Waterloo: the fiasco of empire
滑铁卢: 帝国的惨败
Journey to the East event in Waterloo, Belgium, Feb 3
2月3日于比利时滑铁卢举办“东游记”活动
pictures of Waterloo event
滑铁卢活动照片
Journey to the East cycling project is an attempt to map, understand and reflect upon the cultural axis of East and West, as perhaps the most lasting generator of global history and creative drive. Cycling this axis goes further though. From an intellectual discourse, this time the axis can be experienced as an immediate reality, being embodied by real situations in time and space, and real people living their lives before and beyond reflection. This is literally about leaving any proverbial armchair, and act with a profound physical effort and risk, going beyond any theory in favor of evidence, evidence, and nothing but evidence.
"东游记"骑行项目是一次尝试，旨在绘制、理解并深思东西方的文化轴线，这轴线或许是全球历史和创新动力最持久的源泉。在这一轴线上骑行的意义远不止此。它将智识讨论转变为直接体验，让人通过时间与空间的真实情境、真人真事的生活状态去亲身感受，而非单纯的反思。这实际上意味着离开安逸的扶手椅，以深切的体力付出和冒险精神行动起来，追求的是实证，只有实证，除了实证，别无他求。
To break down this ongoing action of many months in a row into smaller acts, there will be held several events, marking about any 1000km or so. Each of them will address a specific dimension of the East West relationship, intended to capture insights more precisely, to establish connections, and to generate a physical legacy to be taken on the journey towards final destination Shanghai, where a group of students will start working on a tangible conclusion of the journey.
为了将这一持续多月的连续行动分解为更小的行为单位，我们将举办一系列事件，每骑行约1000公里便标记一次。每个事件都将聚焦东西方关系的一个特定层面，以求更精确地捕捉洞见，建立联系，并为这一旅程创造物质遗产，随行至终点上海。在那里，一群学生将会对这一旅程作出具体结论。
The first event in this series took place in Waterloo, theater of the last battle of Napoleon Bonaparte, who might be considered one of the boldest, and at the same time one of the most cruel conquerors of the East, having led numerous battles in Eastern Europe, and in particular by two unsuccessful campaigns even further, taking treasures back to Paris, or leaving innumerable victims, both from adversaries as his own armies, dead. Napoleon’s scale of ambition was unique, but the paradigm of empire he embodied, was by no way new. He only reiterated this paradigm which was already at least 1800 years old, with reminiscences to the Roman Empire, including the paraphernalia of trophies, triumphal arches, capitols, and other iconographies of subjugation. When he finally lost at Waterloo, the lion on the Mound was not just meant as a counter image of victory, but also a willed attempt to curb the empire not to rise again. We went to Waterloo to set an agenda for this journey: to understand how twisted this relationship between East and West mostly has been, how much suffering it entailed, and how beautiful it would be if, once and for all, peace would not be a lack of violence but a genuine creative act, inspiring nations and their people
peace would not be just a lack of violence but a genuine creative act, inspiring nations and their people.
这一系列的首个活动在滑铁卢举行，那里见证了拿破仑·波拿巴最后一役的战场。拿破仑可以被视为历史上最大胆，同时也是最残酷的东方征服者之一，他在东欧发起了无数次战役，尤其是两次未获成功的远征，他将宝物带回巴黎，或留下无数敌对方和己方军队的死难者。拿破仑的野心规模是空前的，但他所代表的帝国范式并非新创。他只是重复了至少已有1800年历史的老旧范式，这一范式在罗马帝国时期已有所体现，包括战利品、凯旋门、议会大厦以及其他征服的标志性象征。当他最终在滑铁卢战败时，那土丘上的狮子不仅象征着胜利的反面，而且还是一种刻意尝试，以防止帝国再度崛起。我们前往滑铁卢，为这次旅行设定议程：理解东西方之间的关系多么扭曲，它导致了多少苦难，以及如果和平不再仅仅是暴力的缺失，而成为一种真正的创造性行为，一种能激发国家及其民众的和平,那将是多么美好。
The museum shop apparently knows what sells best:
it’s the paraphernalia of the losing party, showing Napoleon on coffee cups,
liquor labels, children’s costumes, and much much more.
博物馆商店显然知道什么最畅销：那就是败方的周边产品，
包括印有拿破仑图案的咖啡杯、酒标签、儿童服装，以及更多其他商品。