Yes I know I’ve beaten this dead horse here before but
apparently my one man vigil in Taiwan has ‘progressed’ to AMERIKA.
Yes ac I still Taser anyone who uses “Mainland China” within my earshot
I’ve just returned from ‘Dave’s’, haranguing the debaters about learning “Chinese” (read Mandarin)
in Taiwan or ‘Mainland China’.
These people aren’t faux ABC’s like ac but have picked this neologism up from — ?
CNN talks about the “Beijing, China Olympics”, not the “Beijing, Mainland China Olympics”.
People say “Communist China” not “Communist Mainland China”, “Oppressive China” not
“Oppressive Mainland China”, “Authoritarian China” not “Authoritarian Mainland China”
and “Chinese Hegemony” not “Mainland Chinese Hegemony” .
They must be from Hainan.
It only makes sense for the Hong Kongers to call China, “Mainland”. Not for the people in Taiwan.
Yes, it is a dead beat on the bush… I mean horse…uh… Yeah. 
Mainland China! Mainland Chinese! suck! Just spent 8 years in Beijing, before that was in TW from 1997 to 2000 and would come back to Free China 5 to 6 times a year.
All the world is doing now is kissing the ass of the PRC!
Pity no matter how many times we beat the horse, it is not dead yet.
I have the same question: What is the advantage of using the term “Mainland China” in the 21st century, when the historical context is so different from the time this term was born?
I understand many people use it because that is the familiar term employed all around. How? Well, it gets printed in official papers, and is given out to reporters as that, and so they are forced to use it by their editors because that is the official line, then people read it all the time in many contexts, and so that is why people use it. It’s contagious!
Anyone written “communits bandits” lately?
Sigh
Let’s call Canada the 51st state it really is.
Ontario, perhaps.
In my translation work, I translate 大陸 or 中國大陸 as “mainland China” (note how I don’t capitalize “mainland”). I translate plain ol’ 中國 as “China”.
It depends partly on the client’s political perspectives and habits.
I had never heard the expression “Mainland China” when I lived in the US. It was just referred to as China. Taiwan was referred to as Taiwan and Hong Kong was referred to as Hong Kong. The first I’d ever heard it was when I moved here.
I use mainland and mainlanders all the time, as do mainlanders and Taiwanese (solly!). I guess it’s just coming straight from Chinese - dalu - dalu ren.
HG
To muddy the waters further, there’s the two different uses of “mainlander” used here:
大陸人: a person from mainland China (as opposed to a person from Hong Kong, Macau or the Republic of China)
外省人: a person who was born in mainland China and evacuated to Taiwan between 1945 and the mid 1950s, or a descendant of such a person.
Also, before 2000, when the DPP came into office, it was pretty much de rigueur here to refer to China as “mainland China” in published works, since the ROC was considered the true China. And old habits die hard. (After all,my grandmother referred to Taiwan as “Formosa” till her dying day).
Heh heh …
Just an update - to turn this on its head, when people ask me where I’m from
I say “Mainland Canada”.
What an incentive! Tomorrow I’ll learn it in Hakka!
[quote=“old canuck”]Heh heh …
Just an update - to turn this on its head, when people ask me where I’m from
I say “Mainland Canada”.
What an incentive! Tomorrow I’ll learn it in Hakka![/quote]
Could work if you are living on Vancouver Island?
That is a very good point. Dont’ people in Hawaii call the continental US the mainland?
old canuck: [color=green]I still Taser anyone who uses “Mainland China” within my earshot[/color]
It shows that you do not appreciate, or rather disrespect, differing culture.
Chinese people everywhere in the world uses the term ‘da lu’ (mainland) and ‘da lu ren’ (mainlander) to refer to those from China excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
There has to have differences in the use of terms due to distances and culture and languages develops differently for each places. For example, Malaysian Chinese and Singaporean Chinese would call fishball as ‘yu yuan’ while in Hong Kong and Macau, it’s called ‘yu dan’ which basically means fish egg. I don’t see why it should be ridiculed.
Huang Guang Chen and LA have good points:
You should learn how to appreciate differences not uniformity of human race, especially in culture.
[quote=“tommy525”][quote=“old canuck”]Heh heh …
Just an update - to turn this on its head, when people ask me where I’m from
I say “Mainland Canada”.
What an incentive! Tomorrow I’ll learn it in Hakka![/quote]
Could work if you are living on Vancouver Island?[/quote]
Yep, since the Vancouver region is called by all locals the “Lower Mainland.”
[quote=“Taiko”]
Huang Guang Chen and LA have good points:
You should learn how to appreciate differences not uniformity of human race, especially in culture.[/quote]
Agreed, Taike. It make a lot of sense for people in HK or Hainan or Macau to call the rest of the country mainland China.
But it makes absolutely no sense at all for people in Taiwan or the rest of the world to call that place mainland China.
You should learn to appreciate differences in geography too.
[quote=“urodacus”]]
Agreed, Taike. It make a lot of sense for people in HK or Hainan or Macau to call the rest of the country mainland China.
But it makes absolutely no sense at all for people in Taiwan or the rest of the world to call that place mainland China.
You should learn to appreciate differences in geography too.[/quote]
Because while most Taiwanese maintain that politically they are not part of the PRC, culturally separating China and Taiwan is much more complex. Most Taiwanese view themselves as part of the Chinese people (broadly defined) (華人) and do not view mainlanders (大陸人) as foreigners (外國人). ROC citizenship is still based on Chinese ancestry, and the ROC maintains a special relationship with overseas Chinese. An independent Taiwan does not exist, and defining Taiwanese culture in separate terms from the mainland is very problematic. Unfortunately the DPP’s attempts to do this often descended into narrow Hoklo chauvinism, excluding other groups in society, including waishengren, aboriginal, and foreigners. The DPP in reality is just as conservative as the KMT, and has made no effort to create a new, forward-thinking and progressive concept of Taiwanese identity.
urodacus: [color=green]it makes absolutely no sense at all for people in Taiwan or the rest of the world to call that place mainland China[/color]
Contrary to what you said, I think we Chinese are not making sense to exclude Hong Kong and Macau from the mainland. It might make sense in the past as people there generally feel they’re not part of the mainland.
It makes perfect sense, however, to refer to the PRC as mainland China, both geographically (as in the case for Taiwan island) and politically.
As it had developed in a deep-rooted culture, just like asking “have you eaten” as a form of greeting, we just ignore it.
Btw, I’m not Tai Ke (台客). I’m Taikor. And geography is one of my forte. I have the map of the world in my head since 10 years old. Even now.
[quote=“Taiko”]Contrary to what you said, I think we Chinese are not making sense to exclude Hong Kong and Macau from the mainland. It might make sense in the past as people there generally feel they’re not part of the mainland.[/quote] I’m just curious, would you say you are Chinese, Chinese Malaysian, Malaysian Chinese, or Malaysian?