I’ve noticed the term Mainland seems to be used more lately and am curious if there is some outside influence or just coincidence causing the usage of this particular word instead of referring to Taiwan as Taiwan or ROC, China as China or PRC, Hong Kong as Hong Kong or Special Administrative Region, etc.
Just more common usage in Taiwan.
Well, rather KMT-like term, isn’t it? Somewhat implicates we are China too.*
- why did I even write that if anybody knows it anyway?
Commonly used. Also the government has been pushing the mainland usage in official matters for the past 4 years. Since the people voted them in again I at least couldn’t be bother standing for a clear and separate id that the majority aren’t indifferent to.
Use it at work, use it everywhere less I forget.
Works better than “Those assholes.” 
Guess I’ll have to start including “Mainland” in my Forumosa search terms when looking for things related to China…
Among Taiwanese, even a large proportion of pro-green supporters use mainland, or at least the ones I know do.
Yup. I always thought it was quite a derogatory term though, I’m careful to use ‘China’ or ‘Chinese Mainland’ when talking to Chinese people.
[color=#FF0000]PRC[/color] works for me… 
I translate it according to what’s stated in the Chinese text.
If they write 大陸 or 中國大陸 I translate it as “mainland China” (note that the “m” is not capitalized). An exception is if they’re talking about Imperial-era or ancient China, in which case they shouldn’t be using 大陸 at all.
If they just write 中國 with no qualifiers, I translate it as “China”.
In my experience, the use of 大陸 is far more common in Taiwan than 中國, both in speech and in writing.
By “Chinese people” do you mean “mainland Chinese people” or “ethnic Han people”?
Linguistic pitfalls… gotta love 'em!
By “Chinese people” do you mean “mainland Chinese people” or “ethnic Han people”?
Linguistic pitfalls… gotta love 'em![/quote]
Oh come on… you can get it from the context in this case!! 
I mean PRC Nationals.
(As an aside, does anybody else find PRC Nationals far more astute and on-the-ball (and informed!) about world affairs and the like than Taiwanese providing you don’t talk about China? I really love having conversations with them because you can actually talk about interesting or challenging topics… providing you don’t mention China/Taiwan. Most Taiwanese will usually just start repeating a lot of stuff that they’ve heard from TV and have no idea what the hell it means, and it’s depressing.)
I tend tend to refer to China as 大陸 in conversation with the Chinese - no one’s ever been bothered by it.
Probably like when you say it. If there is a mainland then there must be islands stuck on to the country somewhere as well including Hainan, Taiwan and Sprattly, or whatever takes the fancy of the PRC on a given day
Probably like when you say it. If there is a mainland then there must be islands stuck on to the country somewhere as well including Hainan, Taiwan and Sprattly, or whatever takes the fancy of the PRC on a given day[/quote]
In my mind I’m thinking ‘mainland country bumpkin cousin’ though. Compared to the Taiwanese and Hong Kongers.
[quote]tsukinodeynatsu wrote
(As an aside, does anybody else find PRC Nationals far more astute and on-the-ball (and informed!) about world affairs and the like than Taiwanese providing you don’t talk about China?[/quote]
Yes, as there are a few teens and older students from the mainland in class. It surprised me a lot at first.
Does this thread have any relevancy with living in the 'wan? 
Oh c’mon. If we’re going to take the piss out of “the mainland”, let’s at least get the terminology right. The Chinese government is, technically, fascist: a totalitarian state with a radical nationalist/racist ideology, with complete state ownership or control of critical resources such as land and large corporations. They are not, and really never have been, communist. If you want an example, Sweden is communist, or as communist as you can get in reality.
Thank you for your co-operation.
Oh c’mon. If we’re going to take the piss out of “the mainland”, let’s at least get the terminology right. The Chinese government is, technically, fascist: a totalitarian state with a radical nationalist/racist ideology, with complete state ownership or control of critical resources such as land and large corporations. They are not, and really never have been, communist. If you want an example, Sweden is communist, or as communist as you can get in reality.
Thank you for your co-operation.[/quote]
:bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:
Totally agree but then “commie a$$wipes” sounds a lot better, curse-wise