As his term as premier was drawing to a close, Wen Jiabao reflected wistfully on some of the goals he failed to achieve in his time in office and told a surprised group of reporters he should be forgotten.
Wistful：渴望的，沉思的，留恋的
While he may have been overstating the case in that 2012 speech, at least as far as his place in history is concerned, he may have been on the mark when it comes to his recently published collection of his writings. The People's Publishing House and the People's Education Press have jointly pulled together a collection of Mr. Wen's speeches and letters in the book 'Wen Jiabao on Education' - and it is probably not of the memorable kind.
overstate：夸张，夸大叙述
It is a hefty volume weighing in at almost 600 pages. It is occasionally illuminating but for the most part long on slogans and short on insight. It follows other recent collections of writings and addresses by other leaders - notably former Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin and Mr. Wen's predecessor as premier, Zhu Rongji.
hefty：强有力地，异常，非常大的
In the case of Mr. Zhu's collected works, the contrast is stark. His recently published book included speeches he made as Shanghai's mayor in 1989, calling on the city's residents to avoid more destabilizing unrest while showing the army would not be used to crush pro-democracy protests there. His conciliatory speeches were widely acclaimed at the time as having helped Shanghai avoid Tiananmen-style bloodshed. There has also been much discussion of whether Mr. Zhu, in having his book published at this time, was trying to lend support to reform efforts ahead of a key meeting of Communist Party leaders that started on Saturday.
destabilizing：不稳定的 conciliatory：安抚，调停 acclaimed：欢呼，受到赞扬的
Mr. Wen instead has taken a narrower focus - education - but even here, the reader could have rightly expected more. Among the more interesting segments, perhaps a reflection on some of his colleagues, he advised students at Zhejiang University in 2010 that he hoped they would 'try to get things done and not just try to be an official.'
He also discloses that the official he most admires is Lin Zexu, the Qing dynasty imperial commissioner who took on the unenviable task of confronting the opium traders-only to provoke a British retaliation that the Qing court later regretted. He was banished to the far northwest frontier, though later recalled.
commissioner：理事，委员，行政长官 opium：鸦片，麻醉剂
Mr. Wen devotes a fair amount of space to his visits to Sichuan in 2008 after the devastating Wenchuan earthquake that killed 87,000 people, left millions homeless and a nation in mourning. There are some moving accounts of visits with injured students and classrooms hastily set up in tents as well as his words of encouragement to those who were about to take the make-or-break gaokao college entrance exams. But Mr. Wen and his editors missed a chance to add his voice to those who loudly complained of the shoddy construction that led to the collapse of numerous schools, resulting in needless student deaths. He also fails to address the understandable anger of parents who lost their children and notes only in passing that 'some' schools collapsed.
devastating：毁灭性的，全然的，破坏性的 mourning：哀痛，哀悼 hastily：匆忙地 shoddy：假冒的，劣质的
And perhaps more predictably, the editors chose not to say anything about another memorable visit with students - Mr. Wen's unsuccessful effort to end the hunger strike in Tiananmen Square in 1989. At that time, well before he was named premier, he joined former Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang in a last-minute attempt to convince students to go home and avoid the tragedy they sensed was ahead. That academic exchange is not likely to be forgotten so easily.