For a consultation, the first thing needs to be resolved is the language. In the past, Mandarin was not set as a standard and popularized like now, only the characters were unified. Thus, people from different places were unable to understand each other by face-to-face conversations, instead, they could only communicate by writing. Using writing cannot let people interact effectively in a timely manner. People who writes as if he issues a declaration or notification, hence the messages' delivery are often from one side only. Under the circumstance where spoken communication cannot be carried on smoothly, the person who knows how to write has a natural authority and power to become the authority class who monopolizes information. It seems that the main testing point in Chinese ancient imperial examination system was writing capability. Would this be a reason why the tradition of consultation was not developed in Chinese history? With Mandarin, people of all ethnic groups can sit around the table for a conference.
I believe that the most important thing is to break down the language barrier. As long as the basic tool for communication (language) is unblocked, when two persons meet, they firstly would think of communication rather than fight, even they didn't know each other at all. When two persons meet, their conversation would always start from self-introduction and knowing about each other. Usually the state right before the fight is that one is speechless with anger. Only when one is speechless with anger and feels it impossible to communicate at all, one will fight; and vice versa - people always try to communicate before they fight.
However, what may cause fatal injuries to communication is prejudice, which reminds me of a totally failed conversation.
After 2005's Spring Festival, in the 15th day of the first month of lunar new year, China Entrepreneurs Forum was held in Yabuli of Heilongjiang province. Part of the reasons why it was held in Yabuli was because of the conference itself, and the remain part of the reasons was for skiing. A lot of people attended this conference, and a lot of topics were arranged to discuss. Attendees were all distinguished entrepreneurs. The most intense forum was a conversation among Northern and Southern entrepreneurs - the "conversation" was in fact more like a debate, argument, battle. Both people on and off the stage were excited, basically people from the South supported entrepreneurs from the South, while people from the North supported entrepreneurs from the North. They all emphasized that they were different and focused on their differences, with no exception, these differences were exaggerated extremely through their languages and emotions. But only few people could analyze and look for the common things in the Northern and the Southern entrepreneurs in a rational way. At that time, I was assigned to the Northern side, and my rival from Southern side was Alibaba's Jack Ma. First of all, I declared that I was from Gansu - the Western part of China, so I belonged to neither the North nor the South, I was from the West. Then, UT Starcom's Ying Wu said, you were living in Beijing, earning money from Beijing people, so you should be considered as the Northern entrepreneurs. In such kind of debates, you could no longer remain neutral and detached.
The two sides bickered seriously. Someone said, "China's entrepreneurs hope to become internationalized, but are you able to be internationalized by just selling several lighters by you Southerners?" Another entrepreneur off the stage who didn't grab the microphone immediately shouted loudly, "You Northerners have been bullying our Southerners since Song Dynasty!" I said to myself, these were all prejudices, which were greatly exaggerated under certain occasions, and this kinds of prejudices was exactly the root cause of all the disharmony and disunity.
It also reminds me of a joint interview conducted by a newspaper in Shanghai and Shanghai TV. The topic was the differences between Shanghai and Beijing, and the differences between people of Shanghai and Beijing. I said, actually these differences were very small and should not be exaggerated, and differences between different people in Shanghai were even much larger than differences between Shanghai and Beijing. I also listed a number of reasons and facts to support my point of view. I thought they were disappointed to my answer, they must thought my answer was irrelevant and deviated much away from the subject and content that they had expected. In fact, we human beings are similar, whose greatest characteristics are identity and integrity, we must eliminate all prejudices of race, color, religion, country and degree of material civilization.
Think about the roots, in fact, which of the above prejudices are we born with? They're formed postnatally due to a variety of reasons. We are born and grow up in a certain region, and are educated by a certain regional culture, in which there are some bad guidance. For example, to be a "proud Sichuanese" or a "proud Cantonese,", and so on, why should we be proud of that? There was a popular sentence several years ago, "In our Asia, the mountains are holding up like our heads" Why should we emphasize that our mountains are holding up? Are other areas' mountains bowing? These absurd self-consciousnesses become more aggressive as being involved with some kinds of "culture bases" and "national spirits". Some people take these ridiculous prejudices as truths for granted, one of the reasons is that they are encouraged by something popular in their communities.
There's a popular word called "PK" nowadays. When I first saw this word, I didn't understand its meaning, since I had never watched any matches of "Super Girls" (which is a TV program similar to American Idol). I thought "P" was short for "Peace". But someone told me that PK was a term using in video games, which meant duel or to duel, and the meaning of "PK" and "peace" poles apart. The atmosphere set for this TV program must be quarreling, never compromising. The more extreme whose view point is and the more violent whose diction is, the more votes and supports he can get. Then followed by medias' one and another PK. Confrontations among different points of view, discussions on various issues all called PK, as if the truth can come out from PK. In fact, the ambiance of PK can inspire the struggle, every sides want to win the PK match by defeating the other side. I think, this kind of discussions has already run counter to the principles of consultations. One prejudice PK another prejudice, and finally it becomes a meaningless and failed "conversation".
PK encourages aggressive and regards showing prejudice as entertainment, which has deep roots if thinking deeply. Historians' studies prove that the earlier the time is, the smaller the unit of human society is and the more dispersed the units are - from allied nations, big countries, small countries, till the smallest and the most scattered tribes. In the smallest social unit, there had most biases and most fight, and people desired to be chivalrous the most. Aggressive and chivalrous are rather old-fashioned. It is now a long-awaited era of peace, and extensive consultations are being carried out throughout all regions and all nations. We should eliminate all kinds of prejudice in a more in-depth detail, based on the wish to achieve permanent peace. Prejudice, even the most minor one, may be a crack in the glass. We are holding a glass of peace, so must be careful.
【本文翻译仅为外语学习及阅读目的，原文作者个人观点与译者及译言网无关】
