Why we have lost the race to China

为什么我们输给了中国？

I am in China on holiday for a few weeks. I thought I should record my observations, as they occur to me and in no particular order. We say “Made in China” sniggeringly to indicate cheap and poorly made things. The evidence on China’s streets does not betray this lack of quality. The finish and construction of their pavements and parks, the way their gardens are laid out and the trees in their public spaces. All these things are first rate.

我在中国呆了几个星期，我认为我有必要记录下我的见闻，因为它们发生得毫无章法。我们总是开玩笑称“中国制造”是便宜且劣质的。但是中国街上的东西却违法了这一定律，建筑和人行道、公园、花园、树木等等都是一流的。

The small things, the details in China are right. Platforms are aligned exactly to the height of train floors. There is cleanliness and it comes from an engagement with surroundings.

中国的小细节们也一样符合规律。月台根据火车重量设计，与周遭的环境相对应的干净整洁。

When we attribute Singapore’s order to Lee Kuan Yew’s genius, we must be able to explain why Hong Kong is also as clean. The reason is of course that it is the Chinese whom we must credit and not some dictator.

当我们把新加坡的整齐有序归功于李光耀的才能，我们也应该要能解释为什么香港也很干净。我们必须承认中国是香港整洁的原因之一，他们并不是独裁者。

One of the first things that one notices at the table is that the Chinese respect vegetables, unlike us. One can taste the flavour of the food on the plate, which is cooked with a light touch, not assaulted with masala. The other thing is how many vegetables they serve. We stress our vegetarianism but are essentially grain eaters.

我们从餐桌上注意到的第一点是，中国人看重蔬菜，他们与我们不同。在中国的餐桌上，你能品尝到食物的原始滋味，没有混入很多香料。另外一点是，他们提供很多蔬菜。我们是严格的素食主义，但却基本上只吃谷物。

I would say this difference also extends to tea, which the Chinese respect, unlike us. The freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad once began researching tea and came to reject what passed for the beverage in India. He called it “liquid halwa”.

还有一点不同，就是中国人很喜欢茶。自由斗士Maulana Azad阿布·卡拉姆寻找茶，然后他拒绝了印度的饮料。他称之为液体halwa。

On the street in China’s cities and towns, there is equality, physically speaking. The chasm, the physical separation of Indians by class—compare your colour, size, beauty to that of your servant—is unapparent.

在中国的城市和乡村，你可以感觉到平等。像印度一样，把人按照肤色、体型、美丑来分阶级的现象并不明显。

The Han, 90% of China’s population, are a beautiful people, small but not malnourished, radiant of skin and with no body hair. Like in European nations, the dominant physical shape is slender and thin.

90%的中国人口是汉族，这是一个美丽的人种，他们体型小，但并不是营养不良，肤色闪闪发光，没有体毛。就像欧洲民族一样，最主要的体型是苗条。

The old are alive in spirit, active in workplaces (we were rowed on a boat by five men of whom the youngest was 74). The parks are full of old people exercising, the tea houses are packed with them.

老人们老当益壮，在工作场所也依然活跃（我们坐船时，船上的船夫最年轻的是74岁）。公园里也都是老人们在锻炼，茶房中也随处可见他们的身影。

The Chinese have a genetic lack of tolerance to alcohol (meaning they get hammered easily). Most beers contain 2.5% alcohol. Two 320ml cans contain only as much alcohol as a small 30ml drink.

中国人对于酒精的抵抗力天生较弱。许多的啤酒只含有2.5%的酒精，两罐320ml的啤酒里含有的酒精大概只有30ml.

Though English is now compulsory from kindergarten in cities, almost nobody speaks it (Chinese people can modernize themselves without leaning on the West, unlike us).

虽然英语从城市的幼儿园起就是义务教育，但是几乎没有人说。中国人并不认为他们一定要学习西方才能显得现代，不像我们。

Yet car number plates are in English because the Chinese system is too complicated for the small plates and I suppose for quick reading.

车牌号码是英文，也许因为中国的系统太复杂了，在小小的一块车牌上难以表示，用英文也便于阅读。

The English on signs is strange, as we all know, and probably the result of someone using a dictionary: “Tickets once sold will be dishonoured.”

标牌上的英语很奇怪，正如我们所知的一样，可能他们都是查字典写的，比如“Tickets once sold will be dishonoured.”（票一旦售出再不XX？）

This kind of translation results in signs that are direct: “Please aim carefully”, was pasted over one urinal. “Help keep this cleaner by stepping closer”, was pasted over another urinal. I didn’t need to, of course.

这样的翻译很常见，比如再男厕所里有“请对准”“请站得近些以保持便池干净”，当然，我并不需要如此。（此处有笑声hhha）

There is a high level of state penetration. An example: In the town of Yangshuo, all restaurants are required to use identical crockery that is washed and sanitized by one company that collects and returns the vessels daily, each set in plastic wrapping placed before individual diners at the table.
Is this level of execution possible in India? Not even in my beloved Gujarat.

中国有很强的国家渗透。比如，在阳朔，所有的餐馆被要求使用同样的餐具，由同一公司清洗和回收，在客人用餐前由透明的塑料纸包装摆在桌上。这样的执行在印度可能吗？在我最爱的古吉拉特邦也没有可能。

Currency notes of all denominations have a photo of Mao Zedong and the issuing bank is called Zhongguo Renmin Yinhang.

货币上都印有毛泽东的头像，发行的银行是中国人民银行。

You can get a first-rate meal at a high-end restaurant for seven people, including beer, for Rs.3,000. That is not possible in India where the quality and the surroundings drop precipitously once the very highest end of expensive places is taken out.

你可以在一家高端的饭店享用高级的餐饮，包括啤酒，七个人只要3000。在印度这样的价钱很难拥有这样的质量和环境。
Internet and Wi-Fi is free and without registration at airports. Almost no security is visible. Men and women are frisked together (I was always frisked by women). There is one security check and one ticket check. They have no need for the three other steps we have (ticket check at entrance, boarding pass check and stamp check).

在机场，不用登记就可以使用网络和WiFi。几乎没有什么安全措施。男人和女人欢快地玩在一起。没有安全检查和一票检查。他们不像我们一样有三项检查措施：门口票检、登机检查和验印。

The reason is that, like all Western nations, their idea of security is not limited to securing locations, but the environment.

原因是，和所有西方国家一样，他们对于安检的定义并不局限于检查地点，还在于周围的环境。

The literacy rate is very high and so is its quality. Even those in the labouring classes read fluently. It is more expensive to study art and music in China than medicine and engineering. A certain sign of a highly civilized people. There is no tipping in restaurants and there is no pleading for more money, even from coolies, who carry themselves with great dignity.

人们的读写能力很不错。即使是工人阶级也能阅读顺畅。在中国，学习艺术和音乐比学习医学和机械贵。这是高度开化人民的标志。在饭店没有小费，也不会有人说要更多钱，即使是苦力也不会如此，他们都是有尊严的。

Things that the Chinese have in common with us: a religious framework centred around demanding material goods as a barter with God (though the Chinese don’t give him gold unlike us). And ancestor worship.

中国与我们相同的地方：宗教框架，需要上供，但是中国不会像我们一样供奉黄金；敬奉祖先。

In public spaces and in conversation, the Chinese are as noisy as us but there is none of our mindless honking.

在公共场合和谈话中，中国人和我们一样聒噪，但是他们不会发出没有意义的鸣响。

Like us they also revere, if not quite worship, money. The Chinese entrepreneurial base is not restricted either by geography or caste, unlike ours. This is one aspect of why their economic success has a broader base than ours.

和我们一样，中国人也很尊重钱，虽然不是崇敬。中国的企业基础不会被地理或者种姓制度限制，不像我们。这也是为什么中国的经济能够获得更大的成功。

China has many negatives. Above all, an authoritarian state intolerant of dissent and a one-party political system. I could not bear to live here as a citizen, a place offering relief and choice in neither ideology not candidates.

中国也有很多负面。专制国家偏执地使用一党专制的政治制度。我不能忍受在这样的地方生活，一个在意识形态和候选人方面都没有选择的地方。

Yes, the state is effective and it penetrates. But I suspect the state in China also penetrated during most of the different historical eras and systems, including monarchy.

国家非常高效也善于渗透。我想中国在许多其他历史时期也都是一样的，包括君主政体。

India compares its economic growth and achievements to China’s. It shouldn’t. This isn’t a race and no prize will be awarded. If it was, we have lost and are losing. The talk when I left India was about overtaking China’s current growth rate. The real figure to race against would be China’s growth rate when their economy was the size of ours (it is four times bigger today). At that point they were clocking double-digit annual growth in metronomic fashion.

印度经常拿自己的经济发展和中国相比。但事实上很不应该。这不是一项比赛，也无法得奖。如果真的是一场比赛，那么我们已经输了并且还在继续输。在我离开印度前，我们所说的是超过中国的发展速度。现在中国的经济发展速度是我们的四倍。他们的经济增长率已经达到了两位数。

We should calibrate our nationalist bombast to our actual achievements.

我们要根据国家的真正情况，不要说大话。

 

Sailing to see the Three Gorges dam, my map showed 45 bridges across that patch of the Yangtze river and its tributaries. The entire Brahmaputra has how many? Two? A single Chinese city, Chongqing, a place few Indians have heard of, has likely seen more industrial development in the last decade than all India’s cities combined. Comparisons are embarrassing, and meaningless.

Anyway, even the Chinese are not there yet, not a fully developed nation with economic and political freedom and without everyday corruption, like Europe, like Japan. But you can see their path. Three more decades of this growth and they are there. Political freedom will come automatically in one way or another.

去看三峡大坝，我的地图上显示45座大桥横跨长江及其支流。整个雅鲁赞布江上有多少呢？2？一个中国城市，重庆，很多印度人都没有听过，但是他们在上个世纪的工业发展就超过了整个印度国家。比较令人尴尬，且无意义。不过，中国也还需进步，他们也还没有像欧洲和日本一样在经济和政治自由方面发展完全，还存在腐败。但你可以看见他们的进步。再有一个世纪的进步他们就完成了。政治自由总会自动或以其他方式到来。

What’s our path out of darkness and into civilization and an equal and prosperous society? Frankly I cannot see it. But I do know that those who say it is through government, meaning that the rest of us—“civil society”—do nothing, are wrong.

我们逃离黑暗进入文明的道路在何方？我们的平等繁荣社会在何方？说实话，我看不见。但我知道，那些说要靠政府来完成，忽视公民社会的力量的说法一定是错误的。