ShrimpCrackers, just out of curiousity, have you ever actually lived in Taiwan?
I’m shocked by this whole no-Taiwanese revelation.
“so there was an entire charade of negotiations.”
Nice turn of phrase. Pity about the bullying. Friggin thugs…Next parade take me along…and my baseball bat.
Chou
[quote=“Vorkosigan”]
You know, it cracks me up. Do you and CCTang think that you’ll get a gold watch from the PRC or something when they come over? Don’t you know anything about authoritarians like those murderers who run the CCP? They shoot their friends – just as the thousands of mainlanders murdered by the KMT when they came over after 1949. Like as not they’ll simply put a bullet through your heads and dump you in a ditch somewhere. [/quote]
Well, quick, someone build me a bomb shelter and start passing around loyalty oaths.
Ya know what really cracks me up… the antiquated cold war relic who’s world-view is more influenced by Tom Clancy, an active imagination, and the Taipei Times than actual experience. You know, the same folks who were also warning us about the PLA raping and rampaging their way through Hong Kong, shooting nuns and democracy activists as they go.
Tell ya what, come back and lecture to us on the subject after you’ve actually met a few of these CCP authoritarian murderers. If you manage to get shot in the head and dumped in a ditch on your way to Beijing, I promise to take your warnings a little more seriously next time.
Really I though it was because the ROC kept given money to USA that the great USA alliance was bought. Can you named the University that was built by the USA for the Chinese, when ROC accountant discovered USA overcharged the ROC?
Also sometime in the 70’s all forms of aid stop because Taiwan became on of those litter tiger economies.
I don’t doubt there was corruption. But with the DPP practicing the same kind of corrupt, why isn’t the Taiwan economy booming like it was under the KMT.
Lobbyist pay taxes. And based on your economic analysis eventually all that goes to the ROC in form of aid. Now there are PRC lobbyist in the USA. So there even more money thrown at the USA over this issue.
With all the money ROC and PRC gives USA over this issue, seems like kickbacks are in order.
To TaiwansOtherSide: Actually I have lived in Taiwan. I also spent some time living at the Kaohsiung mayors’ home back in the early 1980’s. Yeah, even so, I’m still not too fond of the KMT.
To Dropout: the economy has grown 6.4% in the last quarter in Taiwan. That is excellent.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_ … an_economy
CCTang: besides the fact that you claim that you refuse to talk about the issue at hand, if China’s history is based on unity as you say, what the heck is Romance of the 3 Kingdoms? Keep in mind Chinese history is packed full of stories about killing each other, rich with tales of totalitarian suppression and suffering.
[quote=“ShrimpCrackers”]
CCTang: besides the fact that you claim that you refuse to talk about the issue at hand, if China’s history is based on unity as you say, what the heck is Romance of the 3 Kingdoms? [/quote]
The 3 kingdom period (and the fictional account of it in ‘Romance’) is a perfect example of my point.
After a few hundred years of unity underneith the Han + Qin, China disintegrated into a collection of small kingdoms. These eventually coalesced into 3 “kingdoms”, each of whom proclaimed their own emperors and settled in for a half century of division. The fighting didn’t stop with the 3 kingdoms, by the way; nomadic attacks from the north + internal rivals meant continuous conflict for nearly 4 centuries.
None of this is unfamiliar to any civilization + empire + nation in human history. Every society in history has faced the same, eventually. It’s interesting to note, for example, that the Roman Empire collapsed at roughly the same time that the Han collapsed (3rd century).
But what happens afterwards is what makes China unique: the Chinese empire, eventually, coalesced again. The Sui, followed by the Tang dynasties, were able to bring centuries of mostly peace + unity to most of what we today call China. What about the Roman Empire? Europe descended into ignorance and mutual in-fighting for the next 1000+ years.
Even as continental Europe was “killing and suffering” through the Dark/Middle Ages, the vast majority of Chinese enjoyed a superior standard of living. If we look at history over the past 2000 years, the entity we call China today has been united for ~1300 of those years. A very unique record indeed.
The cultural causes of this have been debated by folks far brighter than I, but I’ll summarize my own take here: Chinese philosophies stress the importance of social stability, respect for a cooperative “system”, and loyalty to our heritage.
As if any nation has a history that isn’t “packed full” of killing and suffering. As if any nation was magically placed on earth in its modern shape.
I’m not arguing absolute Chinese superiority. There are plenty who’d point out that these same Chinese cultural characteristics have led to stagnation and a tightly regimented society… leading directly to the dramatic suffering of the past 150 years. I for one just prefer to hope that we’ll build on our strengths while learning from our mistakes.
I just happen to believe that the pursuit of shared strength through unity is one of our greatest strengths.
There is no arguing that unity and size are prerequisites of strength. Otherwise the American founders would not have realized “united we stand, divided we fall,” then and during the Civil War, when the South, considered by the North an inseparable part of One Union, had to be reunited, by force if necessary.
Speaking of the US civil war, check out my blog for a discussion about the similarities between the ROC and CSA: The ROC Shall Rise Again!
Do you actually believe what the ROC government under the Green Terror administration says anymore?
For the most part any growth in ROC manufacturing, as this report states, is closely linked to factories in the PRC.
6.4% growth is counter intuitive to the general economic stagnation one sees in Taiwan these days, the general mood on Taiwan towards the economy in general makes me high suspicious of how the 6.4% growth was actually calculated.
Remember this is the government that claim an “immediate” threat from the PRC 2 years ago. And nothing happened since then. Unless PRC offering Pandas are an “immediate” threat.
Like these exaggerated PRC threats, the ROC government has been exaggerating ROC economic growth for quite sometime now.
Speaking of Chinese suppressing Taiwanese in the United States… Anyone else see Lee Ang’s acceptance speech at the Oscar’s last night? (I didn’t actually, but did see the press reports this morning.) He explicitly thanked his fans in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan… adding a “xiexie nimen de guanxin” at the tail end.
I guess he’s not part of “F for Formosa” quite yet.
He thanked people in this order “Taiwan, HK, China.” TI nutters can now read into the secret message within. I had the pleasure of meeting him about 10 years ago, he’s a very nice guy.
Although I like Zhang Ziyi introduction, I have to wonder if she knows what she’s saying sometimes.
[quote=“ac_dropout”]He thanked people in this order “Taiwan, HK, China.” TI nutters can now read into the secret message within. I had the pleasure of meeting him about 10 years ago, he’s a very nice guy.
Although I like Zhang Ziyi introduction, I have to wonder if she knows what she’s saying sometimes.[/quote]
Ang Lee is a very nice guy to everyone, not to you just because you’re an advocate of Taiwan ‘under communism rather than pan greens.’
Since I was actually on the set of some of his earlier movies, the fact that my father had speaking roles in a few of his movies, and having hung out with Ang Lee, I can attest to you that Ang Lee means his supporters in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China; not “I support Unification”. Also consider that he took his first Academy Award for Taiwan, as well as his second. Not China.
Take off your blue shaded glasses and take it for what it means. Honestly, there were people from Hong Kong, and China that have significantly helped him forward his projects.
I think you’ve got a point there. I don’t think he said anything about reunification, or anything else remotely political. He expressed no opinion about the NUC, the Communist Party, or Green/Blue affinity.
I just find it notable that he believes his “supporters in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China” are in some way different from his supporters elsewhere in the world and Asia at large. That alone is worthy of recognition.
[quote=“cctang”]I think you’ve got a point there. I don’t think he said anything about reunification, or anything else remotely political. He expressed no opinion about the NUC, the Communist Party, or Green/Blue affinity.
I just find it notable that he believes his “supporters in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China” are in some way different from his supporters elsewhere in the world and Asia at large. That alone is worthy of recognition.[/quote]
Of course, they made his first Academy Award possible. Of all the time I spent with him, I don’t recall him ever talking about politics. He was just too busy to care, and his passions was in movies anyway.
Chin Su-Mei on the other hand… said she despised aborigines.
He’s an American.
He’s considered an “outsider” in Asia. After “Eat, Drink, Man, Women” all his stuff is Hollywood.
So his story is an immigrant story, not a political story story of Strait Issue.
After Eat, Drink, Man, Women I remember he did the Chinese New Year show in NYC. Where famous Chinese American entertainers or performer in the area would do a skit, dance, sing, or give an improptu speech. If Ang Lee was a TI nutter, you think he would participate in an event like that?
His passion is his work and his wife original thought he was wasting his time in the States. I’m happy to see things work out for him.
He’s an American.
He’s considered an “outsider” in Asia. After “Eat, Drink, Man, Women” all his stuff is Hollywood.
So his story is an immigrant story, not a political story story of Strait Issue.
After Eat, Drink, Man, Women I remember he did the Chinese New Year show in NYC. Where famous Chinese American entertainers or performer in the area would do a skit, dance, sing, or give an improptu speech. If Ang Lee was a TI nutter, you think he would participate in an event like that?
His passion is his work and his wife original thought he was wasting his time in the States. I’m happy to see things work out for him.[/quote]
He would spend much of his time studying American literature and behavior. He did not get it over night. His wife helped finance his studies at NYU.
He would also spend days writing with Huang Guang Ren in the New York, China Times office.
Like I pointed out, he never seemed very political. As for “TI Nutters”, last I recall, unification was the least popular…
Plus we are all watching you looking for hidden messages like John Nash. Except you’re not winning any nobel prizes.
You have another 30-40 years to go before the Nobel committee will begin to recognize my earlier works done in my late 20’s.
Maybe then my ego will grow and I will go after the coveted Peace Prize. If pass winners are any indicator of a roadmap to this prize, I must first commit mass genocide on Taiwan, followed by a moral epiphany which will allow me and my political nemisis on the Mainland to resolve the Strait Issue in a conclusive but yet peaceful manner.
At which point I will have a license to commit mass genocide both on the Mainland and Taiwan with no one being the wiser. sinister laughter
Apparently, at his Golden Globe acceptance speech, Lee also thanked the people of China/HK/Taiwan, and wished a happy spring festival in Chinese.
Don’t tell me…the Golden Globes are not even broadcast in the PRC, because no one is interested, hence the TI conclusion, the PRC must be systematically censoring Ang Lee. :loco:
They did censor google.
DID YOU KNOW that China owns thousands of manufacturing plants that export all types of goods from christmas lights to automatic weapons to the U.S. & other countries