用 peasant 描述中国农民
Farmers in China have been sometimes referred to as "peasants" in English language sources. However, the traditional term for farmer, nongfu (农夫), simply refers to "farmer" or "agricultural worker." In the 19th century, Japanese intellectuals reinvented the Chinese terms fengjian (封建) for "feudalism" and nongmin (农民), or "farming people," terms used in the description of feudal Japanese society.[15] These terms created a negative image of Chinese farmers by making a class distinction where one had not previously existed.[16] Anthropologist Myron Cohen considers these terms to be neologisms that represented a cultural and political invention. He writes:[17]
This divide represented a radical departure from tradition: [F.W. Mote] and others have shown how especially during the later imperial era (Ming and Qing dynasties), China was notable for the cultural, social, political, and economic interpenetration of city and countryside. But the term nongmin did enter China in association with Marxist and non-Marxist Western perceptions of the "peasant," thereby putting the full weight of the Western heritage to use in a new and sometimes harshly negative representation of China's rural population. Likewise, with this development Westerners found it all the more "natural" to apply their own historically derived images of the peasant to what they observed or were told in China. The idea of the peasant remains powerfully entrenched in the Western perception of China to this very day.
Modern Western writers often continue to use the term peasant for Chinese farmers, typically without ever defining what the term means.[18] This Western use of the term suggests that China is stagnant, "medieval," underdeveloped, and held back by its rural population.[19] Cohen writes that the "imposition of the historically burdened Western contrasts of town and country, shopkeeper and peasant, or merchant and landlord, serves only to distort the realities of the Chinese economic tradition."[20]
在英语中，中国的农民有时候会被称为 peasant。
但是，中文里对于农民的传统称呼为农夫，这个词仅仅指农民或者从事农业劳动的人。在 19 世纪，日本学者重新发明了中文词 封建 (feudalism) 和农民（即从事农业的人），这些词主要用于描述日本封建社会。它们通过区分以前没有的阶级，给中国农民塑造了一种负面形象。人类学家 Myron Cohen 将这些词视为新词，代表了一种文化和政治上的发明创造。他写道：
这种区分代表了与传统的急速分离：F.W. Mote 以及其他人已经说明，中国，特别是在后期的帝国时代（明朝和清朝），城市和乡村的在文化、社会、政治和经济上发生了显著交融。但是农民这个词进入中国时却与西方对于“peasant”的马克思主义理解和非马克思主义理解有了关联，进而将西方的遗留大量用在了新的且有时全然相反的中国农村人口身上。与此类似，西方人在这种发展变化过程中发现，将他们自己历史上产生的农民印象用在他们发现或被告知的中国事情上非常“自然”。西方对于中国农民的这种理解到今天仍然根深蒂固。
现代西方作者仍旧会不断对中国农民使用 peasant 这个词，而且通常都不界定这个词的意思。西方对这个词的使用给人的印象是，中国停滞不前、“中世纪”一般、欠发达、被其农村人口抑制了发展。Cohen 写道“将西方历史上产生的城镇和乡村、店主和农民或者商人和地主之间的差异强加到中国身上只会扭曲中国经济传统的实际情况。”
translated from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant#Use_of_the_term_for_Chinese_farmers
This divide represented a radical departure from tradition: [F.W. Mote] and others have shown how especially during the later imperial era (Ming and Qing dynasties), China was notable for the cultural, social, political, and economic interpenetration of city and countryside. But the term nongmin did enter China in association with Marxist and non-Marxist Western perceptions of the "peasant," thereby putting the full weight of the Western heritage to use in a new and sometimes harshly negative representation of China's rural population. Likewise, with this development Westerners found it all the more "natural" to apply their own historically derived images of the peasant to what they observed or were told in China. The idea of the peasant remains powerfully entrenched in the Western perception of China to this very day.
Modern Western writers often continue to use the term peasant for Chinese farmers, typically without ever defining what the term means.[18] This Western use of the term suggests that China is stagnant, "medieval," underdeveloped, and held back by its rural population.[19] Cohen writes that the "imposition of the historically burdened Western contrasts of town and country, shopkeeper and peasant, or merchant and landlord, serves only to distort the realities of the Chinese economic tradition."[20]
在英语中，中国的农民有时候会被称为 peasant。
但是，中文里对于农民的传统称呼为农夫，这个词仅仅指农民或者从事农业劳动的人。在 19 世纪，日本学者重新发明了中文词 封建 (feudalism) 和农民（即从事农业的人），这些词主要用于描述日本封建社会。它们通过区分以前没有的阶级，给中国农民塑造了一种负面形象。人类学家 Myron Cohen 将这些词视为新词，代表了一种文化和政治上的发明创造。他写道：
这种区分代表了与传统的急速分离：F.W. Mote 以及其他人已经说明，中国，特别是在后期的帝国时代（明朝和清朝），城市和乡村的在文化、社会、政治和经济上发生了显著交融。但是农民这个词进入中国时却与西方对于“peasant”的马克思主义理解和非马克思主义理解有了关联，进而将西方的遗留大量用在了新的且有时全然相反的中国农村人口身上。与此类似，西方人在这种发展变化过程中发现，将他们自己历史上产生的农民印象用在他们发现或被告知的中国事情上非常“自然”。西方对于中国农民的这种理解到今天仍然根深蒂固。
现代西方作者仍旧会不断对中国农民使用 peasant 这个词，而且通常都不界定这个词的意思。西方对这个词的使用给人的印象是，中国停滞不前、“中世纪”一般、欠发达、被其农村人口抑制了发展。Cohen 写道“将西方历史上产生的城镇和乡村、店主和农民或者商人和地主之间的差异强加到中国身上只会扭曲中国经济传统的实际情况。”
translated from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant#Use_of_the_term_for_Chinese_farmers
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