China Megathread - Their navy can be taken seriously or taken littorally

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > China Megathread - Their navy can be taken seriously or taken littorally

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VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

hitension posted:

Hey, no need to cross out the link to the original publication! It's so much better.
NY Times really sensationalizes China-related issues.
Also, there is a very big difference in Authoritarianism in China and the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wines

NY Times's Beijing bureau is run by Horse Semen Pie Guy.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2012 15:56

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:41

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Arglebargle III posted:

Google blocked for anyone else?

Frequently. Usually for a few minutes at a time.

# ¿ May 2, 2012 10:08

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Pro-PRC Laowai posted:

Not just that, but they refuse to even acknowledge that it was a real thing. And when stuff came out from the soviet side, it was all dismissed as "propaganda".

poo poo like this is what cuts to the heart of the whole "apology" poo poo. Japan basically refuses to give specific meaningful apologies. While at the same time denying some of the most horrific crimes ever happened.

Japan isn't one person.

Germany was worse to its neighbors than Japan was, but doesn't suffer nearly the same lingering resentment, because they made it taboo to pretend that they did nothing wrong. They ran the offenders out of office and never let the worst ones back. They made it illegal to openly celebrate that part of their past. Japan did not. (Or the occupation did not, however you want to look at it.) They've got rallies of morons almost every day that would make international headlines if they happened in Germany.

So a government or specific parties in Japan can apologize until they're blue in the face but there will always be someone else undoing that apology, or some nationalist rear end to kiss in a way that gives the finger to the mainland.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2012 02:32

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

PrezCamachoo posted:

The number of dead as well as forging of photos and other documentation. Read any serious historical book about the subject.

Name one.

"Read any..." is like Glenn Beck saying "look at history." If you've done what you are admonishing others to do you should be able to name one, or at least come up with enough information to find one of the ones you have in mind. This isn't to say you're necessarily wrong, but this kind of response is some serious bullshit.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2012 03:59

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Bloodnose posted:

I've surprised lots of Chinese people by telling them Russians are actually one of the 56 Chinese ethnic groups. That in turn surprised me, because I thought there was a song or something so everybody knew all of them.

In the past I have claimed to be a Chinese-born ethnic Russian to freak people out. I have an extremely obvious foreign accent in Chinese, but that doesn't lead them to question my story. In my experience, Han people will try to speak English to Uyghurs because they don't expect them to speak Chinese at all.

I've had that conversation, too, with one of my classes, actually. (Trying to explain what "pass for X" means.)

Also, I go to the Russian district in Beijing (I used to work a block away), and any Chinese people there try to speak to me in Russian. (Ting budong!) Russians, however, do not. I find this fact amusing.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2012 10:30

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

hitension posted:

But I can barely even think of a famous Asian American. "Behold our Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu!"

Michio Kaku is the first person to come to mind for me. I'm not sure how good the initial reaction to that would be with most Chinese people though.

hitension posted:

Here's a far more fun topic than the previous one: How long do you all think it will take for China to transition to democracy? Or do you think it will go on doing its own thing forever?

How long do you think it will take for the rest of the world to transition to Chinese-style barely-restrained plutocratic despotism?

# ¿ Oct 1, 2012 12:57

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Fiendish_Ghoul posted:

I'm sorry but is this really so wrong? Keeping them sheltered is silly, but honestly, most Chinese college students I've met have seemed, on average, about 6 years younger than they really were. When she was 22, my now-wife turned out to not actually know how babies were made, and while she was the only one I forced to admit that, I definitely got the idea that she wasn't uniquely ignorant on the subject.

My girlfriend didn't know until she was well into high school (despite spending half her childhood on a farm), and didn't know pretty much anything beyond that until I explained (and continue to explain).

# ¿ Oct 2, 2012 16:30

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

What's a good book on Confucianism, particularly in a modern context, with some historical background, and looking at it as an ethical system?

# ¿ Dec 16, 2012 07:34

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

No matter what happens in Shanghai, Hong Kong is still the city that's right next to Shenzhen. If the degree of concentration of parts supply in that region is going to keep electronics manufacture from ever going back to the US, Japan, and Europe, it's also going to undermine any attempt to move it within China, so it ain't going anywhere for a while. It'd probably take wages going way the gently caress up for anyone to even care to try. So there's always that.

I've not been to Shenzhen, but I don't imagine any non-Sinophile foreigners finding anywhere in the mainland a more comfortable place to work than Hong Kong.

edit: I've seen street-making GBS threads in Glorious Nippon. And right outside my house in Tucson.

VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Jan 26, 2013

# ¿ Jan 26, 2013 13:05

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Fiendish_Ghoul posted:

郑筱萸 Zheng Xiaoyu. I had to look it up because I remember that too. Seems that was part of the earlier formula scandal, though.

Really don't know why the general public in China still believes that the death penalty is a deterrent. Hasn't it been pretty well established to have a negligible effect on crime? Yet I saw people responding to the news of public executions in Iran saying "China should learn from this." You would think that people who live in a country that executes people for corruption yet believe virtually all officials to be corrupt would understand that the death penalty doesn't deter poo poo.

Confiscating all their assets would get more to the point, but that wouldn't set the right kind of precedent, would it?

# ¿ Jan 26, 2013 19:23

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

You should naturally presume that assholes are going to gently caress everyone over, all the time. Buy ammunition and gold.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2013 12:08

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Baby formula may have changed since then, and from that abstract it doesn't sound like they did much to eliminate other factors. What does "chose to provide milk but failed to do so" mean, and does that fully account for differences in how much of a poo poo the parents give about their kids?

# ¿ Jan 29, 2013 04:36

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

I've seen it in one of the most expensive malls in Beijing.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2013 12:30

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

caberham posted:

Which is great but there is one condition: Mothers must feed the babies on the spot because sometimes ladies would use it as a "milk mask" or re sell things

Jesus Christ what is wrong with people?

You know what would work better? The blood of poor babies.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2013 05:27

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Is there any way at all the Diaoyu/Senkaku thing could end with them dividing the archipelago between them?

# ¿ Feb 6, 2013 06:46

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

I breathe shallowly through my nose and let the snot build up to filter out some of the crap. I'm dribbling snot as I come inside from wherever I was going outside. I blow my nose and see streaks of gray crud that's built up.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2013 03:32

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Is it an unsustainable housing bubble, or is it a permanent change in the structure of the market?

# ¿ Feb 15, 2013 05:42

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

whatever7 posted:

I doubt there was fault play at work.

Are you a non-native English speaker or have you been in China too long?

# ¿ Feb 22, 2013 14:38

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Okay then, I was just hoping for a really good example of someone's English getting Sinified. No offense intended. When a mistake still makes sense, that's a good sign as a second language speaker.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2013 10:12

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Little kids watching old Tom and Jerry cartoons at my school. The American teachers all looking on uneasily as in every third or fourth episode there is casual or overt racism.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2013 06:24

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Zero. If I get a group of kids who were just watching it I grill them on who did what, but they never answer, even if they have the vocabulary.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2013 06:58

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Has a migrant worker ever flipped out?

# ¿ Feb 26, 2013 08:37

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

What is it people are (or were a year ago) selling on the street in Sanlitun, then?

# ¿ Feb 26, 2013 10:48

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Pro-PRC Laowai posted:

and his way of getting cash is flipping used cars, which get marked up by like 2-3w and bought without question.

Is this coming with some assistance in getting the cars registered? I think that would explain the markup.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2013 06:21

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Doesn't a lot of this effectively divert revenues from the state to the official's pockets, thus diminishing their ability to pay non-graft-level employees enough to give a gently caress? It seems like this is a problem which is undermining its only non-violent solution.

edit: Not that I expect your friend to be able to do anything about it.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2013 07:22

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

What are the capabilities of the official system versus the unofficial system?

What DOESN'T get done when the official system breaks, for which the unofficial system cannot compensate?

# ¿ Mar 2, 2013 06:44

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

I've got a guess off the top of my head: environmental protection

# ¿ Mar 2, 2013 06:49

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

whatever7 posted:

It's interesting the only "realism" novel/manga/movie from Japan I have ever read was a novel by a left wing writer. (I don't remmeber the name, I read it in 5th grade). Every other Japanese literature I read fall into the fantasy, sci-fi, or horror or historic genre.

Was it Kani Kousen/The Factory Ship, or The Absentee Landlord?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanik%C5%8Dsen

VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Mar 2, 2013

# ¿ Mar 2, 2013 07:15

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

bad day posted:

My criticism about NYT writing on China is not that their authors orientalize or show privilege but rather that they seem to be sequestered in Beijing hotels and don't seem to know much about or understand China as a whole.

....

Nobody at the NYT is going to work very hard for a story here.

Pro-PRC Laowai posted:

Most of them are little more than a gang of bubble-living scum.

This was basically Matt Taibbi's criticism of the current NYT Beijing Bureau Chief's reporting when he was in Moscow. Yeah, it's horse semen guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wines

# ¿ Mar 4, 2013 06:08

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

The shithole apartment I lived in previously sold for something like 40 times typical annual income. The rent that was being paid on it would have taken 50 years to equal the selling price.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2013 16:35

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_China_Mall

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/03/business/china-worlds-largest-mall/index.html

Okay, I realize that's from early in the bubble, but, drat.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2013 17:37

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Ardennes posted:

If everything collapses who is the ultimate fall guy besides peasants/working poor in this case?

In the United States the working poor were being handed loans like they were candy. I'm not sure that's the case in China, and most of them, if they're buying houses, aren't buying them in the major cities. They won't be the convenient scapegoat for assholes that they were in the US.

GuestBob posted:

Pulling about half of this out of my rear end: once the global economy starts to warm up again the pace of new construction in China is going to slow substantially. The construction industry was used as a way to keep money circulating at pace during the last few years and when exports pick up again there'll be more security for the government.

The Chinese labor market (in terms of "gently caress you, unions, they'll work for your beer money and don't complain about repetitive motion injuries") is close to tapped out. A property market collapse would free up some workers, but they're not going to see growth like the last 20 years. Rising Chinese wages make Indonedia, India, Malaysia, etc. more attractive.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/07/24/now-apples-manufacturing-is-leaving-china/

Also you're assuming the west will start buying crap again.

VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Mar 5, 2013

# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 03:39

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Bloodnose posted:

I mean if I tell you a family of two with an annual income of $45,000 should probably not buy a home that costs $1.5 million, you'd probably say something like "loving, duh. Stop saying obvious poo poo, you obvious poo poo."

Well, NOW, yeah.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 04:01

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

caberham posted:

To me as a privileged person wondering out loud - If housing is so expensive, and people like living in chopped up rooms, why not pay the same amount and share with one room mate so that everyone gets more space? By adding more artificial walls, you lose out on a lot more space I suppose sharing with strangers is just a hassle and people rather have their own places?

This is exactly it. It's why an acquaintance of mine (in Beijing) moved from a big apartment open shared with like 7 or 8 other people to a subdivided room less than 4 square meters. Except it was less hassle and more violent physical conflict.

quote:

I know China isn't much better for housing right now, but talking to random mainlanders, 70 square meter (700 square feet) is considered the standard size for a single person.

Where is that? Christ, that'd be big for one person in Arizona.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2013 17:32

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Bloodnose posted:

It's like if America constantly ran historical dramas about Pearl Harbor or The Alamo or 9/11, and that was all you ever got to see of Japanese, Mexicans and Arabs.

The US isn't all that far from that, and it wouldn't be hard to go your whole life not seeing any fictional portrayal of an Arab that wasn't facing off against Chuck Norris.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2013 05:24

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Mao's time machine sent red guards to start the Tai Ping Rebellion.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2013 09:50

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Is that an RTS or something?

# ¿ Mar 10, 2013 14:59

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

Bloodnose posted:

I'm loving this so much. I want to drink up all the sweet, sweet realtor tears.

They could supplement their revenue by bottling them. When the mainland realtor tears hit the market, they'll have both brand recognition and no mainland food stigma, so it'll be even better.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 07:07

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

What is bankruptcy like in Hong Kong?

# ¿ Mar 22, 2013 10:04

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:41

VideoTapir: Oct 18, 2005; He'll tire eventually.

dilbertschalter posted:

Illustrates the crux of the problem nicely:

Is this income quartiles?

# ¿ Mar 23, 2013 11:07

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > China Megathread - Their navy can be taken seriously or taken littorally

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