Miscellaneous News

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
I agree with the point, but if you take assimilation as a function of two (for simplicity) cultures that produces another culture as a result, the assimilation of groups into the Han identity took two (somewhat, usually at least a little adjacent due to prior exchanges) cultures and put out a culture that was much closer to the pre-existing Han culture than the other.

In this sense, this process of assimilation (which certainly happened in many times in history) still is not "molding," which was the point of my post: what is now the Han cultural identity has existed for some thousands of years, and while now many genetically distinct groups fall underneath the cultural identity (either as part of the original Zhou-period umbrella, or later assimilations), this conglomeration was not "molded." "Molding" suggests some mastermind taking large and distinct groups and forcing them in some manner to adopt a shared culture and identity; this is not what happened.

I also would not really say that these genetically distinct groups are distinct ethnic groups in the same way that regional dialects are not distinct languages. What I wrote regarding mutual intelligibility, legibility, and shared cultural values holds true (although with different numbers for how long it's been the case) for all the various genetically distinct groups in China. Perhaps my notion of ethnic group differs from the conventional notion. I personally feel that any efforts (generally from the West) to point out these small cultural differences or genetic differences as issues of division in Chinese culture and society are efforts to generate tension where there is none.

@taxiya

I think you can Europe as an counter-factual example.

Suppose after 2000 years of mixing, everyone in Europe now identifies as "Roman" or "European".

There is now a single national language, such as Latin or English.
You still identify with your province eg. France or Germany.
And you have local language dialects such as French or German.

---

The existing peoples have largely remained in place, but you can see the assimilation.
 

dingyibvs

Senior Member
Starship was never really designed to land astronauts on the moon. Elon has managed to scam NASA and the US taxpayer out of billions to fund his private need to deploy Starlink satellites on the pretense that it is helping the manned lunar mission.

Well, it is, but apparently it requires 25 refueling trips after it reaches orbit before actually setting off for the moon, which is supposed to happen I think in 2027. Seems a bit over optimistic.
 

horse

Colonel
Registered Member
This guy talked tough when he was at his post in China. Now that he's stepped down, he really loosened the belt on his inner thoughts, and showed us he's quite sensible and not just some idiot Captain America type. I wonder what Bessent will say when he's done. Reveals that these Americans will absolutely do a job on an empty shell mindset with as much belief and conviction as a man told he's supposed chop down a tree by staring at it really hard.

That is what I thought about this American ambassador to China. I thought he was a sharp guy, but when he was posted there, he always said the most inane crap possible.

Now he reveals what he really thinks. Which is the opposite of what he said while in his official capacity as a diplomat.

In other words, all he ever did was tow the party line!

Now here is the part, where it all breaks down, American style in my opinion.

We ask the simple question, what is the party line?

Everyone knows what that is, the Biden party line is keep China down and have America be number #1.

Of course, the following question, given world events of the past few years, how are the Americans going to keep China down with policies that do not work?!

At this point, given how these containment efforts have failed, some more badly than others, there is not much else to say, so the Americans retreat back to the party line.

It is so immature. It is so American. DemoRATS or Repukeiacans, all the same.

That is why President Trump is kind of refreshing. He does not care about towing the party line. Then he works for it, and against it, before finally settling back into the comforts of the party line!

It is so immature. It is so American. DemoRATS or Repukeiacans, all the same.

:D
 

horse

Colonel
Registered Member

:oops:

Long video, 1 hour lecture/talk, about the current American international relations.

There was a very good part around the beginning talking about the past, regarding Wolfowitz. If we do not know who Wolfowitz was, then you should watch that part of the video.

Then the rest of the talk was interesting I thought.
 

Chevalier

Captain
Registered Member
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So people just stood there and did nothing? Not the first time in East Asia. Way too much herd mentality.
What’s with the passive aggressive jibe? You’re not married to us so you don’t get to pull crap like this. Also, ever heard of the bystander phenomenon? It’s universal, but of course it’s typical of anti China blowhards to attribute a very human behaviour as some sort of moral failing.
 

august1

New Member
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So people just stood there and did nothing? Not the first time in East Asia. Way too much herd mentality.
What’s with the passive aggressive jibe? You’re not married to us so you don’t get to pull crap like this. Also, ever heard of the bystander phenomenon? It’s universal, but of course it’s typical of anti China blowhards to attribute a very human behaviour as some sort of moral failing.
Someone tell him about that monitor lizard incident in his beloved India.
 

uguduwa

Junior Member
Registered Member
What’s with the passive aggressive jibe? You’re not married to us so you don’t get to pull crap like this. Also, ever heard of the bystander phenomenon? It’s universal, but of course it’s typical of anti China blowhards to attribute a very human behaviour as some sort of moral failing.
Try this is in the west, I bet someone would intervene. East Asia has a mentality of „me,me,me“ and not caring about anyone outside of family.
 
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