The Other China

 

Yao Bo (姚博, 1972-) is a former Beijing-based journalist and influential blogger who offers a running commentary on contemporary Chinese affairs from his base in Kyoto, Japan. He produces a YouTube channel under the name Wuyue Sanren 五嶽散人 wǔyuè sǎnrén, literally ‘The Dilettante from the Five Sacred Mountains’. Yao’s sobriquet is reminiscent of the artistic names favoured by members of China’s long-defunct scholar-official class. The expression 散人 sǎnrén usually describes a relaxed, seemingly blasé individual who, more often than not, makes acerbic observations about the follies of the world and Yao Bo’s sardonic monologues have the relaxed air of a world-weary resident of Old Peking.

The self-description that Yao offers on his YouTube channel is even written in the style of ‘a nonchalant wiseguy’ 散淡的人:

Beijing-born and of Manchu ancestry, I’m presently living in Kyoto, Japan, my favourite city. My YouTube channel is unedited and produced with virtually no special effects. It’s a venue for my monologues, which occasionally veer into outrage about the state of affairs. Since I wrote a regular newspaper column on current affairs for well over a decade, I’m something of a ‘news hound’. Now, however, I’m completely free of all of those taboos and this channel is a place where I can say whatever the fuck I like. [As that line in the classic Book of Poetry 詩經, in James Legge’s translation, puts it, though:]

The woodmen’s blows responsive ring,
As on the trees they fall;
And when the birds their sweet notes sing,
They to each other call.

So, if what I have to say resonates with others, that’s all well and good. If not, why should I care? So long as I feel good about what I’m doing, that’s all that matters.

北京人、滿族，目前生活在日本的京都，這個我最喜歡的城市。我的視頻基本無特效、無剪輯，經常純聊天或者罵街，作為一個寫了十多年時政專欄的老媒體人，這是我言無忌、為所欲為、瞎逼聊天的地方。所謂”嚶其鳴矣、求其友聲〞，能求到固然好，求不到、只要我爽了就行。

[Note: For an unsympathetic overview of Yao Bo’s career in China, see 如何評價五嶽散人?.]

Over the years, China Heritage has featured the voices of a number of incisive commentators from the Chinese world — their number includes Lee Yee, Ni Kuang and others in Hong Kong, Chen Qiushi, Liang Hongda, Li Chengpeng and Mei Liu’r from mainland China and GouGe from North America (the Chinese names of these authors: 李怡、倪匡、陳秋實、梁宏達、李承鵬、梅六兒以及狗哥). Wuyue Sanren 五嶽散人 and Wang Zhi’an 王志安, former mainland Chinese journalists, are prominent independent online commentators based in Japan and both were included in our roundup of the year 2022: Chinese Time: the struggle of memory against forgetfulness, Chapter Twenty-three of Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium.

Wuyue Sanren delivers his monologues in the style of a ‘caustic essay’ 雜文 zá wén, a popular literary form. We are grateful to Yaxue Cao of China Change for permission to reproduce the following translation of Wuyue Sanren’s thoughts on disaster relief in contemporary China. (We previously featured the work of China Change in ‘I Do Not Believe’  — Xu Zhiyong on being jailed, again, Appendix XL of Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium.)

Since Wuyue Sanren’s commentary is really a voice from ‘the other China’, it is only fitting to include it in a series titled The Other China. Our entry point is, once more, the art of Liu Chan 劉蟾, a calligrapher, essayist and social commentator based in Beijing.

For an edited Chinese transcript, see below.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
8 August 2023

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‘Not a Single Penny’:

Why One Overseas Chinese Won’t Donate to
‘Disaster Relief’ Efforts in China

Wuyue Sanren

5 August 2023

Translated by China Change

 

Wuyue Sanren (五岳散人), or Yao Bo (姚博), was a well-known Chinese journalist, a Weibo “Big V” with a large number of followers until he was banned, and one of the 303 signers of Charter 08. In recent years he has been residing in Kyoto, Japan. He runs the popular @wuyuesanren YouTube channel commenting on current affairs in China. Below is a translation of his commentary on August 5, 2023 in which he explains from three aspects: the government, the charity organizations, and the people. We appreciate his deep experience and clear insight, and would like to share it with our readers. The transcript has been lightly edited for brevity.

— The Editors of China Change

Yesterday on Twitter, I saw a netizen, who by no means is a supporter of the Chinese government, saying that you overseas Chinese have no goodwill towards China, and that he had not seen anyone come out to organize donation drives and other activities for relief work for victims of the recent flood in Beijing and Hebei province. I have to make my attitude clear on this matter before addressing the main issues. My attitude can be summed up in a few words: Donate, my ass! Are you out of your mind? I would have to be crazy to donate! How much water must be in my head? — a lot more than the water you saw in Zhuozhou (涿州) to donate anything to help with the disaster relief.

Why do I say this? I’m going to talk about it today from three aspects.

The first is of course the government. The second is charitable organizations. And the third are the people themselves. Because of these three factors, the majority of overseas Chinese, including myself, are less than enthusiastic to do anything to help. Our hearts are not completely cold, but our blood temperature is probably akin to that of lizards in the morning.

Let’s start with His Majesty Xi Jinping. He has continued to be invisible in the midst of the disaster, but not completely invisible. He had two brief appearances recently. The first was on August 1, when he expressed condolences to the victims of a suicide bombing in Pakistan, a friendly country to China. Another was that he went to Beidaihe for vacation. [Politburo member] Cai Qi (蔡奇) was in Beidaihe too and the news was that he visited some experts who were there on a summer retreat.

With Xi Jinping at the helm, you basically haven’t heard anything from the top leadership about the disaster. In imperial China, apart from emperors like Hui of Jin (晋惠帝) and his “let them eat cake” (何不食肉糜) adage, just about any monarch would probably at least go and visit his own people, issue an edict or something like that. He would have done that. But the current Chinese leaders, no. In any case, by the time I recorded this video, I hadn’t seen them come out. It’s possible that I don’t read the People’s Daily conscientiously enough, so if I’m wrong, please point out in the comments section on which day Xi Jinping braved the storm and appeared 200 kilometers away from the capital, showing His Majesty’s person.

Another thing to note is the disappearance of the entire local government. The Party Secretary and the mayor of Zhuozhou are nowhere to be seen, so much so the local populace has spontaneously begun to report them as missing persons on social media. It’s possible that these two chief officials have visited certain places, or were helping with disaster relief and rescue, and the people merely missed the news. But in my own experience, I know of too many times that government officials hindered, rather than helped, disaster relief efforts. As far as non-governmental rescue teams are concerned, their efforts would probably go more smoothly if the local authorities could sit still and stop putting so many “review and approval” hindrances in their way.

In terms of government aid, it is reported that 110 million yuan in urgent relief funds has been allocated to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region for flood prevention and relief. At the same time, we’ve seen far greater sums of money sent to foreign countries. What does 110 million yuan mean? The number of people affected this time must be over 10 million at minimum, which translates to a total of 10 yuan (about US$1.40) spent on flood relief efforts per each affected person on average. What can you do with 10 yuan? It’s a pittance. So many people have lost all their possessions. Some people may say that the 110 million RMB is only the initial installment and there may be subsequent allocations. I really don’t have much hope that this is the case, because it’s not the first time that China has sacrificed the people in such a situation. We can check the historical record to see how much compensation people had received before. Basically, it’s very rare and lucky if a family can have a third of their lost assets be compensated. More often than not, the compensation amounts to a few dozen to a few hundred yuan. The amount makes “a drop in the bucket” sound like a lot.

There is also the propaganda from the state media. Their reportage has been lauding all kinds of rescue and relief efforts, an example of which is the dramatic clip of a helicopter rescuing people stranded on rooftops. But the footage accidentally reveals that the floodwaters below are no more than an inch above the ankle. People in the north might not be familiar with the power of floods; it is possible that the water will sweep you away when it reaches your knees, but you’re going to be fine if it’s below that. The Hebei Communist Youth League posted a photo of a firefighter falling asleep from fatigue while eating from a lunch box, but netizens pointed out that the photo was from three years ago and taken in a whole different region. But the photo stayed on the Youth League’s account for an entire day without any explanation or apology. They knew they posted fake news, they just didn’t care that it was fake.

You can’t help but see that from top to bottom, the government is filled by people for whom their position is just a free lunch. From their vantage point, the people are consumables. How can you expect me, an overseas Chinese, to show my love for our compatriots? I wouldn’t say there’s no possibility at all, but the chances I can be bothered are slim.

Now, let’s talk about the charity organizations. As we may know, the Red Cross Society of China is a semi-official organization. I have described this kind of semi-official, so-called charity as “begging with a gun in one’s hand” — they hold a rice bowl in the left hand to ask for alms, and a Type 54 pistol in the right hand: Give, or else. During the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, there was the so-called special Party membership fee, but it was at least just for the CCP members. But the reality was, in many places, you had to pay regardless whether you were a Party member or not. At the time, I was still working in the system, at China Daily, and I wasn’t a Party member, but they still forcibly deducted donations from my paycheck to help with disaster relief. Of course, it wasn’t much, I remember it was a few hundred yuan, because after all, my salary wasn’t much to begin with.

These charities have done a lot of unscrupulous things, and we all know it. Take for example the recent exposure of the pay grades of Red Cross staff. Their average salary was 435,000 yuan a year. I am not saying that those who work for charities must live paycheck to paycheck. But for comparison, in Beijing, where the headquarters of the Red Cross Society of China is based, the median income is roughly 11,000 yuan a month, that is, about 140,000 yuan annually. Why is the income of a public charity organization more than three times higher than that of Beijing as a whole? It is also much higher than civil servants at the municipal and provincial levels. Where does the Red Cross get its income? A portion of it comes from the state, and a great deal of it comes from forced donations, as well as from voluntary private donations.

During the Wenchuan earthquake, the Red Cross received about 62.5 billion yuan in donations, 80% of which was supposed to have gone to the government’s financial account; in other words, 50 billion yuan simply went unaccounted for. Later on, a newspaper called Public Welfare Times (《公益时报》, a paper run by the Ministry of Civil Affairs) came out debunking the rumor, saying that it could not be called “unaccounted for” when the funds were transferred to the government, because, as it claimed, in 2008, China’s social organizations were not well established, and people trusted the government more as a result, so a lot of money was donated directly to the government, and donations to charitable organizations were also turned over to the government to handle.

This explanation is nonsense. If China’s public charities are not well established, the primary reason is that the Chinese government does not allow China’s NGOs to flourish. When the government-operated “civil organizations” can’t use up the money they’ve amassed, what do they do? They transfer it to the government account, from the left hand to the right. As for people trusting the government more, the Chinese people’s trust in the government is indeed quite high, and I must say that the Chinese government is very fortunate to have such people. All I can say is that, as an ordinary person, say whatever you want, as long as it makes you happy.

This is not even getting into the big money. On the fifth anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake, I was invited to visit the site to observe the changes. At that time, all regions across China, including other parts of Sichuan province, had been paired with a reconstruction project in Wenchuan, and the reconstruction was all paid by local governments across China. I was utterly amazed when I got to Wenchuan. Next to the ruins of an elementary school, new streets had been built. One was in an ethnic minority style, another was full of buildings with white walls and pointy rooftops with dark blue tiles — water town style in Zhejiang. These aid projects were paid for by the local governments.

You will also remember the Guo Meimei incident (郭美美事件) and the various other shady practices involving the Red Cross. It is a very important piece of common sense that no government-run charity in China can be trusted. The government, from the central to local, and these charities have extinguished from people’s hearts whatever desire to do good that they have once had.

Next, let’s talk about the people’s side of the story. I don’t know if you’ve read the Bible, but there’s a story in it about Sodom and Gomorrah, where “sulfur and fire” came down from God and destroyed the two cities. When God was about to destroy the city, Abraham asked God if he could stay His judgment if there were still righteous people living there. God said the city could be spared if 50 such residents could be found, then lowered the number to just 10. But apart from Lot and his family, no other righteous townsfolk could be found, so God destroyed the two cities with “fire and brimstone.” (Genesis 18:23-32.)

In other words, it actually matters what kind of people reside in a place. How many righteous people are there? What is the percentage? God said if there were 10 righteous people to be found that He would not destroy the cities. Cities were small in ancient times, maybe there were a few thousands in Sodom and Gomorrah? Then 10 righteous people is not too small a percentage. But honestly, that’s God doing the math. Do I look like God? It’s certainly unlikely that I would approach these things with such forgiveness. The people in China have also discouraged me from wanting to engage in their affairs, such as making any more donations for “disaster relief.”

One of the most recent lessons was the mask-hoarding that happened when the coronavirus pandemic hit China. At the time, we didn’t think it would spread to Japan, so we collected masks in Japan and sent them to China, and we were very happy doing that under the slogan “We may have different mountains and rivers, but we share the same sky and the same moon” [山川异域，风月同天]. Of course I wasn’t the initiator of the mask initiative, but I sent a lot of other things later on. No sooner than we began this undertaking did the Chinese begin saying on social media: “You did not stay here to build the motherland, but you’re the fastest to poison it by scurrying back here from a thousand miles away.” Then they started to make all sorts of disparaging remarks about other countries. It wasn’t just a small group of people doing this, but a massive campaign involving a great multitude.

Take Zhuozhou as another example. Based on your life experience and your understanding of Chinese society, what percentage of the people in Zhuozhou who have access to social media had wished that Typhoon Doksuri would hit Japan and disperse afterward? If I estimate the percentage was 80%, you’d probably think my reckoning was too conservative.

On so many Chinese social media platforms, you see so many people clamoring for destroying Japan with nuclear weapons, and waging war to unify Taiwan. The next day, they were hit by disaster and on top of that, they got a taste of the iron fist of the government. How do I know my contribution will not fall in the hands of these people? Why should I donate money to save someone like that? I can make targeted one-on-one donations, which I still do to help students from impoverished families, mainly girls. But if I donate money to the government or these government-run charities, first of all, the government is not doing much to provide funds or goods. Secondly, I couldn’t be sure what the Red Cross or other official channels would do with my private donations. Thirdly, even if the donations and goods are sent down, it may reach such people. You tell me, why should I donate money? Why would I want to organize something like this? Am I out of my fucking mind? There’s nothing wrong with these three questions.

Recently, Big Eyes (Li Chengpeng 李承鹏) visited Kyoto. We drank and chatted, and we talked about the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008. Li Chengpeng collected a lot of relief supplies and distributed them in the disaster areas. There were also people like Rou Tangseng (肉唐僧) and Luo Yonghao (罗永浩), so many of them went there. Later they were being questioned viciously, something like they replaced larger tents with small tents, and so on. They distributed whatever they received, and such “replacement” made no sense. Rou Tangsen is the most scrupulous person I’ve ever known, and in the campaigns he organized, even a pack of napkins was accounted for. But how much dirty water was thrown at people like them!

So why do we do it again? Make sure you don’t do it, or you’ll be hounded to death. I know from my sources that the people vilifying them did so at the behest of the authorities to provoke those who did not know the truth and to confuse those who were aware of the real situation. Those who attacked him of their own volition were even scarier.

At that time, Li Chengpeng and Han Han (韩寒) donated a building to a school in Wenchuan. Later, when the principal of that school was looking for these celebrities to donate, Chengpeng said, “I donated money to you once, but I can donate again.” The principal said, “You didn’t make any donation.” He had completely forgotten that the school building was donated by Li Chengpeng and Han Han. He didn’t remember any of this stuff at all. How many major donations like this do you think a school receives? Yet he doesn’t recall it in the least.

So I still ask the three questions: Why should I do this? Am I crazy? Is there something wrong with me? You have to understand that we were not the way we are now. From our level of education to our self-expectations, we were willing to help our compatriots to the best of our ability, But having gone through these three layers of filtering, from the government, to the government-run “NGO” charities, to the people themselves, I just don’t feel like helping anymore. I’d rather give money to funds that help guide dogs, disaster relief efforts, and stray cats and dogs in Japan, than give a penny to China. Not a single cent. We are not cold blooded, but we must apply our passion in the right places.

***

Source:

• Wuyue Sanren, ‘Note a Single Penny’ — Why One Overseas Chinese Won’t Donate to ‘Disaster Relief’ Efforts in China, China Change, 5 August 2023

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Edited Chinese Transcript:

五嶽散人：從政府、慈善機構、民眾三個層面，談談我不會給大陸災情捐一分錢
2023年8月5日

（https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-NiskhqqPY）

昨天在推上，我看到有一位網友說，他其實完全不是站在中國政府一面，他說你們這些海外的，對中國沒有善意，這回受災沒見任何人出來組織賑災捐款，組織一些活動。怎麼說？這件事情我必須要表明一下態度。然後再往下說正經的。我的態度其實幾個字就說清楚了，捐你媽逼！神經病！我瘋了才捐。這腦子得進了多少水，比涿州的水很多，我才能再捐東西，在幫助賑災。

為什麼會這樣？我今天從三個方面跟大家聊一下這事。

首先當然是政府，第二是慈善機構，第三是民眾。因為有這三個因素，包括我在內的廣大的海外的華人華僑，大致來說，雖然心仍未冷，但是這血的溫度確實低了，跟蜥蜴早上起來的溫度差不多。

先說咱聖上。聖上這段時間繼續在災情當中神隱，可是也不是完全神隱。他有兩個閃現的瞬間，讓大家銘記。第一個瞬間是8月1號的時候，他去給巴基斯坦自殺炸彈事件的受害者表達慰問。也就是說，我得慰問一下自己的友邦。另外一個閃現的瞬間好像是去北戴河去療養去了。還有蔡奇去北戴河慰問那些避暑的專家們去了。

以咱聖上為首，你基本上沒有聽到來自政府高層里的聲音。在封建王朝時代，晉惠帝「何不食肉糜」的那種不算，如果這個皇上基本合格，他大概也應該去慰問一下自己的子民，下個昭什麼。他會去做這件事情。但是現任的中國領導人，沒有。反正到我做這檔節目的時候，我沒有看到這個消息。有可能是我看《人民日報》看的不夠多，請各位可以在留言區指出來，習近平哪天已經親冒大雨，在離京城200公里之外的地方出現了，現出了他的龍軀。

還有一個，當地整個的政府消失了。涿州市的市委書記、市長消失了。到今天為止沒怎麼見著，當地民眾已經開始自發地發佈尋人啓事。也有可能這二位主官去某些地方視察過了，或者是幫助賑災、救災了，但是大家沒有關注到這些消息。但是實際上，我見過太多次了，這些政府主官們在災情當中不搗亂就好。就像民間救援隊這種事情，官方只要不設置這麼多的所謂審批障礙，就在旁邊待著不做事，救災可能會更順利一些。

在政府撥款方面，報道說為京津冀地區緊急撥款1.1個億，用於防汛救災。與此同時，我們看到有大量的錢被送到國外【救災】去了。1.1個億是什麼概念？這回受災的群眾最少也得有千萬以上，一人平均10塊錢。10塊錢有多大用？沒什麼用。這麼多的老百姓傾家蕩產。有人可能說了，這1.1個億只不過是第一期，後續可能還會有撥款。我其實真的不太抱希望，因為中國不是第一次有這種被犧牲掉的洩洪區的群眾了，他們到底拿了多少補償，我們可以去查一下歷史資料，基本上來說，甭說家裡的損失全給賠了，能夠賠到家產的1/3都已經是非常幸運的事情。往往賠幾十塊錢，幾百塊錢，也就到這個程度上。用「杯水車薪」形容的話，你會忽然覺得這居然是個好詞，是個褒義詞。

還有官方媒體的宣傳。官媒又開始宣傳各種各樣的搶險救災的工作，比如說直升飛機救援，不小心拍到了下面的洪水，大概沒過小腿，最多也就是在腳踝往上一寸。北方人其實不知道洪水有多厲害，水流有多厲害，大概到膝蓋這個位置上就能把人衝倒，但是腳踝深度的水無法把人衝倒。你用這種直升飛機去救這樣的地方被圍困在樓頂的群眾，這個是真的有點說不過去。還有，河北共青團的社交媒體，拿了一張三年前消防士兵搶險救災、累到拿著飯盒吃飯的時候睡著的照片，說是今年的場面。結果網友指出這是三年前的照片，但是這張照片在社交媒體放了一天，沒有任何解釋，沒有任何道歉。那意思就是說，我造假又怎麼樣？

就是說，從上到下整個系統當中，你就覺得他們是一群屍位素餐的人，基本上把老百姓當做耗材。你指望我一個海外華人展現自己的同胞之情嗎？這種可能性不是說完全沒有，但是降低了一些吧？

再說說中國的機構。大家都知道，中國紅十字會算是一個半官方機構。我原來一直形容這種半官方的所謂慈善機構是「帶槍乞討」，左手端飯碗要飯，右手端一支Type 54 pistol ，你給，還是不給？汶川地震的時候，就有所謂的特別黨費這一說，但這還是禍害他們自己人。實際上在好多地方，甭管你是不是黨員，你必須得交錢。當時我還是在體制內工作，在《中國日報》。08年地震的時候，我可不是黨員，但是他們還是強行從工資當中扣除賑災捐款。當然也沒多少錢，我記得是幾百塊錢，因為畢竟工資也沒多少。

這種帶槍逼捐的機構乾了很多缺德事，大家也都知道。比如說最近對紅十字會工資表的曝光。紅十字總會的平均年薪是43.5萬。我不是說乾慈善的就必須節衣縮食。紅十字總會大概在北京，北京的中位數收入，我查了一下，月薪大致是1.1萬，年收入就算14萬。一個公益慈善機構的收入為什麼會高於整個社會的三倍以上？比市一級、省一級的公務員也高出很多。這給人的觀感非常糟糕。紅十字會的收入從哪來的？除了國家有一部分撥款之外，大量的來自於它帶槍逼捐以及民間主動捐贈。
汶川地震的時候紅十字會大概收了625億人民幣的捐款，最後一算賬，8成進入到了政府的財政賬戶上，但是500億去向不明。後來有一個報紙，叫《公益時報》，為這事還辟過謠，它說不能叫「去向不明」或者到了政府賬戶，它說08年的時候，中國的社會組織不夠完善，大家更信任政府，所以好多錢是直接捐給政府的，包括捐給慈善組織這些錢，也交給政府去運作去了。這就扯淡了。

如果說中國的公益組織不完善，第一個原因，是中國政府不讓中國的NGO組織進行完善，除了官辦的以外，非官辦民間組織都不行。官辦的「民間組織」錢用不了怎麼辦？那就都划到政府賬戶去了。這實際上就是左手到右手的一個關係。至於說人們更相信政府，中國老百姓對政府的信任度確實是相當高，我必須說，這種政府有這樣的老百姓，是非常難得的事情。我只能說，作為老百姓，您高興就好。

這些錢還不算大錢。汶川地震5週年的時候，我受邀參觀5週年之後的變化。當時全國各個地區、包括四川的其他地區都跟汶川有一個對口援建項目，這些錢都是地方政府掏的錢。當時我去到汶川那邊直接就驚呆了。在一座小學的廢墟旁邊新建的一些街道，有些是少數民族風格，是一個少數民族地區遠見的；再看另一條街道，白牆黛瓦山字牆，江南水鄉風格，一問，對口援建的是江南某城市。這些援建項目是地方政府的支出。

各位還會說起郭美美事件以及各種各樣的紅十字會的黑幕。中國的官辦的任何慈善機構都不值得信任，這是一個非常重要的常識。從政府到這些機構，把一個人心裡打算乾點事的善念給打消了。

往下就該說到咱們人民群眾這一塊了。我不知道各位讀沒讀過《聖經》，裡面有索多瑪那一段，天降神火「sulfur and fire」，把兩個城市Sodom and Gomorrah毀滅了。上帝要毀滅這個城市的時候，有人【Abraham】就問上帝，說那裡要是有100個義人(我有點忘了具體數字，這不重要)，你要毀滅這個城嗎？上帝我不毀。有50個義人，你毀嗎？我也不毀；有10個你毀這個城嗎？上帝說有10個義人我也不毀這座城。連10個都沒找著，就只有羅德一家，然後上帝就一揮手，硫磺真火什麼的，啪嘰把這城給毀了。

換言之，民眾是什麼樣的民眾，其實是很重要的。有多少義人？佔比例是多少？上帝說了，有10個義人我就不會毀滅它。古代城市就算小，幾千人有吧，十個義人，比例也不算低了。但是說實話，那是上帝，您看我長得像上帝嗎？我肯定不太可能用這麼寬容的心態來對待國內的這些事情。民眾也打消了我想再從事比如說捐款捐物這種想法。

最近的一個事情是疫情中蒐羅了口罩這個事了。當時我們不覺得會傳到日本，就蒐羅口罩寄回國內，山川異域風月同天什麼的，特開心就給送過去了。當然我不是發起人，但是後來我其他東西送了很多。In a blink of eyes, 他們說，祖國建設你不在，千里投毒你最快，然後就開始各種各樣對境外的詆毀。這是一個全民性的活動，並不是一小撮人。大量的人都是這樣。
你比如說像咱們這回看涿州洪水，以您的生活經驗以及對您對中國社會的瞭解，就涿州那地方但凡能上社交媒體的，有多少比例的人希望杜蘇芮颱風衝到日本，最好一直在日本待著。您想想，要我說比例不低於80%。您覺得我估算的是不是又過於善良了？我能夠覺得對這些人有同情嗎？

在好多的在社交平台上你可以看出來，當時還在嚷嚷著要核平日本、要武統台灣、要如何，然後自己造災了，嘗到了政府的鐵拳。您說對充斥著這種人的一塊土地，我能保證我的捐款不落到這些人手裡嗎？我為什麼要捐款去救他？你告訴我理由何在？如果說定向捐款，比如說我現在在國內還在捐助一些學生，上不起學或者家庭很困難的學生，以女學生為主。定向的，我可以捐助他。如果我捐錢，首先政府沒管災情，沒捐錢捐物；第二我拿不准紅十字會或者其他的官方渠道會有什麼問題。第三個，就算發下去的捐款捐物，它可能到了這樣的人手裡。你告訴我捐錢的理由何在？為什麼我要組織這種事？我他媽是不是瘋了？這三問沒毛病。

前段時間大眼（李承鵬）來京都，我們喝酒聊天，就聊到汶川地震的時候，李承鵬蒐羅了很多救災物資，到災區發放。還有肉唐僧、羅永浩這些人，他們好多人都去了。後來他們受到了多少惡意的質疑。什麼大帳篷換成小帳篷等等。他們收到什麼發什麼，能換得了嗎？這是三個我知道的人里是最乾淨的人，像肉唐僧組織一些事情，連一包衛生巾的去向都是清清楚楚的，但就這樣的人，被潑了多少污水？

所以為什麼還要做這樣的事？一定不要做，會被別人罵死的。他們乾的唯一件事就是往你身上潑臟水，而且我非常明確的知道，他們是在某些政府機關的授意之下，往這些人身上潑的臟水，挑動一部分不明真相，一部分明白真相的人去潑污水，包括像方舟子這樣的人。那些沒有組織的人更可怕。

那時李承鵬和韓寒他們一起給一個學校捐了一個教學樓。後來那個校長找這些名人捐贈，成鵬說我原來給你們捐過錢，再捐也沒關係。校長說，你沒捐過。他完全忘了學校的教學樓就是李承鵬和韓寒他們一幫人給捐的。他完全不記得這些東西。你想一個學校能有多少這種大額捐款，他完全不記得。

我還是這三問：我為什麼要乾這事？我是不是瘋了？我是不是有什麼毛病？所以您要理解，剛開始我們受的教育，包括我們自我的期許，我們都是願意與人為善，願意去做幫助人的事，只要我行有餘力。但是你通過三層過濾，從政府，到機構，再到民眾，我可不可以不去幫他？在日本，有些店有各種各樣的捐款基金，有時候我買完東西之後，會把 1日元或者5日元的零錢扔在那裡的錢罐。這些基金里有支援導盲犬的，有日本某地受災後救災的，有救助流浪貓流浪狗的，我都捐過。我寧可把錢捐去救助日本流浪貓，我都不會拿出一分錢來再給國內，一個子兒都不捐。這不是說我們冷血，只不過熱血應該熱到地方。

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