美国《外交政策》杂志刊登我的文章：Fire on the Mountain

这是我的文章发表于美国外交政策(Foreign Policy)2012年3月13日之网络截图 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/03/13/tibet_self_immolation?page=0,0

我写的中文约2500字，限于篇幅，在发表时略有删节。感谢译者 Paul Mooney。

Fire on the Mountain
How many Tibetans have to burn themselves before the Chinese care?

BY TSERING WOESER | MARCH 13, 2012

Twenty-seven Tibetans have set fire to themselves since 2009 in protest against Chinese rule. Since this January alone, 14 people have done so. A total of 20 have died in the past few years from self-immolation; an unknown number of Tibetans have been tortured or detained since protests broke out in 2008. What has been the reaction within China to this huge human disaster? Silence, mostly.

Why? There's a Tibetan saying: "Hope ruins Tibetans; suspicion ruins Han Chinese." I'm not sure when this saying came into being or what its background is. I only know that this expression falls off the lips of many Tibetans, who use it meaningfully, mockingly, or helplessly.

For the Han Chinese, who make up more than 90 percent of China's population, there is a similar expression engraved in their history books: "Whoever is not among us must be of a different heart."

Originally, these words were not frightening. Over the years, though, the sentiments they express have created an atmosphere of raw violence. Minorities stand in the way of the grand unity of China's different peoples; they must be Sinicized or extinguished. The ethnic minorities who live in China, the Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongolians, and others, understand that this view of ethnic minorities is actually quite widespread, that it is the mainstream, that they receive little empathy from the majority.

A few Han Chinese have spoken out. Human rights lawyer Teng Biao said this year that "Chinese public intellectuals have kept mum [about the immolations], pretending to be ignorant of what's happening, silently cooperating. They are as shameless as the murderers themselves." In 2008 after the authorities suppressed the Tibetan protests, Teng and more than 20 Chinese rights lawyers issued a public statement saying they were willing to provide legal assistance to those Tibetans who had been arrested. As a result, Teng lost his lawyer's license; the other lawyers involved also met with difficulties. Over the last year, China's leading human rights lawyers have come under harsh attack, and now few would dare take on sensitive cases involving Tibetans.

But even some Chinese dissidents and human rights defenders have double standards when dealing with ethnic minorities. In their view, democracy, human rights, freedom, and other values in China apply only to Han Chinese. When it comes to ethnic minorities, they say, "So sorry, you cannot bask in these rays." Although they consider themselves the victims of autocratic rule, they are still not aware that to ethnic minorities they themselves are the embodiment of autocracy, that they themselves are doing harm.

The authorities always say that they "liberated" Tibet, bringing "happiness" to 6 million Tibetans. But why, so many years after the 1959 liberation, are the serfs revolting against their liberators? The authorities have an explanation: The "Dalai clique" is to blame for all this -- the protests, the young Tibetans taking to the streets, the violence. Chinese media have turned this lie into public opinion. And the Chinese people, indoctrinated by the one voice with which the Chinese media speaks, don't understand why Tibetans protest and don't care to learn.

Tibetans have no voice in China. The Dalai Lama, who has been in exile for 53 years; the Panchen Lama, who has been missing for 17 years; the 27 people who have set fire to themselves over the past three years, a group of people between the ages of 17 to 41, monks and nuns, farmers, herders, students, and the parents of children -- the only existence they have in Chinese society is one in which their reputations have been sullied and the truth has been distorted.

How many members of Tibet's elite have been disappeared by the party apparatus and now sit in some black jail somewhere?

And still the Han Chinese say nothing. Many keep silent because they accept the concept of grand unity, where all minorities need to be shoehorned into fitting under Chinese rule. Some keep silent because they mind their own business, a traditional principle of Confucianism that has devolved into selfishness. And some are silent because they are afraid. In Beijing recently, someone transmitted news of a Tibetan committing self-immolation on Sina's microblog (China's Twitter). The police took him to a police station in the middle of the night and warned him not to mention Tibet again.

This silence can be broken. If Han Chinese and Tibetans speak out about what they have seen and what they have heard, the unbridled repression will be restrained, or at the very least, when the gun is being fired, maybe it will miss its target. Silence, not hope, ruins Tibetans.

To avoid being destroyed, our only choice is to destroy this silence.

Tsering Woeser is a Tibetan poet, writer, and blogger living in Beijing.

Paul Mooney, a Beijing-based journalist, translated this essay from Chinese.

沉默的另一面：从谚语说起

唯色

1、

西藏有句谚语：“藏人毁于希望，汉人毁于猜忌。”

我不知道这谚语起于何时，有着什么样的背景与故事。只知道许多藏人总是把这句谚语挂在嘴边，自嘲地说，无奈地说，意味深长地说。

希望与猜忌，难道是两个民族的性格特点或迥异之处？

这谚语似乎属于“内部”的语言，用藏语说的时候，两段话的最后一个音节都是很铿锵的“毁灭”，像某种敲击声，甚至像，枪声。不信你听：“毁灭”的发音是“phung”。

随着时间流逝，每一次说出这谚语，它负载的信息就像如影随形的阴影渐渐浓郁，直至冲出藏人自己的圈子，如今已变成多种文字，类似于某种结论。

2、

那么，在中国，有没有类似的谚语呢？

应该没有的，我指的是专门评说汉人与藏人的谚语。但是，早在两千多年前，汉人就有一句话刻在自己的史书当中。

——“非我族类，其心必异。”

这句古语本来并不可怕，但这些年来，在以汉人为主体民族的中国，有着历史积淀的此论甚嚣尘上。甚至还流传这样一段话，可谓杀气腾腾：“小异和之，中异警之，大异伐之，异吾以危，断然灭之！”

显然，被称为“少数民族“的，都是异族，必有异心。除非被“和”，即一劳永逸地被融和、同化，为的是实现从来倡导的“大一统”。否则不是被“伐”，就是被“灭”。而这个过程，用国家权力的说法，过去叫作“解放”，今天叫作“维稳”。

3、

当然，我并不是说，所有汉人都认为“非我族类，其心必异”。

但是身为“少数民族”， 如藏人、维吾尔人、蒙古人，透过在这个国家生存的经验，会认识到：这样一种“民族观”，其实是普遍的，而且是主流的。

甚至连中国的一些异见人士、维权人士，在面对民族问题的时候，也是持有双重标准的。也即是说，在他们看来，民主、人权与自由等普世价值观只对汉人有效，而“少数民族”，对不起，似乎是不能被民主、人权与自由等普世价值的光芒所照耀。虽然他们认为自己是专制的受害者，却未意识到，对于其他民族而言，他们也是专制的化身，是加害者。

比如，有维权人士甚至如此质问：”自焚的藏人为中国汉人做了什么？“

4、

一个接一个的藏人自焚了，从2009年至今已经有27人自焚了，而今年，才短短两个多月里，就有14人自焚！

如此巨大的人道灾难，在中国社会激起了怎样的反应？

当局总是说它“解放“了西藏，给六百万西藏人民带来了“幸福”，可是，何以在“解放”这么多年之后，“农奴”要起来反抗“解放”他们的人？何以在西藏辽阔的大地上，无数走上街头、纵马草原的抗议者，几乎都是在“解放”以后出生的藏人？

当局依然把这一切解释为“达赖集团有组织、有预谋、精心策划的”， 中国媒体也合谋将这个谎言变成堂而皇之的国家舆论，而只能被一种声音灌输的中国民众对藏人的抗争既不了解，也不关心。

只有很少的声音，在被权力压制、排斥的角落，竭力地呼吁着。除此之外，几乎是一片沉默，就像是根本没有发生过。

“藏人自焚这件事上，除了极少数几个例外，中国公共知识分子们集体哑火、装聋作哑。房间里的大象，沉默的共谋。他们和行凶者一样无耻。”

这是人权律师滕彪说的。2008年西藏民众的抗议被当局镇压后，他与二十多位中国律师公开表示，愿意为被逮捕的藏人提供法律援助，他因此被剥夺了律师资格，其他律师也遭遇种种困难。相当一段时间以来，中国人权律师的状况日趋恶劣，已经很难承担关涉西藏的敏感案件。

5、

“房间里的大象”，这也是一句谚语，倒不是藏人的谚语，也不是汉人的谚语。不过有趣的是，这句英语谚语无论用藏语说，或用汉语说，人们都会立刻明白，并觉得诡异。

而西藏，或者“西藏问题”，正是“房间里的大象”。已经流亡53年的达赖喇嘛；已经失踪18年的班禅喇嘛；以及，这两三年来，以身自焚的27位藏人，他们当中，从17岁到41岁，有男僧有女尼也有仁波切，有农民有牧人也有孩子的父亲和母亲……但是，对于中国社会来说，都不存在。即便存在，也是那种遭到污名化之后，被扭曲了真相的“存在”。

以及，在以“发展经济”为名义的过程中，藏人的传统生产方式和生活方式并未得到尊重，源源不断的外来移民使得藏人在受到汉文化冲击的时候，更是付出了环境（包括资源、生态等）和社会（包括文化、人权等）的巨大成本，藏人甚至在自己的家园开始成为“少数民族”。

6、

很多生活在西藏的藏人，不得不闭嘴、噤声、无语。

这些年，有多少个藏人中的优秀人才，接踵而至地，被国家机器突然地，从家中，从寺院，从就职的单位，或从我们不知道的各处，以野蛮的方式，带往一座座黑暗的牢房？确切的数字我们无从知道。

于是，正如在拉萨的各个角落，充斥着耳语、窃窃私语，但那完全止于极小的圈子，并不敢暴露在阳光底下。相反，在阳光下或大庭广众当中，人们默不作声，相互提防，自己割掉了自己的舌头，变成了演哑剧的木偶，党叫干啥就干啥，我曾认为这是“人格分裂“的表现，如今才发现，迫使一个人长出两个头的压力是恐惧，藏语称其为“go nyi pa”（双头人）。

7、

而汉人在西藏话题上的沉默，可能包括多种因素。

一种源于对“大一统”的认可，有人自认为这是受中国大一统文化的影响，无法摆脱。

一种源于“各人自扫门前雪，休管他人瓦上霜”的观念，这是中国儒家传统伦理之一，却变得自私。

还有一种沉默与恐惧有关。比如，只因在新浪微博（“中国推特”）上转发藏人自焚真相的文字，深夜会被警察带到派出所，警告不准再提西藏。这不是虚构，而是几天前在北京发生的事。

还有一种沉默与无知有关。而这种沉默是有可能被打破的，需要的是我们决不放弃记录真相、传播真相的努力。如果有很多人因为得知真相而开始发声，那种肆无忌惮的压迫就会收敛，至少在开枪时，可能会把枪口抬高一厘米。

8、

所以我觉得，西藏的那句谚语需要修改。应改为：藏人毁于沉默，汉人毁于沉默，世人毁于沉默。

为了免于毁灭，惟有打破死一般的沉默。

2012/2/22-3/10