2008年11月/2009年1月，西班牙Pagès Editors出版社和Milenio出版社，出版发行西藏作家茨仁唯色关于三月西藏事件的原因及抗议的新书《西藏：打破沉默》（加泰罗尼亚文 / 西班牙文）（见图上）。被国际公认为“西藏现代史的重要史学家”——Tsering Shakya（茨仁夏加）先生，为这套书撰序。
Tsering Shakya（茨仁夏加）为唯色新书《西藏：打破沉默》（加泰罗尼亚文/西班牙文）撰序
2008年3月10日，一群僧侣在拉萨举行了示威，以纪念1959年藏人起义四十九周年，此次抗议行动点燃了一系列大规模的反中国示威活动，遍及西藏高原。藏人的抗议活动，对中国政府而言是一大震惊，因为他们总是合理化他们对雪域的占领，说他们的行动乃是“解放受压迫的西藏农奴”与“为西藏人民带来现代化”。如果中国政府的主张有任何确实根据的地方，你只需要问一个简单的问题，在五十年后，为什么“被解放的农奴”要起来反抗他们的解放者？此次的抗议是一个明确的信号，藏人拒绝解放者的统治，而且显示了长达五十年后，中国政府仍然未能赢得西藏的民心，藏人还是完全反对中国的统治。中国政府对这些示威的反应，就是镇压，并且藉由将藏人刻画为恐怖份子、外国势力的代理人、决心损毁中国的形象，而在自己的公民之间，激发民族主义与好战的狂热。中国政府的政策与中国人民的强硬态度，对中国的形象是很大的打击，因为它展示了崛起中国恶的那一面。
中国政府试图控制从西藏地区传出来的媒体影像，并且封锁了此地区，不让国际媒体进入。在中国境内，政府精心地创造出暴力抗议者的画面，并且聪明地将西藏的重要纪念日改头换面，变成3月14日，好将前四天的和平抗议抹灭，以把焦点放在示威的暴力性质。这是一个很狡猾的将自己描写为受难者的方式，受难于它未主动挑起藏人侵略性的敌意。同样地，我们也看到9/11事件之后，美国政府如何将自己描写为世界最贫穷国家的受害者，并且对阿富汗人民发动战争。
为了中国，一个记忆被建构了，那就是暴力，与忘恩负义的原住民。没有任何意图想要了解，是什么原因造成藏人对中国政府的不满与仇恨。而记录这些席卷西藏高原的事件，对于了解所发生的事情是非常重要的。就藏人而言，这是至关重要的，因为正是储存在人心中的记忆，才会让一个民族得以生存下来。如果1959年3月的记忆，不是深深地刻画在藏人的心中，甚至存在于西藏的风景之中，那么今天就不会有任何抗议活动。全世界的藏人都记得这一天，以表达他们失去国家的痛苦，并且宣称他们作为一个民族的存在。
2008年3月的事件，创造了一个新的记忆，而它会被代代相传。今天，记忆不再只存在于我们心灵的深处，而是在网络空间里传播着，与世界共享着。在这个面向上，唯色占据了一个特殊的位置，她是现代西藏记忆的记录者。当示威一爆发，唯色的博客就变成西藏的声音。当西藏闭锁了，而信息很难取得之时，她的博客就是信息的主要来源之一。在2008年的3月与4月之间，超过三百万的网络使用者浏览了她的博客，她所记录的西藏实时讯息被翻译成数种语言，而读者也在她的网站上张贴想要翻译她的文字的提议。她的博客上每日更新的讯息是非常仔细的，而她所提供的信息亦富涵各种细节，反映了她在藏人之中的地位。西藏各地的人把报告送给她，好像她就是这些重大事件的正式记录者一样。对于我们这些生活在外面的人，读她的博客是很哀伤的一件事，然而，同时又确认了西藏反抗运动的韧性，而我们对她很感激，因为她在那里记录着这些事件。
未来的历史学家将会争论这些报导的正确性，但我们必须记得这些记录都是在事件发生当时累积起来的，是在重重的限制之中写下，并且对于她本人与她的消息来源具有重大危险的。在一方面，我们想要判别她所记录的数据的重要性；另一方面，最重要的判断，应该是对唯色个人、她的性格与她的勇气。作为目击者，又为那些在集权政体下生活的人而发声，并不是容易的一件事。她的勇气，就是我们最应该赞赏的。一个人的品格最能展现的时候，不是在其自由又无迫害的时候，而是明知后果可怕，然而却仍然勇敢执着。对于唯色而言，她的行动是有后果的，而她愿意付出其代价：那就是生活在中国安全机器的狩猎目光之下。就在我写下这些文字的同时，我听闻曝露了斯达林暴政时代的作家，索尔仁尼琴过世的消息。当我还是个小男孩时，我深深被他的作品所感动，他认为真理比后果更加重要，让我留下很深刻的印象。唯色的写作就是说出那些被噤声的声音，注意到隐藏的讯息。中国政府以及她的反对者认为她的写作只反映了中国差的与坏的方面，不写现代中国好的那一面。然而人类的故事不是只有欢乐而已，常常充斥着恐怖。只有强权与专制的统治者，才会想要掩盖住恐怖，而勇敢的作家的责任就是说出不能说的东西，并且揭开盖住藏匿着恐怖的阴暗角落的面纱。为此，唯色是一位真正的知识分子，也是个勇敢的作家。我们欣赏勇敢的知识分子，不是因为他们文词美丽句法脱俗，而是为了他们虽千万人吾往矣的精神。中国政府对于作家与知识分子所指派的角色，就是要他们唱诵赞歌，或成为宫廷小丑，以华丽的词藻美化政府，并且将剪裁修饰过的真相灌输给大众。对于那些乖乖听话的人，生活就会变得很好，他们可以享受舒服的物质条件。但对那些敢于反抗这种角色的人，生活可能会变成一种折磨。
唯色本来可以选择过一个舒服、有特权的生活，她可以继续当中文杂志《西藏文学》的编辑，这份杂志的用意在于展示新西藏的样貌。在2004年，她拒绝自我审查她的写作，因此被解除了编辑的任务。在今日的中国，对于创造力与艺术品的障碍，就是自我审查。每个作家与艺术家都清楚地知道党的容忍限度在哪里，而他们也依照这种限度来写作。对于像唯色这样的人而言，为了得到舒适的生活而遵循党的路线，是一种智识的卖淫，服务的对象就是集权政体。唯色来自西藏的父母加入了中国军队和机构，他们当时这样做，以为可以将进步与现代性带给西藏，带给藏人。从小她就被教导要热爱共产党，要将党看作是救命恩人。因为她来自这种干净的家庭背景，作为孩子的她，接受了好的教育。党的理想是，像她这样的孩子将来长大了，可以担当要角，因为她就是一个在党的呵护下长大的藏人。她本来可以过一种特权的生活，她本来可以作党的忠诚仆人。3月与4月的示威活动显示了，那些在共产党的五星红旗下长大的人，并不感激党的恩惠，反而变成了最严厉的批评者。几乎所有走上街头抗议的人，都是在所谓的“解放”后出生的一代。这事实本身即说明了党赢得西藏人心的失败。
唯色的写作对于共产党来说，特别不能忍受，因为她不仅敢说出党不想要人民说出来的话语，她还以统治者的语言写作。以中文写作的藏人，在中共统治的早期，具有一个特别重要的目的：即他们的写作被视为被解放的农奴的声音，而他们的创作就是要对党感恩戴德。藏人用中文写作的作品里面，有些故事是描写残酷的封建西藏，并且对中国征服西藏的事实予以合法化的帮助。一个好的例子就是降边嘉措所写的长篇小说《格桑梅朵》，他在书里欢迎中国的征服，并视之为一种解放。年轻一代以中文写作的藏人作家，不再将自己视为党的代言人，而将他们的作品视为以统治者的语言反驳统治者的工具。在莎士比亚的《暴风雨》一剧中，普洛斯彼罗责骂凯列班，说他赐予了他语言与文明的礼物而他却不感恩，凯列班反驳：
你教我讲话，我从这上面得到的益处
只是知道怎样咒骂；但愿血瘟病瘟死了你，
因为你要教我说你的那种话！【1】
对于共产党而言，唯色的写作就好像凯列班的咒骂。她反抗地写，而她对中文的掌握，被用来反驳党的真理。这就是为什么唯色的作品对中国政府而言特别麻烦的原因。她代表着中国所看不起、所鄙视为蛮夷的土著的声音。唯色因她的散文与描写藏人的生活而成名。这些刻画呈现了藏人复杂的生活，藏人的恐惧与焦虑，特别是他们对于佛教的深层信仰与藏人身份的执着。这不是一个党想要的形象，党想要的藏人形象是快乐安份、衣着多彩的少数民族，永远祈求党的恩惠。她也是一个杰出的诗人，而她的诗讲述她对故土与其人民的追寻。她的诗作传达着失落，以及渴望故乡的滋养。
最重要的是，唯色变成一个无所惧的博客作家，一个21世纪网络的现象。互联网是一把两刃剑，虽然它一方面是民主与自由的媒体，同时又是一个真正的全球监狱，因为当局可以在我们的思维出现于计算机的空白屏幕之时，追踪按键的来龙去脉。中国拥有世界上第二多的互联网用户，中国的网民已经成一股强大的力量，可以动员做好事，也可以成为国家的工具，威吓所有不听话的人。在中国，网民在曝露贪腐以及散播政府想要抹除的消息等方面扮演了重要的角色。现代科技的简易与广泛，意谓着政府与有力的媒体帝国，不再握有传播信息的垄断之权。每个拥有移动电话的公民，都可以拍摄照片，并且传送到网络上，而每个会读会写的人都可以在网络论坛里张贴意见。新闻不再只经由有力的媒体机构所传播；博客写作提供了人民发出不经编辑剪裁声音的空间。这种信息的自由流动一直都是中国政府的一大问题，而今日互联网用户也成为政府监督的新目标，中国当局并且发展了某位作家所称的“中国网络游击战”，外号为五毛党的网络使用者，受雇于政府，在论坛与聊天室里张贴亲政府路线的宣传文字。另外一个丑陋的现象是网络爱国主义者，他们攻击他们认为反华的博客与网站。在5月28日，一个自称为“中国红客联盟”的团体，摧毁了唯色的博客，并且想办法进入了她的网络硬盘，从她的电脑中偷走数据。唯色的博客画面出现中国的五星红旗，而黑客以在该页上张贴从她硬盘盗来的私人照片，以吹嘘他们的技术之高明。
唯色写作博客的过程，面临经常性的奋斗：中国当局对她的行动严密地监视，而且在网络上，中国的网络爱国主义者攻击她的博客，并且摧毁它好几次。虽然面临这么多困难，唯色写作时仍然无所畏惧。她认为她的要务就是传播事实，而且作为一个以中文写作的人，她认为自己特别有责任让中文读者了解她的土地上所发生的事情。就像之前提到的，她的博客在三个月里吸引了超过三百万次的点击，并且提供了一个让藏人与汉人得以讨论的论坛。这样的论坛在目前这种情势之中，是特别重要的。
科技的方便对于最近的西藏抗议活动拥有直接的影响，在过去，政府完全掌控信息的流动，而抗议活动可以轻易地被一笔勾消，好像根本没有发生过一样。3月10日拉萨抗议的消息，却在每个西藏高原的山谷里，像野火一样弥散开来。地理的界线变得模糊了。唯色是藏人所传送讯息与信息的众多接收者之一。她仔细地读过她所接受的信息，好提供西藏事件的详细梗概。博客的写作已经变成个人的有力工具，难怪中国政府如此害怕民众无阻碍地表达自己的声音。大型的媒体机构与国家控制的媒体，受到公众的怀疑，并且被批评者猛烈地批评为服务既得利益者的工具。一个单独的博客写作者，所受到的限制只有他或她自己的能力，并且所拥有的声音，可以被百万人在计算机上轻轻一点就轻易地读到。博客行为已经创造出一个空间，没有市场与国家的干扰。不惊讶的是中国有最多的博客创作者，因为每个公民都知道官方媒体不能相信，而创造出对于信息的渴望。虽然中国对网络空间施以严密的监控与限制，中国公民们仍然利用博客来传达他们的故事。因此，政府就创造出一种腹语术，靠着乔装成普通民众的网络爱国分子与五毛党之口，来宣传自己的路线。
唯色的批评者会指控她是有选择性的，而她的观点只是个人的看法，不代表一般的情形。但我们必须记得一个孤单的声音，通常就是那个胆敢说出真相的人，就好像其他芸芸众生沉默地参与着化妆舞会之时，那个指出国王根本没穿衣服的孩子。
Tsering Shakya（茨仁夏加）
温哥华
2008年8月15日
译者：台湾悬钩子【1】译注：《莎士比亚全集 》（一），朱生豪译，人民文学出版社1978年出版。
*******
附：原文
On March 10th 2008, a group of monks staged a demonstration in Lhasa to mark the 49th Anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the protest ignited a series of massive anti-China demonstrations across the Tibetan plateau. The protest came as a shock to the Chinese government who have always legitimized their occupation of the land of snows in the name of ‘liberating oppressed serfs’ of Tibet and ‘bringing modernity’ to the people. If there is any validity to the Chinese government’s claims, one only needs to ask a simple question, after nearly 50 years, why are “liberated serfs” revolting against the liberators? The protest is a clear indication of the rejection of the liberator’s rule and shows that even after five decades, the Chinese government has failed to win the consent of the Tibetan people who remain utterly opposed to Chinese rule. The Chinese government’s response to the demonstrations was to adopt repression and arouse nationalist and jingoistic fervour amongst its citizen by portraying the Tibetans as terrorists and agents of foreign powers who are bent on tarnishing China’s image. The Chinese government’s policy and jingoistic attitude of its citizens did a great disservice to China’s image by demonstrating a malevolent aspect of rising China.
The Chinese government tried to control the media image of what was coming from Tibet and closed the region to international media. In China, the government created carefully crafted images of violent protestors and cleverly changed the significance of the date to 14th March, the previous four days of peaceful protests were erased to highlight the violent nature of the demonstrations. This was a cunning way to portray itself as the victim of unprovoked aggression. Similarly, we have seen how after 9/11 the American government showed itself as the victim of one of the poorest nations in the world and unleashed its war machines on the people of Afghanistan.
For China, a memory that is being constructed is of the violence and image of ungrateful natives. There is no attempt to understand what causes such resentment and hatred for the Chinese state. The record of the events that engulfed the Tibetan plateau is crucial to a proper understanding of what happened. For the Tibetans this is of crucial importance, it is a memory stored in the minds of the people that keeps a nation alive. If the Tibetans’ memory of March 1959 were not carved in the hearts and landscape of Tibet, there would be no one to protest today. Tibetans the world over memorialize this date to voice their pain in losing their nation and to proclaim their existence as a people.
The events of March 2008 created a new memory and it will be narrated from generation to generation. Today, memory is no longer hidden in the deep recesses of our mind but advertised in cyberspace to share with the rest of the world. In this respect Woeser occupies a unique position as chronicler of modern Tibetan memory. As soon as the demonstrations erupted, Woeser’s blog became the voice of Tibet. While Tibet was closed and information was hard to obtain, her blog was one of the main sources of information. During March and April 2008, over three millions internet users visited her blog and her updates were translated into numerous languages, offers to translate into different languages were posted by readers on her site. The daily information detailed in her blog was meticulous and the richness of the details of her information reflected her own standing amongst the Tibetan people. People from all over Tibet sent reports to her as though she were the official chronicler of the momentous events. For us living outside, reading her blog was sad, yet at the same time confirmed the tenacity of the Tibetan resistance and we were grateful to her for being there to record the events.
Future historians may dispute the accuracy of the reports but one has to remember the record was compiled in the heat of the moment, under severe restrictions and with danger to herself and her informants On the one hand we judge her for the accuracy of her updates but on the other hand, the most important judgement should be on Woeser herself, her character and her courage. It is not easy to bear witness and to write for those living under an authoritarian regime. It is her courage that is to be most admired. A person’s quality is measured not by what one does when one is free and faces no consequence but doing what has to be done despite the consequences. For Woeser, her actions have consequences and she is willing to pay the price by living under the preying eyes of the Chinese security apparatus. As I write this, I learned today of the death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed the brutality of Stalin’s Russia. As a schoolboy, I was deeply moved by reading his writings and his proposition that the truth is more important than the consequence made a deep impression on me. Woeser’s writings are speaking the unspeakable and noting what is hidden. The Chinese government and her distracters argue that her writings only reflect the negative and bad aspects, and have nothing good to write about modern China. The human story is not composed of merry making but punctuated by horror. It is only powerful and despotic rulers who want to hide horror and it is the duty of courageous writers to speak of the unspeakable and lift the veil from the dark comers where horror is hidden. For this, Woeser is a true intellectual and courageous writer. We admire courageous intellectuals not for their beauty or manners, but their venturous sprit. The Chinese government’s assigned role for writers and intellectuals is one of a praise singer and court jester, who will shower the government with flowery words and impart crafted truth to the masses. For those who observe the ascribed role, life can be good and they can enjoy comfortable living. But for those who dare to stray from the role, life can be torturous.
Woeser could have chosen to lead a comfortable and privileged life as the editor of the Chinese language edition of Tibet Literature (Xizang wenxue), a magazine which is meant to show the new Tibet. In 2004, she was removed as the editor as she refused to self-censor her writings. In China today the biggest obstacle to creativity and the arts is self-censorship. Every writer or artist clearly knows the limit of the Party’s tolerance and they write accordingly. For people like Woeser, toeing the party line for the sake of an easy life is intellectual prostitution in service of an authoritarian regime. Woeser came from Tibetan parents who joined the PLA with hope of bringing progress and modernity to Tibet and for the Tibetan people. As a child she was brought up to love the Communist Party and to see the Party as the saviour. She enjoyed a good education as a child coming from a clean family background. The Party had envisioned a child such as her in an important role, as a native Tibetan raised in the bosom of the Party. Life could have been one of privilege and acting as a faithful servant of the Party. The demonstrations in March and April showed that those who are born under the Communist stars do not feel grateful to the Party and they have, in fact, become the severest critics. Almost all those who marched out to protest are from the generation that were born after the so called “liberation”. This in itself is an indication of the Party’s failure to win over the Tibetan people.
Woeser’s writing is particularly offensive to the Communist Party because she not only dares to speak what the Party doesn’t want the people to voice, but she writes in the language of the ruler. The Tibetans writing in Chinese have served an important purpose, in the early period of Chinese rule, the Tibetans writing in Chinese were seen as the voice of liberated serfs and extolling their grateful thanks to the Party. There are tales written by Tibetans in Chinese language depicting the cruelty of feudal Tibet, which helped to legitimize the conquest. A good example is the novel Kalsang Metok written by Jamphel Gyatso, where conquest was welcomed as liberation. The younger generation of Tibetans writing in Chinese no longer see themselves as agents of the Party and see their writing as writing back in the language of their ruler. In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Prospero scolded Caliban by asserting he bestow him the gift of language and civilisation, Caliban retorted:
You taught me language: and my profit on’t
Is, I know how to curse: the red plague rid you,
For learning me your language!
For the Communist Party, Woeser’s writing is like Caliban’s curse. She writes defiantly and her knowledge of the language is used to speak back the truth. This is precisely the reason why Woeser’s writings are troublesome for the Chinese government. She is the voice of a native, who they look down with and despise as uncivilized. Woeser came into prominence through her essays and vignettes of lives of Tibetans. These portraits present the complex lives of the Tibetans, their fears and anxiety and most of all their deep faith in Buddhism and identity. This was not an image the Party wanted, the official images of the Tibetans are supposed to be a happy and singing colourful minority, forever supplicating the Party. She is also an accomplished poet and her poems speak of her own search for the native land and its people. Her poems are about dispossession and longing to her nourishment of her native soil.
Most of all Woeser came to be known as a fearless blogger, a 21st century phenomenon in the age of cyberspace. The internet has been a double edged sword, while it has been a democratising and liberating medium, at the same time it is a truly global prison, where the authorities can track every key stroke as our thoughts are translated onto the computer’s blank screen. China has the second largest number of internet users in the world, China’s netizen have become a powerful force of mobilisation for good and also a destructive tool of the State in bullying non-conformists. In China, netizens have been both critical in exposing corruption and spreading news that the government wants to erase. The ease and widespread use of modern technology has meant that the government and powerful media empires no longer have monopoly over the dissemination of information and images. Every citizen with a mobile phone can capture images and transmit through cyberspace and every literate person can post his or her opinion in internet forums. The news is no longer mediated by powerful media organisations; blogging has provided an unedited voice for the people. This free flow of information has been a problem for the Chinese government and today internet users are the target of new forms of government surveillance and launched what one writer called “China’s Guerrilla War for the web”, where internet users known as Fifty Cent, are paid by the government to post pro government line on internet forums and chat rooms. Another ugly element are cyber nationalists, who hack blogs and websites they deem to be anti-Chinese. On 28th May a group known as “the Red Hackers Alliance”, destroyed Woeser’s blog and managed to enter her computer hard disk, the hacker stole the contents from her computer. Woeser’s blog was replaced with the red five stars of the Chinese national flag and hackers boasted of their skills by posting her private photos stolen from her computer hard disk.
Woeser faced constant struggle in writing her blog, the Chinese authorities keeps tight surveillance on her movements and, on the internet, Chinese cyber nationalists have hacked her blog and destroyed it several times. Despite all the difficulties she faces, Woeser has been fearless in her writing. She sees her task as spreading the truth and as a writer in Chinese language, she see herself particular responsible for writing to Chinese readers about the situation in her native land. As noted earlier, her blog attracted over 3 million hits over three months and provided a forum for Tibetans and Chinese to engage in debate in. Such forums are critically important in the current situation.
The ease of technology has a direct bearing in the recent protests in Tibet, in the past the government controlled the flow of information and protests can be erased as though it had never happened. The news of protests in Lhasa on March 10 spread like wildfire to every valley of the Tibetan plateau. The physical borders are blurred. Woeser was one of the recipients of news and information sent by Tibetans. She meticulously sweeps through the SMS text messages she had received to provide a detailed account of events in Tibet. Blogging has become a powerful tool for individuals and it’s no wonder the Chinese government fear unfettered expression. The big media institutions and state controlled media are distrusted by the public and maligned by critics as serving vested interests. A lone blogger is only restricted by his or her own capacity and has a voice that could be read by millions of people with a click on a computer. Blogging has created a space that is free from market and the state. It is not surprising that China has the largest number of bloggers, there every citizen knows that state media cannot be trusted and creates a thirst for information. Despite China’s state surveillance and restriction of cyberspace, Chinese citizens have adopted blogging as a means of telling their stories. Therefore, the government created a ventriloquized voice through cyber-nationalists and Fifty Cent, camouflaged as an ordinary citizenship.
Critics of Woeser will accuse her of being selective and that her views are just an individual voice, not reflective of the general situation. But it has to be remembered that a lone voice is often the one that dares to speak the truth, like the child who pointed out that the Emperor is naked, while the rest silently participate in the masquerade.
Tsering Shakya
Vancouver
August 15, 2008
Tsering Shakya（茨仁夏加）：史学家／作家／教授，在西藏出生，就读于伦敦大学亚非学院，稍后成为该校藏学研究计划的研究员。过去十年内，他经常性地在英国外交部与欧洲议会里为各国政治人物简报西藏的情形，并参许多广播与电视讨论节目。他的作品包括《雪山下的火焰：一位西藏政治犯的证言》、《龙在雪域：1947年以后的西藏史》，以及许多学术论文。他目前是加拿大英属哥伦比亚大学的教授，为亚洲宗教与当代社会的卓越研究学者（Canadian Research Chair）。
图为茨仁夏加所著述的《龙在雪域：1947年以后的西藏史》（英国版）。
