Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

laorencha.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 220 posts

Re: Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

#201

Post by uranusjr »

SergeAx wrote: post #133

For those who like me didn't understand the title. From paragraph 9: > For those who don't know, "deep blue" means very pro-KMT, generally favoring Chinese identity, closer ties with China and eventual unification with China. Search for KMT leads to Wikipedia article that says it is the same as Guomindang, the party was exciled from mainland China to Taiwan in 1949. I don't know how it evolved to "eventual unificatio…

To somewhat relief your confusion (but not nearly entirely; the KMT switching to pro-unification is in itself extremely incomprehensible that even Taiwanese don’t understand), the KMT never held the view “Taiwan is the only China”. Their original view was more like “we rule the only China from Taiwan” (and that China is even bigger than the PROC’s current territories).

Re: Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

#202

Post by chilioil »

For those who are wondering why the title is unclear or misleading: this blog is extremely niche, written for people living in or interested in Taiwan. Bet you the writer behind it, who is well-known in her niche and a permanent resident of Taiwan, never thought this post would make it to this site.

Re: Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

#203

Post by chilioil »

For those who are wondering why the title is unclear or misleading: this blog is extremely niche, written for people living in or interested in Taiwan. Bet you the writer behind it, who is well-known in her niche and a permanent resident of Taiwan, never thought this post would make it to this site. There have been some updates since clarifying blue/green in the Taiwan context, so presumably she’s noticed.

Re: Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

#204

Post by chilioil »

jimmyvalmer wrote: post #184

I'm far more sympathetic to the greens... but my personal views don't matter much. I don't mind the first part of the sentence; that's just editorial. The second part is weak-sauce backpedalling. The repetitive moral outrage made this piece five times longer than it needed to be.

Considering that the writer resides in Taiwan but cannot vote there (not a citizen), perhaps that’s a literal statement of fact, not a backpedal.

Re: Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

#205

Post by wonnage »

starfallg wrote: post #112
wonnage wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll take the bait: - Standard of living has increased incomprehensibly over the last 40 years. - Huge cities with incredible culture and history. - Safe to walk around at night. Imagine walking around downtown NYC or LA at 3am without feeling like you're gonna get mugged. - Despite all the saber rattling with neighbors Taiwan, Japan, and India, and quarterly tank parades, not involved in hot wars since a misguided i…

I'll take the bait-bait - >- Standard of living has increased incomprehensibly over the last 40 years. So did in Taiwan, SK, Japan, Hong Kong, Sinagpore, etc. in the 50s-90s. China is actually behind, and was slow to develop because of the mess that the revolution caused. >- Safe to walk around at night. Imagine walking around downtown NYC or LA at 3am without feeling like you're gonna get mugged. As above, the autho…

> So did in Taiwan, SK, Japan, Hong Kong, Sinagpore, etc. in the 50s-90s. China is actually behind, and was slow to develop because of the mess that the revolution caused.

I'm certainly not a Great Leap Forward apologist, but Deng salvaging the mess in the 80s-90s and the subsequent development is a great achievement.

> As above, the authoritarianism didn't cause this. Walk around 3am at night in any city in Japan, SK or Taiwan, it is the same.

I'm just citing Good Things about China since the parent seemed to be convinced there weren't any. Not making a value judgement on how it was achieved.

> Since we're playing et tu now, how about all the bases in the South China Seas and the border skirmishes with India? By all indications, if the US was not the world police, then China's (or Russia's) response, judging by their recent actions, would have been even worse. You also failed to mention China's role in the Korean war, in addition to Vietnam.

Some border skirmishes vs an uninterrupted history of global hot, cold, and proxy wars since WWII, you tell me which is more significant?

> Hard to see COVID as a defence for China given that most of the world is still ticked off that China covered everything up, twice, leading to pandemic both times. It's surprising that they didn't learn the mistakes of SARS, and here we are with SARS-2.

The gene sequence was released on this day (1/11) in 2020. There had been 41 cases and one death at that point. Look at the American virus response and tell me if any city would've locked down at that point. There was no coverup, it's simply an incredibly contagious virus.

> This really betrays your sympathies. You don't even consider that what the people of Hong Kong desires and their right to self-determination. Hong Kong is more than just a few islands and a bit of land hanging off of the mainland.

We'll have to agree to disagree here. I don't think the majority of Hong Kongers wants to secede from the mainland, even in a magical world where they wouldn't have to fight an independence war and subsequent complete economic/diplomatic isolation to get it.

> What is even your point here? Are you trying to say that it's actually Taiwan provoking China?

I'm saying that it's dumb to treat flying into a corner of a giant rectangle that's mostly not covering your own land as some major provocation

Re: Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

#206

Post by wonnage »

philliphaydon wrote: post #169
starfallg wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll take the bait-bait - >- Standard of living has increased incomprehensibly over the last 40 years. So did in Taiwan, SK, Japan, Hong Kong, Sinagpore, etc. in the 50s-90s. China is actually behind, and was slow to develop because of the mess that the revolution caused. >- Safe to walk around at night. Imagine walking around downtown NYC or LA at 3am without feeling like you're gonna get mugged. As above, the autho…

> What is even your point here? Are you trying to say that it's actually Taiwan provoking China? You could have mentioned the CCP attacking and attempted invasion of Taiwan in 1954 and 1958.

The CPC were trying to finish the war and the KMT were a military dictatorship that had just overrun the island. Presumably at this point an outsider country has no real horse in this race, except that the KMT dictatorship was massacring its people because they were communists, while the CPC was doing the opposite, hence the American support. You have to understand that things are different now because Taiwan evolved into a successful democracy, but that was not a given pre-1980s or so.

Re: Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

#207

Post by Fatnino »

rwmj wrote: post #146
sverhagen wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually they'll figure out at what street corner to stand to find people with the leanings they want to film, if they're intent on coloring the reporting. At some point you'll also have to let go and trust the reporter or the outlet they work for, which admittedly is an increasingly challenging decision, these days.

They don't need to do that. Interviewing people on the street already selects for the kind of people who wander around shopping malls in the middle of a weekday, ie those who don't work 9-5, very much not a cross-section of society. The sooner vox pops disappear altogether the better.

I got interviewed for one of these man in the street things for a local newspaper. I had just completed jury duty and was about to grab an early lunch and head into work. The reporter paraphrased my words very slightly when it went to print but the intent and meaning was the same so no complaints from me.

Re: Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

#208

Post by platinumrad »

starfallg wrote: post #193
yorwba wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traditional Chinese characters are still used on the Mainland for stylistic reasons, e.g. 為人民服務 "serve the people" in Mao Zedong's handwriting is popular as decoration: http://image.hnol.net/c/2014-02/28/16/201402281653233461-227... (And Simplified Characters get used in Taiwan for convenience, compare 台湾 vs. 台灣 vs. 臺灣 "Taiwan") Yayue performed at the closing ceremony of the World Military Games in Wuhan: https://bil…

But those are the exceptions. The general situation is that traditional characters are official in Taiwan and taught as the standard in schools, and simplified characters in the Mainland.

Simplification was a good thing. Plenty of factions in the early 20th century wanted simplification, or even full romanization. It's just that the CCP happened to win the civil war, so they're the ones who actually implemented it and now it's a cultural flash point. Honestly, it's not a big deal, unless you somehow think Hangul and Hiragana are abominations too.

Re: Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

#209

Post by platinumrad »

starfallg wrote: post #186
platinumrad wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Germans were starving in the 20s too due to the outcome of WWI. The Nazi 'fixed' that. It sure seems like a reach to say that China in the 2020s is like Germany in the 1930s because Chinese were starving in the 1960s (and, to lesser extents, the 1970s and 1980s) and Germans were starving in the 1920s. Wouldn't it follow that China in the 1970s (or 1980s or 1990s) is analogous to Germany in 1930s? Oh wait, of course…

It's an absurd analogy only if you're in denial about the horrors of extreme nationalism or ideologies coupled with authoritarianism. You even seem to deny that today's CCP is the same CCP as the one that cause the Great Leap Forward. In many ways, the CCP of today is more like the CCP of the 50s than the 90s.

I agree that the CCP is, on balance, worse (e.g. more socially repressive) today than in the 90s but I don't think it's about to return to the bad old days of Red Guards and struggle sessions, or the really bad old days of farm collectivization and mass famine. I also don't think comparisons to Weimar or Nazi Germany are remotely appropriate. The state nutures nationalism, but so do most others. (B2 bombers flying over sports games? Subtle!) The major difference is many Chinese have experienced a sharp increase in standard of living within their lifetimes, so they are more likely to be nationalistic true believers.

Ordinarily, this would subside in later generations, but my fear is that western jingoism and igorance about China is delaying or even reversing this process. There is a recent research paper which presents data showing Chinese international students were less likely to adopt liberal positions when confronted with anti-China attitudes. This matches my anecdotal experiences where people proselytizing the superiority of western systems of government (and/or the evils of the Chinese one) get basic facts wrong and completely alienate their targets.

Re: Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a 'man on the street'

#210

Post by platinumrad »

enaaem wrote: post #195
lucian1900 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Even the barest minimum of anti-imperialism gets pushback. Western chauvinism is quite something. It's more noticeable if you're in any way "Eastern", even European.

You are one public forum. People can disagree with your messages just as you can disagree with others. If you don't want pushback write a blog and disable comments.

There is a difference between "nobody should be allowed to disagree with me" and "it's regrettable that most people hold what I consider to be very regressive positions on this topic." I don't think anyone is expressing the former.
Post reply on HN