There is a story that periodically gets shared on social media about lessons Xi Jinping purportedly learnt from his father, told in Xi's voice (e.g. on Successpedia Asia).
I will paste the full text at the end of this post, but for now I will just note that it involves eggs and noodles and the morals of the story are to note take advantage of others as appearances may be deceiving, not to trust too much in previous experiences and that if you think of others, you will get good luck. No wonder that this sort of insipid drivel gets widely shared, as it strikes all the usual feel-good notes and comes with clear morals.
If nothing else, it is questionable if Xi Dada would deign to have such a story told about him. However, other things clue us in to the fact that this is almost certainly not by/about Xi.
For one, the Mandarin version of this story is in Traditional characters - which are not used on the Mainland. Xi, or someone approved by him, chronicling the story using Traditional characters would be a huge boo-boo (and someone transcribing the words into Traditional characters to make Xi look bad is a story that only a China shill could and would believe).
For another, given the cult of personality, it beggars belief that he would admit to being "a selfish child" who "never consider the feelings of others", whose "companions left me one by one".
Digging around, the earliest version of the story (in English) is found on Accountancy Asia (which Successpedia Asia also credits for the story) dated April 4, 2018, but the source is dodgy at best:
I read a recent message about the lessons he learned from his father while he was young and the influence on him. The lessons about truth, experience and generosity was very well encapsulated in this short story.
No details are given about where James Lee (the post's author) read the message. Given that Accountancy Asia is filled with the usual Business content (buzzwords and motivational nonsense), this does not fill us with confidence about the provenance of the story. Interestingly, James Lee is from Singapore, so it is unlikely that he transcribed the anecdote into Traditional characters (though the text raises more questions - for example some characters are in Simplified Mandarin ("事业" vs "事業").
Searching in Mandarin is more fruitful.
One search result is from Cofacts, a Taiwanese website, and credits the story to 李嘉誠 (Li Ka-shing). Given that Li Ka-shing is a Hong Kong-er, the Traditional characters at least cohere more with the purported author of the piece. However, if Li Ka-shing had really said that, there would surely be some English version of the story credited to him. As it is, there're only 354 Google hits for Li Ka-shing (in Chinese characters) and part of the text of the story (in Mandarin). Interestingly, this compares to 2,010 results for Xi Jinping's name (习近平, in Chinese characters) and the same text string - I guess it's clear who is more popular.
Tellingly, the earliest Mandarin version of the story (with Xi Jinping's name) is also Accountancy Asia. So it seems this is ground zero of the story being attributed to Xi Jinping, in both English and Mandarin.
Looking for the Mandarin text (without attributing it to either gentleman), one finds the earliest version (at least according to Google) dating to Jul 4, 2014, published on a Taiwanese website 學習電子報, whose mission (according to its banner) is to share short stories with big morals. So this whole egg story seems to have been written by them as one of the usual Chinese morality tales. It even comes with even more moralising at the bottom, which I will reproduce at the bottom of this post.
Original story text (in both English and Mandarin) posted on Accountancy Asia:
As a child, I was a selfish child.
I always think of myself first with good things, never consider the feelings of others.
As a result, the companions left me one by one. I am very upset over it, and laid the blame to others.
One night, my father cooked two bowls of noodles. There was a white egg on one bowl and none on the other.
My father asked me, which bowl you prefer?
During then, eggs were very precious food. It was only on a festive
or occasion like birthday that we had the privilege having egg in a
meal.
I would not miss such opportunity and with no hesitation, I chose the bowl with eggs.
My choice was wrong. I was surprised that my father’s bowl actually contained two eggs underneath the noddle.
I regretted it and hated myself for being too impatient.
Noticed my reaction, my father smiled and said to me:
“Son, you must remember, what is visible to the eye might not be
true, one who want to take advantage of others will eventually suffer a
big loss.”
The next night, my father cooked two bowls of noodles again.
There was still a white egg on one bowl and none on the other.
My father asked me to choose. I learned from the previous experience and chose the bowl with no eggs on the surface.
The father watched me silently and did not utter a word.
I quickly picked up the chopsticks, stirred the noodles to find the eggs underneath it.
I was disappointed that there was no egg except the soup and noodle in the bowl.
At this time, my father said to me thoughtfully:
“Son, you must remember, do not trust too much in previous experience, as life sometimes deceives you.
However, you don’t have to worry or sad over it. Life experience is something you cannot learn from textbook.”
On the third night, my father cooked two bowls of noodles.
It looked exactly the same as the previous nights.
My father asked me to choose and I did not act rashly.
Instead, I said to my father:
“Dad, you have sacrificed so much for me and this family and you get to choose out of my respect to you!”
The father did not decline and chose the bowl with an egg on it.
I guess there was definitely no egg in the other bowl. To my surprise, I had two white eggs underneath the noodle in the bowl.
My father looked up and his eyes was full of kindness. He said to me lightly:
“Son, you must remember, when you think about others, good luck will bestow upon you.”
I was stunned.
Since then, I have taken these three
lessons as my principles of life. Regardless of whether it is for people
or things, the first thing that comes to mind is always the interests
of others. As my father rightfully said it, luck bestow upon me one
after another. My career testifies to the principles of life I learned
from my father.
中国国家主席习近平的父亲送給他的三句話:
小時候，我是一個自私的孩子，
有什麼好的東西，我总是想到自己，
從不顾及別人的感受，
結果同伴一個個离我而去。
為此，我十分苦惱，
常常在背后指責別人的不是。
一天晚上，父亲煮了两碗面，
一碗面上有一顆白生生的鸡蛋，
而另一碗面看上去什麼都沒有。
父亲問我，你吃哪一碗？
那時鸡蛋是十分珍貴的食品，
若非逢年過節或生日，是很难吃到的，
我當然不會放過這樣的機會。
於是，我毫不猶豫地选择了有鸡蛋的那一碗。
事實上，我的选择是错误的，
正當我洋洋得意地吃完那顆鸡蛋時，
我驚訝地发現父亲的碗底竟然藏著两顆鸡蛋，
我後悔不已，恨自己過於心急。
見此，父親微笑著對我說：
「孩子，你务必記住，
眼睛看到的未必是真实的，
想占別人便宜的人最終會吃大亏。」
第二天晚上，父亲又煮了兩碗面，
仍然是一碗面上有一顆白生生的鸡蛋，
而另一碗面看上去什麼都沒有。
父亲让我选择，這一次我學乖了，
选择了面上沒有雞蛋的那碗。
父親默默地注視著我，一句話也沒說。
我趕緊拿起筷子，將上面的面條扒開，
我滿以為下面會臥著兩顆白生生的鸡蛋，
但很快我失望地發現，碗底除了清湯，什麼也沒有。
這時，父亲意味深長地對我說：
「孩子，你一定要記住，
不要過分相信以往的經驗，
因為生活有時也會欺騙你。
不過，你不用氣惱，也不用悲伤，
全當是一次人生体验吧，
這是你從书本上無法學到的東西。」
第三天晚上，父亲同樣煮了兩碗面，
還是一碗面上有一顆白生生的鸡蛋，
而另一碗面看上去什麼都沒有。
父亲讓我先选，這一次我沒有貿然行事，
而是情真意切地對父亲說：
「爸爸，您是長輩！又為我和這個家庭付出了太多，還是您先選吧！」
父亲沒有推辭，直接选了上面有一顆鸡蛋的那碗。
我猜想，剩下的那碗肯定沒有鸡蛋，
但出乎意料的是，我非常幸運，碗底臥着两顆白生生的鸡蛋。
父亲抬起頭，眼里滿是慈愛，他淡淡地對我說：
「孩子，你千萬要記住，
當你為別人着想时，好運就會降临到你的頭上。」
父亲的話令我慚愧不已。
從那以後，我把這三句話當作了自己的人生準則，无论是為人还是处事，我首先想到的总是別人的利益，果然如父亲所言，好运接踵而至，我的事业也做得風生水起。
～ 习近平
Moralistic postscript from Taiwanese website 學習電子報:
報長閱讀心得：
教育孩子，是需要完整性的，最忌諱半調子，像文章中的父親 笑遊人間就覺得他的教育方式很棒，他同一件事用了三天的時間，教育孩子三個道理：
一、孩子，你務必記住，眼睛看到的未必是真實的，想佔別人便宜的人最終會吃大虧。
二、孩子，你一定要記住，不要過分相信以往的經驗，因為生活有時也會欺騙你。
三、孩子，你千萬要記住，當你為別人著想時，好運就會降臨到你的頭上。
但…若能再多上一點：「孩子，你千萬要記住，當你為別人著想時，某些人未必會替你著想，但千萬不要因為這少數的人而放棄你良善的心」，那應該就會更完整了。 |
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而半調子的教育，就像 學習電子報所分享的第一篇電子報
分蘋果的故事，文中的第二位媽媽，原本是想教育出懂得分享、懂得為人著想的孩子，但最後卻教育出一個自私又會說謊欺騙的孩子。
其原因就在於，小孩看透了媽媽的心思，表面上做到媽媽希望他做的事來獲得他所想要的結果，而媽媽卻看不透小孩的心思，而一步一步的教育出一個會鑽漏洞、懂的做表面、說謊欺騙的孩子出來。
本文中的父親就不同了，他看透了孩子的心思，所以同一件事用了三天的時間來教育孩子，矯正孩子在教育中所產生出來的偏差想法。
家庭的教育與學校的教育都是同等重要，學校教導著學生們各種知識，而家庭卻是教育孩子們的行為與品性，並矯正孩子在教育過程中所產生出來的偏差想法。 |
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Rough translation:
Newspaper's commentary:
One needs to be holistic in educating children. The most taboo half-tone [?] is like the father in the article who, laughing, thinks his method of teaching is great. With the same method, he taught his child 3 morals over 3 days:
1) My child, you need to remember that what you can say may not necessarily be true. Those who want to take advantage of others will suffer greatly in the end.
2) My child, you must remember not to be too trusting of past experiences, because life sometimes tricks on you.
3) My child, you absolutely must keep in mind that when you are considerate of others, fortune will smile on you.
But... you can add: "My child, you can never forget that when you are considerate of others, some people may not do likewise to you. Yet, don't let this small minority make you give up your good heart." That would make it even more complete.
And half-tone [?] education is like the story of dividing the apple found in the first edition of the learning e-newsletter. The second mother in that story originally wanted to raise a child who knew how to share and be considerate of others, and in the end raised one who was selfish and lied and deceived others.
The reason for that was that the child divined his mother's ulterior motives and did what his mother wanted to get what he wanted, but the mother was unaware of this and steadily raised a kid who was good at finding loopholes, keep up appearances, tell lies and deceive others.
The father in this story is different. He could read his child's mind, so he used the same method to teach his child over 3 days, correcting the deviant thoughts that arose in the child during the process of instruction.
Home and school instruction are equally important. Schools impart knowledge, while at home behavior and character are taught, and deviant thoughts that arise in the child during the process of instruction are corrected.
