愛因斯坦竟然歧視華人？日記曝光了一切

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.
公佈的阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦的個人日記詳細紀錄了他在20世紀20年代的亞洲之行，這本日記也揭示了這位理論物理學家對他旅行途中遇到的人（特別是中國人）的種族歧視態度。

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.
這些日記寫於1922年10月至1923年3月，紀錄了這位科學家對他的遊歷、科學、哲學及藝術的思考。他曾稱種族歧視爲“白人的一種疾病”，然而，在中國，他卻用種族歧視的態度來描述他注意到的“勤勞、骯髒且愚笨的人”。

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“中國人吃飯的時候不是坐在凳子上而是蹲着，就像歐洲人在茂密的樹林中放鬆自己時的樣子。所有的一切都安靜且拘謹地進行着。甚至孩子們都無精打采的，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.
愛因斯坦研究項目的高級編輯澤伊夫·羅森克蘭茨表示：“我覺得愛因斯坦的許多評論都令我們十分震驚，而且很令人不快，特別是他對中國人的評價。

“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.”
“這些評論有點與這位偉大的人道主義代表人物的公衆形象不符。我認爲與他更多的公開發言相比，讀到這些很令人震驚，而他也並未打算公開這些。”

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.
羅森克蘭茨表示，雖然像愛因斯坦那樣的觀點在當時很盛行，但卻並不普遍。“‘我們得明白，他從一定程度上順應了時代思潮’，但我想盡量給大家呈現一個更全面的背景。當時社會上盛行的還有其他觀點，一些更寬容的觀點。”

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.
在他的介紹中，羅森克蘭茨寫道，愛因斯坦的形象曾被用於一次聯合國難民活動的標語中，“一堆行李並非一個難民能帶給他的新國家的唯一之物。愛因斯坦就曾是一名難民”，而探究像他這樣一位人道主義代表人物怎麼會寫出這樣仇外的評論十分重要。

“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.”
“這個問題的答案似乎與當前的世界密切相關，在世界各地那麼多地區仇視他人的問題都很嚴重，”他寫道。“甚至愛因斯坦有時候在面對他人的時候都很難認清自己。”