Ask WSP
The Word for FreedomQ: I have heard that the Chinese have no word for "freedom," so they do not mind their totalitarian governments, even if we in the West might not care to live that way. True?
A: The modern Chinese word for freedom is dz-you
("self-determination, following your own way"). The lie that it does not exist is one that John K Fairbank used to tell unceasingly. It is one that totalitarian Asian governments still love to tell. Nobody who knows anything about China can miss the love of freedom in Chinese culture. It is expressed vividly in the classsical texts such as the Jwangdz (see our page on the Swamp Pheasant), before the word dz-you even existed.
That word itself turns up more than a thousand years ago. It turns up in the poems of a Tang emperor who was the captive of the rebels who founded the next dynasty. It turns up in the songs of Mongol period courtesans, when they and the whole country were prisoners of an alien culture. The desire for freedom, the wish of people to have a voice in their own affairs, steams from every drop of blood shed at Tyen-an Mvn in 1989. Had John K Fairbank known Chinese, had he read the classics, had he recited Tang poetry, had he known the later popular literature, had he still been alive to see Tyen-an Mvn on TV, he would have learned better. Had he taken heed of a note we wrote him back in the 1970's, when he was still publishing his favorite lie in every journal and newspaper that would print it, he would have learned something.
As it was, he learned nothing, and he did as he did. Toward the end of his life, the totalitarian government of China gave him a grand parade and an honorific reception in the capital city, with great dignitaries attending. No worldly person will need to be told why.
14 Mar 2004 / Contact The Project / Exit to Implications Page
