18/06/13 21:15:26.04 .net
アインシュタインが1920年代にアジアを旅行した時の日記が出版されるようなんですが、
Einstein's travel diaries reveal 'shocking' xenophobia
URLﾘﾝｸ(www.theguardian.com)
中国人に対する差別的な描写が物議を醸しています。
In China, the man who famously once described racism as “a disease of white people” describes the “industrious, filthy, obtuse people” he observes.
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.” After earlier writing of the “abundance of offspring”
and the “fecundity” of the Chinese, he goes on to say: “It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.”
一方日本に対しては、
Einstein’s perceptions of the Japanese he meets are, in contrast, more positive: “Japanese unostentatious, decent, altogether very appealing,”
he writes. “Pure souls as nowhere else among people. One has to love and admire this country.” But Rosenkranz points out that he also concludes that
the “intellectual needs of this nation seem to be weaker than their artistic ones – natural disposition?”
どう思われますか？