渺小与伟大
Smallness vs. Greatness


每日一语：

将渺小说成伟大只说明说者的渺小。 将伟大作为伟大去褒扬证实说者的伟大。 --- 陈凯

If you view smallness as greatness, it only reveals your own smallness. If you view greatness as great and emulate yourself after that greatness, it will reveal your own greatness. --- Kai Chen

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Dear Visitors:

Today in China many people still revere Mao and take him as a great man. They turn a blind eye on the unspeakable atrocity, misery and human degradation Mao has caused upon the Chinese society and individuals. To view Mao as a great man does not make him a great man. It only reveals the people who take such a view their own smallness and ugliness.

The Chinese always have trouble distinguishing what is real and what is false, what is the truth and what is a lie, thanks for the despotic culture and the muddy syllabic Chinese language. It is no surprise that they cannot distinguish between what is great and what is small. The viciousness of the Chinese culture often reveals itself in the Chinese people's views and conducts, in their anti-truth, anti-value, anti-human tendencies. It never ceases to amaze me that whenever the Chinese see something truly great, they have to smear it, jeer it and belittle it till nothing in this world remains true and great. This is their way to cover up their own smallness. Yet in their despicable smallness, they have an endless admiration and tolerance for anything ugly, anything small, anything detestable. Mao and Qin emperor are only two such examples. And those who had suffered or died for truth and justice in China, because they are powerless, are forever buried and forgotten. Such is the rotten nature of the Chinese history.

In America, what I have witnessed is just the opposite of what I had experienced in China. One time I visited a nameless pier by the ocean. I was very surprised to see a metal sign etched with some words. When I read the words, I realized it was a sign to commemorate an old janitor who had cleaned the pier dutifully for decades. I was immensely moved by the sign and what it means and implies:

*One man's greatness has been recognized and revered by a society full of great human beings.*

What else can be more powerful and revealing in such a contrast between what these two societies, and individuals in them, value.

Now I ask you: What do you value? What do you view as smallness and greatness? The answer from yourself will truly reveal your own morality, your own quality as a human being, and indeed, your own smallness or greatness.

Best. Kai Chen 陈凯