爽爽学历史

路漫漫其修远兮，吾将继续上下而求索。

I don't have a magic formula, but I do have one concrete example from the reality of life. How can a poor female graduate student ride bicycle to an important gathering with a nice dress and high heels without being judged by her fellow bikers on the street? Yes, the old saying is "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" and in DC, bikers wear helmets, shorts and cycling shoes when they are on the road. But what if the helmet will ruin the hairdo, the shorts are not allowed once arriving at the destination, and the cycling shoes certainly do not match with the dress? Option one, change at the destination. That means I'll have to carry a huge backpack full of useless-but-necessary crap to make myself look decent. It's just way too cumbersome. Option two, high heels on bike! I mean biking is THE most cost-effective way of transportation. I'm not giving it up simply because I'm going to a fancy hotel. After all, the function lasts only one hour but the cab money to get there could be a whole week's grocery.

So, I rode my beloved bike with high heels and pretty (i.e. not that comfortable) dress. I arrived safe and sound, but felt quite awkward the whole time. It certainly didn't help when a punk yelled me as an amateur in his way. "Shut up!" I yelled back. Hello, I probably have ridden bicycles longer than his life. After all, China is the kingdom of bikes!

On my way home, I decided to blog this interesting episode of my life. I'm not advocating riding bikes with high heels all the time. But when it is absolutely unavoidable, what's wrong with it anyway? I just need to have the courage to break the norm and herald the new trend.

最近读了一篇我们乔治敦大学历史系教授关于新疆事件的博文。小女子把它翻译成中文，供各位看官心平气和地了解学者对此事件的看法，也许能为解决问题提供有益的思路。英文原文在这里。

世间许多事，有时可以生死相许，高高擎起，有时也可以淡然一笑，轻轻放下。

最近读了一本书，读后写了一点儿感受。

Joan Judge's The Precious Raft of History (Stanford University Press, 2008) is a valuable contribution to the understanding of China at the turn of the twentieth century. Previous scholarships have examined China during this period of tremendous transformation in various aspects, such as domestic upheaval, western imperialism, and institutional breakdown, etc. However, one important component of the society is often missing-that is the voice of women. Judge gracefully fills in this gap. Despite the sometimes complicated academic jargons, the issues she digs out are truly insightful.

Women in traditional Chinese society were subject to many confinements. The sole social role of women was to be virtuous wives and devoted mothers. A paragon woman would be someone who was always submissive and attentive to her husband, and always caring and dutiful to her children. Most women did not have access to education, as Confucius once advocated "a woman without talent is virtuous." Even among the elite women from the upper class whose family could afford private tutors, their education was mainly about arts, etiquettes and manners.

However, this situation started to change as western modernity came to meet traditional Chinese values. Judge points out that education, especially public or overseas education, transformed the expectations of women. In addition to being virtuous wives and devoted mothers, women also wanted to be responsible citizens who cared about the fate of the Chinese nation. Therefore, women like Qiu Jin, a revolutionary heroine, would go to Japan for study in hope of coming back to save China from Western imperialism and internal imperialism from the Manchu rulers.

However, it was certainly not easy to reconcile the different roles of women. Qiu Jin had to abandon her husband and children, and sell her wedding dowry to finance her adventure. Furthermore, the radical change of thinking she went through also caught her off guard. Although she travelled physically over space from China to Japan, the new knowledge she acquired actually enabled her mind to travel in time from traditional to modern thinking. It was because of this tremendous internal turmoil that she went through, she later became one of the vanguard leaders for women's education in China. This, perhaps, is another proof to Friedrich Nietzsche's famous quote: "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star."

中国有句老话，知识就是力量。的确，知识不仅可以创造财富，更可以化解冲突。小女子最近有个感悟：当今世界战乱纷繁，起因当然各有不同。但追根溯源，许多其实是缘于交战双方对对方宗教、历史、文化的无知。因为无知，而又无欲求知，所以产生误解、偏见、仇恨。日复一日，年复一年，最终双方都成为了无知的奴隶，悲哉呜哉。

昨天去美国国会图书馆（Library of Congress）查找资料。在麦迪逊楼的门口看到这样一句震撼人心的话：在此与各位分享。

奥斯卡的喧嚣渐渐沉寂下来，《功夫熊猫》没有拿到最佳动画片奖，小女子很是失望。不过没有关系，荣誉、奖项这些东西总是相对的，得失很多时候并不能完全代表一件作品的真实价值。至少在小女子的心目中，《功夫熊猫》是最棒的。它给我带来的开怀大笑与深刻思考是许多得了奖的作品也无法比拟的。所以，特在此节选两段精彩对白，与各位看官分享。

初到米国四月有余，终日困于教室、图书馆，呜哉呜哉，生活一团浆糊。故新年伊始，踌躇满志立下新志向：少学习、多睡觉，身心健康最重要！有雪人熊猫为证！

So, I'm fresh off the boat, well, actually off the plane. But whatever I'm off from, I am a freshman to America. And that is for sure.

Even before I left Egypt, friends in the US had already written to me and the subject of their emails was unsurprisingly all the same—Welcome to America! The only difference is that some used one exclamation mark, others used three and still another used up to six! I knew the "legendary" America is not all about exclamation marks, but I didn't really know what other punctuations I may use to describe it.

On my flight to DC, the girl sitting next to me gave me an exclamation mark too. I learned from her that when it comes to dealing with America, I first need to have the right attitude, i.e. be positive, open-minded and perseverant.

However, once I've landed on America, the landlady on whom I originally hoped to practice the right attitude gave me a big question mark, actually many question marks. No matter how polite and considerate I was to her, she simply threw my food out of the fridge. And once I told her I wanted to leave, she threw more things at me- hysteria, mean language, lawsuit threat, you name it. The only thing she didn't throw at me was my deposit money, even after I left.

Then as I wandered on the streets, feeling completely homeless, some other people extended a helping hand. Now I've found a new place. So, America is back to an exclamation mark again.

I don't really like this roller-coaster way of life. My personal favorite is ellipsis—the three tiny, little dots that carry big, gigantic meanings. It's serene. It's soothing and it's everlasting. It's without boundaries, but it's full of imaginations.

Therefore, I made a wish. I hope my journey in America can be just as simple as the three little dots....

情绪这个东西，真是让人捉摸不透。明儿就要离开埃及了，本想临行前写点儿东西，结果在大街上逛了一整天，一句煽情的话也没想出来，郁闷。难道我不留恋埃及吗？不对啊，前几天还哭哭啼啼来着呢，这会儿临到关头，怎么没感觉了？

天儿还是热得要命，但我的耐热能力已经大大提高；街道还是脏乱繁杂，但我已经学会了走"洁径"；路人看我的眼光还是奇奇怪怪，但我看他们的心态已经截然不同；一言概之，在经过了埃及的磨砺后，小女子练就了一身钢筋铁骨，今后遇到再大的困难，应该都能挺过去了吧。想着想着，我越走越轻快，不知不觉中，走到了终点。嘻嘻哈哈，这就是我现在的感觉！

مع سلام يا مصر 别了，埃及。有一天我一定还会再回来，因为这片土地，实在太神奇，一旦踏上它，回访的脚步就会永不停歇。

最近做了一件令自己非常自豪的事情：我终于劝动了老妈学习使用电脑和电子邮件！长久以来，老妈一直以年龄为由，拒绝学习新鲜事物。无论我怎么磨破嘴皮，她就是不肯听（气死我了！）。最近我给她讲了一个故事：我们暑假的阿拉伯语班里，有一位年近60岁的巴基斯坦老妇，每天坚持和我们一样，背着书包上学，啃语法，背单词。尽管她说，令人头晕的"天书"经常弄得她一头雾水，但她还是学得乐此不疲。不知是不是这个故事的原因，几天前老妈终于给我发来了第一封电子邮件，我感动得简直不知如何是好！今天老妈又发来了一篇她以前写过的小短文。文章虽然没有华丽的修饰，但却字字透着弥足珍贵的记忆。我曾经答应过老妈，将来有一天，我会帮她把这些文字整理出来，集结成册，永久珍藏。虽然目前距离实现这个愿望还有很长的路要走，但从今天起，我将会陆续在博客中转载老妈的短文，与各位看官分享。也许与她同年代的人会从中找到些许共鸣。。。（老妈，加油啊，要继续写啊！）

今早打开电脑，在《国际先驱论坛报》上看到一则新闻。看后捧腹大笑，这里跟各位看官分享一下！

美国白宫昨天宣布，小布什将在8月到北京参加奥运会的开幕式。白宫特意选在7月4日美国独立日假期的当天宣布此重要决定，就是希望低调处理，躲过刺耳的反对声音，因为许多美国人早早就借着周末长假，外出快活去了。但还是有一位尽职尽责的记者参加了白宫在假日举行的记者招待会。白宫发言人例行宣布总统八月份的出行计划，其中蜻蜓点水地提到北京。记者立即追问，布什这样做是否代表美国在政治上支持中国？发言人避而不答，只是强调说，"总统先生非常希望给我们的运动健儿打打气。"

爱情，有时真的会美得让人不知所措。好朋友Nicole就要结婚了。她在博客中告知朋友，Nicole & Adam精心设计的婚礼网站正式启动了。我好奇地打开链接，立即被一股爱的暖流笼罩，感动得掉下了眼泪。

昨天结束了一场艰苦的战斗！今天有种莫名的伤感....

最近一直在临阵磨枪，准备毕业前的阿拉伯语过级考试，许多重要的事情都是一拖再拖。但今天，这篇在脑中盘旋多天的博文不能再拖了。

这个学期，我选修了《阿拉伯语报刊选读》。虽然目前我的阿语水平还十分有限，许多日常生活的基本词汇都还不会，但因为这门课程，我先学了许多新闻词汇。什么选举、访问、会谈、爆炸、抗议、游行啦，等等等等，这些词儿都和中东的每日新闻密不可分。对于记者出身的我来说，似乎反而是件好事儿。我的老师告诉，因为这学期班上有个中国学生，所以她经常特意选择一些和中国有关的新闻让我们读。一方面是为了改变一下视觉疲劳（整天读中东打打杀杀的，很是让人郁闷），另一方面也是想通过我了解中国。

在埃及读书的两年多，有幸受到两位著名中东历史学家的影响，小女子逐渐对历史产生了浓厚的兴趣。于是去年年底，俺又作了一个让朋友们大跌眼镜的决定--奋不顾身向"第三类人"军团挺进！(其实他们对我早已经习以为常了，也没什么大惊小怪的) 申请了美国的几所大学，最终决定选择乔治敦大学（Georgetown University）历史系的跨地区历史研究方向(History Department, transregional history subfield)。所以未来，华盛顿将是我生命中的下一个驿站：路漫漫其修远兮，吾将继续上下而求索，呵呵呵....