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Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

theguardian.com

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Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#221

Post by eloisius »

moonchild wrote: post #214
wodenokoto wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought that most books written with traditional script in Hong Kong would be written in Cantonese, while the simplified would be in mandarin. These are quite different languages.

Cantonese and mandarin share a script.

Not only a script but also the same written language - Standard Chinese, unless it was very colloquially written Cantonese. That's part of what's so fascinating about Chinese. There are so many dialects that are quite different when spoken, but share the same written language.

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#222

Post by m463 »

ardy42 wrote: post #203
camillomiller wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re applying the wrong Western categories to Chinese people. People think Chinese don’t have a religion, but they actually do and the God is China itself. First, they all believe China needs to step up to its role in the World stage. Second, the social pact in China is quite straightforward: you give up some useless rights that only weak westerners seem to be overly attached to, and you get in exchange growth, sta…

> People think Chinese don’t have a religion, but they actually do and the God is China itself. There's a word for this: nationalism.

I still remember playing those old command and conquer games and when you would click on each unit, it would say something amusing.

one of the units would say "Nationalism will bring us victory!" I think it was a chinese unit.

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#225

Post by duxup »

eloff wrote: post #11

It was very clever of China to tighten their grip on Hong Kong while the world is distracted with the pandemic, and the US is further distracted with its own issues. Well played. I hope it backfires on them.

They could do it at anytime and nobody would stop them.

Hong Kong is China's to do what they wish with.

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#227

Post by jumelles »

foobar_ wrote: post #97

Intra-party democracy is alright. Unabobmers manifesto or the school shooters manifesto or IRA manifestos are not exactly available in the libraries.

https://www.worldcat.org/title/technological-slavery-the-col...

https://www.worldcat.org/title/handbook-for-volunteers-of-th...

https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article...

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#228

Post by sand_castles »

mchusma wrote: post #179
sand_castles wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm not sure how to best say this within the bounds of Hacker News guidelines, but you come across as Chinese intelligence, posting to reduce fear of China. Or satire? If you have more nuanced discussion of why you turned Maoist, would be interested to understand. Also, people still relate to Mao in the west? I thought that would be similar to saying "Stalanist".

[dead]

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#229

Post by ardy42 »

microcolonel wrote: post #172
chadcmulligan wrote: post #12

How is it that many Chinese students are schooled in the west, and have access to all these books and thoughts, but then they don't exist when they go back home. There must be some significant cognitive dissonance between the two situations. I don't see how they can keep a lid on this long term.

I once tried having a conversation with a girl from Beijing, while in Canada, about political freedom. She told me that China is "too big" for democracy or federalism, and that they wouldn't be able to "control" the people. I think the cultural valley is deeper and wider than you could imagine; at least when it comes to the wealthier people who get to travel for school. Then beyond that, there is Chinese exceptionali…

> I once tried having a conversation with a girl from Beijing, while in Canada, about political freedom. She told me that China is "too big" for democracy or federalism, and that they wouldn't be able to "control" the people.

IIRC, that's one aspect of the anti-democracy propaganda: democracy's great but the Chinese people aren't ready for it, so the firm hand of the CCP is necessary to keep the country from falling apart.

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#230

Post by duskwuff »

cal5k wrote: post #153
goatinaboat wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you at some point think that the corporate leadership of a massive for-profit organization was going to make a public statement that was anything other than the bare minimum lip service they were required to pay in order to weather the PR storm of the day, so that they could continue doing business? It’s not just that. By encouraging civil unrest in the US/UK and continuing to funnel money to Chinese sweatshops t…

That ad was a neat PR trick, seeing as it seemed to make people forget that Apple is one of the most profitable companies in human existence. It's not a "revolutionary" company, it just makes really good products.

> That ad was a neat PR trick, seeing as it seemed to make people forget that Apple is one of the most profitable companies in human existence.

That ad aired in 1984. Apple was nowhere near as profitable at the time as it is today.

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