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Great thread. On the topic of religion in the OP, there's a wonderful (free online) book written by David Jordan called Gods, ghosts and ancestors: folk religion in a Taiwanese village. It's an anthropologist's account of the religious mix of a Taiwanese village and serves as a peek into traditional (diverse) Chinese religious practices. Particularly interesting in the context of some persistent and resurgent mainland beliefs/practices and some of the more interesting stuff happening in Hong Kong. On general overviews/histories, I'd throw in Immanuel Hsu's The Rise of Modern China alongside Spence, Gernet and Fairbank. Spence has a wonderful little collection of translated primary source documents to read alongside The Search for Modern China. Spence is a great read and easygoing with a bit of a Jesuit obsession. I'd take Hsu and Gernet are both heavygoing but worth reading for the dedicated. If anyone's interested in more academic reading on a variety of issues, the Uni of Warwick History Dept has its reading lists available for all the seminars (and some suggested essay titles) for its Chinese history undergrad module on its site here: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/undergraduate/modules/hi154/ <-- some of the links mentioned in the lists are outdated but there's some good thematic reading if you can get a hold of some of the books/have access to JStor. Shaun Breslin who's a professor of Politics and International Studies at Warwick has some of his research papers available online on this Warwick site. He's worth a look at. Barmy as anything, but a great lecturer. It'd be great to have a list of (non-sensitive, I guess) Twitter/Sina Weibo accounts to follow. Eg Kim Jensen of Kinablog mentioned above is available on Twitter @kinablog. @NiuB is a good source of interesting blogs and news. @KaiserKuo works in Beijing for BaiDu and has some great links/commentary on Chinese tech developments. *edit* And while the golden age of silly propaganda may be over, there's a huge amount of awful propaganda on the media that people watching don't buy into. The CCTV celebration of Chinese New Year is essentially four hours of patriotic guff hammering home whatever's the popular message this year. E.g. one of the sketches was essentially "You want to go to the west to succeed? Lol look at the failed economy!". BTW for those joining post-OP on the second page, watch the link Cefte posted. The guy is an infamous douchebag who illustrates how horrible Chinese supremacism can be. Worst line - "'Fragrant Port' [the meaning of 'Hong Kong']? More like 'Smelly Port'!". Hong XiuQuan fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Feb 16, 2012 |
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Feb 16, 2012 01:50
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DerDestroyer posted:So what's the best way to avoid trouble with the police in China then? It sounds like there are a lot of ways you can get arrested in spite of being mostly harmless to society. Don't piss off the government or people in power or do something heinously bad and you'll be fine. The proliferation of internet access has made it much more difficult for the govt and local officials to exercise their power with impunity. The Li Gang incident mentioned above wouldn't have made any significant news 15 years ago. The government is juggling over exactly how to manage increasing education standards and information access which leads to some ridiculous - though to be honest not entirely dissimilar to our situation in the US/Europe - decisions like mandating real-name registration on social networks. The key difference of course is that you're not likely to be afforded much in the way of legal protection if you use a social network to do something verboten. As long as you're not an overt political dissident and you don't mess with the wrong crowds, you can get away with a surprising amount. Gambling is illegal, but you'll often see some little shops in Beijing covered with thick drapes during the winter and converted into full-on gambling shops. People are skirting the firewall with access to [fill in the blank] or "internet accelerators". I remember the first time I went to China I expected the streets of Beijing to be rammed with a police presence. Instead there appeared to be fewer uniformed officers on the streets than in London and military personal were concentrated on key locations, just as in London.
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Feb 17, 2012 12:28
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Ronald Spiers posted:There will be a good amount of non-uniformed cops in densely crowded areas where tourists will be. The Tiananmen Square area is rife with them, ready at a moment's notice to rectify anything that will cause harm to the harmonious tranquility in the People's Republic. Which is no different to most western countries. Ronald Spiers posted:If one wants to seek somewhere that resembles martial law, I suggest Tibet or Xinjiang. Here is a video of an insidious Western reporter recording the brave PRC internal security personnel ensuring peace and harmony. You've posted a video from the province during the riots. What's happening in both the named provinces is heinous, but the military presence is the least concerning aspect. If you want to bang on about something, it should be the not-so-subtle government-supported ethnic redistribution by way of Han migration. That's a far bigger danger to those provinces than the military presence. Hong XiuQuan fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Feb 17, 2012 |
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Feb 17, 2012 14:17
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shots shots shots posted:Yes, consumption share of GDP is very relevant when talking about consumer behavior. With a very low percentage that's been resistant to change, it represents a serious problem with regard to consumer spending, especially in an already poor country. 1) You should post what the share of GDP is down to consumption. China Daily seems to think it was 36% in 2011. 2) You should post what the share has been over the last 5-10 years so you can substantiate that it's resistant to change. 3) You should substantiate your claims about rate of growth and perhaps provide why you think it should be quicker or what the Chinese could do to increase the rate. 4) You should also probably provide some sort of comparison between other nations with high rural populations - think the last figure I heard was that it had just crossed the 50% urban mark, but the CIA World Factbook still uses the 2010 46% figure - because while it may be low relative very heavily urbanised western countries, it may not be so low relative other developing nations.
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Feb 18, 2012 14:53
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sbaldrick posted:The rest has been built and kept open at this point for western observes of China's internal economic growth. I'd like you to expand on what you mean by this please.
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Feb 19, 2012 03:59
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french lies posted:Seriously, don't continue this derail. Either take it to another thread or stop. I'd like to see a phased (but proper) introduction of democracy. I don't buy into the SuZhi crap primarily because understanding of politics or the mechanics of democracy is an arbitrary limit. I'd like to see the provinces granted full, regional democracy for local governments with the introduction of multi-party representation in the central government and eventual transfer to a multi-party democratic system. I do think that the biggest problem facing Chinese democracy will be keeping all the provinces a part of China. Big city chauvinism is already a huge problem and may become worse in a democratic system - by worse I mean the government will have bigger problems quashing resentment and calls to carve out new states.
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Feb 21, 2012 16:50
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french lies posted:Sorry, but it was very obviously a sweatshop debate and not a China debate. And I disagree that a discussion about suzhi equates to a generalized discussion on the nature of democracy. The biggest problem with Li's book is that a lot of what he claims is anecdotal and can't be substantiated, so some dismiss parts as voyeuristic trash from someone with a grudge. I'd probably take parts of it with a pinch of salt, but do read it because it does feel like it gives an insight into Mao and his personal assessments of Mao's character fit in with the historical record. I particularly like his bouts with Jiang Qing and if I remember correctly (haven't read it in years) he doesn't exactly idolize Liu ShaoQi either, which is a plus. Chang, however, is incomparably ludicrous. She dresses the book in an academic cloak but she treats Mao as singularly demonic and her diatribes are laughable. Li makes no such pretensions and while his book is questionable and lurid, he treats Mao as a man with strengths and weaknesses.
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Feb 22, 2012 20:54
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Arglebargle III posted:I actually visited the Mao museum in Shaoshan recently. It's hardly an unbiased account of his life of course, but some sort of innocuous things that I doubt anyone would bother to fudge don't jibe with what I have heard is in Li's book. Mao was by all accounts an avid swimmer until his late middle age, which sort of contrasts with the picture of a guy who never gets out of bed. The reconstruction of Mao's bedroom there did kind of give the impression that Mao was a bit of a slob on the home front - sort of a goony bachelor actually. His bed was half-covered in stacks of books that no doubt could have been organized and placed elsewhere with the resources of an entire nation. Li never said Mao "never gets out of bed". He pointed out that in Mao's later years he'd rarely leave the bedroom, which I don't think is contrasted by anything you may have seen in ShaoShan. Li specifically talks of Mao being quite energetic and there are many passages on his insistance on swimming in some ridiculous conditions.
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Feb 23, 2012 11:48
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menino posted:Yeah from previously being in Korea and listening to kids explain Sino-derived vocab to other kids, it seems like the confusion was kept to a minimum. The Sinified forms of both "white" and "one hundred" have the same spelling/pronunciation, but they had very common collocations, which qualified as built in parentheticals to use quickly in a conversation as an example in the rare event that context didn't spell it out completely. So I'm sure Mandarin speakers could use similar techniques as well. As far as writing, it doesn't seem like such ambiguity would come up that often, especially in specialized topics. I don't have a firm opinion either way on the educational merits/problems of a proposed conversion and my refusal stems from cultural/historical reasons. Your example of white/hundred is an interesting one because when I saw the "Lion-eating poet in the stone den" example brought up early I thought of an early lesson I had in pronunciation - Zhang Fei promised to reform his ways, stop drinking and abusing his men and be a good brother for Liu Bei. As part of his reform he wanted to look smart so he ordered his men to make him a white suit of armour for the next day. His men misunderstood this as 100 suits of armour for the next day and decided that it was impossible (and fearing execution) they resolved to kill him. I can't for the life of me find the story (no Chinese input on this work PC) but if anyone's got a source for that story would love to have it to hand.
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Feb 24, 2012 15:24
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:It's not illegal, it's just not allowed. If you are caught with a second passport they'll cancel your hukou and invalidate your Chinese passport. There *are* of course, ways around it, not unlike there are ways around it in other countries with similar policies. Sounds awfully illegal...
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Apr 1, 2012 09:26
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french lies posted:I thought BrotherAdso had a good approach with his government megapost: Lots of pictures, informal/conversational tone and a small dash of edginess on top. Xi Bolaidoff
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Apr 7, 2012 11:51
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french lies posted:Just finished reading this excellent essay/book review by Fang Lizhi, the famous dissident who died earlier this week. I have to confess I don't know all that much about him, but reading this has sparked my interest. I didn't found that as convincing as you. I haven't yet finished the book but about 80% through and I've found that while it does have a top-heavy focus, it's to be expected - it's ultimately more a biography focused on the 60s-90s rather than a book about socio-political change in China. Some of Fang's comments also seem a little odd, eg: Fang Lizhi posted:The military. Vogel has a chapter called “The Military: Preparing for Modernization,” but “modernization” here refers only to matters of arms and efficiency, not to such matters as civilian control of what the military does. It is not widely appreciated outside China that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is not a national army; it is a Party army. The taxes that support it are paid by all of the Chinese people, but the PLA takes orders only from the Central Military Commission (CMC), which is a Party organ. When push comes to shove, as it did at Tiananmen in 1989, the PLA defends Party interests, not national interests. Deng Xiaoping was never president of China, but was chair of the CMC throughout the crucial decade of the 1980s (1981–1989). He well knew that the top military post was the most powerful in China. Vogel writes a fair amount about the party machinations at the head of the CMC and Deng and the party's control over the CMC. The book did not lead me to believe that these were independent structures and Vogel mentions more than once that for Deng the party was paramount. I've found Vogel to be hagiographic in some respect, but it's been a valuable read. Conversely, Fang's views have clearly been coloured by personal experience and the review seems more a chance to proselytise his dislike of Deng.
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Apr 16, 2012 14:16
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Curved posted:In another piece of just weird news, apparently "we all know that the Philippines were historically a part of Chinese territory..." Watch out on the above site btw, work security has flagged it as risky (and apparently blocked a nasty element). Think it might be harder for personal systems. Have this problem fairly often on Chinese sites >_<
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May 8, 2012 14:31
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Arglebargle III posted:I find it so hard to count in 万 and 亿. 4wanyi is 40,000x100,000,000 right? So 4 with 10 zeroes after it which makes it 4 trillion? Um 40,000 x 100,000,000 = 4,000,000,000,000 which does = 4 trillion, but it has 12 0s :P
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May 20, 2012 15:40
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eSports Chaebol posted:That's not nearly as hilarious as the actual transcripts: Typical old man humour. You sunk my battleship.
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Jun 4, 2012 11:16
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hitension posted:But it's nowhere near as bad as Arabic or Japanese where "men's speech" and "women's speech" are so different that you'd sound absurd if you learned from someone who is the opposite gender. You're going to have to elaborate on what you mean with regards to Arabic. I've seen strong arguments that suggest that Arabic has such strong genders within language that it's much more empowering as a language than English with its male and female, man and woman, housewife etc.
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Jun 21, 2012 13:42
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Hmm I think I'm missing something here.
Hong XiuQuan fucked around with this message at 11:28 on Jul 25, 2012 |
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Jul 25, 2012 11:20
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Fangz posted:Jiang Qing was the pseudonym of Mao Zedong's wife and one of the main instigators of the Cultural Revolution. Also, she died in 1991. No, not that. The mix of Jiang Qin and Daniel Bell, which I warped into Jon Halliday of all things and went ahead and said 'Surely Jung Chang" before realising my mistake. So... 'which byline?' I guess.
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Jul 25, 2012 12:37
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caberham posted:Nope street shitters and peeing here too in Shenzhen every other time I'm in Shenzhen. In fact the most ridiculous one I saw was a mom arcing her baby piss two feet away like a bridge into the public washing basin inside a fast food restaurant. When I was on campus in Wudaokou used to see mothers walking their kids around all the time and often saw them pull the kids pants down and help them piss. Mercifully it was usually on a tree. I've never seen it being done in a public bin. ^^To be fair, I don't think I've ever encountered a Chinese person who's said "Oh yeah by the way, street-making GBS threads's an awesome cultural feature". You could even see the difference in Beijing between 2003 and 2007 in terms of public spitting. Haven't yet encountered public making GBS threads. Though I've seen the remnants several times in London, include once outside a flat I rented. Hong XiuQuan fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Aug 30, 2013 |
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Aug 30, 2013 17:36
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Chickenwalker posted:I'd recommend Jonathan Spence's "The Search for Modern China." It covers in pretty good depth the Qing up through the modern day. I'd second this. His book is probably the only uni-grade general history of the period that's sufficiently readable for general interest too. Great writer, great history. Spence's other work is well-worth a look at when you're done too.
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Jun 5, 2014 07:40
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Smeef posted:Does all of traditional Chinese medicine count? There's loads of this kind of stuff (as with anywhere else to be honest). I remember reading an article recently declaiming several Chinese myths. The first myth was that you couldn't give a watch to someone because it would have very negative implications (you're going to die soon, lol). The author cited as proof that watch sales are huge and climbing ever higher in China and they're routinely given as corporate gifts. Of course the whole reason behind the superstition is one of the homophones for clock （种）is （终）'end' (ie death), whereas watch is a different character and the superstition doesn't apply. I've always thought that was a fairly intricate one. Also, has everyone encountered the 'lamb/oily food gives you nose bleeds' thing? I've also encountered the fan death myth but not too widespread.
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Jun 5, 2014 07:49
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Out of interest - and because of the last few posts about orientalism - are there any Chinese people in the thread?
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Jun 7, 2014 08:00
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Bloodnose posted:Yes there are. Hong Kongers, mainlanders, overseas Chinese all. Don't think there are any Taiwanese though. Good good. Thought it would be a bit weird back and forthing about orientalism without any Chinese voices.
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Jun 7, 2014 09:52
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