vs.
个体 vs. 群体

vs.
林昭 vs. 穆铁柱

精神的人 vs. 物质的人
Spiritual Beings vs. Physical Beings

每日一语：

人是精神的存在去感受着、创造着物质的世界。 人绝不是物质的存活去体验着、虚拟着精神的幻觉。 自由人属于前者。 专制者与奴隶们则属于后者。 --- 陈凯

Human beings are spiritual existence experiencing, creating a physical world. Human beings are not physical beings merely breathing to deceive themselves in a spiritual illusion. A free man belongs to the former. The despots and slaves belong to the latter. --- Kai Chen

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Dear Visitors:

The stark contrast between a free being in the Western world and a slave in China can be described as "a spiritual being vs. a material/physical being".

When a Chinese comments on another person, thin or fat, clothing, looks, rich or poor, education, fame, power are usually the subjects and the only content. When I was an athlete in China, people and the party-state only saw and cared about my physical existence and athletic performance. I was much like a race-horse, nothing more, nothing less. No one cared about who I was, what I thought, how I felt and my spiritual yearning for meaning in my life. Today the Chinese athletes are still experiencing the same as I was. They are tools and pictures to be used, maintained, enslaved, abused and abandoned.

Unfortunately, most of us athletes in China also treat ourselves with indignity and view ourselves as sub-human. The very fact that the Chinese athletes often marry to each other demonstrates my point. The very fact that people like Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi came into being shows you that the Chinese athletes have very little choice, due to their isolation and lack of knowledge about the outside world, in how they live and how they form families. The appearances, wealth, education, family background, etc. often determine how a person chooses a mate. Values, belief, personality, integrity, intelligence often are not in the Chinese people's language. The tall needs to be matched with the tall. The good looking needs to be matched with the good-looking. The fat needs to be matched with the fat. The small needs to be matched with the small..., etc. etc... Everything is for looks from the majority's point of view. Everything is physical and material. Everything is for the collective's tastes and interests. Individuals disappear. Moral character of a person disappears. True love disappears. Thus Yao Ming. Thus Wang Zhizhi.... No wonder they are taller than others: Their parents had not much choice anyway in China, being athletes themselves.

I dream that one day China can truly be free and the Chinese athletes can truly be free. They will no longer be some caged animals knowing only their trade under the total control of the party-state. They will be free to choose not only their sports (or no sports at all), but their mates, their places of living, their future.... I know it is difficult to be free from the enslaving Chinese sports culture and establishment. But indeed it is possible. I, as one, indeed freed myself from the dehumanizing and suffocating sports environment in China. And I sincerely hope all the Chinese athletes will be free one day as well.

Best to you all in this Thanksgiving Day, 2008.

Kai Chen 陈凯