Ha! Mr. Wang says of Song, "She's a bad person."
There has been an apology movement going on in China over the CR for a few years now. My Red Guard friend Zhou confessed in Hu Jie's film Though I am Gone. Tearfully, as did Song. I do not gainsay the difficulty of doing that. This apology movement is, as I wrote then, "categorically wonderful." It is a miracle. The Chinese people are doing this themselves! They have applied moral pressure to exact these apologies and, in some cases, confessions. No struggle sessions, no government threat of arrest and prosecution; this is a Truth & Reconciliation Commission without the Commission. It is not justice; justice requires punishment, part of Christianity's moral cycle: sin-confession-punishment-forgiveness-redemption. It is "people's" truth and reconciliation.
As I read the New York Times account again, and the quotes from Song Binbin's statement, it does seem to me general, as was her first apology a few years ago. She does not confess, but it is more specific than the first in that she apologized for this murder, Teacher Bian's. Some Chinese want more, e.g. an identification of the perpetrators of this murder. I went to Beijing and talked to Wang Jinyao for three fucking days trying to get that information. (I failed, by the way.) I, more than most, understand that desideratum. If they want that they will keep up the moral pressure and they might get it. If now or after a confession(s) they want to forgive, they will do that. The Chinese people can accomplish anything.
There has been an apology movement going on in China over the CR for a few years now. My Red Guard friend Zhou confessed in Hu Jie's film Though I am Gone. Tearfully, as did Song. I do not gainsay the difficulty of doing that. This apology movement is, as I wrote then, "categorically wonderful." It is a miracle. The Chinese people are doing this themselves! They have applied moral pressure to exact these apologies and, in some cases, confessions. No struggle sessions, no government threat of arrest and prosecution; this is a Truth & Reconciliation Commission without the Commission. It is not justice; justice requires punishment, part of Christianity's moral cycle: sin-confession-punishment-forgiveness-redemption. It is "people's" truth and reconciliation.
As I read the New York Times account again, and the quotes from Song Binbin's statement, it does seem to me general, as was her first apology a few years ago. She does not confess, but it is more specific than the first in that she apologized for this murder, Teacher Bian's. Some Chinese want more, e.g. an identification of the perpetrators of this murder. I went to Beijing and talked to Wang Jinyao for three fucking days trying to get that information. (I failed, by the way.) I, more than most, understand that desideratum. If they want that they will keep up the moral pressure and they might get it. If now or after a confession(s) they want to forgive, they will do that. The Chinese people can accomplish anything.
