a.p.p.l.e..w.o.o.'s DIY life: Study

The Little Match Girl

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:43:25 GMT

My Most Favorite Lesson in Primary School

The Little Match Girl
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by Hans Christian Anderson
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Once upon a time ... a little girl tried to make a living by selling matches in the street.
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It was New Year's Eve and the snowclad streets were deserted. From brightly lit windows came the tinkle of laughter and the sound of singing. People were getting ready to bring in the New Year. But the poor little matchseller sat sadly beside the fountain. Her ragged dress and worn shawl did not keep out the cold and she tried to keep her bare feet from touching the frozen ground. She hadn't sold one box of matches all day and she was frightened to go home, for her father would certainly be angry. It wouldn't be much warmer anyway, in the draughty attic that was her home. The little girl's fingers were stiff with cold. If only she could light a match! But what would her father say at such a waste! Falteringly she took out a match and lit it. What a nice warm flame! The little matchseller cupped her hand over it, and as she did so, she magically saw in its light a big brightly burning stove.
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She held out her hands to the heat, but just then the match went out and the vision faded. The night seemed blacker than before and it was getting colder. A shiver ran through the little girl's thin body.
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After hesitating for a long time, she struck another match on the wall, and this time, the glimmer turned the wall into a great sheet of crystal. Beyond that stood a fine table laden with food and lit by a candlestick. Holding out her arms towards the plates, the little matchseller seemed to pass through the glass, but then the match went out and the magic faded. Poor thing: in just a few seconds she had caught a glimpse of everything that life had denied her: warmth and good things to eat. Her eyes filled with tears and she lifted her gaze to the lit windows, praying that she too might know a little of such happiness.
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She lit the third match and an even more wonderful thing happened. There stood a Christmas tree hung with hundreds of candles, glittering with tinsel and coloured balls. "Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed the little matchseller, holding up the match. Then, the match burned her finger and flickered out. The light from the Christmas candles rose higher and higher, then one of the lights fell, leaving a trail behind it. "Someone is dying," murmured the little girl, as she remembered her beloved Granny who used to say: "When a star falls, a heart stops beating!"
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Scarcely aware of what she was doing, the little matchseller lit another match. This time, she saw her grandmother.
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"Granny, stay with me!" she pleaded, as she lit one match after the other, so that her grandmother could not disappear like all the other visions. However, Granny did not vanish, but gazed smilingly at her. Then she opened her arms and the little girl hugged her crying: "Granny, take me away with you!"
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A cold day dawned and a pale sun shone on the fountain and the icy road. Close by lay the lifeless body of a little girl surrounded by spent matches. "Poor little thing!" exclaimed the passersby. "She was trying to keep warm!"
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But by that time, the little matchseller was far away where there is neither cold, hunger nor pain.
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Studying efforts from Marxist political science

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:32:04 GMT

2 months ago, i decided to learn Marxist political science, and told an american friend that i will study Marxist capitalism. He got surprise: " China is communism, why do you study capitalism?" Why i study capitalism? Is China really communism? I didn't know more about it, just i thought this is one of our compulsory subject in study field.
Right now, after i studied carefully of Marxist political science, i can powerfully give him an answer:

On New Democracy

The may 4^th Movement was an anti-imperialist as well as an anti-feudal movement. Its outstanding historical significance is to be seen in a feature which was absent from the Revolution of 1911, namely, its thorough and uncompromising opposition to imperialism as well as to feudalism. The May 4^th Movement possessed this quality because capitalism had developed a step further in China and because new hopes had arisen for the liberation of the Chinese nation as China’s revolutionary intellectuals saw the collapse of three great imperialist powers, Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary,, and the weakening of two others, Britain and France, while the Russian proletariat had established a socialist state and the German, Hungarian and Italian proletariat had risen in revolution. The May 4^th Movement came into being at the call of the world revolution, of the Russian Revolution and of Lenin. It was part of the world proletarian revolution of the time. Although the Communist Party of China had not yet come into existence, there were already large number of intellectuals who approved of the Russian Revolution and had the rudiments of communist ideology. In the beginning the May 4^th Movement was the revolutionary movement of a united front of three sections of people – communist intellectuals, revolutionary petty-bourgeois and bourgeois intellectuals ( the last forming the right wing of the movement). Its shortcoming was that it was confined to the intellectuals and that the workers and peasants did not join in. But as soon as it developed into the June 3^rd Movement, not only the intellectuals but the mass of the proletariat, the petty bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie joined in, and it became a nation-wide revolutionary movement. The cultural revolution ushered in by the May 4^th Movement was uncompromising in its opposition to feudal cutlture; there had never been such a great and thoroughgoing cultural revolution since the dawn of Chinese history. Raising aloft the two great bannerss of the way, “ Down with the old ethics and up with the new!” and “ Down with the old literature and up with the new!”, the cultural revolution had great achievements to its credit. At that time it was not yet possible for this cultural movement to become widely diffused among the workers and peasants. The slogan of “ Literature for the common people” was advanced, but in fact the “ common people” then could only refer to the petty-bourgeois and bourgeois intellectuals in the cities, that is, the urban intelligentsia. Both in ideology and in the matter of cadres, the May 4^th Movement paved the way for the May 30^th Movement in 1925 and the Northern Expedition. The bourgeois intellectuals, who constituted the right wing of the May 4^th Movement, mostly compromised with the enemy in the second period and went over to the side of reaction.

My life and Literature

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:12:50 GMT

My life and Literature
--Ba Jin
A few dsays ago, a Japanese author asked me how i was able to appreciate authors and books of so many different schools. I repied, "I am not a 'man of letters', nor do I belong to any particular school. Thus I am not restricted in any way." Then he asked me, "You've written many, many books. How can you say you're not a man of letters?" I repied, "As long as I'm not a man of letters, I'm not subject to any of the rules of literature. Nor do i have to be afraid of being thrown out of any literature circles." What are my enemies? "All outmoded traditional thingking; any irrational system which obstructs social progress or human development; any force which tramples on love--all these things are my enemies." All my books were written with the express purpose of denouncing, exposing and striking out at these enemies of mine.

In the twenty years between 1929 and 1984, I wrote very quickly and wrote a great deal. I felt as if my mind was being whipped, as if a ghost had commandeered my pen and was writing to redress the injustices it had suffered. I both cried and laughed along with my principal characters, and often despondently scratched my head.

When i say that i write like i live, and that the highest ideal a work of literature can attain is to be at one with life, and that and author should be able to identify with his readers, I basically mean that books and their authors should never tell lies.

I've also said recently on another accasion that the highest state to which art can attain is artlessness. When i was arguing this point with a friend several decades ago, I said. "Physically attractive people don't need havey make-up. Though my writing resembles an ugly monster, it actually looks a little better without any embellishment." His reply was, "Literary works have stood the test of them because of the skill with which they were written. Who today really cares about the details of what life was like a hundred years ago?" I disagree. Readers are moved by

the life reflected in a story and the fate of the chief characters. This means I oppose fabrication, deception and

flowery language. What I hate most are those glory-seeking writes who deceive the public with their lies.

Jan. exam

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:18:19 GMT

I have two sciences for next month exam: Political science and Economics. Two large books and examination paper, also they are unfathomable for me, make me scared, i wish i can get up at 6:30 every morning. Although i have never tried to be a politician or economist, at least let me read that knowledge by rote, only for exam...

Unfortunately, it is winter these days. Everybody loves bedsheets so much,me too! It is really difficult to get up before 7:00, even my alarm clock rings at each 10 minutes.

The exam date is coming soon, but i didn't prepare anything for it, i only want to pray god, make me awake at 6:30......