[Response] Is It True That 20,000 People at Foxconn in Henan Were Infected? What Is the Real Situation?

[Response] Is It True That 20,000 People at Foxconn in Henan Were Infected? What Is the Real Situation?

At the beginning of the well-known A Global History, the author writes: “Each era must write its own history. Not because earlier histories were written incorrectly, but because each era faces new problems, raises new questions, and seeks new answers. The traditional Western-oriented view of history is no longer suitable and is misleading; the new world needs a new historiography.” History is made up of a series of established facts, so why is there a need to describe it again and again? What, in the end, is the truth of history? I think this question may need to be answered from two aspects: data and perspective.

Data has its own truth. It may not be perfectly accurate, but generally speaking, there is always a reasonable range of error. For example, data is actually a dynamic process: 19,000 today, 21,000 tomorrow. But if the rough figure is around 20,000, then it is ultimately not far off. However, if one says there were none, or says the number was only 20, then there is clearly a problem. There may be no strict standard for how much deviation is acceptable, but broadly speaking, as the saying goes, fairness lives in people’s hearts—whether something is an error or an absurdity, the public will judge for themselves. Claims in the past of grain yields of 500 kilograms per mu, 5,000 kilograms per mu, or even 50 million kilograms per mu would eventually be exposed for what they were.

More important than data, perhaps, is perspective. Like the blind men feeling different parts of an elephant, everyone clings to their own version. The world seems like layers upon layers of a Rashomon. From whichever angle you look, that is what it seems to be.