No Winter is Insuperable - A New Year's Message
Even if all we can offer is a small, flickering glimmer
Below is Southern Weekly’s 2009 New Year’s message, published on December 31, 2008, when the newspaper was among China’s most recognizable media outlets.
新年献词：没有一个冬天不可逾越
New Year’s Message: No Winter is Insuperable
When a thin veil of unease stirred by economic crisis settles upon the heart, when the cold wind harries the fallen leaves and word of snow drifts down from the north, let a distant voice be heard again on this opening day of the year.
Ten years ago today, this paper published its New Year’s Message for 1999: “Let the powerless find power; let the pessimistic press on.” Today, as Southern Weekly holds fast to the path of journalistic professionalism, those words remain a compass for the spirit. Their ambition is carried forward, with all the strength that can be mustered, and honoured as a great tradition.
China has crossed a decade like a raging current. So much splendour has already slipped into anecdote, folded into laughter, told and retold until the edges are smooth. Yet this one maxim returns, year after year, with a low and insistent resonance. In the hush of a New Year’s morning, it rings with the clarity of a bell across a frost-bound valley.
So today, let us meet again in the simplest, and the most beautiful, of spiritual traditions. Let us draw strength from within. Let us recover the most ardent convictions. Let us keep moving because it is ours to do, and because we are society’s backbone.
That is why, when the Wenchuan earthquake struck, grief did not stop at the epicentre, and sorrow did not end a thousand miles away. That is why, when the Beijing Olympics arrived, the glory belonged not only to the comfortable, but also to the poor. That is why, when the melamine milk scandal broke, whether we were mothers and fathers already, or had not yet had children, we still rose as one and could not swallow the anger.
Because China is one whole. Because we share fortune and hardship alike. Because we are never truly apart, not even for a moment.
And because we are society’s backbone. Because when we question our conscience, we hear an answer that does not waver: our love for people is beyond doubt, and our love for this country is beyond doubt.
When we press our hand to our heart, that deep love for this country has already told us what to do.
That is why we do not only praise the nation’s progress, but also criticise what remains imperfect; why we cradle “truth” as one cups a candle-flame, and keep our footing even when the roar of the crowd swells into a gale; why, even if all we can offer is a small, flickering glimmer, there is still something noble in the act of holding it up.
And that is why you buy this paper today, even though it offers no information for profit, and not much in the way of entertainment.
It is because we are rational patriots. We have lived through the grief of the earthquake; we have witnessed the splendour of the Olympics; and after thirty years of reform and opening up, we have come of age. When we meet on this New Year’s sheet of newsprint, we meet as society’s backbone.
And at this moment, let us look back. Thirty years ago, at the dawn of reform and opening up, our parents set out on narrow, twisting tracks, with little to rely on but grit and resolve. They lived through times of bewildering complexity. They walked a journey that was long, and heavy.
Today, their mission to the country is done. Their hair has turned grey. They look back on the world they and their generation hewed and shaped.
Our children live in a better world than theirs. But have we stopped to ask whether they have a right to a world better still? And if one day they press us for our story, will we be able to say this: that we did not shrug off responsibility, and we did not betray the trust of history?
That is why we cannot be cynical. That is why we cannot settle for the complaint that “it can’t be changed”. That is why we must seek the most ardent convictions. That is why we cast our gaze into the depths of history and trace this country’s long, winding journey over more than a century.
Because we are society’s backbone.
The further we gaze into the depths of history, the firmer our resolve becomes. Yes: we must stand, without wavering, for the values shared by all humankind. We stand for progress, for democracy, for freedom, and for human rights. We stand for China’s journey towards a modern civilisation.
More than a century ago, our forebears saw that clinging to the old ways, shut within our own culture, was no longer enough to secure the nation’s survival. Thus, they buried their anguish, crossed the oceans, and went in search of a path to renewal. And so the winds from the West breathed upon the East: arsenals were built to resist foreign aggression, schools were founded to prepare for the future, newspapers were established to awaken the public mind. And so “Mr Democracy” and “Mr Science” brought a light of revival to this ancient land.
Standing at this end of that long river of time, have we asked ourselves where this nation’s hope comes from? Have we asked ourselves how to carry that hope forward, so that we do not fail the future of the country, and its people?
That is why we insist that every social force be allowed a fair contest. That is why we call for reform and opening up to rise above factional and vested interests. That is why we support the continued deepening of reform. That is why justice, and fairness, must remain our destination—whatever happens; why the drift towards a rich state and a poor people must be completely reversed—no matter how intricate the work, how demanding the task.
All of it comes down to this: history’s baton is now in our hands. We are society’s backbone, not because we sit in high office, not because we have money to spare, not because we are the cleverest minds. No. We are not even better than any generation of Chinese before us. We simply have this chance. We have a chance to make China better. And we have a responsibility to make China better.
Do not whisper. Let us lift our voices and sing together. Sing a song that calls for the shared happiness of the nation and its people. It comes to us from more than a century ago, and it echoes still, here and now.
That is why we must believe in our mission: let the powerless find power; let the pessimistic press on. Seek out the truth, and refuse to fall into a distorted world. So when we speak of our love for this country, we can do so calmly, deeply, and with steady conviction.
That is why we neither drift with the current, nor dance in empty air. That is why we must be realists, and do what ought to be done.
Because on this continent, west of the Pacific, when the first faint light of the New Year touches the earth, we must be answerable to this country.
When we look up into its vast sky; when we look down and behold the tremendous mountain ranges once snapped by an earthquake, and the plains stitched together with furrow and footpath; when we see glittering cities beside the soil that still yields the grains of old; when we watch the wandering throngs, each soul lost in its own silver dream; when our children are born, and in the dark their crying rises—fragile, yet piercingly clear—then we understand: nothing is more precious than a conviction.
And never has there been an age with so many difficulties, and so much hope.
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Best wishes for 2026! And praying for justice for the Palestinians.