微亦足道

微亦足道

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Up all night, work all day. Night owls and “sleep camels” (who don’t sleep enough in the week but sleep all weekend) registered on President Xi’s radar recently, when at a meeting he shared his own thoughts about dealing with the relationship between work and rest. Taking young people to task, he said they shouldn’t stay up so late. But has there ever been a country where the youth didn’t stay up late? Evidently Chinese folks would like to get more sleep, as his comments garnered plenty of likes on Weibo and quickly went viral. It wasn’t completely supported though; a lot of web users pointed out that as much as they would like to get more rest, endless work schedules and bad sleeping habits in general meant Xi would need to put “going to bed early” into the constitution. - SUN JlAHUl (孫佳慧)

冰冰喵hugofanse：我知道年輕人不包括學生， 學生怎么可能不熬夜？好了， 趁寒假多睡覺咯！

I know that “young people” doesn’t include students. How is it possible for students to go to bed early? Fine, I will fully enjoy my sleep before the winter holiday ends!

喂好好背單詞啊別看了就說你呢：有沒有人和我一樣，不知道為什么，就算是沒人和你聊天、微博朋友圈都刷不出新內容、也不追任何比賽或電視劇，最關鍵的是，已經困到不行了，可還是抓著手機不睡覺？這是什么病？該怎么治？急！

Is there anybody just like me? Even if there is nobody to talk to, no updates on social media, no TV shows or sports to watch, and most importantly I am deathly tired, I still can’t drop the mobile phone and go to sleep! What kind of disease is this? How can it be cured? Hurry!

洋蔥日報社：半小時前，我社接到一92年網友舉報，他在北京某廣告公司上班，每天加班至深夜。昨晚，他看到“年輕人不要老熬夜”的講話后，立即向老板提出拒絕加班。不料卻被老板罵道，“你算哪門子年輕人！95后才配稱年輕人！”

Half an hour ago, a netizen born in 1992 sent me his story. He worked until midnight every day for an advertising company in Beijing, until yesterday, when he saw Xi’s “Young people shouldn’t stay up late”speech. He immediately applied to stop working overtime. However, his boss replied, “Who says you are young? Only post-95s can be called young people!”

EUROPEAN LEAGUES TO BLAME FOR FOOTBALL WOES?

Oh, the tragic comedy that is Chinese football. Is there a light at the end of this tunnel, or have so many foggings left this dead horse without an afterlife? The Xinhua News Agency has tried to propose some solutions, and found a convenient scapegoat, which apparently had been playing for the European Leagues all along. Xinhua claims that the European League broadcasts are the reason for the sport’s woes in China, because the high-level games reduced enthusiasm for the Chinese Super League, which has apparently affected the development of Chinese football. So, the solution to China’s football problems would be banning free access to European League broadcasting and charging audiences. Netizens, particularly long-suffering football fans, were less than impressed. - S.J.

CONFUClAN SOLUTlON?

A high school in Henan Province has asked its students to kneel down in front of the statue of Confucius and read the Taoist classic, the Tao Te Ching, at fve every morning. Bizarrely, the Tao Te Ching was written by Laozi, whose anti-authoritarian philosophy bears little resemblance to hierarchical Confucian values. With many students complaining about the pointlessness of this weird exercise, a heated debate exploded on Weibo. - S.J.

阿木格格：跪孔子，讀《道德經》，你讓老子怎么想？如果不能區分祭奠與繼承，也許有一天，英語真的會從我們的課堂中消失，是進步還是倒退？

Bow down to Confucius but read Tao Te Ching; where have you put Laozi? With the difference between inheriting a legacy and paying tribute becoming blurred, maybe one day even English will disappear from our classes; should we call that progress or a step backward?

快樂的饅頭happy：佛經里說過，做一件事要清楚目的是什么，而不要迷戀過程。教學生學孔子文化的工作要是做不好，空走這樣的形式也沒有意義。

The Buddhist scriptures say that when you do something, you need to carry the final objective in your mind and never obsess over the process. If you can’t teach Confucian culture to students in an effective way, such formalities are meaningless.

奔六：孔老夫子作為中華民族傳統文化的代表人物，已經享譽全世界，他的教育理念據說也已經被全世界所尊崇。但是看到河南省這家中學，要求生活在21世紀的現代學子們，給這位產生于2000多年前，中國奴隸社會晚期，封建社會初始時代的所謂至圣先師下跪，背誦老子的《道德經》，還是覺得很滑稽，也很悲哀。

As a representation of Confucian culture, Confucius’s ideas about teaching have been acknowledged widely all over the world. But, I still feel ridiculous and pathetic seeing modern students in 21st century reading the Tao Te Ching and kneeling down to this so-called saint, who was born more than 2,000 years ago, between the late slavery and early feudal eras.

作家崔成浩：中國足球上不去，是因為聯賽搞得不好，搞不好的一個原因，是因為直播沒人看，為什么沒人看？是因為歐洲五大聯賽提供免費電視轉播，他們水平太高，拉跑了觀眾。那么，為了中國足球能盡快上去，就應該讓五大聯賽付費，不付費就不給他播，絕不能叫帝國主義的傾銷陰謀得逞！

Well, it seems that the reason why Chinese football can’t develop is that our league doesn’t operate well; the reason why our league doesn’t operate well is that there is no audience; and the reason why there is no audience is that the free access to European League broadcasting drives them away. So, in order to improve Chinese football, we should make audiences pay for European League broadcasting. No pay, no broadcasting! No door for the dumping of imperialism!

忒沒六兒：我覺得吧，這就好比過街天橋上頭的乞丐，認為自己貧窮的原因是對面大廈的老板賺得太多了……把自己當個事兒沒錯，但太當個事兒就不對了，沒了五大聯賽的轉播，我也不會去看中超啊……

In my opinion, it is just like how beggars on overpasses attribute their poverty to rich bosses in the building opposite who make too much money…It is right to take yourself seriously, but not right to be too self-centered. Even if there was no broadcasting of the European Leagues, I would still not watch the Chinese Super League…