Good vs Evil

On the day that my girlfriend and i came back from holiday in Malaysia 2 weeks ago, i had a dinner in her house together with her parents.

Over the dinner, my girlfriend was happily telling her parents about her trip in Malaysia and the experience. At one point, she talked about buying food from road side stalls, and her father burst out the question, “Wouldn’t they sell you higher price because you are from other country?”

“They wouldn’t.” I quickly replied.

“Why? They know you’re a foreigner, wouldn’t they charge you higher?”

For a second or two, i’m actually dumbfounded by his question. Because it’s very natural for us to take people we meet  are friendly and good hearted, unless they appear to be otherwise. But here, i got my girlfriend’s father questioning me as if every person are readily to take advantage on your once they found your weaknesses. Maybe it’s because of the culture, of the things that they have been through in the past few eventful decades, of the people they grew up with, of other reasons that i dont’ know, that makes them think every people is evil at heart.

And it is this simple difference, that explains why some people i encountered in China behave like that, why certain regulations and policies, although look stupid, are in place.

“Well, not every people think of taking advantage on other people in the first place…” is my answer to her father after a second pause. I’m glad that we continued our discussion to other areas after that.

Although my girlfriend told me afterward, her father’s way of thinking is always different from normal people, don’t be bothered. Still, i can stop myself thinking about the teaching of  two ancient Chinese philosophers: Confucius and Mencius.

Confucius believes every person is born good hearted within, it is through life experience that make him become  bad later. On another hand, Mencius believe every person is born evil, only through education that he will become good.

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