Furthermore, since local governments don't have property taxes, they primarily fund themselves through land sales to real estate developers. This combination of personnel policy and fiscal quirks produces officials like Li Zaiyong who invest in glamorous projects and whose failures are apparent only after they've left office.

— Breakneck by Dan Wang

I sometimes think of Tianjin's library as a metaphor for China's economy: great hardware that looks impressive from a distance, not filled with the softer stuff that actually matters. Tianjin could have focused on filling its amazing skyscrapers with better businesses. Instead, it could only build more hollow shells, while it gained considerable debt.

— Breakneck by Dan Wang

"American manufacturers constantly asked themselves whether making masks and cotton swabs was part of their 'core competence? Most of them decided not." He put down his teacup and looked at me. "Chinese companies decided that making money is their core competence, therefore they go and make masks, or whatever else the market needs.”

— Breakneck by Dan Wang

I've come to realize that there are many ways that China and the United States are inversions of each other. Households save a great deal of their earnings in China, while it is really easy to borrow money or spend on credit in America. In terms of national policy, China is much more focused on the supply side of the economy: It suppresses consumption as it favors manufacturers with preferential financing and all manner of policy support. The United States, meanwhile, is focused on regulating demand, for example, by imposing rent control in expensive cities or mailing out checks to consumers during the pandemic.

— Breakneck by Dan Wang

Overreliance on Chinese manufacturing accelerated US neglect of its supply side. Meanwhile, China hasn't felt the need to wean off its dependence on exports because American consumers are always there to buy its goods. As these countries grow apart, they are going to have to do something difficult: The United States will have to regain all the muscle it has lost for building public works as well as manufacturing capacity, and China will have to empower consumers by getting over its fear of making people lazy.

— Breakneck by Dan Wang

The iPhone has become one of the rarest sorts of consumer products-both ubiquitous and coveted as a status object. It is also the crowning success of the trade relationship between two countries, in which American inspiration and marketing savvy met China's millions of workers, managed by contract manufacturers like Taiwan's Foxconn, to make state-of-the-art electronics. It wasn't easy to organize a workforce to assemble thousands of components into the most complex consumer product the world has ever known. Mastering this feat propelled Apple to become the first trillion-dollar company.

— Breakneck by Dan Wang

原来 Dan Wang 的夫人 Silvia Lindtner 也是个中国通

https://www.silvialindtner.com

终于读完了这一本书，梁启智写得平静又克制。

其实最核心的问题就是一个程序正义：既然制定了游戏规则，那么所有人都要遵守这些规则，不能不遵守规则，还朝令夕改。

和朋友聊起韩国前几个月的宵禁，ta 就自豪地说，你看总统瞎搞，韩国全国上下都不同意，半个小时议会就把宵禁令推翻了。现在总统已经蹲监狱了。

所以要问一个地方有没有希望，首先要看有没有程序正义。

读了前面几章，黎智英真是满满的 street smart：

1. 为了获得逃港通行证，他帮助一个官员举报申请住进他家祖宅的其他申请者，最后这个官员如愿住进了他家祖宅，他也获得了逃港通行证；

2. 逃港前，母亲怕他饿着，在他的内裤里缝了一块金币；出境前，他发现队伍前面有人被搜身，搜出了身上的金砖。他毫不犹豫地把身上唯一的一枚金币丢弃，身无分文地进入香港；

3. 买第一个工厂时，另外一个买家信用比他好，资金比他充分。他跑去和人家说，自己有相熟的算命先生，朋友之前算了很灵验，可以帮忙介绍一下。其实他根本没有认识的算命先生，也没有这样的朋友经历。他去黄大仙现找了一个算命师傅，编号了故事，然后高价贿赂。最后那个买家去找了那个算命先生，听信了黎的故事，放弃了购买。黎顺利拿下厂房，然后把那个买家变成了自己的供应商；

4. 香港的纺织业一发冲天，英美分分提出法案限制从香港进口。没想到黎智英靠这个配额狠赚了一笔，先是通过调整原材料比例发明新的织物绕过配额限制，然后又通过买配额租给别人，做成了二级市场；

5. 一开始他给美国百货公司供货的周期长达六七十天，后来他决定先做白色的胚衣，然后按需染色，大大减少制作时间，而且降低了仓储压力。等到自创佐丹奴之后，从下单到上货只要五天。奠定了快消的范式，连后来优衣库的创始人都找他来拜师，还问他要不要入股。

https://t.me/MothLib/21376

用 Claude Code 把不同书里的内容串起来，感觉可以用这些年在 Apple Books 高亮的内容试试这个方法：

https://pieterma.es/syntopic-reading-claude/

⚠️本频道停更通知⚠️

因个人精力原因，本频道将于5月18日起（不含）不全面停更，原有已存内容不受影响，各位可自行检索已有书籍。

读书会不受影响，照例每月第一个周六举行。

5月16日和17日将集中上传库存的约三百本书籍的电子书，请诸位自行拾取。

自由就是想读什么书就能读什么书

一口气看了几个《台湾漫游录》作者杨若慈（笔名杨双子）的访谈，大概理解为什么这本书获得多个奖项的同时，会被中国封禁。

最简单的回答就是杨双子在领取美国国家图书奖时的发言：一百年前，我们告诉日本人，台湾是台湾的台湾；一百年后，我们告诉中国，台湾是台湾人的台湾。

要理解这段话，首先要理解她的身世。双子在日语里是双胞胎的意思，因为她还有个双胞胎妹妹杨若晖。她们从小在眷村长大，四五岁的时候，父母离异，她们就与奶奶一起生活。

奶奶在他们十四岁离世，于是只剩下姐妹俩相依为命。从此她们自力更生。直到24岁时，妹妹确诊癌症，六年后去世。杨若慈说，直到三十岁时，她才发现自己需要独立生活。

尽管生在台湾长在台湾，她的自我认同是台湾人，但因为生活在眷村（即她的父母随国民党迁往台湾），所以在台湾本省人看来，她属于外省人。这就造成了她极大的自我认同冲击。明明自己认为自己是台湾人，但其他人却认为她是外省人。这也是在《台湾漫游录》不断重复的主题，从“推荐序”的作者新日嵯峨子口中就开始了这个主题，她说自己是生在日治台湾的日本人，虽然台湾人认为她是高人一等的日本人，但回到日本人之后被当作低人一等的“湾生”。

类似的自问自省在电影《由岛至岛》也有所展开。无论观点如何，至少开启了台湾的身份认同讨论，这本身就是极大的突破。

https://youtu.be/XTbtt9tKvsU

https://youtu.be/KklZFRjDVnc

https://youtu.be/FPwmerdYBAY

其实早就读完了英文版的《黎智英传》，买一本纸质版之处吧

奥巴马的2026夏季书单

https://x.com/barackobama/status/2082572074208395552

连着《少年台湾史》和《台湾漫游录》一起读，总体的感觉就是我们对台湾知之甚少，对台湾人的想法一无所知。

想起之前看的电影《由岛至岛》，讲述了日本殖民时期，派遣台籍日裔士兵侵占东南亚的历史。同样也是一段鲜为人知的历史。

别说对台湾的历史我们只知道个皮毛，我们甚至对自己的历史都一知半解。远得不说，就拿所有人都经历的 covid，除了官方的宏大叙事之外，还剩多少记述，还剩多少记忆？