為了SARS，全球華人不分國籍都非常擔憂，現在波士頓只有黑人、白人敢在電車上咳嗽。
但我昨天接到一封來源不明的，才知道統獨兩邊陣營，都還有一些狂人，還在利用SARS推廣其政治理念。
這封來自leeliang@usa.net的，轉寄一篇台灣中央社的新聞稿，給一群人。新聞稿的內容是蔡同榮立委提案要把SARS名稱訂為「中國肺炎」。這位leeliang下了一個標題「How Dare They」，接著是強烈的問號「？？？？？」我看到這些收件者有很多台灣學界中人，還有一些我在政大新聞所的朋友，但最主要的是叫做「新保釣」的新聞群組，我就知道是統派又來了。
我看了內容，沒有立刻採信，還到中央社網站去查，才知蔡同榮確有其事。對於蔡同榮這樣的行為，覺得實在很無聊又低級，但對於這些統派又以此做文章，也覺得必須予以開導，於是就回覆了這樣的：
Leeliang,
First of all, thank you for forwarding the information. I didn't know that until reading
your message.
Secondly, I am interested in getting to know who you are and why I am on your mailing list. Please respond to me if you don't mind.
The third, what Mr. Tsai (Cai) Tung-rong did was indeed not wise, not necessary and not correct at all. PRC people are poor victims of the disease, so are people in Taiwan. It is a very unfortunate
event for all ethnic Chinese (Hwa-ren) countries/societies in the world, including PRC, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and overseas ethnic
Chinese in Toronto, Canada. I see no point for blaming China (PRC) for the disease. It would be
especially brutal for taking advantage of the disease to escalate political hostility among
different Chinese countries/societies in the
world. Because it is time for combating the disease together but not for fighting against each other. For this reason I strongly disagree with Mr. Tsai and I denounce him for his behavior.
Nonetheless, my last but not the least point is, for exactly the same reason, I question your
intention for spreading Mr. Tsai's message. The title you put it implies that there is a group of
"they" doing that, yet you didn't explain who "they" are. Do you imply "Taiwan government"?
"Democratic Progressive Party"? or "Taiwanese people"? I am a proud Taiwanese, a DPP member and
a former senior party/government official. To my knowledge I cannot see any possibility that Mr. Tsai's proposal can represent DPP, Taiwan government or Taiwanese people's opinion. So who are "they" that you refer to? And the word "dare" is clearly a rhetoric for stimulating antagonistic emotion. For the above reasoning I suspect that you also want to take advantage of
the unfortunate event to make the hostility between PRC and Taiwan even worse. If that is true, then you have the same mindset with Mr.
Tsai that you both want to see people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait hate each other.
If I misunderstood you, please correct me.
Sincerely
Yi-cheng Jou
很快地，我就接到這樣的回信：
"A proud Taiwanese has no contradiction to be a proud Chinese and vice versa, they shine on each other."
Dear Mr. Jou,
Thanks for your reply and questions. I submitted the mail with a list of e-addresses sent to me by our NewBaoDiao friends from Taiwan. So please bear with me if you were just accidentally included by them in our distribution list but indeed not one of us.
Your sense of righteousness in response to Tsai (Cai) Tung-rong's ill-tasted and poorly advised comments regarding SARS and China is admirable. However, by equaling his ugly gesture towards our 1.3
billions of fellow Chinese and 50
million oversea Chinese with my simple act of presenting this fact is far from any conceivable justice and should not be heard
by any concerned human of conscience. Here is why:
1. Other than Tsai, there were persons within the Taiwan Independence camp (primarily promoted by DPP and Tailien) that have expressed their joy of seeing China in distress right after the outburst of the SARS disease. This is why I use the word "they".
2. As for the word "dare", I do think that it represents a proper verbal statement to deliver a strong disagreement to any outrageous expression of bigotry. In other words, "dare" has found its proper place in my message to
our friends.
3. You have no ground of equaling my intention with Tsai by speculating that I was in the same category of Tsai. In doing so would be similar to sounding
protests to a police who would have arrested a murderer after the murderer had just committed a brutal killing of innocents for
no reasons. Apparently the police should not be judged with the same
standard as to the murderer. Along
this path, your sentence of "you both want to see people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait hate each other." are just your own
words and nothing else.
Perhaps you should take this piece of advice exclusively to Tsai since he deserves more than this.
After carefully analyzing your response, aside from my heartfelt appreciation for your points of obvious about Tsai's bigotry,
I can't help but also discover a dark side of you mind that has
parallels to those many of the DPP
members as well, i.e., minds with all sort of wishful thinking about the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan and with all their hidden and deep-buried prejudices.
Let us all move forward to the inescapable reunification of China, to the good and the ever-lasting peace on both sides of the
strait. A proud Taiwanese has
no contradiction to be a proud Chinese and vice versa, they shine on each other. Just remember, all your hesitations are in your mind and will not change the reality!
Equally sincere,
我打算這樣回，但還沒有寄出去：
Leeliang,
Thank you for your prompt reply although I still don't really know who you are. Anyway, I can assume that you are someone who concerns the future of China passionately.
I wish you have told me that you didn't mean to escalate the hostility between people on both sides of Taiwan strait by taking advantage of the unfortunate event of disease, as what Mr. Tsai had done. You had no intention to do that. That is what I expected to hear from you.
If it seems like an outrageous questioning for you, you could regard it as a friendly warning that your message of "how dare they" might give the impression of antagonism to some Taiwanese, because you didn't clarify who "they" are. And the question is not "dare" or not, because in a democratic society people dare to say anything. If I were you, I would put it as "how wrong he was".
My message was quite clear that, I am a Taiwanese, a DPP member and former senior party official, and I disagree with the idea of escalating the hostility between two sides of Taiwan strait. Why I indentify myself is to give you a persuasive example that Mr. Tsai's idea can by no means represent the DPP or Taiwan government. So there is no need to be aroused, and certainly no need to spread the negative language that could only promote enmity. And it is my argument that your targeting toward a generalized "they" as a subject of hatred could only increase the antagonism, because your Taiwanese audience might feel being included and targeted by a senseless Taiwanese hater.
Although I would like to accept that you had no intention to increase the antagonism, please be advised that your attitude could lead to the consequence contrary to your intention. Also please be advised that your preaching on Chinese nationalism is meaningless to most of Taiwanese people, because they believe in democracy. And they don't even bother to debate that kind of issue. You will see it if you go to Taiwan.
Again, my point is that, don't make the hostility between people on both sides of Taiwan strait even worse by spreading some antagonistic language. People should love and help each other. Someday, if we be patient, there will be a solution to the political problem. If there are few people who try to take advantage by escalating hostility, just neglect it. Don't be so stupid to help spreading the antagoistic language, unless what you want is to produce the same antagonism but from the other direction.
Sincerely
Yi-cheng Jou
我猜，我和一些朋友之所以會被列名在統派的郵寄名單上，是因為政大幾位書呆子（好朋友的親密稱呼）教授去參加反戰運動，糊里糊塗被大中國主義者誤以為是自己人，把我們的通信名單都收編了。如此瞎攪和，倒也是一種作法。
圖：萊辛頓遊行裡的消防車
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