Life is short.
But when one generation follows another, and people in the future look back, the ordinary things we live through are suddenly given a name: history.
一生很短。
但一代又一代连接起来，当后来的人回头看，
我们所经历的那些日常，便有了一个名字——历史。
我们正在历史里面
We Are Living
in History
From where we stand today, the past is easy to see.
We see words carved into oracle bones, inscriptions cast into bronze, and Chinese characters written on bamboo slips and paper.
Different ages had different materials, tools, and ways of recording things. And little by little, those conditions left their traces in the forms of the characters themselves.
But the people living in those times probably rarely realized:
they were already living inside history.
站在今天，我们很容易看见过去。
我们看见刻在甲骨上的文字，看见青铜器上的铭文，写在竹简、纸张上的汉字。不同的时代有不同的材料、工具和记录方式，而这些条件，也一点一点留在了文字的形态之中。
可是生活在那个时代的人，大概很少会意识到：自己正在历史里面。
So Are We
我们也是一样
Today, a Chinese character no longer has to be “written” by hand.
We can type on a keyboard and find it through Pinyin. We can even speak into a phone and watch the words appear directly on the screen.
We have gained an unprecedented level of convenience.
今天，一个汉字不再一定需要被“写”出来。
我们可以敲击键盘，用拼音找到它；也可以对着手机说一句话，让文字直接出现在屏幕上。我们获得了前所未有的便捷。 沟通更快，记录更容易。
Communication is faster. Recording our thoughts is easier.
A person may no longer need to know exactly how a character is written by hand, yet can still use it correctly.
That is, without question, a form of progress.
一个人甚至不需要知道一个字究竟怎样落笔，也依然可以准确地使用它。
这当然是一种进步。
But does every gain also come with some kind of loss?
但每一次获得，会不会也伴随着某种失去？
What Do We Lose
as We Gain?
获得，意味着什么？
As we need to write characters by hand less and less, do we also begin to notice less—their strokes, their structure, and why they came to look the way they do today?
Perhaps tools are changing more than how we write.
They may also be quietly changing how we see writing itself.
当我们越来越不需要亲手书写一个字，我们是否也开始更少注意它的笔画、结构，以及它为什么成为今天的样子？
工具改变的，也许不只是我们怎样写字。它也可能在悄悄改变我们怎样看见文字。
这并不意味着我们应该回到过去。
选择从来不是同时拥有所有可能。
走向左边，就会离开右边；选择一种道路，也意味着放弃另一种道路。
停在中间，有时甚至并不代表同时拥有两边，而只是两边都没有真正进入。
This does not mean that we should return to the past.
Choice has never meant keeping every possibility.
To move left is to leave the right behind. To choose one path is also to give up another.
And standing in the middle does not always mean possessing both.
Sometimes, it simply means never fully entering either one.
选择
Choice
Today Will Also
Become the Past
今天，也会成为过去
This is how history moves forward.
The people living inside it keep choosing, creating, letting go, and moving on.
Years later, others look back and give a name to everything we once considered ordinary:
an era.
And today, we do not yet know how future generations will describe our time.
We only know that we are already living inside it.
历史就是这样向前发生的。
生活在其中的人不断选择、创造、舍弃，然后继续往前。
许多年后，另一些人回过头，把我们今天习以为常的一切称作一个时代。
而今天的我们，并不知道后来的人会如何描述这个时代。我们只知道，我们也正在其中。
The Question
We Leave Behind
最后的问题
As we create the next chapter of history,
what are we gaining—
and what are we losing?
当我们正在创造下一段历史时，
我们正在获得什么，又正在失去什么？