Dear friends,
Hello! How are you? My second semester in
Study on Max Weber’s “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”
Overseas Chinese: Past and Present
Chinese History 2 (1840 onwards)
Anthropology
Western Modern Culture and Arts
Regional Cultures and 20th century Chinese literature
So, my studies here are not limited to Chinese history. Due to my
visiting student status and with the help of the head of the History
Department, I am able to cover a wide range of subjects. I hope that in the
remaining 4 months here, I can build myself a foundation in social sciences by
extensive reading and attending lectures, so that in the future I can go on
self-learning in these academic disciplines.
* * *
It is really difficult to buy English books, esp. academic ones. This
problem is easy to comprehend as the market here is so small. It took me quite
a while to find the English translation of Max Weber’s “The Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of Capitalism” by T. Parsons. It is one of [the] monographs
selected by the China Social Sciences Publishing House in their series of Western
classics. The series was reprints from their English originals published by
foreign publishers. Other than this series, I cannot find any other English
academic books available in bookshops in Hangzhou, except some English novels,
say by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen etc., and of course, Harry Porter in its
original language (probably pirate copies).
* * *
As the presidential election on the other side of the Strait is getting
closer and closer, the control over the internet here is getting tighter. More
websites have been blocked recently, esp. those end with .hk
and .tw, at least by our university network. For
example, previously the websites of Radio Television Hong Kong (i.e. the
official radio station of
However, I do hope that some of you can email me with news articles from
HK and TW as attached .doc or .txt or .jpg files. In this way, your emails
should be able to bypass those scanning software or police monitoring, if there
is any. I hope so. At the moment, international news from the American yahoo is
still accessible.
Also, I have discovered today that emails forwarded by my cantab.net
account had been blocked by the anti-spam software of the
Anyway, I am quite annoyed with the internet policy here. Nonetheless, I
accept the reality as everyone knows that this is mainland
OK. Keep in touch.
Yours,
Isaac
Back to the Table
of Contents of “Observations in Hangzhou”
杭州觀察(附錄七)
二零零四年三月三日
下學期開課
親愛的朋友們：
你好！最近好嗎？我在浙江大學的第二個學期已開始了兩個星期。這學期我修讀六個課程：
馬克斯．韋伯的《新教倫理與資本主義精神》導讀
海外華人的過去與現狀
中國歷史二（一八四零年以後）
人類學
西方現代文化與藝術
區域文化與二十世紀中國文學
所以，我所學習的不限於中國歷史。由於我的進修生身份以及得到歷史系系主任的幫助，我能夠廣泛涉獵不同的學科。我希望在餘下的四個月裡，通過廣泛的閱讀和聽課，我能夠在社會科學上建立根基，以致將來我可以繼續自學這些學科。
＊ ＊ ＊
在這裡很難買到英文書，特別是學術性的書籍。原因很易理解：因為市場太細。我花了好些時間才找到由帕森斯翻譯的馬克斯．韋伯的《新教倫理與資本主義精神》的英譯本。這是被中國社會科學院出版社選入其西方經典的專論之一。該系列是按外國出版社出版的英文原版重印的。除了該系列外，我在杭州的書店裡，找不到別的英語學術書籍，除了一些英語小說是例外，例如狄更斯和簡．奧斯丁等的作品，當然還有原版《哈里波特》（可能是盜版）。
＊ ＊ ＊
由於海峽對岸的總統選舉愈來愈近，這裡對互聯網的監控也就愈來愈緊。最近，很多網站被封，特別是以.hk和.tw結尾的，最少在我們大學裡是如此。例如，之前香港電台（也就香港政府的官方電台）和香港商業電台（８８１９０３）的網站在這裡都可以上得到。如今，都被封鎖了。聞說四年前，當同樣事件〔在對岸〕舉行時，所有非大陸的中文媒體的網站在選舉當天都被封鎖了。若今次同樣事情再次發生，實是意料中事。
但我希望你們當中有些人會把香港和台灣的新聞文章以電郵附件形式（.doc、.txt或.jpg）發給我。這樣，你們的電郵應該可以繞過那些掃瞄軟件或警察監控，如果真有其事的話。我希望行吧。到現在為止，美國雅虎上的國際新聞還是看得到。
還有，我今天發現經我的cantab.net郵箱轉發的電郵被浙江大學的網絡的反濫發郵件軟件所封鎖，而不能送抵我的zju.edu.cn郵箱。也可能因此我有一段時間沒有收到你們中間一些人給我的電郵。現在，我已改了我的cantab.net郵箱的設定。你們當中那些習慣把電郵發送到我的cantab.net郵箱的可以重新如此作，因為電郵會被轉發到我其中一個雅虎郵箱去。
無論如何，我對這兒的互聯網政策很不滿。然而，我接受現實，畢竟每一個人都知道這裡是中國大陸。
好，保持聯絡。
祝安！
馮儁熙上
原著為英文，中譯本完成於二零零六年四月十六日。