Sail across the sea

Chapter 564 The Adult World
"Sister Wang, let me ask you a question. Do you know why foreigners invented high heels?"

"I think it's to show off women's physical beauty, right? Foreigners are particularly good at aesthetics."

"Let me tell you the answer: foreigners invented high heels because in ancient times, the streets were covered in excrement, and they wore high heels to avoid getting excrement on their shoes."

"Ugh... How disgusting, who made this up?"

"What nonsense! This is an article written by a university professor, complete with pictures. Look, this is a copy of the Siwei Weekly I just bought. This article says that ancient European cities didn't have sewers or public toilets; citizens simply discharged their waste directly into the street. Look at the building in this photo; that protruding part is their toilet."

"real or fake?"

"It must be true, how could something like this be fake?"

"Isn't it said that foreign countries are particularly civilized?"

"What? The magazine said that ancient foreign countries were very backward. Have you ever heard of the Black Death...?"

Shortly after the Spring Festival in 1993, a magazine called "Four-Dimensional Weekly" quietly appeared on newsstands across the country. Some curious people bought it, opened it, and were immediately shocked, their worldviews thrown into disarray. They were dumbfounded, their hearts filled with the dread of a watermelon patch trampled by a million alpacas, juice splattering everywhere.

This magazine has a very lively style, with most articles featuring both text and images, and the writing is quite vivid, making it hard to put down once you start reading. The magazine's content covers various aspects such as current events, society, economy, and culture, and it often goes beyond simply listing facts, instead drawing on a wide range of sources and dissecting the complexities to explain the profound meaning behind a seemingly small matter.

Most importantly, this magazine has a very clear stance: it strongly opposes "Western centrism" and fiercely criticizes various pro-Western ideologies that are currently very popular in society.

For example, in response to the claims by many experts that Western countries value contracts, this magazine published several articles that exposed the hypocrisy of the West from different angles, ranging from various commercial fraud tricks to the deceit and intrigue between Western countries, all of which were well-founded and supported by evidence.

Some readers, upon first reading such an article, might find the viewpoints too extreme and instinctively want to find fault with it to refute it. However, after personally checking some information, these readers are surprised to find that what is said in the article is actually true, and some of it they have even heard before. It's just that, due to a habitual way of thinking, they didn't find anything wrong with these things in the past.

A doubt is like a seed; once a crack is opened, it will seep in and gradually sprout and grow.

I used to think of the West as a paradise on earth, shrouded in the halo of civilization. But after discovering that Western countries also have so much scandal, some of which are downright heinous, the sense of reverence and awe I once felt gradually disappeared.

There has always been a group of skeptics in China who disdain the tendency to constantly cite the West. Previously, these people kept their opinions to themselves, afraid to voice them for fear of being labeled uncultured and ignorant. Now, however, they are gaining courage because they have discovered they are not alone in their disdain for the West; many others share this view, and even some academic journals are on their side.

As a result, those who used to talk big about "aligning with international standards" at work softened their tone, because someone would stand up and question this view and engage in debate with them.

Are foreign practices always correct?

This is what we've been hearing a lot in many workplaces these days. Whether a practice is right or wrong requires research, analysis, and demonstration; it needs statistical data to prove it; it needs rigorous deduction. Who says that simply imitating foreign countries is necessarily right?

Foreigners use bloodletting to treat illnesses, why don't you cut yourself a couple of times?

Foreigners were involved in the slave trade, and you support that too?

What, you're saying those are all ancient things and don't count? Fine, the Latin American crisis is a current issue, right? The magazine said that a group of Nobel laureates in economics from the West were giving advice to Latin America and even came up with a development economics, but what was the result?

Oh, right, it seems there's a group of economists in our country advocating development economics. Don't pretend, you, Professor Qi from Renmin University!

"Isn't this a fallacy?"

In the office of the deputy director of the State Economic Commission, Xu Ying put down the Siwei Weekly, which still smelled of ink, and said to Gao Fan with a smile.

Gao Fan had specifically reported to Xu Ying about the Siwei Weekly, and he also emphasized that the publication was of positive significance in advocating for the independent control of the industrial chain.

Xu Ying generally agreed with Gao Fan's approach and also used her connections to introduce some insightful people from the theoretical and practical fields to Siwei Weekly, allowing them to publish their views in the publication.

Currently, the theoretical community highly regards the neoliberal economic thought of the West, and some people in the practical sector have also been influenced, proposing that the market should be fully opened up and the so-called "planned thinking" should be abandoned.

The State Economic Commission naturally insisted that the economy should be subject to some control, that some key projects must be promoted by the state, and that relatively backward industries need state support and protection. However, faced with the surging tide of liberalization, the leaders of the State Economic Commission also had a lot of headaches, and the energy spent dealing with doubts and doing persuasion work even exceeded the effort put into doing the actual work.

The emergence of Siwei Weekly did indeed provide Xu Ying with considerable assistance. For example, regarding the issue of rejoining the GATT, the official national propaganda stance was rather high-profile, making it inappropriate to explain too clearly the various bargaining negotiations in the Tokyo Round and the Uruguay Round.

Siwei Weekly, being a non-governmental media outlet, had no such taboos. Xu Ying helped Gao Fan and his team find several foreign trade officials well-versed in the inner workings of the GATT, revealing to them a great deal of the considerations and behind-the-scenes deals of various countries during the negotiations. After Siwei Weekly relayed this information, many of the previous grumbling about the matter disappeared, and the "adult children" suddenly understood what the adult world was like.

Overall, Xu Ying was very satisfied with the media company that her future son-in-law had founded, but she couldn't help but criticize it when they met, mainly because she was afraid that her future son-in-law would become arrogant.

“What we’re saying isn’t exactly fallacy; it’s mainly about making people wary of the West,” Gao Fan explained. “To learn from the West’s advanced experience, we must first correct our own position. Being too high is no good, and being too low is no good either. Right now, our main problem is that we’re too low-ranking; we always feel that everything in the West is the best. Without removing this kind of mindset, we can’t truly learn from their advanced experience.”

“No wonder Ruoyi told me that you’re always right. By the way, your father said the same thing.” Xu Ying commented, then changed the subject and said, “Alright, I called you here today not to talk about your magazine, but to discuss an industry matter that I’d like to hear your opinion on.”

(End of this chapter)