爱因斯坦竟然歧视华人？日记曝光了一切

The publication of Albert Einstein's private diaries detailing his tour of Asia in the 1920s reveals the theoretical physicist's racist attitudes to the people he met on his travels, particularly the Chinese.

公布的阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦的个人日记详细纪录了他在20世纪20年代的亚洲之行，这本日记也揭示了这位理论物理学家对他旅行途中遇到的人（特别是中国人）的种族歧视态度。

Written between October 1922 and March 1923, the diaries see the scientist musing on his travels, science, philosophy and art. In China, the man who once described racism as “a disease of white people” describes the “industrious, filthy, obtuse people” he observes.

这些日记写于1922年10月至1923年3月，纪录了这位科学家对他的游历、科学、哲学及艺术的思考。他曾称种族歧视为“白人的一种疾病”，然而，在中国，他却用种族歧视的态度来描述他注意到的“勤劳、肮脏且愚笨的人”。

He notes how the “Chinese don't sit on benches while eating but squat like Europeans do when they relieve themselves out in the leafy woods. All this occurs quietly and demurely . Even the children are spiritless and look obtuse.”

他提到“中国人吃饭的时候不是坐在凳子上而是蹲着，就像欧洲人在茂密的树林中放松自己时的样子。所有的一切都安静且拘谨地进行着。甚至孩子们都无精打采的，而且看上去傻傻的。”

Ze'ev Rosenkranz, senior editor of the Einstein Papers Project, said: “I think a lot of comments strike us as pretty unpleasant – what he says about the Chinese in particular.

爱因斯坦研究项目的高级编辑泽伊夫·罗森克兰茨表示：“我觉得爱因斯坦的许多评论都令我们十分震惊，而且很令人不快，特别是他对中国人的评价。

“They're kind of in contrast to the public image of the great humanitarian icon. I think it's quite a shock to read those and contrast them with his more public statements. He didn't intend them for publication.”

“这些评论有点与这位伟大的人道主义代表人物的公众形象不符。我认为与他更多的公开发言相比，读到这些很令人震惊，而他也并未打算公开这些。”

Rosenkranz said that although views like Einstein's were prevalent at the time, they were not universal. “'We have to understand, he was of the zeitgeist , part of the time' – but I think I tried here and there to give a broader context. There were other views out there, more tolerant views,” he said.

罗森克兰茨表示，虽然像爱因斯坦那样的观点在当时很盛行，但却并不普遍。“‘我们得明白，他从一定程度上顺应了时代思潮’，但我想尽量给大家呈现一个更全面的背景。当时社会上盛行的还有其他观点，一些更宽容的观点。”

In his introduction, Rosenkranz writes how it is important to explore how a humanist icon such as Einstein – whose image was once used for a UNHCR campaign with the slogan “A bundle of belongings isn’t the only thing a refugee brings to his new country. Einstein was a refugee” – could have written xenophobic comments about the peoples he encountered.

在他的介绍中，罗森克兰茨写道，爱因斯坦的形象曾被用于一次联合国难民活动的标语中，“一堆行李并非一个难民能带给他的新国家的唯一之物。爱因斯坦就曾是一名难民”，而探究像他这样一位人道主义代表人物怎么会写出这样仇外的评论十分重要。

“The answer to this question seems very relevant in today’s world, in which the hatred of the other is so rampant in so many places around the world,” he writes. “It seems that even Einstein sometimes had a very hard time recognising himself in the face of the other.”

“这个问题的答案似乎与当前的世界密切相关，在世界各地那么多地区仇视他人的问题都很严重，”他写道。“甚至爱因斯坦有时候在面对他人的时候都很难认清自己。”