Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Morality and Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is a critical issue in the current world. Especially to the newly developed nations such as China, how to really achieve a more sustainable mode of development is a central topic to the government. When the discussion of sustainable development is focusing on the issues such as environment and energy, another crucial issue is generally overlooked, i.e., morality!

A few days ago when I briefly introduce my understanding of China for the Thinking Space readers, I have mentioned that the general loss of morality in Chinese society would be a crisis for the future sustainable development of China. The recent news about the secretly substituted voice/face of two child singer/performer at the open ceremony of Beijing Olympics reconfirms the urgency of this issue. It is fine to have one performer at the front stage while another real singer sings at the back stage. It is, however, a shame not to tell public the truth at the first place. Someone criticizes that it is a disgrace to the spirit of Olympics. Indeed it is worse than a disgrace to Olympics. It is sad for the future of China, and hence it is a bad sign to the world.

An economic development cannot sustain without the protection of morality. It would otherwise simply cost too much to maintain the stability of a society when it is unevenly wealthy and immoral.

If a pretty and sweet 9-year-old "model child" could perform a fake singing at the stage so naturally without even a little bit shame on not mentioning the name of the real voice, what does this model represent? For tens of millions of Chinese children who listened to the song, watched the performance, and literally took the young girl as their model, what have they learned from this show?

If the new generation of China will take this performance as model, China is not a nation anybody should be afraid at all.

Immorality can never sustain continuous growth in healthy way. This is a lesson for a person, a nation, and for any company too.

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Posted by Yihong Ding at 11:12 AM

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2 comments:

Lian's blog said...

I agree with you, the fake singing is awful and disgusting. I feel sick of it too.

But your statement is not all true.

"If a pretty and sweet 9-year-old 'model child' could perform a fake singing at the stage so naturally without even a little bit shame on not mentioning the name of the real voice, what does this model represent?" ---- Someone posted a photocopy of the opening playbill. The real singer's name is on it, and her name in front of the pretty girl.

The loss of morality is an issue in China. It is a modern society issue everywhere. If you just focus on special cases, you can always blame someone's behavior. Yes, there is a fake sing event. I believe the fake sing is just one or two stupid guys decision.

However it is not hopeless. In the Olympic games, we have hundreds thousands volunteers. Loss of morality, do they?

Do you still remember the earthquake? After the earthquake all of the hospitals in Beijing were full of people who want to donate blood to help SiChuan. On streets, people put all of the money in their pockets into the donation box.

Well, attitude is everything. Be positive, don't let a bug ruin your interested in watching the games.

Cheers.

11:44 AM
Yihong Ding said...

thank you, zonghui. It's great to see you stopping by.

Sure, I agree that we should not abandon our hope for the future.

The only thing i am worrying is the young generation. When they learn that pretty face is more valuable than internal quality of a person, it is a disaster to the new generation.

Anytime, anywhere, it is the internal quality that decides the value of a person instead of the external show. The worst thing about this fake show is not only about the cheating, but also about a very very negative role model for our children.

Yihong

11:58 AM

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