“在2003年她们获得格莱美奖之后，伊拉克战争战云密布的前夕，3月10日南方小鸡在英国伦敦演唱。在歌曲间隙，德州出身的娜塔丽·麦恩斯说：“我想要你们知道，我们对于美国总统出自德州感到羞耻。”美国总统小布什在北方的康涅狄格州出生，两岁时随家庭迁到德州。

”英国《衛報》把这句话在演唱会的报道中引述。这个言论传到美国后引起轩然大波。很多美国人认为麦恩斯不该在外国批评自己的总统，尤其不该在战争前夕抨击美军的总司令（美国总统是美国军队的最高长官）。麦恩斯回应：“我在那里说，因为我当时正好在那里。”^[2]

“此举使得南方小鸡失去了很多南方保守派歌迷。在全国很多地方人们抵制南方小鸡。3月14日麦恩斯道歉：“作为一个美国人，我为不尊重总统的言论道歉。我认为无论谁做总统都应该被尊敬。我们正在欧洲，到处是反对美国仓促出兵伊拉克的声浪。虽然动武也是一个选项，作为一个母亲，我希望让孩子和美国士兵失去生命是最后的不得已而为之的举措。我爱我的国家，我为是一个美国人而自豪。”^[3]

”一些她们的歌迷仍然停止对她们的支持，另外一些反战的人士则对其道歉感到失望。一些人把南方小鸡的CD放在一起用压路机碾碎。由于歌迷的抵制和安全因素，她们的演唱会被大量取消。

“4月24日麦恩斯在接受电视采访时表示不改初衷。在5月2日出版的《娱乐周刊》的封面上刊登南方小鸡三人的裸体照片，照片中三个人身体上印着这段时期公众对她们正面和负面的评价，包括“叛徒”、“萨达姆的天使”、“南方荡妇”、“自豪的美国人”、“言论自由”、“英雄”、“勇敢”等等。

”4月24日小布什在接受电视采访时评论说：“南方小鸡有发表意见的自由。她们想说什么就可以说什么……她们不应该为有人因她们的言论而不买她们的唱片感到难过……自由是双向的……我……并不介意南方小鸡说的。我要做我认为对美国人民有益的事情。如果哪个歌星或者好莱坞影星为此想说什么，那没什么。这正是美国伟大之处。这和伊拉克形成天壤之别。”^[4]

“在之后的几年中她们的事业明显受到影响：演唱会数目和歌曲销量大幅减少，有人在她们的演唱会上发嘘声。但她们仍继续参加一些反战的活动。

“在2006在多伦多国际电影节上的一部获奖纪录片《南方小鸡：闭嘴只唱》讲述了她们三年来的经历。

“2007年在第49届格莱美奖上，南方小鸡获得包括年度最佳专辑的五项提名，五项全部获奖，被普遍认为是美国公众和评委在战争、言论自由立场上的转变。”

在过去这一个多月中，我一直想说，大家看问题的时候是不是可以少考虑一些中国人和中国历史文化的特殊性，而把视野放开，从人类的共性来看待一些问题。心理共性是社会科学理论能够超越国界和文化而适用的基础。事实上，很多美国社会科学家首创的实验或者实证研究，如果研究对象换成中国人，常常也能获得类似的结果。另一方面，一些对中国持批评态度的朋友，也应当更多地从实证主义的角度，看一看类似的现象在有制度保障的自由社会中是如何发生、发展的，从而使他们的批评更有针对性和说服力。理想主义不是坏事，但脱离人类心理特质的理想主义违背现实基础，应用于社会则往往事与愿违。谢谢来自西雅图的朋友查尔斯提供了这个非常生动的例证。

Mr. Zheng Yeqing is a friend of mine and a JD student at Yale Law School.

Reminds me of an earlier article, "One Olympic Victory" on the Wall Street Journal's Opinion page (February 19, 2008), by Hollywood actress Mia Farrow and her son Ronan Farrow.  Mr. Farrow is also a student at YLS.  I respectfully disagree with the Farrows. 

致康涅狄格州纽黑文市议员的信

Quote

Petition to the City of New Haven Board of Aldermen

Let the Games Go On

I was born in Shanghai in 1961 and grew up during the Cultural Revolution. During my childhood, I saw my family lose our house. My grandfather, who studied medicine in England, committed suicide after he was wrongly accused of being a counterrevolutionary and a foreign spy.

Those were the worst of times.

Since the Cultural Revolution ended in the late 1970s, however, I have witnessed unimaginable progress in China. Changes that few ever thought possible have occurred in a single generation. A communist government that had no ties to the West has evolved into a more open government eager to join the international community.

A state-controlled economy has morphed into a market economy, greatly raising people's standard of living. It's clear that the majority of the Chinese people enjoy much fuller, more abundant lives today than 30 years ago. Though much remains to be done, the Chinese government has made rapid progress in opening up and trying to be part of the international community.

Last month I went to China and spent four weeks visiting Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Chengdu. The people I met and spoke with are proud and excited about the Beijing Games. They believe that the Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to showcase modern China to the rest of the world. Like many Americans, most Chinese people are disturbed by the recent events in Tibet. But after watching the scenes of violence and arson by the rioters, the Chinese believe that the government is doing the right thing in cracking down to restore order.

The Olympic torch is in California and is to be carried through San Francisco today. In a resolution criticizing China, Chris Daly, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said that demonstrating against the torch relay would "provide the people of San Francisco with a lifetime opportunity to help 1.3 billion Chinese people gain more freedom and rights." To his credit, Mayor Gavin Newsom did not sign Daly's resolution.

This statement could not be further from reality. For one thing, the Chinese are a proud people. They want freedom and greater rights, but they know they must fight for them from within. They know that no one can grant them freedom and rights from afar. The stigma of Western imperialism and the Opium Wars also remains a strong reminder of the past, and Chinese people do not want their domestic policies to be dictated by outside powers. They also do not want the United States to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Games. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow and the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles accomplished nothing. A U.S. boycott of the opening ceremonies in Beijing would be counterproductive for relations between the two countries.

For decades, anti-China human rights groups in Washington have spent millions of dollars denouncing China. To many Chinese, it seems that this lobby is the only voice that's acceptable or newsworthy in the U.S. media and to the U.S. government. But times are changing. We need to be open-minded and farsighted. We need to make more friends than enemies. Remember what a little ping-pong game did for Sino-U.S. relations in the 1970s? Let's celebrate the Olympics for what the Games are meant to be -- a bridge for friendship, not a playground for politics.

The writer is an actress and director. She became a U.S. citizen in 1989.