回忆中国南方
来源：韩国《韩国时报》
2006年1月，我搭乘火车从河内到广州和昆明旅行，然后再返回河内。经过两天的旅程，我到达了广州，第一次嗅到中国南方气息，令人兴奋。那里有宽阔的广场和街道，高大的建筑，熙熙攘攘的人群，而且人们衣装整洁。一些反映二战前的中国的黑白图片令我想起中国衣衫褴褛的可怜民众、贫穷的工人、外国租界、以及在入侵的日军面前无助的中国军队。如今的中国充满活力。
在珠江口附近的前黄埔军校里，我可以想像一些痛苦的历史情景，包括鸦片战争。在军校的展览室中，我发现了这样一些名字，校长蒋介石；政治部主任周恩来以及教育部主任王柏龄。还有年轻的朝鲜学生。
第二天，我设法前往中山大学的旧址。可惜它在很久以前被破坏了。在20世纪20年代中期，这里举办了亚洲受压迫人民会议，很多与会者后来在所谓的蒋介石政变中受迫害，有数十名朝鲜人失去了生命。当我想到这些年轻的爱国者抱着恢复国家主权的希望，在遥远的外国土地上牺牲生命，我的眼睛湿润了。
我还找到了越南青年革命同志会旧址。从1926年到1928年，年轻的胡志明在此教授朝鲜、中国、印度和越南的国家解放运动史。
然后，我在一个干净的火车车厢里度过了从广州到昆明的30个小时旅程。火车穿过数百条横跨的峡谷及河流的隧道、桥梁。我看到现代中国很多“愚公移山”的情景。铁路沿线有数十座泥土结构的小屋，每座的屋顶上都装有卫星天线。
从昆明到越南边境小镇老街（Laokai）的12个小时简直是噩梦。开着一辆韩国大宇巴士的中国司机醉酒似的，在通往越南红河谷的狭窄道路上乱冲。我只好把命交给天父。
在河内，我很荣幸地拜访了武元甲（Vo Nguyen Giap）将军，高龄95岁的他身体依然健康。
我们是唯名论（nominalism）的奴隶，在20世纪失去了我们的主权。在民族分裂63年后，我们仍然没有从唯名论的白日梦中醒来。成为巴比伦之囚的犹太人唱着“在巴比伦河畔，我们坐着哭泣，思念着锡安山。”我会这样唱，“在中国南方和越南的河边（珠江和红河），我坐着哭泣，思念着南北朝鲜。”
1949年10月1日，毛泽东主席在天安门广场上说“占世界人口四分之一的中国人站起来了”。北京将在8月举办2008年夏季奥运会，在2009年我们还将看到，在中华人民共和国成立60周年之际，三峡大坝竣工并全面运作。而且在2010年上海主办世博会之际，我们将有可能看到中国制造的第一艘航空母舰在上海附近某个地方停泊。
在5月12日，四川省发生8.0级大地震，数万人丧生，大量房屋和学校倒塌。中国民众和他们的领袖对救援与重建工作的支持令人印象深刻。人民解放军战士和平民迅速前往灾区，民众踊跃捐血。中国总理温家宝在余震和泥石流迫近的情况下视察救援工作。
我依然记得，在飓风袭击近一个月后，新奥尔良无助的悲惨场面。我想请问西方媒体一个问题：你们在哪里找到真正意义上的人权？是在卡特里娜冲击的新奥尔良？还是在发生地震的四川？（作者：Lee Keun-yeop）
译文为摘译，英文原稿地址：http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2008/06/137_25288.html
英文原稿：
Memory of Southern China
By Lee Keun-yeop
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In January 2006, I traveled by train from Hanoi to Guangzhou, Kunming, and back to Hanoi. After two nights' ride I arrived in Guangzhou. The first smell of southern China was exiting.
Spacious plazas and broad streets, high-rise buildings and the traffic of so many people and their clean attire did not put me off.
Some black-and-white pictures showing pre-WWII China reminded me of the miserable Chinese people in dirt-stained cotton clothes, poor workers, so many leased territories and foreign concessions, and the helpless Chinese armies before the invading Japanese armies. China today is full of vitality.
At the former Whampoa Military Academy near the outlet of the Pearl River, I imagined some scenes from the painful history lingering over the faraway horizon, including the Opium War.
In the display room of the academy I found such names as Chiang Kai-shek, principal; Zhou Enlai, vice principal; and Wang Bailin, head of faculty.
The young Wang with burning eyes was Kim Hong-il who later became principal of the Korean Military Academy. Independence fighter Kim Won-bong was a 1927 graduate.
The next day, I managed to locate the former site of the Sun Yat-sen University on top of a hill. Sadly it was demolished long ago.
In the mid-1920s many participants in the Asian Oppressed Peoples Conference held there were later persecuted during the so-called Chiang Kai-shek coup and dozens of Korean participants lost their lives.
My eyes became wet when I thought of those young patriots who sacrificed their lives on this remote foreign soil in the hope of restoring national sovereignty. I failed to obtain the list of the fallen patriots.
I found the old building of the Vietnam Youth Revolutionary League. From 1926 to 1928, a young Nguyen Ai Auoc (alias Ho Chi Minh) taught the history of the national liberation movement of Korea, China, India, and Vietnam.
Then came a train trip of some 30 hours from Guangzhou to Kunming in a clean two decked compartment. The train passed through not merely dozens, but hundreds of tunnels and bridges spanning ravines and rivers.
I saw many modern-day Chinese ``Farmer Fool Removes Mountain'' episodes. I found satellite dishes on every roof of dozens of mud huts along the railroad-side hamlets.
Twelve hours from Kunming to the Vietnamese border town of Laokai was a nightmare. The Chinese driver drove a Korean-made Daewoo bus like a drunken man, hustling down the narrow passes to the Vietnamese Red River valley. No use for regrets. I just left my fate to the heavenly Father.
To my great honor and happiness, in Hanoi I paid a visit to Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap at his residence to see him enjoying good health at the age of 95.
Slaves of nominalism as we were, we lost our sovereignty in the 20th century. We still do not wake up from the daydream of nominalism after 63 years of national division. Here is a pathetic song the Jews sang in their captivity in Babylon.
``By the rivers of Babylon (presumably the Tigris and the Euphrates), there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.''
I sing like this, ``By the rivers of southern China and North Vietnam (the Pearl River and the Red River), there I sat down, yea, I wept, when I remembered both Koreas.''
Isn't the current ideological confrontation of the two Koreas too luxurious?
In 1968 before his assassination, Sen. Robert Kennedy, on his presidential campaign trail, said, ``We must reconcile with the great Chinese people.'' On October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong at the Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace) Square stirred inspiration among Chinese people by saying, ``The Chinese people who make up a quarter of the world's population have now stood up."
Beijing is scheduled to host the 2008 Summer Olympics in August. In 2009 we will see the completion and full operation of the Three Gorges Dam on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
And in 2010 Shanghai hosts the World Expo and we may be able to see the grandeur of the first China-built aircraft carrier anchored somewhere around Shanghai.
On May 12, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan Province, killing as many as 90,000 people. Hundreds of thousand houses and school buildings collapsed.
It is impressive that the Chinese people and their leaders have stood up for rescue and restoration efforts. The People's Liberation Army soldiers and civilians were quickly sent to the devastated areas, while people rushed to donate blood. Most impressive was the Chinese leadership. Premier Wen Jiabao has inspected rescue work on the scene amid the impending aftershocks and mudslides, which buried more than 200 soldiers.
I still remember the miserable scenes of the hurricane-hit New Orleans which was left helpless for almost one month. I want to ask the Western media a question: Where do you find human rights, in a genuine sense, in Katrina-hit New Orleans, or in quake-hit Sichuan?
Dr. Lee Keun-yeop is director of Korea Center of Social Studies and Humanities on Vietnam and a founding member of the Korean Association for East European and Balkan Studies. He is a regular contributor to The Korea Times. He can be reached at kylee30110@hanmail.net.