"Chinese Cynic" and "Hong Kong Cynic"

What happened recently has made people aware of "Chinese cynics" and "Hong Kong-style cynics".

The word "cynic" has different meanings in ancient and contemporary times.

In ancient Greece, cynicism was born as a reactionary idea. Cynic philosophers represented by Diogenēs, through rigorous training on themselves, break free from all secular constraints in terms of clothing, food, housing and transportation including religion, etiquette, customs, etc., so as to pursue a minimalist non-material life without desires Way. This trend of thinking, even if it sounds today, is still very fashionable.

In contemporary times, cynicism has been interpreted as a distrust of ethics and customs, manifested as a cynical nihilism. On the surface, cynics and skeptics have a lot in common. However, skeptics will analyze and judge the object of suspicion through rational thinking, and then resist. Cynics, on the other hand, tend to show a "don't care" attitude toward everything, using "no rejection", "no resistance", and "disapproval" as the guiding principles for their actions.

Following the contemporary definition of cynicism, it is easy to diagnose the cynicism of most mainlanders today. For example, they encounter injustice almost every day, but the words they like to talk about are: "Forget it", "What can I do?" ”, “Take a step back and open up the sky.” Under the distorted values of cynicism, not only do Chinese people dislike resistance, but even if it is something as small as a complaint, they can endure it. As long as you can live in silence, you will never be born with a loud voice - after all, "the first bird hits the gun" is their motto. So everything waits for others to rush forward and follow by yourself, maybe you can still lead the sheep.

We have seen the cynicism of mainlanders a lot, from Bo Yang to Long Yingtai to countless critics, and wrote countless articles criticizing them. However, how can we turn a blind eye to the cynicism of Hong Kong people? The protests of Hong Kong people in recent years, on the one hand, have demonstrated our idealistic sentiments for pursuing social justice, but on the other hand, they have also hindered our self-reflection. In the face of the infiltration of the mainland, we refuse, we resist, we do not agree... Wait a minute, when we refuse, resist, and disagree, do we commit the ills of cynicism?

Earlier, a restaurant in Huangdian, on the grounds that it "only serves Hong Kong people", announced that "orders are only available in Cantonese and English, all in Mandarin, and will not be entertained for the time being." This approach, in my opinion, is quite cynical. In fact, as long as you think about it a little bit, you will know that the above "declaration" is illogical. Imagine if mainlanders from Guangdong entered the store, and their stance was very blue, would they be easily fooled and break through the "barrier" set up by the store? The laziness of the store owners is that they divide the definition of "Hong Kong people" by language, completely ignoring the core spirit of "Hong Kong people".

Hong Kong people like to criticize mainlanders, laughing at them as cynics who don't know how to resist. But when Hong Kong people are fighting, if they use cynicism, they will laugh at a hundred paces. The British writer Oscar Wilde once said in the four-act comedy "Mrs. Wen's Fan": "What is a cynic? A person who knows that everything has a price but does not understand that anything has value." We all know now that if the mainland is accepted without reservation value, what price will we pay. But have you ever thought about how valuable it will be if we win the understanding and support of the mainland people? Reasonable people know that Hong Kong cannot live alone without China. It doesn't mean that choosing to ignore it means staying out of the way. Doesn't the current epidemic show this truth? Accepting or not accepting reality has nothing to do with whether you like it or not.

Therefore, the fate of Hong Kong cannot be separated from that of China. We reject "Chinese-style cynics", and we must be wary of "Hong Kong-style cynics".