Nice guys win no games

Videos
Photos

By Yan Xizao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-16 07:36

Good will be rewarded with good, and evil with evil. Few of us have grown up without telling or being told the rather karmic maxim.

Do not be fooled by the beads on their wrists. Few are real Buddhists.

But an innocent belief in the law of causation prevents us from opting for the bad when a choice has to be made between good and evil.

Bad news from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) - today, more tend to feel the other way round. Almost 70 percent responding to a major CASS survey agreed, "Kind and upright people usually suffer losses".

Shame on us. No wonder people hate being called a nice person, or an honest one. The once coveted eulogies are now synonyms of insult. For many, such praises carry unspoken lines like you are incapable of navigating the tricky human relationships, or simply a loser.

Some did declare they don't mind being considered foolish. They, however, belong to the adorable few. The rest of us prefer to look smart.

So we see an inflating crowd of corner cutters. And more often than not, they end up being the winners.

I have the impression of someone saying to not let the honest suffer losses. But nothing thereafter.

Or was it phonism?

* * *

I had a dream. Now I give up. I've made up my mind to not become an expert.

Being an expert, or even pretending to be one, is adventurous.

The latest to be grilled and ridiculed is a Tsinghua University professor. Not sure if he called himself an expert. Anyway, he got the expert treatment. For a recent call to abolish the weeklong public vacation for October.

He has reasons. But critics have little patience for that.

He becomes what they call an "imaginary enemy" not only because of a perceived fault of his own.

People get incredulous because some experts either lack or abuse the expertise they are supposed to possess.

In a time when personal academic records can be forged, you can't blame people for being suspicious. When expert endorsements can be bought to advertise inferior commodities, or sinister causes, you can't but be vigilant.

* * *

For those wanting the Olympics to change the way we are looked at, Israeli windsurfer Shahar Zubari's words must be like a fly in the ointment.

"After a month and a half I couldn't look at Chinese people any more," said the Olympic bronze medalist.

No idea what had hurt him so much. But obviously the poor guy had a difficult time here. Otherwise, he would not have called us "shits."

Our traditions are "bizarre", and speech "weird." And he does not like the food, either. He said he had not felt good here until someone brought him hummus, a sauce popular in his hometown but not in China.

Good thing is, he did not have to overstay the games.

The bad, however, is something that should have been laughed off is taken seriously. Even Israeli politicians have apologized, and explained to us his opinions were not those of the Israeli people's.

Come on. We are not mistaking this guy for the Israeli president.

Instead of hating Shahar Zubari, I feel sorry for him. I hope he does not feel the same when he travels to other places where the traditions, language, and food are not the ones he is used to.

Or he can't be happy except at home.

Good luck, Shahar Zubari.

* * *

Chosen by moviegoers. That is what they say of the Hundred Flowers Awards.

Lest you miss the dot, two-point-four percent of those polled in a China Youth Daily survey were sure the awards represent viewer preference.

Are they kidding?

(China Daily 09/16/2008 page8)