China will publish "Ayn Rand Series"

Hello everyone, I haven't been here for hundreds of days. Because I am busy with my work and I have my own blogs to run. Nevertheless, I come to this site every week.

From January 2007, One of Chi-nese publishing company will publish four books of Ayn Rand, which are Anthem, Virtue of Selfishness, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology and Why Businessman Need Philosophy. I have got Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. It's not a lengthy book as I used to thought.

I think the most notable thing is that Virtue of Selfishness is not disguised with another title. In 1993, this book has been introduced to Chi-na but under another title New Individualist Ethics.

The editor of this series told us that his advocacy for publishing Rand's books was not with great effort. He told the name of Ayn Rand to some of his colleagues and asked them to search for her information themselves, and gave him a reply (that whether publish or not) in several days. After a couple of days his colleagues told him that Rand was interesting and her books deserve publication.

I am glad to see this change in psychologies of Chi-nese people. From elementary school, Chi-nese people are indoctrinated with the nonsense of Marxist ideology with no exception. Those publishers have undergone this too. Ayn Rand is a plain advocate for capitalism and egoism. I thought that people who immerse in Marxism for several decades would instinctively resent Rand and her thought. In many books whose authors are in other country there are lengthy "translator's prefaces" or "words of editors" in which the books themselves are badly smeared rather than fairly summarized. But those publishers said Rand is interesting when they read Rand for the first time, they even thought that Rand's books should be introduced to other Chi-nese. Then we can see how bankrupt Marxism is in Chi-na. Chi-nese people have accepted that selfishness is perfectly justified no matter how Marxism condemns it.

Chi-nese people don't know Rand so much at present. The editor of this series said that Rand visited West Point and taught the students how to be patriotic. But I think the fact is that Rand gave a lecture there whose title was "Philosophy, Who Needs It". It's not about patriotism.

The editor told us that Capitalism the Unknown Ideal is not in this series. There is nothing surprising. (Another publishing company planned to publish Ludwig von Mises's Anti-Capitalist Mentality but finally it was canceled from the list.) The editor said that he nevertheless has been so satisfied with the publication of the four books. I am satisfied with this too. It should be noted that these books were introduced when we are under the fascist rule of Core H-u, who seems more reactionary comparing to Core J_i_a_n_g . When the Core ask the bureaucracies to study N-o-r-t-h Korea and Cu-ba which are "always correct in ideology" though their economical situation are "temporarily" troublesome, there comes fore books which advocate egoism and individualism. Marxism has expelled from people's mind, reactionary dic-ta-tors cannot put it back to our mind either.

Post 1

Wednesday, January 31, 2007 - 8:33pm

This news is very, very encouraging.

Good for you! You are a brave person.

And tell the publishers that we support their efforts and their courage.

Post 2

Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 4:09am

Do you think this series will be popular in China? How will the books be distributed? I'm also wondering about the Chinese press. Are they able to write unfettered reviews?

It's wonderful these will be published, but I'm a little worried about how the word will get out about them to readers.

Seeing as how those in power can't seem to make up their mind about internet access to Wikipedia, and still insist search engines like Google and Yahoo bend to their idea of what constitutes freedom of information access, I'm naturally concerned that something as "in your face" as The Virtue of Selfishness will be freely circulated.

The discussions and debates that book alone will no doubt initiate, well, I'm hoping for a warm embrace rather than chilly alarm bells.

I would really appreciate, and be most grateful for, a translation of any reviews, if the popular press in china prints them. Okay? :)

Thank you so much for the notice!

Post 3

Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 4:45am

I appreciate Femino posting this wonderful news. I see that no one in China has registered an interest in an Ayn Rand Meetup:

http://aynrand.meetup.com/about/

Would the Internet filters even allow this? I can understand hesitancy to announce such an interest. However, gathering to discuss these ideas makes for a great way to learn. Perhaps Femino can share thoughts about this.

Post 4

Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 4:52am

TSI asked: Do you think this series will be popular in China?

You need to understand China. Perhaps 1% of the Chinese are practicing Christians. That comes to 10 million people.

When the western traders came to China in the 19th century, they were limited to a few ports along the coast. Millions of Chinese embraced western ways. The Chinese government limited profits of Chinese merchants, trade by Chinese producers and consumers, and general contacts between Chinese intellectuals and western scholars. Millions of dollars changed hands in goods, services and information. Whole new publishing houses sprang up, including local newspapers in the western mode.

Washington DC certainly is not "America" and neither is Beijing "China." (In fact, Beijing is only one of several traditional capitals, just one of the more recent, actually.) One stereotypical story from the classical age is of the scholar whose province was so poor that he could not find a complete book anywhere. So, he went from village to village, meeting one person with books after another, copying everything himself in order to build his own library. That was before the invention of the xerox machine.

The way I read this story, it is not that the government is going to allow the works of Ayn Rand, but that they admit that the works are already in place, so they are going to put out their own edition. That is another traditional story.

We look at Europe and think that it is "old." China is literally and truly three times older. In the west, before Gerbert d'Aurillac was installed as Pope Sylvester II, he reintroduced the Roman abacus which had been forgotten. Aristotle came back to the west via the Arabs. Medical knowledge, navigation, and more, were preserved in Islamic lands, translated from Greek into Arabic and then from Arabic into Latin -- only to require justification against the sin of being pagan, infidel, and heathen. The Chinese had no such problems. When the oldest known scripts (scapulomancy from the time of the I Ching 1200 BC) were discovered in the 20th century, they were suspected as forgeries specifically because they were so easy to read! Imagine finding a memo from Achilles to Diomedes from the siege of Troy and being able to read the Greek. China is old, complicated, large, and possessing great inertia.

"China" will not "change" because of Ayn Rand, any more than it changed because of the communists.

However, if 1% of the people in China come to read the works of Ayn Rand, well, that's another 10 million.

Post 5

Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 4:54am

femino noted:
From elementary school, Chi-nese people are indoctrinated with the nonsense of Marxist ideology with no exception.

How would that would be different from the USA?

Post 6

Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 5:15am

Interestingly, I see 25 people in Beijing registering an interest in an Entrepreneur Meetup:

http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/cities/cn/beijing/

Given that a Meetup Organizer can tie up to three other interests with that, he could easily tag Ayn Rand onto such a Meetup.

Post 7

Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 6:59am

Publishing a few Rand books will just make people seek out others. China has little regard for intellectual property (at least that of other nations). I won't be surprised if bootlegs of her works end up on Chinese web sites.

Of course, this is why I am firmly convinced that all copyrights should die the exact moment that the author dies.

Post 8

Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 6:59am

Am reminded by this of Tracinski's article - how the pragmaticness of capitalistic endeavors is now reaching a point where the philosophy may reach and give guidance.....

Post 9

Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 4:10pm

Certainly, having them published is better than not. Even so, the best all around is for people to learn English and read them in the original. This is especially true for Chinese. About 100 years ago, when Japan was modernizing, there was a conference of intellectuals held at which they debated whether to make French or English the official language of engineering in Japan and they chose English. They felt that they were at a distinct disadvantage attempting to understand and communicate concepts resting on causality and empiricism.

For a class last semester in History of China, I considered for a term paper topic researching western science in China. From the Jesuits forward, efforts were made to bring western mathematics and science to the Chinese people in their own language. What stopped me was realizing that the problem of writing about this was deeper than I cared to attack as an undergraduate term paper. The nature of that problem is actually the development of a technical vocabulary with an ideographic script.

Rather than belabor it here, I point you to Western Science in China at the University of Erlangen: http://www.wsc.uni-erlangen.de/

Consider how carelessly we use "weight," "force" and "mass" or "speed," "velocity" and "acceleration" in our everyday speech and then imagine having no way to disemble them in writing.

When I looked at the vocabulary of ideograms, I realized that the same symbol could mean many different things.

That is not a problem with Buddhism, but would be disasterous for Ayn Rand. Can you imagine "Isn't Everyone Selfish?" when you have no way to separate egotism from egoism or self-sacrifice from altruism or altrusim from social benevolence or that from self-sacrifice? It is hard enough in an Indo-European language.

If I were to bring egoism to the Chinese, I would start from scratch with a Chinese cultural and language basis rather than trying to import this. For one thing, we have a tradition (if that's what it is) here on RoR as well as within Objectivism generally of "Christian Objectivists" and advocates for the acceptance of Kant and Buddhism and all manner of other ideas. China has a tradition 2500 years old of doing just that: welding ideas together from different traditions. While the central court would debate Buddhism vs. Confucianism (or Confucian traditionalism vs. Confucian legalism) or those verse Taoism, most people just made it all one and had three shrines and three sets of observances and rituals all together.

Rather than having 10 million new Objectivists -- as we understand the term -- we might have 100 million people who will say "A is A, except when it is not."

Post 10

Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 4:53pm

> Consider how carelessly we use "weight," "force" and "mass" or "speed," "velocity" and "acceleration" in our everyday speech and then imagine having no way to disemble them in writing.

I went through the whole university education in science in Chinese. Those Classical Physics concepts are the easiest to handle in Chinese. There has been no change in my understanding of them after I switched to English. I found the most difficult thing is in organic Chemistry. Amine, amide, imine, sulfone, sulfoxide, sulfate, urrrgh.

The pioneering Chinese Western scholars did not dissemble those English words. They started from Latin. Does anyone know what are the Latin roots for those words?

Post 11

Friday, February 2, 2007 - 5:01am

I don't know any publisher. And furthermore, I am highly cautious of Chi-nese because Chi-na had undergone the era of "intrigue under the sun" ("yang2 mou2" [阳()()谋]　in Chi-nese. This term was invented by Dic-ta-tor M-a-o). In 1956, Dic-ta-tor M-a-o asked people to correct the errors committed by P-a-r-t-y. When people really criticized some policies of the P-a-r-t-y, M-a-o secretly recorded them and one year later those people were all per-se-cu-ted. If a Chi-nese sees some other Chi-nese saying that people like Ayn Rand are interesting, they'd better suppose that this is an intrigue whose purpose is to "draw snakes out of the holes". So even if I knew how to contact the publisher, I would not really contact them. The fact is that many (though not all) people work in Chi-nese press or mass media are "ideo-logically correct" therefore very depraved. Maybe you Americans can't imagine this, but that's the case. Deep in our heart we should apply the presumption of guilt in this country. I know this is irrational, but being safe is foremost.

I can't predicate the prospect of this series. But I can tell Teresa that none of the go-vern-ment's limitations really work. Many Chi-nese people know how to use p-r-o-x-y, and we can also listening to V-O-A, Deutsch Welle, Radio France Internationale or A(ustralian)BC. And there are also many Chi-nese we-bsites where the essays are very "ideo-logically wrong". I myself also have a b-l-o-g to which I have written some articles which questioning Ma-rxism and Con-fucianism. A useful strategy is to substitute the sen-si-tive words with " *** ". Everyone knows what *** stand for, but formally the article is not attacking "correct" ideo-logy.

They fil-ter Wi-ki-pe-dia, but we have "wordiq.com", " www.thebestlinks.com", " www.answers.com ", " help.com ". They limit go-o-gle, but we have blingo. They spy Chi-nese email, but we have South African email. In-ter-net cannot be really fil-tered. When the Sino-US cable were impaired by an earthquake in January, some "ideo-logically correct" offi-cials were very happy because the World Wide Web became the National Wide Web. But the State instantly felt the economic loss. So they urge repairing it within one month.

I have bought another book named Selfishness and Self-Interest which was written by a Chi-nese from a legal bookstore, so I think "Selfishness" has not been a taboo any more. Thus Virtue of Selfishness can be published.

Meetup has been fil-tered. I don't know why they fil-ter this site. They once even fil-ter website of MIT.

In modern Chi-nese most words are not necessarily composed of only one character. Weight – 重力, force – 力, mass – 质量, speed – 速率, velocity – 速度, acceleration – 加速度. And Amine -- 胺, amide -- 酰胺, imine -- 亚胺, sulfone -- 砜, sulfoxide -- 亚砜, sulfate – 硫酸盐/硫酸酯 (depending on context). (I don't know whether Chi-nese Characters can be shown via this site.)
(Edited by femino on 2/02, 5:08am)

(Edited by femino on 2/02, 5:12am)

(Edited by femino on 2/02, 5:17am)

Post 12

Friday, February 2, 2007 - 7:39am

On the other hand, I never really understood things such as "metaphysics" and "dialectics" in Chinese, and still don't understand them in English!

Post 13

Friday, February 2, 2007 - 7:59am

Hong,
Those are easy. "Metaphysics" is what comes after a long day of doing physics; sort of like "apr�s-ski". And "dielectics" are just nonconductors. : )

Post 14

Monday, February 5, 2007 - 3:43pm

Femino -- Do you have a link to or name of the website where you found this item? I know a Rand fan in China who is looking for her works in Chinese. Thanks!

Post 15

Monday, February 5, 2007 - 3:51pm

#13 may be closer to the truth than you think. The story is that the word originated ca. the 2nd century AD when people gathered up all the Aristotle manuscripts that had survived. One collection of books (which he hadn't written as a standalone treatise) was called the Physics, and another, equally motley, came after it and got the name Metaphysics.

Post 16

Tuesday, February 6, 2007 - 8:54am

Peter,
That was the idea behind my feeble attempt at humor; a play on the word "after". Oh well, I guess I'd better not quit my day job any time soon.
Thanks,
Glenn

Post 17

Thursday, February 8, 2007 - 1:38am

Here's a comment about Rand from http://www.cul-studies.com/bbs/printpage.asp?BoardID=5&ID=549 .

The eighth paragragh said:

"In Rand's works, we can usually see the surprising confusion of the 'progressive', 'conservative', and 'reactionary'ideas." (Yeah, in Chinese people's minds, socialism is intrinsically progressive, and fascism is intrincically reactionary. That's why I don't like discuss these kinds of topics with Chinese. )

The last paragragh said:

"The thing that we are hard to discern was the reason why Rand broke off with Nathaniel Brandon: was that because of the crazy jealousy of a woman, or because Brandon violated the principle of honesty? Many commentators have discovered that, in personal life, Rand's oft-noticeable arbitrariness and desire for power is a fatal subversion of her own beloved philosophy of liberty."

(Edited by femino on 2/08, 4:28am)

Post 18

Thursday, February 8, 2007 - 1:44am

Femino -- Do you have a link to or name of the website where you found this item? I know a Rand fan in China who is looking for her works in Chinese. Thanks!

Tell them to visit relevant English websites. Or else they will be disappointed when they see Rand being smeared or Rand's ideas being misrepresented.

Post 19

Thursday, February 8, 2007 - 9:48am