NO ONE LESS 一個都不能少あの子を探して

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Nov 10th 2010 17:08

Yesterday night one Chinese talk show impressed me. The guest is a common girl, Wei Minzhi who comes from a little village. This village is famous in China for its poverty. When Wei was 13 years old, she was selected by fate to be an actress starring in the movie 'No one less (Chinese title:一個都不能少, Japanese title:あの子を探して)directed by Zhang Yimou, one of the illustrious Chinese directors in the western world. When this movie later won the gold lion awards at the Venice Film Festival, Wei became a Chinese Cinderella. She was sent to a prominent local senior high school and graduated from a foreign language university. Moreover, after then she got an opportunity for studying film in the United States. Now she has completed her study and works for that university in the United States.

This time Wei leads a US team coming back to China for a documentary film shoot about her story. 12 years have past. This little girl has become an elegant lady. She smartly answered numerous questions from Cui Yongyuan, my most favorite Chinese talk show anchor. Her smile with self-confidence really touched me. I think she gained from the United States not only abundant professional knowledge, but also self-confidence and dignity as a human being which can not be obtained in her motherland.

Wei's story is more like a modern fairy tale because tens of millions of Chinese children like she live in the countryside, and can not obtain such a good chance. Actually even other village girls and boys starring in 'No one less' didn't have such a good fate. Some of them had to quit school because their parents cannot afford tuition fee any more. Ironically, that primary school shot in the movie does not exist anymore.

Everyone has dreams, but the reality is always cruel... I really hope Wei's experience will not be seen as a miracle rather a common story in the immediate future.

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9
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English

Nov 10th 2010 19:29 愛新覺羅・啓哄

Mandarin
English

Nov 10th 2010 20:35 真美

Japanese
Mandarin , Traditional Chinese

我看过《一个都不能少》这部电影三次。谢谢你分享了这个访谈节目。我看了她毫不畏缩地陈述己见，很感动了。

Nov 10th 2010 21:00 愛新覺羅・啓哄

Mandarin
English

謝謝真美妹妹（僕より年下だと思うから。勘違いでしたら、許してください、笑）
說實話，我並不喜歡那部電影。因為電影“皆大歡喜”的結局並不符合中國的現狀。但我也可以理解導演的苦衷。如果不那樣編寫結尾，這部電影可能會通不過當局的審查。我百看不厭的張導的前一部電影《活著》就是由於審查未通過而禁止在中國國內公映。
但是這次訪談確實令我非常激動，我由衷地為今天的魏敏芝高興，也非常敬佩她自強不息的精神。如果中國所有的農村孩子都可以象魏敏芝一樣，與北京、上海的孩子有平等接受良好教育的機會，那麼中國才會真正成為一個偉大的、令世界尊重的國家。

Nov 11th 2010 20:03 真美

Japanese
Mandarin , Traditional Chinese

Thank you for your comment on my comment.

我百看不厭的張導的前一部電影《活著》就是由於審查未通過而禁止在中國國內公映。

I have watched that movie, too.
I thought that it was a very impressive movie.

如果中國所有的農村孩子都可以象魏敏芝一樣，與北京、上海的孩子有平等接受良好教育的機會，那麼中國才會真正成為一個偉大的、令世界尊重的國家。

I quite agree with you.

What do you think about the affimative action?
Affirmative action is an attempt to promote equal opportunity. It is often instituted in government and educational settings to ensure that minority groups within a society are included in all programs. The justification for affirmative action is to compensate for past discrimination, persecution or exploitation by the ruling class of a culture, or to address existing discrimination.

英語の文章だから英語を使わないと悪いかと思い、下手な英語を書いてごめんなさいm(__)m。でも英語で答えないでくださいね。。。お願いします（笑）

Nov 13th 2010 16:39

When Wei was 13 years old, she was selected by fate to be an actress starring in movie 'No one less (Chinese title:一個都不能少, Japanese title:あの子を探して)directed by Zhang Yimou, one of the illustrious Chinese directors in western world.
When Wei was 13 years old, she was selected by fate to be an actress starring in the movie 'No one less (Chinese title:一個都不能少, Japanese title:あの子を探して)directed by Zhang Yimou, one of the (most) illustrious Chinese directors in the western world.

When this movie later won the gold lion awards in Venice Film Festival, Wei became a Chinese Sindirella.
When this movie later won the gold lion awards at the Venice Film Festival, Wei became a Chinese Cinderella.

She was sent to a noted local senior high school and finally graduated from a foreign language university.
She was sent to a noted (prominent) local senior high school, and finally graduated from a foreign language university.

This time Wei leading a US team comes back to China for a documentary film shoot about herself story.
This time Wei leads a US team coming back to China for a documentary film shoot about her story.

This little girl has became an elegant lady.
This little girl has become an elegant lady.

I think she gain from the United States is not only abundant professional knowledge, but also self-confidence and dignity as a human being which can not obtain in her motherland.
I think she gained from the United States is not only abundant professional knowledge, but also self-confidence and dignity as a human being, which can not be obtained in her motherland.

Wei's story is more like a modern fairy story because tens of millions of Chinese children like her living in countryside can not obtain such a good chance.
Wei's story is more like a modern fairy story (fairy tale) because tens of millions of Chinese children like her (she) live in the countryside, and can not obtain such a good chance.

Some of them had to quit school because their parents cannot afford tuition fee any more.
Some of them had to quit school because their parents cannot (could not) afford tuition fees any more.

Ironically, even that primary school shot in the movie has not existed.
Ironically, even that primary school shot in the movie has not existed (doesn't even exist).

I really hope Wei's experience will not be seen as a miracle but a common story in immediate future.
I really hope Wei's experience will not be seen as a miracle, but (rather) a common story in the immediate future.

You have good English, and expressed yourself fluently in this article. I think that most villages in China are poor / impoverished, but why is it that Wei's village is more famous than other poor villages in China?

Nov 13th 2010 17:49 愛新覺羅・啓哄

Mandarin
English

真美童鞋
謝謝您捧場，呵呵。自從用英語寫日志以來，我的日志一下變安靜了，哈哈。
你的問題很好，不愧是國關專業的（笑）。

“積極平權”的出發點很好，但是在目前的中國很難實行。因為控制了絕大部分社會資源的利益集團根本沒有改變中國現狀的意願。你知道中國有１３億人口，其中９到１０億為農民。這十年來ＧＤＰ的高速增長是以犧牲廣大農民和產業工人的利益而換來的。所以中國的ＧＤＰ被稱為”帶血的ＧＤＰ”。正是因為有眾多的貧困人口，中國才可以利用這些廉價勞動力來創造貿易順差。

另一方面，一個劉曉波已經讓當局頭痛不已了，因此當局並不希望看到這９億人有更高的教育水準。因為受教育程度越高，就越不利於當局的“愚民統治”，所以“魏敏芝”的大量出現只是我的良好期望，卻未必是當局所願意看到的。

中國的貧富分化現象本身就是當局一手造成的，所以期望當局來進行“積極平權”無異於與虎謀皮。憲法授予每個公民平等受教育、工作以及自由遷徙的權利，如果這些最基本的權利可以真正受到保護，貧困問題在很大程度上會得到解決。

此外，在中國，“魏敏芝”們絕不是minority。相反，日本電視裡經常播放的“中國富裕層”才是minority,這種節目在很大程度上誤導了日本觀眾。北京、上海、廣州並不能勾勒出中國社會的全貌，這三個城市的人口加起來只有將近５０００萬，而還有１０多億的“魏敏芝”們的生活才真正反映了大多數中國人的實際生存狀況。

Nov 14th 2010 10:27 愛新覺羅・啓哄

Mandarin
English

@Nuba
I really appreciate your correction!
You're right. There are lots of impoverished areas in China. But amongst these areas, the authorities defined some EXTREMELY POOR COUNTIES. So I think Wei's hometown belongs to this kind of counties.

Nov 14th 2010 11:01 愛新覺羅・啓哄

Mandarin
English

@Nuba
Nihao!
Sorry, I'd like to ask another question.

>>>Ironically, that primary school shot in the movie has not existed (doesn't even exist).

According to　the interview, Wei said that primary school in which she had taught was no longer available due to lack of funding.

So could you please tell me how to describe this condition precisely?　I mean, it's true that the school really existed a few years ago, but now it's not available.

Thanks in advance!