布魯金斯學會主席約翰·桑頓來中國的時候，我採訪過他，他説“中國人了解美國比美國人了解中國更多”，您同意這種觀點嗎？
我認為是這樣，而且有很多原因使然。福爾布萊特議員曾是美國參議院外交關係委員會的主席，我在美國做出版行業時不只做中國項目，他晚年時為我工作。他説過一句話，非常啟發我，他説：“美國人總是想忘了別人想記住的東西。”他的意思是説，美國人的歷史觀很淡薄。美國是一個非常富有的國家，如果做錯了事，他們就把這件事抹去，而且他們沒有在戰爭中受過害，他們沒有被入侵過。但是那些受過他國進攻的國家或者窮國，或人民在戰爭中受過傷害的國家，他們會記住他們都做過什麼，他們會有較強的歷史感。
有歷史感是很重要的事。去了解中國人從歷史中吸取的知識，會幫助你看透世界運作中的某些必然，看透某些必然的不公。是，在美國也能看到一些不公，比如種族歧視，但是美國對於歷史是健忘的。你是可以忘記歷史，但這是很危險的，因為如果你忘記歷史，你就可能不會掌控權利。
[Transcript]
I think that’s true and true for many reasons. Senator Fulbright, who was the former chairman of the foreign relations committee, and I worked in publishing in many areas besides China, and he was in my office in later years. He had a line that I very much thought with, he said, “Americans tend never to remember what other people don’t tend to forget.” And what he meant by that is Americans have very little sense of history. It’s a very wealthy country, when mistakes are made, they wipe them out, they had not been victimized by war; they’ve not been invaded. But people who have been on the receiving end of other powers or have been poor countries, or have been victimized, they remember the deeds that have been done, they have that kind of sense of history.
And it’s an important thing, when one looks at the knowledge the Chinese have, of what has happened in their own history, that provides an insight into certain ways which the world actually works, into certain injustices that are there. Americans, yes we have our injustices, to anybody who looks, racial and others, but there’s a certain kind of historical amnesia in the US. You can forget the past, and that’s a very dangerous thing to do because if you forget the past, you probably cannot control power.
