
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