“Too soon to tell”, I quote Zhou en Lai who was inspired by and participated in the May 4th Movement, that which grandpa had a role to trigger, so as to rally natural immunity of the Chinese civilisation against viral foreign invasion, encroachment, and in effect, genocide.
Despite controversy re what Zhou meant by what he clearly said, and at his level he cannot possibly give a hoot about the French Student Revolt in any conversation with Kissinger, but must have referred to the original French Revolution, but never mind, for it remains true that it is “too soon to tell” about the French Revolution, then it must be true that it is too soon to tell about the Long March, and the Cultural Revolution
en.m.wikipedia.org
Too soon to tellIn today's Guardian there is an excellent essay by Timothy Garton Ash about Tony Blair's foreign policy (and the difficulties of assessing it) which includes this paragraph:
Of course there is something absurd about such instant assessments - or, in this case, pre-assessments. At such moments, accomplished elder statesmen invariably quote Zhou Enlai's answer when he was asked for his view of the significance of the French revolution: "It's a little too soon to say." I would be grateful to any reader who can point me to a reliable first-hand source for this famous quotation, since I remain unconvinced that Zhou Enlai actually said it. No matter; the reason people keep quoting such remarks is that, even if the person they are ascribed to never spoke those words, we feel that someone should have, since they express a significant truth.Naturally I came straight to this wiki article for confirmation, and lo and behold, Ash is right: the quote is here, but it is unsourced. Can those of you who are working on this article please sort this out for us, one way or the other? -- Doric Loon 10:32, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
I note that it is now removed. Even if it is possibly apocryphal, it is so famous that I believe it should be mentioned here aspossibly apocryphal. -- Jmabel | Talk07:14, 19 September 2006 (UTC)Professor Immanuel Wallerstein cited it in his Jan 2008 commentary #224: "The only answer is in the apocryphal story about the answer that Zhou En-lai is supposed to have given to the question: 'What do you think of the French Revolution?' Answer: 'It is too early to tell.'" 129.105.140.135 ( talk) 21:30, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
I can reveal that there is a source for this rather wonderful quote. BBC News to the rescue... The Quote -- J.StuartClarke ( talk) 04:00, 20 February 2008 (UTC)It is supposed to have been been quoted as Zhou's answer by Henry Kissinger to reporters on his retrn flight from China in 1971 or 1972, but I have ot found the original report. --RLM1961, 31/7/09 —Preceding unsignedcomment added by 71.51.226.80 ( talk) 03:33, 1 August 2009 (UTC)
Here, Financial Times quotes an aide to Henry Kissinger clearly stating that he remembers the exchange of words between Kissinger and Zhou, also adding that Zhou almost assuredly was refering to the 1968 student revolut in Paris, rather than the 1789 French Revolution — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.20.108.18 ( talk) 13:45, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
The quotation also appears on p xiii of Simon Schama's book on the French Revolution, 'Citizens'. But unsourced, unfortunately ... 122.163.203.56 ( talk) 10:41, 13 July 2010 (UTC) |
