And I realise this : the root of all evil is me.
Not "me", but Me-centredness.
Egocentricity, seeing the world through ONLY your own eyes, an utter lack of empathy - is the cause of all society's ills. Xiaxue would do well to understand this, but she never will be able to...
Society is filled with unsung heroes - of the type xiaxue detests - the gentle souls that she accuses of "faking it" - you silly girl, don't you realise it's much harder to hold your peace, and it takes much more courage to turn the other cheek, than it does to lash out? That fire and wit are fine - but ire and sh*t are not. Because ultimately, someone else will have to clean up your sh*t.

[re-minisce]

She is a shu nu. Every testimonial says she is gentle.
how come people say gentleness is a virtue?? Don't men (the idiots) REALISE that gentleness is a thing that can be easily FAKED??! So its not that difficult to be gentle afterall. I can speak softly, tread quietly, learn to play the ku zhen and I can be all gentle and lovely.
It is just that I can't be bothered to.
Whereas, if you ask HER to come up with a good joke, or be intelligent, I don't think she can do it.
There you go. Sweet, gentle girls. Ah well. If there ain't any of those in the world, I wonder who will tailor our clothes. Donatella Versace? Who will trim plants? Who will love those poor pets in SPCA?
Its time for me to wake up my idea, and act shu nu starting from now. Men. They want to be deceived, don't they. I can do that.

[Xiaxue] on some poor victim blamed for stealing the attention of a man she was interested in.

The war of words between Xiaxue and her detractors is like a never-ending reality show. I can't believe I wrote 2 (or is it 3?) entries on her. But it is exhilarating to taste the animosity that arises from both parties. One attempts to stulify the other, the other tries a rebuttal.

In this particular entry (extract above), Xiaxue shows the bluntness and the depth of nastiness she is infamous for. The distastefulness filled out by the visceral emotions of envy, anger and lust, is (as usual) balanced by a strength of self, and a odd burlesque humour. Ironically, of course, while Miss Xiaxue was threatening to sue others for libel and slander the week before, she is doing the same this week to her current nemesis.

However, what interests me in the two extracts is the perception of each individual blogger. To an interested and relatively neutral observer, it is is obvious that the former has constructed the latter's point on the quality of "gentleness" through a formerly attained state of biasedness. Re-minisce is speaking of "gentle souls" and why it is a virtue; Xiaxue about a particular stereotype of women she doesn't care for. They are both mutually exclusive topics but linked by a common subset of the virtue of gentleness. (Am I making sense here?)

If you are truly as bored as I am, (or wish to procrasinate in your work), you can try reading him. He does a very nice job of tearing down Xiaxue's carefully constructed facade of insouciance and self-centredness. If not, you can try his other well-written and thought-provoking entries.

And when my conscience starts prickling me for treating this whole debacle as an entertaining joke, I remind myself of the need for empathy. It isn't nice to be constantly bombarded with negative reinforcement.

What strikes me at times like this is Hamlet's observation on human nature: Criticism stings the worst when it comes from someone that you perceive should be a peer and not a superior; but you can't help but notice that the former is superior in the aspect that you cherish most in yourself.

Xiaxue is extremely proud of the fact that she writes well and is intelligent. To be outmanoeuvred by someone who uses the intricacies of language far better than she does is something I can empathise with. Is there malice or spite in the entire discussion? I don't really know. I suspect that it is composed of a little bit of everything as well as being an expressive exercise in wordplay and argument.

Of course, I could be wrong and imposing my perception on everyone else. But hey, in the words of Xiaxue, "This is my blog, and I write what I want."