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you have a rare gift, cherish it, keep sharing it with the world. and so on.
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Aug 6, 2015 19:49
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History time! Another big contribution to the 1st Opium War was the kowtow. China wouldn't accept any other ruler as anything less than a subject of the Emperor, or a barbarian. They were incensed by the idea of Queen Victoria being an equal, despite the British Empire covering a large portion of the globe. But that didn't matter, because the world outside of China barely existed. Obviously diplomats aren't too keen on showing total submission to a foreign ruler, and this was incomprehensible to the Manchus. They were also taken back when their fine eggshell pottery and limitless line of ancestors didn't mean much to a pirate with a six-shooter and a bunch of cannons, determined to run his opium in. The most entertaining thing was that the Manchu word for diplomat was tribute bearer; they were the same thing to them. This wasn't very conducive towards negotiations. Also point of fact: the British destroyed the Summer Palace (it was actually over 100 palaces) but the French took more loot. Not that it matters; Chinese peasants stole more than all the rest combined. By the way, I don't know if anybody thinks what the British did was inexcusable. If you do, you should read into what the Chinese did to the diplomatic envoys they captured and tortured to death. After reading that, im surprised they didn't destroy the Forbidden City and most of Beijing as well.
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Aug 6, 2015 20:42
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Plucky Brit posted:
Sources? Kissinger's On China discussed these incidents extensively and didn't mention anything like this. sincx fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Aug 6, 2015 |
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Aug 6, 2015 20:46
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sincx posted:Sources? If that's referring to the Boxers then lol
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Aug 6, 2015 20:47
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Constant Hamprince posted:British people shouldn't even feel bad about the looting because it all would have been smashed by the Red Guard anyway. Like 5X for Egypt. JFC those dudes suck at managing a country.
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Aug 6, 2015 21:10
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This seems like a pretty extreme religion.
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Aug 6, 2015 21:14
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Aug 6, 2015 21:23
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goldboilermark posted:Peter hessler also does great books about China River Town was p good.
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Aug 6, 2015 21:29
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while on the subject, i've always liked this satirical print idk why the wikipedia version cuts off the text, but i cant be bothered finding and scanning my copy
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Aug 6, 2015 23:52
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Grand Prize Winner posted:River Town was p good. My favorite of these type of books is China Road by Rob Gifford.
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Aug 7, 2015 00:58
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Don't know if it was already posted, but here you go. Housing development in China built out of mesh and flammable foam. http://shanghaiist.com/2015/08/06/homes-made-of-combustible-plastic-foam.php
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Aug 7, 2015 01:13
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Pyrolocutus posted:Don't know if it was already posted, but here you go. Housing development in China built out of mesh and flammable foam. hahahahahahahhahaha loving lol china
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Aug 7, 2015 01:18
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Pyrolocutus posted:Don't know if it was already posted, but here you go. Housing development in China built out of mesh and flammable foam. lol http://shanghaiist.com/2014/10/09/cracks_at_jinan_residential_buildin.php 
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Aug 7, 2015 01:18
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You see this insulation very warm, provides own heat for house!
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Aug 7, 2015 01:25
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lmao
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Aug 7, 2015 01:27
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Davincie posted:while on the subject, i've always liked this satirical print owns
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Aug 7, 2015 01:27
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icantfindaname posted:i mean china has been remarkably efficient at throwing away every last vestige of their traditional culture or whatever, so i would hesitate to blame the education system entirely on confucianism. i think there's definitely something there, but to just throw up your hands and say 'welp confucianism what can you do' is pretty lazy IMO and lets modern east asian countries off the hook for their unimaginably awful educational systems too easily I don't think it has that much to do with Confucianism, it's more the examination system itself. By making it ostensibly possible for anyone to pass it with enough hard work and then gating all wealth and social status behind it, you highly incentive the entire population to buy into the system--and whatever ideology the test pushes. If you've spent the last 20 years studying ~the classics~ for this thing, even if you failed you are probably going to be pretty invested; people hate recognizing that something they did was a waste of time. (It also heavily skews the knowledge of your population, as everyone who is anyone is going to be spending all their time on this test, which is of course extremely limited in scope compared to what you would want a balanced civilization to have skills in. It's a huge societal brain drain, like how the modern finance industry sucks in a lot of talent, even though they are not particular beneficial to society at their current size, but times a million.) I definitely don't think anyone should "just throw up [their] hands", but I believe it's going to take a huge restructuring of the system to bring about any meaningful change. The government has made several movements towards lessening the load on students already, but none of them have worked well at all. Require schools to cut hours and give less homework? Parent's make up for it with private schooling. Tell colleges they can take into account other factors than the gaokao? Immediately a whole industry built around faking credentials pops up. These things have actually happened. Basically as long as there is a central exam everyone needs to do well on, the educational system is going to suck. If you remove it though, the illusion of social mobility goes out the window as the rich and connected just buy their way to the top and the less fortunate can't compete (that's largely the case anyway, but it's the perception that matters). And if that happens, what happens to the party? They probably aren't willing to find out. So it's stuck in sort of a catch-22, where if they don't give people a healthy, well-rounded education the country will start to stagnate, but if they do they basically spell their own demise as a government. That was way too many words for a .jpg thread so have a couple of pictures:  
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Aug 7, 2015 01:39
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Pyrolocutus posted:Don't know if it was already posted, but here you go. Housing development in China built out of mesh and flammable foam. Jesus Christ  always more always worse
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Aug 7, 2015 01:42
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z0glin Warchief posted:Jesus Christ 
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Aug 7, 2015 01:45
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z0glin Warchief posted:Jesus Christ Solid as Iraq.
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Aug 7, 2015 02:29
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Did grover emigrate?
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Aug 7, 2015 03:21
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effectual posted:Did grover emigrate? no the load bearing tape looks professionally applied
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Aug 7, 2015 03:24
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Plucky Brit posted:History time! i don't trust ur opinion because based on ur username u seem to be more than a little biased
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Aug 7, 2015 03:36
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I read The Good Earth a long time ago and this thread is making me want to read whatever the opposite of The Good Earth is.
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Aug 7, 2015 04:11
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I wish they'd shut the hell up about these stupid rocks; nobody cares. The nine-dotted line is even more insane - China went to the UN and tried to get them to recognize it but according to UN rules a border has to be continuous and defined. That is - it has to be a line, and you have to say where it is. Otherwise they're not allowed to recognize it as a legitimate border. Cue China's feelings being hurt, raging about how the UN won't respect their sovereignty. I have students who told me they wanted to live on Diaoyu Dao and I was like.. do you have any idea how small they are? You realize people can't live there, right? You're just going to get washed away by the waves. Can you even swim? No, they couldn't swim. Of course.
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Aug 7, 2015 05:54
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sincx posted:Sources? George MacDonald Fraser cites Henry Loch, 1st Baron Loch's Personal Narrative of ... Lord Elgin's Second Embassy to China (1860). Wikipedia posted:During the advance on the Qing capital, Peking (Beijing), Loch was chosen with Parkes to complete the preliminary negotiations for peace at Tungchow (present-day Tongzhou District, Beijing). They were accompanied by a small party of officers and Sikhs. It having been discovered that the Chinese were planning an attack on the British force, Loch rode back and warned the outposts. He then returned to Parkes and his party under a flag of truce in the hope of securing their safety. However, they were all taken prisoner by the Qing general Sengge Rinchen and incarcerated in the Ministry of Justice (or Board of Punishments) in Beijing, where the majority of the group died from torture or disease. Parkes and Loch were treated more leniently after Prince Gong intervened. After three weeks, the negotiations for their release were successful, but they had only been liberated ten minutes when orders were received from the Xianfeng Emperor, who was then taking shelter in the Chengde Summer Palace, for their immediate execution.
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Aug 7, 2015 06:43
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z0glin Warchief posted:Jesus Christ Truly the next superpower
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Aug 7, 2015 07:27
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A (Chinese) friend sent me a video on WeChat today, so I present a screen cap for you. She said it's a woman that lives in her building. This was on her birthday. The Tuhao is strong with them Edit: It's money. Haier fucked around with this message at 14:56 on Aug 7, 2015 |
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Aug 7, 2015 12:30
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bad day posted:I have students who told me they wanted to live on Diaoyu Dao and I was like.. do you have any idea how small they are? You realize people can't live there, right? You're just going to get washed away by the waves. Can you even swim? Whats this anti-darwinist sentiment? Just let them go, it's obvious they're not worth teaching.
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Aug 7, 2015 12:50
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Aug 7, 2015 13:05
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Aug 7, 2015 13:20
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 lmfao????
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Aug 7, 2015 13:23
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I'm Rene Chang's hard-rear end sixth auntie.
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Aug 7, 2015 13:26
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He sure is good at forgetting basic rules of English like how to use indefinite articles, for someone who has never natively spoken Chinese.
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Aug 7, 2015 13:51
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ok it's happened, I finally believe this can't be real
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Aug 7, 2015 13:54
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its true tho, the chinese never used plastic foam in their 5k years of history
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Aug 7, 2015 14:02
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Inferior American house building foam catches fire, lol
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Aug 7, 2015 14:04
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Data Graham posted:He sure is good at forgetting basic rules of English like how to use indefinite articles, for someone who has never natively spoken Chinese. Hongkie english is practically it's own dialect with people growing up native speakers of non-native English.
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Aug 7, 2015 14:07
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China invented everything first. Except plastic foam. Nothing Chinese about plastic foam!
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Aug 7, 2015 14:12
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| # ? May 12, 2024 00:46 |
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EIFS (Exterior Insulation Finishing System) is a pretty common exterior treatment, basically a cheap synthetic stucco. The combustibility of the foam is a known property and usually the other components of the system like the coating, backing, and mesh are selected to mitigate that. Like I wouldn't be shocked if that building is a deathtrap, but its more complex than just "lol foam."
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Aug 7, 2015 15:08
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