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The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

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Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#131

Post by pmontra »

throwaway2474 wrote: post #117
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #83

Here's another angle. The increasing censorship within China leaves less and less opportunity for the greater Chinese population to learn about the capabilities of other countries. A few examples of excellence that are still available to Chinese citizens are the NBA, Apple products, US education and Tesla cars. Most nations export excellence of some type to China. Having these examples in their hands or on their scre…

Your comment is about 15 years out of date. There isn’t much that is “excellent beyond what is available” in China anymore. This type of thinking is why western foreign policy continues to get China totally wrong. Chinese people who study abroad are more often confused by the things missing in the west than they are liberated in the way you describe, in my experience.

Examples?

From my direct experience from a 3 weeks journey 5 years ago:

A super app like WeChat. I'm happy we don't have one because super app == super control. (BTW WhatsApp was still legal back then.)

A ban on gas powered small motorcycles. All of them were electric, some with a retrofitted electric engine, some natively electric. I wish we did the same.

I can't think about other things that were or could look better. In most cases it was the same stuff / processes with a Chinese twist.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#132

Post by throwaway122378 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #55

This is a couple days old. The NBA has since taken down the ability to customize jerseys at all. Not sure if this is worse. https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/voa-news-china/nba...

Definitely worse. Instead of correcting the issue they went all in. Great point.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#133

Post by matwood »

reedwolf wrote: post #16
ezluckyfree wrote: post #6

This shouldn't be surprising to people. The NBA has a bigger fanbase in China than in the USA. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-09/china-s-5...

It seems really random that the Chinese are so into NBA. What next, Greeks being really into American gangsta rap music?

Basketball requires less space than many other games, and more easily scales from one person to many. The low space requirement makes it a very friendly game for cities where space is often a premium.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#134

Post by whoevercares »

pmontra wrote: post #131
throwaway2474 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is about 15 years out of date. There isn’t much that is “excellent beyond what is available” in China anymore. This type of thinking is why western foreign policy continues to get China totally wrong. Chinese people who study abroad are more often confused by the things missing in the west than they are liberated in the way you describe, in my experience.

Examples? From my direct experience from a 3 weeks journey 5 years ago: A super app like WeChat. I'm happy we don't have one because super app == super control. (BTW WhatsApp was still legal back then.) A ban on gas powered small motorcycles. All of them were electric, some with a retrofitted electric engine, some natively electric. I wish we did the same. I can't think about other things that were or could look bett…

Half joke/half serious:

1. Food(any objection?)

2. Public transportation: high speed rail road

3. Huge and fancy malls: USA is behind believe it or not

4. E-payment & WeChat: Chinese people think differently.

5. Food delivery and all kinds of half-day delivery

6. Free of Racism: invisible ceiling

7. Cultural recreational activities that you don’t understand

8. Crowded.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#135

Post by qbaqbaqba »

You don't know how communism works. There are no "Chinese companies" or "Chinese investment founds", or "Chinese 5%". There is only the Party. The single and only united entity, political and economical. There are wealthy people but they don't own any capital or means of production. They may own a Ferrari but can't own a wheelbarrow. They may decide if they want to buy a villa in Italy, but they can't decide to buy a Pizzeria in Verona.

There is no difference between political and economical power. If you accept any Chinese capital, you are dealing with the Party. The Party's decisions are not economical, they are political. They will destroy any company for a political gain. They don't make any decisions that are apolitical.

It's not about selling your products or services to China, it's about following the politics of the party.

There are no Chinese students. You can't leave a communist state just like that. Money don't matter. You have to be a good citizen, you must leave your family behind, you must agree to cooperate with the intelligence and to follow politics of the Party or you will never will be allowed abroad again or something bad will happen to your family.

There is no China, there's just the Party. There are no individuals, there's just the Party.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#136

Post by Lammy »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #112
Lammy wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's spycraft, a way for US culture and influence to penetrate China. It's deliberate.

Spycraft is covert. Replacing the culture of a nation with one's own is imperialism. A couple centuries ago it used to be done by force. Now it's done via economic means. It's interesting how China is turning the globalist policies of developed countries into power. The government bans a cartoon character due to memes and suddenly lots of huge companies start censoring themselves out of fear. The US may have freedom…

> Replacing the culture of a nation with one's own is imperialism.

Protip: this is the covert part. Who convinced you that's what's happening? Riling up Americans to make a lot of noise about how "China is totally getting one over on us, we swear" makes it realistic and keeps those things in China as sources of American cultural osmosis. If Disney or NBA "took a stand" then they would get the boot just like South Park did once Matt & Trey took the fall (and ton of free publicity) to prove that possibility is real.

For what it's worth I also absolutely see e.g. TikTok as the same concept in a slightly different domain and operating in the other direction. I don't know where I stand on "banning" it in America since the idea does offend my inner libertarian but China already set the precedent there many many times over.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#137

Post by _oqcu »

whoevercares wrote: post #134
pmontra wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Examples? From my direct experience from a 3 weeks journey 5 years ago: A super app like WeChat. I'm happy we don't have one because super app == super control. (BTW WhatsApp was still legal back then.) A ban on gas powered small motorcycles. All of them were electric, some with a retrofitted electric engine, some natively electric. I wish we did the same. I can't think about other things that were or could look bett…

Half joke/half serious: 1. Food(any objection?) 2. Public transportation: high speed rail road 3. Huge and fancy malls: USA is behind believe it or not 4. E-payment & WeChat: Chinese people think differently. 5. Food delivery and all kinds of half-day delivery 6. Free of Racism: invisible ceiling 7. Cultural recreational activities that you don’t understand 8. Crowded.

[flagged]

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#138

Post by perl4ever »

pjc50 wrote: post #81
reedwolf wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems really random that the Chinese are so into NBA. What next, Greeks being really into American gangsta rap music?

Are Americans unaware of how influential their own cultural export is? Have you not noticed how in every city you can find people wearing Yankees baseball caps with that characteristic logo? Most countries have rappers now, emulating the style. If there's a village out there that doesn't buy American cultural products, there is someone whose job it is to sell it to them.

I think a lot of Americans are unaware of how much Hollywood has become an export business, such that a movie can kind of flop in the US and be a spectacular success elsewhere. My impression is that has been the case for quite a while.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#139

Post by nsl73 »

thedrbrian wrote: post #126
throwaway2474 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is about 15 years out of date. There isn’t much that is “excellent beyond what is available” in China anymore. This type of thinking is why western foreign policy continues to get China totally wrong. Chinese people who study abroad are more often confused by the things missing in the west than they are liberated in the way you describe, in my experience.

>Chinese people who study abroad are more often confused by the things missing in the west than they are liberated in the way you describe, in my experience. As someone who has never been to China could you list some things the West is missing?

Public transportation, affordable healthcare, & weechat are all things that are significantly better in China.

— An American that spent a few weeks in China.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#140

Post by jdm2212 »

whoevercares wrote: post #134
pmontra wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Examples? From my direct experience from a 3 weeks journey 5 years ago: A super app like WeChat. I'm happy we don't have one because super app == super control. (BTW WhatsApp was still legal back then.) A ban on gas powered small motorcycles. All of them were electric, some with a retrofitted electric engine, some natively electric. I wish we did the same. I can't think about other things that were or could look bett…

Half joke/half serious: 1. Food(any objection?) 2. Public transportation: high speed rail road 3. Huge and fancy malls: USA is behind believe it or not 4. E-payment & WeChat: Chinese people think differently. 5. Food delivery and all kinds of half-day delivery 6. Free of Racism: invisible ceiling 7. Cultural recreational activities that you don’t understand 8. Crowded.

China's great if you have a decent amount of money -- labor's cheap, so all sorts of stuff (food prep, transportation, delivery services) that's heavy on labor is dirt cheap in China even if it's unaffordable in the West.

But racism... speaking as a rich white guy who was treated as nicely as you'd generally expect, even I could tell it wouldn't be fun to be an ethnic minority there. Chinese ethnic minorities visiting Beijing are themselves something of a tourist attraction; tour guides leading Westerners around point and stare and talk about those minorities sort of the way you'd point and stare and talk about a wild animal you found roaming the streets. Thing is, 95+ percent of China is a single (self-identified) ethnic group so there are just fewer encounters with minorities.

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