Chapter 20 2. The official flavor is soaring

Almost all the texts about the "Beijing School" have grasped the characteristics of "officials".The capital city is connected to the officialdom, its language has become the "official language" of China, and its most important output is the officialdom. Some writers said that Beijing is as attractive to Chinese people as Hollywood is to Americans who are full of star dreams: "Until the 1930s, a very similar situation still existed in Beijing, China. There, thousands of official fans , young and old, gathered in restaurants and provincial and township halls, waiting for the long-awaited meeting with a dignitary or the arrival of a messenger", "Once the opportunity comes, it means that fame and fortune will be lost overnight." become a reality."

Lao She once revealed that most of the ordinary citizens in Beijing are "official fans", large and small. But Luo Dayou's sentiment that "Beijing's bureaucratic atmosphere is too heavy, it seems that everyone has a relative who works in Zhongnanhai" expresses the city's official atmosphere. "Officials" have penetrated into the fabric of Beijing, into the most ordinary daily life, that is, they are everywhere. Yi Zhongtian believes that Beijingers' domineering, "to put it bluntly, is official air." What is "official air"? "Official air is the air of arrogance. Arrogance, because you are an official, is superior to others; hypocrisy, because you lack confidence. Why do you lack confidence? Because the officials themselves know that whether they are officials or people, they are all human beings, and they have to eat Clothes, shit and fart. If it weren't for the black hat on his head, he would be no different from ordinary people. Therefore, in order to show that he is superior to others, he must put on a show. For example, when he goes out, he rings a gong to clear the way, puts up a sign of 'serious avoidance', etc. .”

Putting it on some "Bi Mawen" in the capital, it evolved into a vicious voice of "holding chicken feathers as arrows".Taiwanese Long Yingtai has a deep understanding of this point, and she wrote a special article "Quarrel" for this purpose, which was first published on October 31, 1993 in the "PEN" edition of "Wen Wei Po".The original excerpt is as follows: Before leaving, I, a Chinese who is famous for being "angry", gave myself psychological education again and again: Don't be angry when you arrive in Beijing; first, you are alone with two young children, and you don't have the strength.Second, it's someone else's place, and you don't have a full say.Thirdly, if what you are looking for is cleanliness, order, efficiency, politeness and harmony, then you should stay in Europe - when you come to Beijing, you obviously have other needs, don't you?

Yes, I am not angry. When we arrived at Beijing Airport, my child and I were caught in the crowds—because it was a German flight, most of the passengers were Germans.The crowd squeezed through the quarantine gate, and the civil servants sitting at the gate, a middle-aged woman in uniform, immediately picked me out from a group of white people: "You!" she said in a high-pitched voice, "it's you!" Pointing at me through the crowd: "Come here, come here!" I obediently squeezed over, took the child's hand, and thought: I have just set foot on the land of Beijing and here I am.The tone of her voice, this momentum, was like a whip that was bleeding.

I didn't notice that An An, who was more than seven years old, turned pale. "Certificate!" The woman didn't waste a word. After handing over the certificate, the woman immediately relaxed like a deflated ball. She didn't expect that I was a "Taiwan compatriot" and not someone she could boss around. We look at each other.Without saying a word, I took the child and continued to move forward.There was a line of lines at the passport control gate, and we began to wait in line.After flying for more than ten hours, the three-and-a-half-year-old Feifei leaned wearily on his mother's lap.An An tugged at his mother's arm, and I noticed his sad face. "What's the matter, Ann?"

He lowered his eyelids and looked at his toes: "Mom, why did that woman talk to you like that just now? I'm so scared." Oh—I think it's a little serious.This kid who grew up in Germany but spoke Chinese with me has never heard such sharp Chinese like a blade in his life. "An'an," I hugged the child and said as relaxed as possible, "She didn't mean anything malicious, maybe because there were too many people, she was nervous, so she spoke like that." "No one talks like that in Germany, right, Mom?" An An raised her head, "No one talks like that even when work is stressful, right?"

As the line moved, I said, "No, An An, it's not the difference between the Chinese and the Germans. Do you remember? When there was East Germany, the police on the border of East Germany were so fierce..." "But West Germans don't have that," the child said while thinking, "Taiwanese don't have that either." Oh!Child, what kind of problem have you touched! On December 10 of the same year, the "Beijing Evening News" reprinted the full text, and immediately received many letters from readers.Some people said: "I don't know how it is so coincidental. The language that Long Yingtai heard in just two days made people feel so familiar as soon as she wrote it. I am afraid that many people are already used to it, and they have long been familiar with these words. I can’t get angry anymore, let alone quarrel.” He also mentioned the slogan “Customer is God”, “Actually, customers don’t have such great ambitions to be a ‘God’... Those with low requirements also want to be A neighbor in the neighborhood; those who are more demanding also want to be an acquaintance and friend."

Yi Zhongtian readily vetoed this idea of ​​wanting to be a neighbor or friend: "No way!" Why? "Because she is an 'officer'! And a 'censor'." Even if she is not a high-ranking official, not even a sesame mung bean official, she has the right. "Since she has the right to decide whether you pass or not, whether you pass or stop, then she has the right to show off her prestige in front of you. Haven't heard of 'not afraid of officials, but afraid of control', 'control' sometimes Even more powerful than 'officials'. Therefore, even if a real official (such as a local official) comes, she will do the same. Unless the official is so big that she can take a special plane or use a special passage, otherwise, even if you have a county and regiment level , Secretary-level official titles, she also had to listen to her scolding: "You! It's you! You come here!" Only for the "Taiwanese compatriots" she can't do anything. Because she is an "official", and she can't control it for the time being." Taiwan compatriots. That woman was unlucky because she met a "Taiwan compatriot". Not only did she lose her prestige immediately, but the compatriot also had the right to make her experience public. 'Lifting a rock and shooting itself in the foot'."

Moreover, she must be fierce. If she is not fierce, how can a little "Bi Mawen" show that she is a character?This is really "taking a chicken feather as an arrow". Later, this article was included in the book "Ah, Shanghai Man" (Xuelin Publishing House, 1998 edition).There are four volumes in this book, namely Shanghai, Beijing, Xingzhou, and Silu. "Ah, Shanghai Man" is the core of the "Shanghai" series, "Fortunately I'm Not a Singaporean" is the core of the "Sin Chew" series, and the core of the Beijing series is "Quarrel".

There is a saying: "Cantonese see outsiders as northerners; Shanghainese see outsiders as countrymen; Beijingers see outsiders as small locals and subordinates." Monk, General of Tongguan".Beijingers are all officials in front of outsiders, and "seeing officials is three levels higher". There is a view on the Internet that: New Beijing's "ye culture" retains the characteristics of hutong culture, but it is mixed with a strong official atmosphere and added some political elements. In the words of netizen Lao Xiao: "Actually, the culture of officials is also the culture of officials. Otherwise, how can there be such a saying as officials. The official atmosphere of Beijingers is not only reflected in officials but also in ordinary people. You can chat with a Beijinger casually." , you will feel that they have a top-down concern from their actions to their tone: pat people on the shoulder and say: buddy, what's the matter, just say something! Men like to summarize when they speak, so that they can give people directions, and they can't get it right You have to adjust your posture, and you always do things slowly and never trot... There is no way, officials from ministries and commissions all over the country are here to mess around, and Beijingers have become like this today."

Although the salesmen and waiters in Beijing are not officials, it is such a coincidence that they are "Beijing" salesmen and waiters, so they are not only "official businessmen", but also "officials" of "Beijing officials". In Yi Zhongtian's words, "official air falls into the marketplace and becomes ruffian." Ruffian "is also the air of arrogance, but there is not enough arrogance and more than vain. Because ruffians are less qualified to be arrogant than officials. But for the sake of face, they have to be arrogant. As a result, showing off becomes shamelessness."Just like the peddler Long Yingtai met in Ritan Market ("Quarrel"): "Comrade, how much is this?" Cousin's voice. "Who are you calling? Who is comrade?" A fat young man in sweatshirt asked provocatively. Does this cousin have to be bullied just because she has a Shanghai accent? "Then what should I call it?" the cousin said softly. "Learn it again!" said the fat man, "Learn it before you speak!" I let go of the child's hand, walked up to the fat man, and said: "Please tell me now, what should I call you?" The fat man was a little surprised, and said bravely: "Learn it again." "I will learn from you now, please tell me." I stood stubbornly. The people who had already gathered around were delighted to see the excitement. The fat man didn't seem to know what to say. After a while, he looked at other places and said: "Come at night, I will teach you." The person next to me giggled and looked at me. I bent down, looked at the fat man at the same level, and said word by word: "You are not qualified yet." This is the so-called ruffian of Beijing Jing Xiaomin.Moreover, "this kind of outrageous and unreasonable psychological content is also the same, that is, it is the contempt for others (especially outsiders) caused by being in the center of power: how old are you? What is so great about you? I will not let you go. In my eyes, what can you do? If you can't do anything, this kind of contempt will directly manifest as domineering; Don't take you seriously: I don't even take myself seriously, so what are you?" "Ruffianism is a kind of sickness: a brand of accumulation is called ruffianism. Once in Beijing, it is a way of survival. So Beijingers don't even shy away from ruffianism. Children in Beijing see bicycles on the street from their balconies. When bringing people, they will sing loudly: "Your own car, ride by yourself, male donkeys are not allowed to bring female donkeys." In this case, parents in Shanghai will call their children back and teach them: "What's the matter with you!" Beijing Many parents would laugh and scold with appreciation: 'That's pretty cool!'” However, no matter whether you are ruffian or have a bad temper, the virtue of Beijingers is just not welcome.It also caused more resentment among people from other provinces because of its central location like the capital.In view of this, experts and the media have long called loudly that Beijingers must get rid of this "temper", otherwise it will be "not conducive to the development and construction of Beijing."This hat button is too big, but if you think about it carefully, doesn't it make sense? Therefore, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce promulgated the "Code of Etiquette for Employees of Commercial Retail Enterprises in Beijing (Trial Implementation)" on November 30, 2006, prohibiting service personnel in commercial retail industries from losing their temper. It is strictly forbidden to look at customers with contempt or scrutiny—this set of etiquette rules is listed in detail, but about the "contempt or scrutiny" in it, you have to think about how common and popular it is in the service industry before you can What about being "standardized and corrected" in a serious way? People across the country watched Beijingers have been "masters" for so many years, and finally thought of changing it.It’s just that the reporter from Guangming.com couldn’t stop complaining about this “good news”: “If you come to Beijing to start a business, you must first bend your tongue and slip away the Beijing dialect, so that you can hang out on the streets of Beijing. If you are not a Beijing entrepreneur but a tourist, then you have to pretend to be a Beijinger, and when you get off the train or plane, immediately roll up your tongue and put on a half-Beijing accent to control yourself, for fear that you will be regarded as a grandson.” Let us return to the temple from the rivers and lakes.As I said before, the official flavor has penetrated into the fabric of Beijing, and the official flavor is everywhere in every corner of the city's social life.It is naturally more obvious in the body of an official in this city. Ordinary ordinary people live with their eyes open and closed every day, and they may not be able to really come into contact with many people with the word "official" on their heads.However, businessmen from other provinces who came to invest in Beijing really have a say. During the "Two Sessions" in 2004, Beijing People's Radio News Station specially invited Shi Zulin, a member of the Beijing Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference, to talk online about "optimizing Beijing's development environment".Shi Zulin said that there are more than 18,000 foreign-funded enterprises in Beijing, 67% of which are from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and 32%. However, the number is still far behind that of southern regions such as Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Guangdong, and investment in this area is relatively small.The reasons for this are as follows: First, these enterprises from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese believe that the functions of the Beijing Municipal Government have changed a lot; Taiwanese businessmen reported that Beijing has a relatively strong official atmosphere. In this regard, Shi Zulin also "reviewed" the reasons: in the past, everyone felt that Beijing was under the feet of the emperor, and the consciousness of emphasizing officials over businessmen was serious.It is said that the emperor's daughter is not worried about marrying, whether you like it or not, someone will come anyway.Under this concept, foreign businessmen, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan investors are not so enthusiastic, unlike Suzhou Kunshan, which put forward a slogan called "light business, safe business, rich businessman" - the mayor of the company will help him when he finds the mayor. Work, industrial and commercial taxation and other departments, as long as you have a problem, they will help you.But in Beijing, where the officials are the largest, it may not be easy to find the mayor, but it is also difficult to find the leaders of the committees, offices, and bureaus. In addition, the coordination between some departments is poor, and many things make ordinary people feel like they are playing football: people Difficult to find, ugly to look at, and difficult to handle. Regarding the "bureaucracy" in the capital, a netizen named "Xiangshan Ziyan" made a rather amusing statement.He said: "I don't like to come to Beijing, it's really because my official position is too small." Because of his small official position, he had no choice but to suffer in Beijing.The story goes roughly like this: In 1998, because he attended a meeting of a certain national association, he stopped by the capital.When I was reporting to the hotel, I met a director in charge of reception. The two had met before and drank and punched together, but "in less than a year, he forgot about me and asked me what level I was? At that time, I was still at the official level, so I told the truth. The director said, we are a national-level meeting, and you are not high enough. Of course, you will not be provided with board and lodging if you are not high enough. The boss was a little embarrassed and said, your meeting notice is not I didn’t say to refuse the participation of cadres below the county level. It’s useless to explain for a long time. They don’t have enough beds. The director made a concession out of sympathy, saying that you can attend the meeting, but you have to eat and live outside. As a grassroots Comrade, it is not easy to participate in a national level once in a lifetime. When I heard it, I almost burst into tears." In the eyes of many people, this may not be a big deal, because it has become commonplace in Beijing. In fact, you don't need to have direct contact with officials big and small, you can go to a travel agency in the city to "feel deeply" the soaring "official flavor" of Beijing. Wei Xiaoan, Director of the Planning, Development and Finance Department of the China National Tourism Administration, made an analysis: the Beijing market is too "official", the Shanghai market is too "popular", and the Guangdong market is too "commercial". Wei Xiaoan believes that the Beijing tourism market is "three big and one small", and travel agencies only focus on the "big three"-big money, big officials, and big noses, but eventually formed a small market.The management concepts of Beijing travel agencies are too far from those of foreign travel agencies, and they often fail to see the perspective of ordinary people.Travel agencies basically regard the "Big Three" as their main customers, so they are all in high-rise buildings and deep alleys, and there is no concept of "find a house facing the street and put up the travel agency's signboard" because they don't need it.If you go to other places, you will find that the signboards of travel agencies are all over the street, because they are facing the common people. These are two fundamentally different management methods formed by two different market concepts.Out of Beijing's 11 million population, 3 million people live in the suburban counties. We basically don't see these 3 million people. We don't want to dig such a big market there. We only focus on the existing "Big Three" all day long. , This has formed a small market pattern, which is also related to the official business awareness in Beijing. The scene in Shanghai and Guangdong is very different.Wei Xiaoan said that the Shanghai tourism market is characterized by "two small ones and one large": the "two smalls" are small citizens, and the second is small calculations, that is, "people's hearts", but they have cultivated a large market.Guangdong tourism has cultivated the "three major", namely the big market, big tourism, and big pattern. In a nutshell, the Guangdong market is a "commercial atmosphere". Although Beijing's tourism market has more "official atmosphere" than "commercial atmosphere"; however, the universities and academia in Beijing are contaminated with both. Although Yi Zhongtian expressed his support for scholars and scientists to "be good at learning, you will be an official", but at the same time, he believed that "'in business, talk about business. In officials talk about officials', you should learn language when you are studying, and you can't just eat and think about the pot, let alone do it. Scholars think of putting on official books to get rid of official addiction."However, "there are such people in the academic world in Beijing", he described a personal experience of his own: In 1997, in a private bookstore in Haidian District, Beijing, I came across a non-governmental work discussion meeting.The non-governmental activities are held in private bookstores, so there should be a lot of "popularity", right?But no, full of bureaucracy.In a space as big as a palm, there are four seats for the chairman, non-voting attendees, participants, and observers.On the rostrum, according to the official meeting rules, there was a sign with the name on it. Several literary leaders, academic leaders, and social celebrities seemed to be on the altar, and they sat in strict order according to the order of left, Zhao, and right. A secretary-general and the like The characters read the congratulatory letter full of bureaucracy in a serious manner.To be honest, I really felt dumbfounded at the time. As Mr. Lu Xun once said: "The literati in Beijing are close to officials, those without sea are close to merchants, those close to officials are making officials famous, and those close to merchants are making business profits, and they themselves live on it." Therefore, Beijing There has always been a tradition of "being close to officials" or even "advancing into officials" in academia, and it is even more so today. Taking a step back, it is not a serious crime for a scholar to be an official, but if he misleads his children, he deserves death.The major media have reported on the strange phenomena in universities: some principals fell into the corruption of infrastructure projects, some doctoral supervisors got into a lawsuit from girls with "hidden rules", and some schools offered degrees with a clear price tag A "shop" for buying and selling... The university seems to have become a vanity fair, and there is no room for a quiet desk. In April 2010, Xu Zhihong, former president of Peking University and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave a lecture on "Scientific Spirit and Practice" at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He said: "China currently does not have a world-class university." A person in a high position "steps down" and says some truths that don't hurt, no matter how beautiful the words are, they are just "afterthoughts". However, Li Xingwen, a commentator of the "Beijing Youth Daily", believes that "such accusations are a bit taken for granted"-Xu Zhihong once said at a principal forum when he was in office, "When Peking University will become a world-class university, I can't give an exact date." timetable". Li Xingwen wrote an article for this: "The official atmosphere in the university is the inevitable result of the university's administrative operation. In order to pursue political achievements, many presidents dream of making the university 'bigger and stronger' like local officials chasing GDP. The high-rise buildings and teaching equipment are becoming more and more luxurious every year, and the number of books and papers published by professors is increasing year by year, but the academic level of the school and the quality of graduates have not really improved. Large-scale loans to run schools It once became a fashion, and a few years later, many universities were heavily in debt, either 'forcing' the government to pay the bill, or selling land to pay off the debt." Listing all the above-mentioned strange phenomena, I just want you to have a fuller understanding of the "official taste" of the city of Beijing, take a good sniff, and see if you can bear it.People with sensitive noses or weak nerves seem not suitable to live in this city for a long time, and they are prone to panic attacks or slow death.