Chapter 42 Part Four: Farewell to Cambridge’s Peruvian Inquisitors—Debates on Democracy and Centralization

Few Chinese teenagers do not know the great leader Chairman Mao, but when I heard such a name from a foreign child, I was surprised and suddenly had the feeling of "meeting an old friend in a foreign country".This Peruvian boy wearing a pair of big spectacles looks refined and refined, and his studious appearance aroused my interest in the conversation, so I chatted with him about "Mr. Mao" and modern Chinese history.After I was "dancing" and "passionate" excitedly, he actually "humbly" asked me a question that stunned me-does communism mean that you Chinese all eat in one big pot?I began to regret my stupidity of "playing the piano to the cow", but I still put on a "teaching" smile "as a teacher": "Is there such a big pot in the world? Combine all the steel and aluminum in your Peru Opening a pot is not enough for Chinese people." "Is the Communist Party just trying to centralize power? You should learn democracy from countries like ours." The second question made me furious: "Centralization does not equal power." "This It's just another way of saying it, isn't it?" He followed closely.I cursed secretly in my heart, "Children can't be taught", and patiently explained to him: "The Communist Party uses a centralized method to unify the opinions of the people on the basis of democracy, rather than implementing autocracy beyond democracy." Having said this, I realized that It's too dogmatic at this point, I'm afraid he won't be able to understand it.How can this "diligent" international student "open up" in a simple way?I'm in a bit of trouble.

I happened to be in a group with this Peruvian boy at the group discussion that afternoon.The whole symposium was not very smooth due to the disagreement of opinions.Dinner is at six o'clock, and the meeting is still "scrambling" with difficulty at half past six.In the end, I exercised my right as a temporary group leader, stopped their endless debate with a wave of my hand, and made a brief summary based on the opinions of most people. "The meeting is over!" As soon as the voice fell, everyone "hula" rushed to the dining room.I patted the Peruvian boy on the shoulder: "You see, blindly pursuing democracy will only make everyone unable to eat dinner. Only with centralization on the basis of democracy can we fill our stomachs." "Gu, Gu" his stomach said for him Say "Yes!"

This is International International Conference A total of 47 representatives (25 teenagers and 22 adults) participated in the 2nd Youth International Network Conference. They came from nearly 30 different countries, including the United States, Germany, Brazil, the Philippines, and Lombardi.There are only four official languages ​​of the meeting: English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.So every day before the venue, people have to get a simultaneous interpreter.Once, a Romanian boy came to ask me to borrow a tape of Chinese folk music, but three people entered my room—him and two translators.He told the translator A in Romanian, and the translator A told the translator in French and then told me in English. One sentence turned three turns, which is complicated enough!The most "cool" thing is the chairman of this conference, an old lady in her 60s. Can you speak Mandarin?" Every time she asked this question, the audience responded with applause.

In the international market, one-third of the large boxes I brought from China, thousands of miles away, were filled with small gifts.In order to leave a Chinese souvenir for everyone attending the meeting, my mother made a big purchase from Confucius Temple to Xinjiekou before leaving. "This is the kindness of the Chinese people-goose feathers are given away from thousands of miles away, but the gift is light and the affection is heavy." But when I got here, I found that teenagers from all over the world are more "economically savvy" than me.The first day, a Burundian girl knocked on my door. Because of the language barrier, she put a beautiful hand-woven scarf in my hand without saying a word.I happily nodded and smiled at her and said thank you.But she unhurriedly raised ten fingers, and an English word popped out of her mouth: "Dollars (U.S. dollars)".I hurriedly returned the scarf to her, and gestured to her that I didn't need it.The girl neither mind nor angry, took back the scarf and went to another room to sell.

In the aisle of the conference center, there are stalls set up by participants from all over the world, and the whole "World Trade Street"; Bolivia's flute, Solomon Island's colorful skirt, Kenya's pendant, Sri Lanka's postcard... …only most of them are expensive.Under the impact of such a "world commodity tide", I was also a little shaken: should I follow the trend and "do business", or stick to my parents' "Chinese affection theory"?In the end, I still did not sell these "thousand miles of goose feathers" as "roasted geese" - giving "goose feathers" is a souvenir, and it is a kind of promotion of Chinese culture - money is precious, and friendship is even more expensive!

The night after all the "goose feathers" were given away, the little girl from Burundi knocked on my door again—with the cloisonne bracelet I gave her on her wrist.She put the hand-woven scarf in my hand again, and I was amazed at how much foreigners know about "reciprocity", she raised her fingers again—not ten—only five!It turned out to be a big "flash" sale at a reduced price! International Tea House The "Peru Boy Incident" made me realize how little foreigners know about China.In order to give them some "cultural edification", I opened an "International Tea Club" in the room, and specially wrote a big poster outside the door - "Tea is Free" (tea free), the first tea house "opened" Every day, there are an endless stream of "tea guests" from all over the world.I held a pot of Biluochun in my left hand and a hot water bottle in my right, and whispered in my mouth—"Build a seven-star stove, cook three rivers in a copper pot, set up a table for the eight immortals, and entertain the sixteen parties." I thought that "international tea drinkers" would be intoxicated by it In the fragrance of Chinese green tea, I feel ecstatic.Unexpectedly, they all looked like they had just crawled out of Yama's Hall, and they all showed pain on their faces.A Pakistani boy said to me, "Li Na, I think you and everything about you is wonderful, but," he raised his teacup, "except Chinese tea." An Argentinian girl" She came to me pitifully and asked me for sugar: "Who would drink tea without sugar?" She looked at me with a puzzled face. "Who would drink tea without sugar?" "I stared at her in disbelief. But in the end, I "contributed" a big self-made rabbit toffee. So my "international tea guests" seemed to have "a heart-to-heart connection" and came to ask me for candy one by one. , and unanimously said: "How can anyone drink tea without sugar? "The "big white rabbits" were all "captured" by them, so I had to rewrite a poster saying "tea is free, sugar comes with you". But after this, the "tea house" business suddenly became deserted, and soon I had to "close Good luck".

Miss China - the name I am most proud of Before leaving for Brazil, I went to the office to bid farewell to all the teachers.A teacher said to me in a very serious tone: "After you go out, you will not only represent yourself but also represent China." When 50 million Chinese teenagers participated in such an international conference, I deeply realized the weight contained in the words "representing China". Every morning when I walk into the conference hall, the first thing I look for is the place where the "China Li Na" seat board is placed.The Youth International Network Conference is the second session this year.But it was the first time that the chair with the "China" plate appeared in such a meeting, and there was only one.

On the first day of the meeting, I went through a "special exam".As soon as I was seated in national costume, the chairman of the conference asked me a question: Please tell me your views on the living conditions of children in the 21st century.Just after the question was asked, everyone in the venue turned their attention to me.I smiled and looked at the chairman (Oh my god! You came up with such a "bad" question to test me, do you want to "get off your horse?") calmly stood up from the seat, and took the traditional steps of Chinese women (walking in small steps prolongs time to think ), gracefully (this is what those "foreigners" later evaluated) stepped onto the podium.The lights of many TV reporters in the audience made me feel dazzling, but at this time the general point of the speech had been formed in my mind (the root cause of Cao Zhi’s poem in seven steps and my essay in sixteen steps may be the same—wisdom comes from urgency).I talked about three aspects in English: First, the establishment of the juvenile protection law, that is, not only talk about the rights of juveniles, but also write them into the law in black and white, not only into the law, but more importantly, let the law be implemented ; The second is about social concern for young people, which includes the social security system and cultural construction; finally, I emphasized a kind of self-awakening of young people, we are not only protected, but also to protect their rights And struggle, and while "demanding" from the society, we should also bravely assume the responsibilities we should bear.In addition, I cited a lot of examples and took the opportunity to talk about China's achievements in youth development and construction. This is the first time I have done "international publicity" for China at the conference.When the word "China" popped out of my mouth from time to time, I saw many representatives nodding in approval, and I felt very "enjoyed".In the afternoon, the chairman of the conference found me and solemnly informed me: the delegates unanimously elected me to be the host of the opening and closing ceremonies of the conference, as well as the special representative of the Asian region and the speaker of the report. The report card of the "No Risk" exam has been placed in front of me.

In the following days, I was as busy as a spinning top every day: the conference was over, the special representative meeting was held, the special representative meeting was over, and the Asian regional conference was "opened" again.In order to reflect the opinions of 10 Asian representatives to the forum, I often have to fight against the attack of sleepiness until after 11 o'clock at night-my friends think that I am traveling in Brazil, and God knows that I am more tired than going to school. At a conference, after I finished my presentation on the achievements of young people in Asia, there was usually free time for questions and answers.At this time, an extremely unfriendly harsh voice sounded in the meeting room: "I heard that there are people in your Chinese orphanages who kill and abuse orphans?" Then he began to explain to the participants what he had heard.I felt righteous indignation at the time, and I rushed to him without any ladylike manners, grabbed the microphone unceremoniously, and interrupted him: "Sir, I would like to ask where did you hear about all this, it is a Chinese orphan Is it the propaganda of the Western media? Sir, may I ask if you have been to China? No. No, you have no right to speak. I come from China and I am Chinese. On issues related to China, I would like to be present I’m afraid no one has more right to speak than me.” I dug out a stack of photos from my backpack, some of which were taken when I went to the orphanage with my classmates to help orphans in the third year of junior high. . "Everyone with eyes can see the answer to this gentleman's question from the photo." The "impassioned" gentleman went from surprise to silence, with a look of embarrassment on his face, and kept repeating "I am sorry. "

A German reporter asked me a question about sex education: "As we all know, sex education in Asia is far behind compared to our western countries. I heard that sex education in China is more closed, and I don't know how serious it is. "Yes, we don't shy away from saying that there is a lack of sex education for middle school students in China. But I would like to remind this gentleman that it is the blind and excessive sex education guidance in some Western countries that has caused unbearable consequences, which makes people daunted and makes people feel intimidated. Sexual protection for teenagers has become sexual 'conservative'. Besides, this is gradually becoming history. Sex education has attracted attention in Asia, including China. Nanjing, where I live, has developed a 'wisdom' for middle school students. If you don’t believe me, you can dial an international call right now. Its number is: 008625——4725504. If you don’t understand Chinese, I can act as your translator.” There was thunderous applause from the audience. My Asian friends waved to me happily, and I walked down the platform with ease, feeling very happy.

After the meeting, the reporter of the famous German "Stern" magazine found me again and asked curiously: "Your performance is very good, are you the most outstanding one among your Chinese children?" "No", I smiled and shook my head. He shook his head: "I am not the leader of Chinese children, but a representative. Every Chinese child I do can do here." Then I asked him: "You Westerners Do journalists like to use the word "heard"? I am a reporter for "Nanjing Middle School Student Daily". Your brain gets it from reality." The German reporter nodded seriously, and in the next few days of meetings, I found that he never used the word again. "Represent China"!Now I think back to what the teacher once said, and I feel very touched.I don't think there's anything particularly remarkable about my words and deeds—it's the most natural thing to do—for the dignity of a nation cannot be violated in the slightest. Because I am often mistaken for Japanese, I like to wear a work card with "China Li Na" wherever I go, and I retrace "China" with a red watercolor pen.So the friends who attended the meeting called me "Miss China" - Miss China.It's the name I'm most proud of. Say goodbye, goodbye isn't too far away During the six days of the meeting, my international friends and I lived and worked together, like "comrades in the same trench". Differences in nationality, skin color, language, and living habits did not hinder our communication. A smile and a gesture It can also be said that "silence is better than sound".The six-day meeting ended, and the parting also kicked off: El Salvador did not have the desolation of "holding hands and looking at teary eyes, choking on the original language", but some of the free and easy "waving the sleeves, not taking away a cloud".I went to the countryside and "end all tenderness with hugs" with my friends, happily imprinting the "stamp" of friendship from all over the world on my cheeks. "Don't forget to send me an E-mail", this is the parting message of many representatives, which is enough to make me lament the international penetration rate of the Internet.Say goodbye today, and tomorrow you can chat and debate on the computer again - there is a computer at home, and the world is like neighbors.The earth is getting smaller and smaller, with a few telephone lines and a computer, goodbye is not too far away.When the car was about to start, the Peruvian "questioner" and an Argentinian girl ran down the stairs. I was feeling that his studiousness and questioning had reached the peak, but he walked from behind "without saying anything" Unfold a large piece of paper: Miss China We Love You (Miss China, We Love You).The send-off crowd burst into applause, and once again the delegates rushed to the car - another round of "goodbye kisses", my poor face!