第11节：美国福布斯杂志对王刚的专访(2)

　　Gady Epstein, 03.26.09

　　Think AIG Executives are despised? Try China, where the rich have
their own problems.

　　From the outset of Wang Gang's new Chinese novel, "The Curse of Forbes,"
it is clear that rich people will not fare well. We learn right away that
the protagonist Feng Shi is, "like so many rich people," perennially in
debt. He is burdened with the "original sin" of corruption that mints
so many tainted fortunes in China.

　　This anti-hero hates the world, and even as he falls for the young
beauty Jiang Qing in this doomed capitalist love story, he understands
the world hates him.

　　"Forbes is a curse, you know," Feng tells Jiang, in an excerpt translated
recently at a Penguin Group-sponsored workshop in China. "If you get onto
the Forbes list you'll be dead meat in no time."

　　If you think the executives at AIG have it rough (whether they deserve
it or not), try being rich in China. Numerous members of Forbes' China
rich list have been jailed over the years, and the rest, Wang believes,
have to wonder if they're next.

　　"I feel a lot of sympathy for them, and I also hate them. It's kind
of a tragic class in China," Wang says, speaking over dinner recently
at a dumpling restaurant in Beijing. "Poor people and the middle class
really hate them, and it's unclear whether the government, in order to
deal with public opinion, will punish them."

　　America's wealthiest are subject to a ritual public purge whenever
hard times hit and excesses come to light. Today's target of choice may
be AIG, but this has been true since Ida Tarbell and the trust-busters
made John D. Rockefeller the most hated man in America.

　　In the U.S., a free press, independent courts and elected representatives-each
with their own shortcomings, to be sure-help sort out who deserves to
be pilloried, and how to fix the underlying mess.

　　Comment On This Story

　　China takes a different approach. A number of prominent members of
Forbes' China rich lists over the years have been detained or imprisoned
- the "curse" Wang describes.

　　　　　　　　

下一章　回目录