微亦足道

微亦足道

NlGHT OWL ADVlCE

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 (孙佳慧)

冰冰喵hugofanse：我知道年轻人不包括学生， 学生怎么可能不熬夜？好了， 趁寒假多睡觉咯！

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!

喂好好背单词啊别看了就说你呢：有没有人和我一样，不知道为什么，就算是没人和你聊天、微博朋友圈都刷不出新内容、也不追任何比赛或电视剧，最关键的是，已经困到不行了，可还是抓着手机不睡觉？这是什么病？该怎么治？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!

洋葱日报社：半小时前，我社接到一92年网友举报，他在北京某广告公司上班，每天加班至深夜。昨晚，他看到“年轻人不要老熬夜”的讲话后，立即向老板提出拒绝加班。不料却被老板骂道，“你算哪门子年轻人！95后才配称年轻人！”

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，读《道德经》，你让老子怎么想？如果不能区分祭奠与继承，也许有一天，英语真的会从我们的课堂中消失，是进步还是倒退？

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?

快乐的馒头happy：佛经里说过，做一件事要清楚目的是什么，而不要迷恋过程。教学生学孔子文化的工作要是做不好，空走这样的形式也没有意义。

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：孔老夫子作为中华民族传统文化的代表人物，已经享誉全世界，他的教育理念据说也已经被全世界所尊崇。但是看到河南省这家中学，要求生活在21世纪的现代学子们，给这位产生于2000多年前，中国奴隶社会晚期，封建社会初始时代的所谓至圣先师下跪，背诵老子的《道德经》，还是觉得很滑稽，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：中国足球上不去，是因为联赛搞得不好，搞不好的一个原因，是因为直播没人看，为什么没人看？是因为欧洲五大联赛提供免费电视转播，他们水平太高，拉跑了观众。那么，为了中国足球能尽快上去，就应该让五大联赛付费，不付费就不给他播，绝不能叫帝国主义的倾销阴谋得逞！

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!

忒没六儿：我觉得吧，这就好比过街天桥上头的乞丐，认为自己贫穷的原因是对面大厦的老板赚得太多了……把自己当个事儿没错，但太当个事儿就不对了，没了五大联赛的转播，我也不会去看中超啊……

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…