四月临近，伴随阳春到来的，还有新冠肺炎疫情阻击战在中国的胜利曙光。过去的两个月里，始终和中国人站在一起的，还有一个熟悉的外国人身影。
没错，他就是新航道的老朋友，厦门大学外籍教授、新航道“用英语讲中国故事”形象大使潘维廉教授。
见证了这场防疫抗疫战争的开始与高潮，也目睹了世界各国应对疫情的反应与协作，老潘感触良多，他把所想所悟都写在了给新航道的第五封信中，与我们分享。
点击观看潘维廉教授英文朗读来信
Good morning, New Channel family! I hope you are all staying safe, and continuing to use your time at home wisely to do things you don’t normally have time for—like spending more time honing your English skills so you can help tell China story to the world.
早上好，新航道的同仁们！希望此时大家都平安，同时，能继续享用这段居家时间去实践那些平时没有时间涉猎的事情——例如，花费更多时间磨练英语技能，提高自己向世界讲述中国故事的能力。
3月21日，潘维廉教授与夫人搭乘厦门航空，回到中国。他说：“回家的感觉真好！”
But today I’d like to share with you some ideas about important life lessons we can learn from China’s response to the coronavirus. And at the end, I’d like to share some encouraging insights from foreigners who lived in China over a century ago.
今天想和大家分享的是，中国从抗击新冠病毒“战疫”中带给世界的经验。文末我将附上百年前侨居中国的外国人士对中国的一些看法。这些看法十分地鼓舞人心。
If you understand the spirit of ancient China, and why foreigners had such great respect for both China’s government and people, you’ll also understand why Chinese today are able to tackle such formidable foes as poverty, hunger, and the borderless battle with the coronavirus.
如果你能了解古代中国的精神，明白外国人曾对中国政府及其人民如此尊重的原因，你就能找到今天中国能够应对贫穷、饥饿这些可怕的敌人，以及与新冠病毒进行无国界斗争的原因。
An American asked his friend, “Did you quit shaking hands because of the virus?”
一位美国人问他的朋友：“你是不是因为害怕病毒而不再与人握手了？”
“No,” he said, “I quit because everyone is out of toilet paper.”
他回答道：“不，我之所以如此是因为大家都没有厕纸了。”
I’m glad people still have a sense of humor! But what is not at all funny is that some of the wealthiest nations not only lack toilet paper but also still don’t have virus test kits even 10 weeks after China shared the virus’ genome with the world. Why on earth are these nations so unprepared?
很高兴人们的幽默感不减当初！但一些最富裕的国家不仅缺少卫生纸，而且在中国公开病毒基因组序列10周后，仍然缺少病毒检测试剂盒，这就一点也不好笑了。为何会如此措手不及呢？
Even a little logic should have suggested the virus was coming, but they not only did not prepare but also went to great lengths to explain why their “democracies” could not take China’s lead.
但凡有些逻辑就会知道病毒马上要来了。但他们不仅不做准备，反倒不遗余力地解释 “民主国家”为何不能“跟风”中国的原因。
Even a week ago, Western media was writing of how China’s draconian measures such as quarantines and restrictions on travel deprived people of their basic rights of freedom of movement. But fast forward to today and the news is trumpeting that the epidemic is now a pandemic and governments are falling over themselves to take many of China’s measures.
就在一周前，西方媒体还在报道中国政府采取隔离、限制旅行等严厉措施，剥夺了人们基本的行动自由权。但时至今日，到处可见的却是这一传染病已经成为全球性流行病，各国政府正忙不迭地大量采用中国的措施来救治病人的消息。
Of course, places like San Francisco are careful to avoid the word “quarantine,” which violates people’s inalienable right of movement, but they did order people to “shelter in place”, which may sound kinder and more “democratic” but violations are a “misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.”
当然，像旧金山这样的地方会谨慎避免使用“隔离”这个词，因为该词侵犯了人们不可剥夺的行动权，但是他们命令人们“就地避难”。这听上去可能更加亲切、 “民主”，不像侵犯意味着行为不当，可处以如“罚款或监禁，或者罚款加监禁” 的惩罚。
Sounds to me like, however you word it, it is still restricting people’s movement—and these restrictions are needed, so why pretend they are not?
不过，在我看来，无论怎样称呼它，人们的行动都受到了限制——既然限制是必要的，为何要假装说不是呢？
The only logical reason that nations could spend months criticizing China while doing nothing themselves is that they naively felt they were in no danger. But this is understandable, given our immersion today in an artificial world of social media. We are bombarded daily with so much bad news that tragedies afar off are no more real than a reality TV show or a movie.
这些国家花两个月的时间批评中国而自己却无所作为，对此唯一行得通的解释是，前者天真地认为自己会免于危险。这是可以理解的，因为我们正沉浸在一个人造的社交媒体世界里。我们每天处在坏消息的狂轰滥炸下，远方的悲剧不过是上演的电视真人秀或电影罢了。
It also seems that people living in comfort in the wealthier nations have a sense of entitlement, and believe that their wealth will continue to shield them from some far off virus even as for decades their wealth and militaries have insulated them from the wars, crimes and political unrest that kill tens of millions every year in poor nations.
此外，生活在更富裕国家过着舒适日子的人们似乎有一种权利意识，认为自身的财富将一如既往地使他们免受远方某种病毒的侵害，尽管几十年来，这些让他们免于卷入战争、遭遇犯罪以及经历政治动荡的财富和军队，每年在一些贫穷落后的国家造成了数千万人的死亡。
As the younger President Bush once declared, “Nothing will change our American way of life!” But it appears the coronavirus never got Mr. Bush’s message.
小布什总统曾宣称“没有什么能够改变美国人民的生活方式！”但新冠病毒似乎从未领会其心意。
In 1990, I thought it ironic that a Japanese strategist, Kenichi Ohmae, would write a book entitled, “The Borderless World.” He claimed that trade was open and free for all nations, even though his own home of Japan has some of the most rigid cultural, political and economic barriers in the world.
1990年，日本战略家大前研一出版了《无国界的世界》。尽管他的家乡日本有着世界上最僵化的文化、政治和经济壁垒，但他声称贸易对所有国家都是开放自由的，这是颇为讽刺的。
Even today, trade is not borderless, and probably never will be—but the coronavirus truly knows no borders. Rich and poor alike fall before it—though the elderly, the weak and the poor are hardest hit.
即使到今天，贸易也不是没有国界，也许还将永远存在——但新冠病毒确实没有国界意识。无论贫富都会受到它的侵袭——但年老、体弱、贫穷之人是它主要的攻击对象。
Fortunately for the world, while the West protected people’s “rights” by doing nothing, China acted immediately, without excuse or apology or mincing words, to protect peoples’ most fundamental right—the right to life.
值得庆幸的是，尽管西方国家在保护民众“权利”上无所作为，但中国政府不找借口、不作道歉，也不含糊其辞，用迅速反应保障了民众最基本的权利——生命权。
And only yesterday, China began testing a vaccine and has already promised that, if successful, they will share it freely with the world.
就在昨天（3月16日），中国开始进行新冠疫苗临床试验，并承诺疫苗如证实有效，将与世界免费分享。
And even as the Chinese government resolutely sacrificed its economy to tackle the problem head-on, the Chinese people also rose to the occasion and cooperated because, quite frankly, they well know they are mortal.
当中国政府毅然牺牲本国经济直面疫情的袭击时，全体中国人民携手合作，成功应付这一困难局面。坦率地说，他们深知自己是普通人。
潘维廉教授在厦门隔离观察点受到工作人员热情接待
Chinese value comfort and convenience as much as any other people, but they remember all too vividly the poverty and sickness that haunted their nation only decades earlier. Chinese agree with their government that if they lose that most fundamental right of life, all other rights are useless.
和他国人民一样，他们也重视生活的舒适和便利，但对于几十年前让国家陷入困境的贫穷和弊病，他们仍记忆犹新。失去最基本的生命权，其他所有权利都是毫无价值，在这一点上中国人民和他们的政府是持相同看法的。
And to preserve that most precious gift of life, Chinese have always been able to tighten their belt and endure hardships like no other people in history.
为了保存这份最为珍贵的生命礼物，中华民族总是能够勒紧腰带、忍受苦难，这是其他民族未能做到的。
In closing, I will share foreigners’ comments about China and Chinese from some of my hundreds of 19th and 20th century books. You will be as astonished as I was at how much the Westerners admired the Chinese nation and people over the centuries.
最后，我将分享几位外国人士对中国以及她的人民的看法，这些都摘自我那数百本出版于19世纪和20世纪的藏书中。在了解几个世纪以来西方人对中国以及她的人民的钦佩之情后，你一定会同我一样惊讶。
And if you understand the spirit of China through the ages, then you’ll also understand how and why the world’s most populous nation today dared to tackle and defeat this epidemic head-on.
而如果能了解中国历代的精神，那么你也将了解这个世界人口最多的国家现在为何敢于正面解决和战胜这一流行病，以及她“战疫”的方式。
Chinese today, like their ancestors, embrace life—and just as importantly, they embrace life with those they love, and this is why Confucian society over the ages has been built on family and relationships.
今天的中国人像他们的祖先一样热爱生活——同样重要的是，他们也享受和所爱之人一道的生活，这也解释了家庭和人际关系长期以来被视作建立儒家社会的基石的原因。
Dying people around the world have been asked what they most regret in life, and they never lament that they did not make more millions or spend more time in the office. Consistently, their greatest regret is that they did not spend enough quality time with the people they loved.
世上那些垂死之人被问及一生中最后悔之事时，答案从来不会是没有赚到更多金钱或者没在办公室里工作更长的时间。一直以来，他们最大的遗憾就是没能花足够的时间精心陪伴他们所爱之人。
So if you’ve survived the coronavirus, celebrate life and “seize the day”! Aipincaihuiying！But when you seize life, don’t let go of those you love because life is too short to not live fully.
因此，如果能扛过这次疫情就该庆祝生命，就该“过好每一天”！爱拼才会赢！抓住生命，不言放弃你所热爱，因为生命太过短暂不容虚度。
So now some quotes from foreigners who lived in China a century ago or one hundred fifty years ago.
以下内容引自一些100年前或150年前生活在中国的外国人士的文章。
下滑启阅
One is Mackenzie-Grieves. She is an English lady who lived in Xiamen in 1920s.
其中一个叫麦肯兹·格瑞芙。她是一位英伦淑女，上世纪20年代生活在厦门。
She said, "In this, our first year in China, an astonished excitement possessed us…I had felt the impact of this immense vitality the moment I first set foot in Amoy (Xiamen). I came upon it by no rational process, no social studies. I met the tide of lusty and abundant life full in the face, with all its primitive urges undiluted. It was a life, at times, frightening in its force. It needed to be strong to survive such human miseries as it daily faced.”
她说：“在中国的第一年，我们充满着惊奇和激动……一踏上厦门的土地，我就感受到这种巨大生命力的冲击。我得出这个结论并非依靠理性分析，也非通过社会研究。迎面而来的生活生机勃勃、色彩斑斓，保留其所有的原始冲动。这就是一种生活，有时它的能量是惊人的。要想在每日所面临的人间苦难中幸存下来，你必须得坚强。”
And then Rose Talman, an Amoy Missionary in Xiamen (a Xiamen Missionary) from 1916 to 1930. In her unpublished memoirs, she wrote, “To their conditions the Chinese have developed responses—frugality (nothing is wasted in China), patience, industriousness, sense of humour—a philosophical approach to the realities of life. These are the qualities that make the Chinese tough and persevering and give them the will to love and fight against poverty. The Chinese enjoy few luxuries in material things. They are not an acquisitive society. The people yearn more for peace and stability—a climate for work rather than affluence or wealth for the sake of pleasure. There is a great difference in the psychology of Eastern and Western society.”
第二位是罗斯·塔尔曼。1916到1930年间，她在厦门传教。在其未公开的回忆录中，她写道：“在现实的生存环境下，中国人形成了自己的个性——节俭（在中国，没有一样东西被浪费）、忍耐、勤劳和幽默。这是中国人应对现实生活的一种达观的策略。也正是这些品质使得中国人坚强、忍耐，并赋予他们安守贫穷和解决贫困的意志。从物质上来说，中国人鲜有享受奢侈的。他们也并非生活在一个物欲横流的社会。这个民族期盼更多的是和平与稳定——这里推崇的是劳作，而不是以享乐为目的的财富或富足。东西方社会在心理上有着很大差别。”
And now a Chinese at Fukien Christian University in 1926 wrote about the right attitude to life. He said, “Fukien(Fujian) has taught me how to live. Material things can be acquired anywhere in this material world, but an attitude to life can only be mastered in the right environment. Fujian provided such an environment for me.”
接下来是一位曾就读于福建协和大学的中国人。他在1926年提到了对待生活的正确态度。他说：“福建教会了我如何去生活。在这个现实的世界里，物质的东西随处可取，但对待生活的态度只能在合适的环境中养成。福建给我提供了这样的一个环境。”
I’m proud of the way Fujian reared me.
我为福建养育我的方式感到自豪。
Oriental Spartans, John Macgowan, a British Missionary in Xiamen, wrote in 1907 in one of his main books about China. He said, “Take the matter of pain. The Chinese bears it with the composure of a saint. The heroic never seems to come out so grandly in him, as when he is bearing some awful suffering that only a martyr could endure.
约翰·麦嘉湖是一位生活在厦门的英国传教士，1907年他在一部谈论中国的重要作品中提到了东方的斯巴达人。他说：“以对待痛苦为例，他们像圣人般镇定地忍耐它。在他们身上，没有轰轰烈烈的英雄气概，特别是当他们正在承受着只有勇士才能担当的某些沉重苦难时……
"…It is this same absence of nerves that enables the Chinese to bear suffering of any kind with a patience and fortitude that is perfectly Spartan. He will live from one year's end to another on food that seems utterly inadequate for human use; he will slave at the severest toil, with no Sunday to break its wearisome monotony, and no change to give the mind rest; …with a sturdy tread and with a meditative mystic look on his face, that reminds one of those images of Buddha that one sees so frequently in the Chinese monasteries or temples… The staying power of the Chinese seems unlimited. The strong, square frames with which nature has endowed them are models of strength.”
“……也正由于此，中国人富有耐心，能坚定地忍受各种痛苦。这种忍耐是彻头彻尾的斯巴达人。一年中他们赖以生存的食物少到似乎完全不足正常人类食用。他们愿意承担最辛苦的劳动，接受没有星期天来调节身体的疲惫和生活的单调，也没有时间让大脑休息。迈着坚定的步伐，脸上一副沉思的神秘模样，……这让人想起中国寺庙里常见的菩萨形象……中国人身上的耐力似乎是无限的。而造化赋予他们强壮、魁梧的身躯正是力量的象征。”
He also wrote in 1907 about the adaptable Chinese: “The strength of the Chinaman lies in his power to adapt himself to the circumstances in which he may be situated. Place him in a northern climate where the sun's rays have lost their fire, and where the snow falls thickly and the ice lays its wintry hand upon the forces of nature, and he will thrive as though he had descended from an ancestry that had always lived in a frozen region. Transport him to the torrid zone, where the sun is a great ball of molten flame, where the air is as hot as though it had crossed a volcano, and where the one thought is how to get cool in this intolerable maddening heat, and he will move about with an ease and a comfort just as if a sultry climate was the very thing that his system demanded.
同年，他还写了关于适应能力强的中国人：“中国人的力量在于他们拥有适应各种生存环境的能力。把他们放在北方，那里太阳不再炎热，积雪深厚，寒冰的魔爪染指大自然，中国人照样人丁兴旺，似乎他们来自远古时代，总是生活在冰封地冻的世界里。把他们放到热带，那里太阳简直就像一团巨大的火球，空气热得跟火山岩浆没有什么两样，常人想的都是如何躲避那令人无法容忍、让人发狂的热气，找到清凉，而中国人却漫不经心、舒适无比地四处走动，好像这酷热的天气正是他们的身体所需要的。
"He is so cosmopolitan in his nature that it seems to be a matter of indifference where he may be or what his environment. He will travel along lofty peaks, where the snows of successive winters lie unmelted, or he will sleep in a grass hut where the fever-bearing mosquitoes will feast upon him the livelong night to the sound of their own music, and he will emerge from it next morning with a face that shows that the clouds of anopheles have left him a victor on the field. He will descend into the sultry tin mines of Siam, and at night he will stretch himself on the hard, uneven ground, with a clod for his pillow, and he will rise asrefreshed as though he had slept on a bed of down.”
“从本质上来看，中国人四海为家。他们似乎不在意自己身居何处，环境如何。他们会去攀爬冰雪常年覆盖的高峰；他们也会在茅屋过夜，任凭身带热病的群蚊翩然起舞、彻夜叮咬，即便枕着嗡嗡之声也能安然入睡，待次日起床一副战场凯旋而归的模样。白天，他们深入暹罗闷热、潮湿的锡矿。晚上，他们以泥块为枕，凹凸不平的硬地板作床，伸足而眠。第二天起来精神十足，好像前一天是睡在羽绒床上。”
He also wrote the timeless people: “One advantage the Celestial [or the Chinese] has over the Occidental, the westerner, is what may be called his absence of nerves. The rush and race and competition of the West have never yet touched the East. The Orient is sober and measured, and never in a hurry. An Englishman, were all other signs wanting, could easily be distinguished, as he walks along the road, by his rapid stride, the jerky movements of his arms, and the nervous poise of his head, and all so different from the unemotional crowd around him, who seem to think that they have an eternity before them in which to finish their walk, and so they need not hurry.
他还写了“没有时间观念”的人们：“‘没有时间观念’是中国人胜过西方人的一个地方。西方人又冲又跑，竞争激烈，东方人并不为之所动。东方人冷静、从容，从不着急。英国人走路大步流星，双臂甩动急促，头部游移不定，与周围平静的行人大不一样，即使没有别的标志，也很好辨认。而在这些行人看来，时间有的是，何必走得急匆匆。”
Mary Gamewell in 1919 wrote about the ancient people of the future. She said, “China is not like ancient Egypt, whose greatness has departed though she still lives on. China is a vital force whose largest possibilities of development lie before her and not behind her. A new fresh life is beginning to course through the nation’s veins...”
玛丽·甘威尔在1919年提到了未来的古老民族。她说：“中国不是古埃及。尽管古埃及依然存在，但她伟大的历史已经成为过去。中国是一个充满活力的国度, 比起辉煌的过去，当下才更具发展可能。崭新的生命力正在这个国家的血管里奔流……”
And Maclay. In 1861, a hundred and sixty years ago, he wrote [it is about eternal China], “It is a noteworthy fact that of all those ancient empires founded immediately subsequent to the deluge China alone remains. The Assyrians, Egyptians, and, in later times, the Grecians, have severally attained to a comparatively high degree of intelligence and refinement; but their star soon culminated and sank into utter darkness. China, however, has never been wrecked, her civilization has never retrograded; paradoxical though it seems, her star has remained in its zenith for at least three thousand years. Through all this long lapse of centuries the Chinese have kept up, fairly and steadily, to their original civilization; and today they present all the essential elements of those social, literary, and political traits which characterized them in those early epochs when the Assyrians built their magnificent cities, the Egyptians developed their subtle theory of the metempsychosis, or the Greeks were thundering at the gates of Troy.
接下来是麦考利。在1861年，也就是约160年前，他写道（这是关于经久不衰的中国）：“一个值得注意的事实是，所有古代帝国建立不久就立即走向衰亡，唯独中国得以续存。亚述人、埃及人以及后来的希腊人都曾发展过相对高级的文明和修养，但他们的星光很快就黯淡，并迅速消失在一片漆黑中。但是，中国从未遭受严重破坏，中华文明也未曾出现过倒退。似乎有些反常，但中华文化确实已在至少3000年的时光里璀璨不已。在过去的数百年里，中国人一直在恭俭、稳步地延续自己的文明。亚述人建过宏伟的城市，埃及人创立了灵魂转世的深奥理论，希腊人曾经在特洛伊城门外发威。这些文明古国在社会、文学和政治等领域所取得的成就，中国样样具备。
"The permanence of Chinese institutions is worthy of notice in this connection. It is a significant and singular fact that, from the earliest period of their authentic history to the present time, the Chinese have preserved intact and inviolate every important feature and principle of their government and civilization. The successive irruptions of northern barbarians have neither abrogated nor essentially modified Chinese institutions. The conquering races who have overrun those fertile plains have stood abashed in the presence of a superior civilization; and after subduing the empire, they have invariably adopted its government, laws, civilization, and language.”
“在这一点上，颇为值得关注的是中国社会风俗制度的持久性。一个显著而又奇特的事实是，从信史所记载的远古时代到现在，中原民族完好无损地保留了其政府和文明的所有重要特征和规则。北方游牧民族持续不断的骚扰也没有使中国的体制毁灭或被彻底修改。马背上的游牧民族在占领肥沃的平原之后，面对高度发展的文明局促不安。实现征服之后，他们都选择沿袭原来的政府、法律、文化和语言体系。”
If the above insights on China don’t make you proud, confident, nothing will! Aipincaihuiying！Jiayou, China!
如果关于中国的以上观点不能让你感到自豪、充满自信，那就没什么可以做到了！爱拼才会赢！中国，加油！
在肆虐的病毒面前，人类是一个命运共同体，意识形态、文化差异等等因素，都不足以成为我们共克时艰的掣肘。正如老潘在信中说的那样，中国人自古以来，就是最坚韧、乐观的：过去的风霜雨雪，阻挡不了我们奋进；如今的病毒威胁，只会让我们更加团结与坚强。
在国际疫情依旧严峻的当下，中国的丰硕战果无疑是一抹亮色，鼓舞着疫病阴云下的世界人民排除万难，取得抗疫战争的最终胜利。
中国加油！世界加油！
【END】文章转自新航道CHN Stories
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