我們的黃金時代

by 周保松

人的歷史意識和價值意識，不是說有就有，而需要認真研讀歷史和嚴肅探究價值。香港正進入一個不確定的轉型時代。我們身在其中，不僅要有激情和勇氣，也要對時代處境有清醒認識和合理判斷。這是艱難的過程，我們需要一起學習。這本書，記載了作者周保松的思想，也承載了他的情感。作者一直不諱言他是新移民，在深水埗鴨寮街長大，三十多年來受惠於香港的自由環境，得以讀書教書，認識許多有意思的好人。

作者說，這幾年，他經常在街頭聽見成千上萬的人一起高喊「香港人」。是的，香港人。千言萬語，盡在其中。香港很黯淡，香港也很光明。香港很絕望，香港也充滿希望；香港很無情，香港也處處是愛。香港人啊，真正美好的東西，用心就能看見。

Genres: Nonfiction, China

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

周保松，香港中文大學哲學系畢業，英國倫敦政治及經濟學院博士，現為香港中文大學政治與行政學系副教授。研究興趣為當代政治哲學，尤其是自由主義和社會正義理論。曾獲中文大學校長模範教學獎及通識教育模範教學獎。著有《自由人的平等政治》、《走進生命的學問》、《相遇》、《政治哲學對話錄》等。

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many paragraphs in this book that I want to quote.

Freedom is the lifeblood of an university, without freedom, university is nothing.

Updated@09/03/2022:My thoughts so far:

The title of this collection of essays is 'Our Golden Age', by Chow Po Chung, an intellectual teaching in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The title of this book can actually be seen as an irony because we all know that since 2014 to the current days, Hong Kong society has been plunged into a fucking Dark Age: people are fired from their jobs or lost their chance of getting an education because they went to protests; politicians, reporters, medics, elderly, workers, students and teachers etc got thrown into jail for fighting for democracy and demanding social/political reform or by just simply saying things that CCP doesn't like.

Things are gloomy (it has been gloomy for a long period, ever since the first mass protest in the year 2003) and to be frank there is no light at the end of the tunnel for most HongKongers.

And no one can say for sure, for how long can free-thinkers such as Mr. Chow keep his job in the university and continue to teach?

Despite the grim situation, Mr. Chow's essays are of hope and optimism, but he is optimist not because he believes our situation will be improved any time soon or the CCP will have a change of heart or everything will be back to normal. It won't. But what is hopeful is the fact that men and women of Hong Kong did stand up to fight for their rights and paid the heavy prices, and Mr. Chow believes it's our duty (to ourselves and to history) to do our own parts to make sure their bravery and sacrifice will not be in vain.

On the surface, what the author said in this book are mostly common sense and commonplace, for example: the society should be free and open, the government and its policies should be opened for all to discuss and decide, different voices should be respected in the education system and the media, etc. But in a dark age like this, common sense is not so common and it's getting increasingly difficult to keep common sense intact.

[Cheila Vega · Rating 3 out of 5]

本书购于2019/8/5希慎诚品，不知何解下一步即搭乘港岛线来到金钟，出站后满街满眼都是黑压压的人群，至今仍记得一束女声大叫“香港人，出嚟呀”，我身为旁观听者也无法不动容，想来也算参与过、出现于那一年的时代大气候。

情真意切，是为爱也，很难否定吧。在最艰难时候也可从作者行文中窥见得到他对前路保持乐观的心气与精神，但后来结局如何，你我都知；如今又是一个六月，而六年飞逝如斯，令问题迎来转机的可能性似乎又严峻泯灭了许多，我们还坚信那些美好的话语吗？希望答案依然肯定。

我印象颇深其实是在《做一只有尊严的蛋》此一篇章。作者深深思辨，拒绝高墙与鸡蛋的二元对立，我认同，因为一个怀揣自由立场却无奈深陷威权囹圄的进步知识分子，也可能有心利用这些美名去引诱对他信任、对他敬重的女学生，同时辜负他的家庭——如众人所见。作者彼时是鸡蛋，但在何时双眼一闭便化身为高墙？你通篇宣扬的德性坚守，被抛诸何处？

Anyway, 加油，这是属于我们每一个人的对抗；不论课题大小，我们都能够从本书中汲取宝贵的养分，去面对今后的人生吧。

[Zen Jayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

溫暖而又堅定。

[潮汐 · Rating 5 out of 5]

睇到落淚

[Christopher So · Rating 5 out of 5]

活在現今世代的香港人別具意義

[Kaxing Leung · Rating 5 out of 5]

「這樣的風景，由我們創造。如果我們看到，並好好珍惜，這就是我們的黃金時代。」

[MWY · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. He’s a well known professor in Hong Kong, and if you went to CUHK you probably know his classes were always packed. This is an early book, written around 2019, reflecting on the political movements that came before and around that year. It gives you a general sense of who he is as a person and how he sees the world, through short pieces of writing, including some from his famous class on The Little Prince and on the ethics of politics. Reading this gave me a good entry point before diving into his other books.

One thing that really stood out to me was his explanation of game theory, specifically how a person’s best individual action isn’t always the best collective action. That’s part of why so many people stop caring about justice in a system. They know the system has flaws, but they still choose to follow the rules because it lets them maximize their own certainty and play their own strategy within it. I think this kind of strategic collusion explains a lot of the cynicism among middle class people in Hong Kong. They see through the contradictions and injustice of the system, but they perform compliance anyway. It’s a knowing resignation rather than naive belief, and honestly, I think that’s one of the biggest problems in Hong Kong right now. I include myself in that.

Another thing that stood out was learning more about him as a person. He grew up in a grassroots background in Sham Shui Po, and he’s deeply grateful for everything Hong Kong gave him. I think that’s a common feeling among my parents’ generation, people born in Hong Kong in the fifties through seventies, when the city was very poor and families were large. Hong Kong developed a lot through the eighties and nineties, and if you worked hard back then, you really could change your life. That’s the lion rock spirit people talk about. My parents’ generation lived that, and it gave them a strong sense of belonging, because they feel like they built Hong Kong and Hong Kong gave them everything in return, the freedom to do business, the social mobility, all of it. Hong Kong went from a place full of refugees with almost nothing to a place with a much bigger middle class, and that shift is why people of that generation love Hong Kong so much.

I’m twenty one, and the Hong Kong I grew up in is very different from theirs. But reading this helped me understand a bit more why people like him love it the way they do, even through the colonial period and everything after. I’m grateful there are people like him who keep doing things for Hong Kong even now that it’s harder. I’ve heard from friends who took his classes that he isn’t always the easiest personality in person, but I still really appreciate his writing, and I hope more people our age keep reading him and carrying that spirit forward.

[TT · Rating 5 out of 5]

「有一樣很重要，但卻為大部分人忽略的，是香港所代表的現代價值，包括自由、自主、公平、法治、廉潔、次序、多元、開放，還有我們一直在爭取的民主。這些價值不僅為香港人珍惜，同意為中國人嚮往。這些價值並不抽象，而是反映於我們的教育、文學、出版、電影、音樂和學術書寫，體現於「六四」維園燭光集會和我們的社會運動，實踐於我麼的制度和日常生活。香港為之香港，因為它的價值。
[...]我必須強調，我並不認為香港文化中所有東西都是好的。恰恰相反，和世界其他地方一樣，香港文化裏面，同樣有許多東西值得我們批判和揚棄。所以，什麼是真正的香港核心價值，以及這些價值為什麼值得我們支持，必須在公共領域得到充分的討論，並在社會運動中得到實踐。
這是我們共同的道德事業。如果我們認同這些價值，珍惜這些價值，並在生活中實現這些價值，那麼香港作為命運共同體，就會有她的獨特個性。有了個性，香港就不用擔心沒有她的未來。」
讀周老師這本書，很難不傷感。在送中運動結束後，在國安法實行後，香港人“港人治港”的美好理想都粉碎了。

盧梭曾經對波蘭人說：“You may not prevent them from swallowing you up; see to it at least that they will not be able to digest you. No matter what is done, before Poland has been placed in a position to resist her enemies, she will be overwhelmed by them a hundred times. The virtue of her citizens, their patriotic zeal, the particular way in which national institutions may be able to form their souls, this is the only rampart which will always stand ready to defend her, and which no army will ever be able to breach. If you see to it that no Pole can ever become a Russian, I guarantee that Russia will not subjugate Poland.”

很多年前，我抵達西藏的拉薩時，到處都是連鎖店和持標語的紅布條，知道自己來晚了，拉薩已經失去了她的獨特性，變了只是中國眾多城市的其中一個。我真心祈望香港不會變成下一個拉薩。