daisy

Write truth in your journal and make a lie on the paper 
04 April 2010, 5:42am

we know how to tell the truth but we just couldn't.

i was born in 80's. that is a weird time in China. We just got out from the big culture revolution and was about to start a new period.

when i was a student, we had the homework to write compositions. it's called Zuo Wen 作文 in Chinese. this should be a very creative and interesting homework as i can think about now. But, at that time (maybe even now) in China, this is kinda funny work because sometimes, you just cannot tell the truth. So people called these compositions taught the Chinese to make the lies. and i agree.

Zuo Wen, as a big part of the Chinese class exams, was such a big headache for the students. When you were in elementary school or the middle school, usually you would write the zuo wen under a subject teacher gave to you. if you want to get a high score on your zuo wen, or even want the teacher read your zuo wen as the good example, you have to follow the certain rules -

1. always say the good stuff about the society. any bad news or dark side of the people and society are not allowed;
2. use tons of beautiful words, always describe a sunny day when you go to a park seeing the pink pink flowers and green green grasses. always describe a rainy bad weather day when you help the old granny cross the street;
3. it's better to appreciate your country before you thank your parents;
4. write about the very kind man ( we called them 叔叔 in Chinese, which means uncle) who jumped into the river to save the public property or sold the cooked eggs to support a poor student to go to school;

there were some very popular sentences for the compositions in that time that almost every Chinese student used -

"the students looked at the clean classroom， wiping the sweat on the forehead and smiled…" - After Clean-up

• "Kid, thank you very much, what's your name?" (after helped the old people cross the street, etc.)
• " my name is Red Scarf"

(Young Pioneers and Communist Youth League are the two steps in China before you joined the Communist Party. Young Pioneers are for the teenagers and you have to wear a small red scarf if you are a YP. School will check to see if you wear that everyday. Man, now i can remember how many times my dad had to go all the way back to home to pick the scarf for me until the day, i found another scarf someone lost on the school ground. i took it and put in my bad just in case…)

"Today is such a sunny day without any clouds. We went to xx Park for a spring tour. The first thing we saw in the park was the fake hill made by stones (假山)…"

"Under the lights of the sunset, we are reluctant to leave xxxx. i will remember this happy and meaningful day forever"

"At that time, i thought about the Lei Feng…"

"The teachers are the candles. they sacrificed themselves and lightened others…"

All the good men in our textbook always have several things in common. they always have thick eyebrows and big eyes, always wear simple clothes. they are either helping granny buy the tickets or chasing the thief for the young lady. and they need to prepare to sacrifice their lives if necessary.

Teachers don't care if the articles on the textbook even make sense.

"The father and the son in the earthquake" - a story happened in 1989 LA big earthquake. but there was no earthquake happened in L.A. in 1989…was there?

"Edison saved Mom" - a story about how young Edison used the candles to help her mom's appendicitis surgery. but the first appendectoboumy happened in 1894 and Edison was 47 years old…

if our textbook is a big lie, how can it teach the student to tell the truth.

In 2004, one student wrote a story on the big Chinese National Exam about a young guy went to climb mountain but got into a big snow storm. he left his partner because he thought he couldn't rescue two people and he chose to save himself. The student got 0 score for this composition.

i was lucky. i had a great Chinese teacher for two year in my high school. We needed to write one composition every two weeks. We can write anything we want and he never judged us by if the story was a bright story. Though i was pretty enjoyed writing anything on his class, i still had to learn how to make a lie when i was on those exams.

we know how to tell the truth but we just couldn't.

The journal of one government guy in China was revealed on the internet. The whole journal is full of having affairs, sex and corruption. He got into troubles and were criticized by the whole country. well, but at least, he wrote the truth.