Costco: Sells One China Globes (See Hobart's post below)

Arts & Sciences Culture & History
21

According to my school, I’m supposed to teach my kids that Taiwan is part of China, and that “The Long Wall” is our national treasure. When questioned, my co-teacher (laughing hysterically) said that this information is in fact wrong, and that I should teach them that China is part of Taiwan, and that “The Long Wall” is our national treasure.

Just to add to my confusion, a friend e-mailed me from home (I’ve been here a few years): So, how’s life in Japan? Still got that Jappie (!) boyfriend?

I was wondering if I should speak to Costco’s manager about this…

22

[quote]Just to add to my confusion, a friend e-mailed me from home (I’ve been here a few years): So, how’s life in Japan? Still got that Jappie (!) boyfriend?

I was wondering if I should speak to Costco’s manager about this…[/quote]

Costco has a lot of goods you can’t get elsewhere, but I don’t think they stock boyfriends and even if they did, they’d be oversized and you’d have to buy 12 at a time. I’d stick with the one you have.

23

I haven’t yet met a Taiwanese who would care whether Taiwan is depicted as part of China, Mongolia is depicted as part of Taiwan, or Taiwan is referred to as Chinese Taipei. I believe you’ll have to raise the issue with Costco yourself because the locals either (a) just don’t care (b) are too scared to say a word or © are too busy shopping for pointy-toed shoes to bother with such boring matters.

24

[quote=“blueface666”][quote=“JeffG”]blueface666, why do you say that Costco has been going downhill for the past year? Not trying to change the topic just wondering…

And FYI, there are many foreigners working in the main office in Nei-Hu most of whom are Americans.
[/quote]

I find the product selection has dropped. More and more are local products I can buy anywhere. In addition, the general atmosphere…it’s not as clean or orderly as it once was. About the foreign staff. Lot’s of companies here have foreign staff…but that means nothing if the management iteslf is local. Who knows, maybe the manager is a foreigner…and he’s “gone native”! :smiley:[/quote]

Really? I have found just the reverse, I feel it depends on the season and it depends on their inventory. Some months they have a great selection and other times it’s so-so. And I only started going to Cost-co about a year ago so I am not aware of it before that, I have always felt it had too many people pushing and shoving, but then again that’s normal everywhere.

25

Those science-fiction maps are everywhere. Doesn’t anybody study at Shr Da? They’re in every single room of the Mandarin center.

You know full well what it means. The earlier stance was that Taipei and Beijing agree that there is one China, and Taiwan is a province of it, and that Muhammad is his prophet…oh wait. Anyway disagreeing merely on which of the two rival claimants is really the government.

Taipei, in the form of Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bien, has made noises about changing their stance, but backed down in the face of pressure from China and the U.S… So there has been no official change in this position, other than that Taipei has declared the state of war to be over.

Maps sold domestically had to be approved by the MOI until a few months ago, which meant that they had to reflect the imaginary political borders. Since no other country recognizes this exact configuration (with Mongolia included, also with Nanjing as the capital, subtle border changes elsewhere) I suspect you will find that the globes are made locally. Mainland Chinese globes look very different.

Mongolia was initially claimed by the ROC, then renounced when they got cozy with Russia, then the reununciation was renounced when that fell through. The fact that Mongolia is a democratic, anti-Chinese nation (by sentiment, not by economics) has made the prospect of furthering ties with it attractive enough to possibly override these vestigial political considerations. Unfortunately China is quite capable of pressuring Mongolia to stop whatever contacts they may be planning. (When the Dalai Lama visited, they closed the Trans-Mongolian rail border for a few days.)

Meanwhile the PRC has accepted Mongolia since the 1940’s, but may conceivable press their old claims again in the future now that it is no longer backed so strongly by Russia. They recently agreed with Russia not to change the status of Mongolia for at least 20 years, which to me is suggestive!

26

Vincent: Most people in Taiwan including the foreigners know the whole story that you are talking about.

But of course NO ONE believes the BS about China and Taiwan being the same country which nothing more than political pipe dreams.

So why would COSTCO sell a globe showing Taiwan and China as being the same country? They should pull this from the shelves and the DPP administration should be notified. Time to make some changes.

27

No, no, no. Mongolia is depicted as part of the Republic of China. Taiwan is also depicted as part of the Republic of China. Jinmen and Mazu are also depicted as being part of the Republic of China. The rest of China is also depicted as being part of the Republic of China. Taiwan is an island - none of those other places are parts of it, either geographically or politically. (Extraneous details start here…) However, in administrative terms, some offshore islands such as Penghu (the Pescadores), Ludao (Green Island) and Lanyu (Orchid Island) belong to Taiwan. The Beijing and Taibei governments agree that all those islands and the Diaoyutai islands belong to Taiwan, which is a province of either the Republic of China or the People’s Republic of China, depending on your point of view. However, the Japanese government thinks the Diaoyutai islands are part of Japan, and Japan has actual control over the Diaoyutai islands for the time being.

Congratulations to Vincent for actually knowing what he is talking about.

You are right about points a anc c. Point b might have been valid 20 or more years ago.

28

Hobart, my atlas in the office is published by Oxford University Press and it also has China and Taiwan as the same colour.

29

Yikes…time for someone to take a stand. If no one else cares, why should we. Seems like the whole world believes that Taiwan and China are the same country. At least their maps and globes say so.

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[quote=“Hobart”]
Yikes…time for someone to take a stand. If no one else cares, why should we. Seems like the whole world believes that Taiwan and China are the same country. At least their maps and globes say so.[/quote]

Yes, but the KMT has always said the whole shebang is called the ROC (as if they didn’t actually lose the civil war at all) and the commies have called it all the PRC. You can’t paint the countries on the sides of the straits different colors without labelling them as different countries, and this is where the whole issue of relationship and title comes in.

One China, one Taiwan?
Two Chinas?
Special state to state relationship?
Independant island nation?

Take your pick, and then decide what you’d like to call Taiwan. Republic of China on Taiwan? Democratic Republic of Taiwan? Formosan Republic?

On a related note, does anyone remember the guy who printed himself a (IIRC) Republic of Taiwan passport and then travelled on it? Good on him, direct action gets the goods.

31

I have never been inside a Costco, never seen one and don’t even know where one might be located.
Does that make me incredibly cool or unbelievably uncool?

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Cool. You’re cool wolf. Always!

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I’ve never been to Costco, either!

Does that mean I’m cool, too?

:sunglasses:

Iris

34

Costco is decidedly uncool. Who pays to shop at a store, anyway?

35

You stole that quote from Timogan:
forums.segue.com.tw/viewtopic.ph … c&start=15

:wink:

36

[quote=“Alleycat”]Maybe the cartographer is an American. They, at least a large number of them, are, as you no doubt know, infamous for their appalling lack of geographic knowledge about lands outside of north America, and, if you have watched Leno’s street quizzes you will know of what I speak, very often about North America, too.

[/quote]

Writing about us as if we aren’t here, eh?

Now, where’s the best beach in Switzerland?

37

china and taiwan should be one country!!!

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In terms of cartography, well, how do you decide “When is a country a country?” Each editorial board will have its own policies, but they can’t get to the point where they have their own foreign policy in order to draw maps.

You can draw the “facts on the ground.” Taiwan / the rump ROC (love that phrase!) has its own government, defended borders, etc., so it gets recognized. You could do the same in India / Pakistan, drawing the border to match the line of actual control. (And then, if you sell it in India, you have to print a disclaimer announcing that the border demarcation “may be incorrect”!) But what do you do in the case of more ephemeral border / governmental changes? Write “TBA” over Yugoslavia in the early 1990’s? And Congo / Zaire has three competing “governments,” none of which really look like a government except for the part about having an army. What then?

Or, you could let yourself be guided by diplomatic considerations. Does your government recognize Ngorno-Karabakh, or Chechnya, or Macedonia, or Israel? Or if your government is kind of strange this way, go by membership in the United Nations (Switzerland just joined!) or preponderance of diplomatic support or something. A year or so ago, Afghanistan was divided into at least two separate territories of varying size (depending on military progress / regress), but most nations recognized the Northern Alliance for lack of viable alternatives that they approved of.

In the case of Taiwan, both sides agreed that the two areas should be colored the same color on the map. Sure, there are Taiwan independence advocates, but their views have not yet become official policy. This makes the situation look more like a civil war, and not an unrecognized independent country. And then what would you give as the official name of this country? Republic of Formosa? How would you decide?

And then, there is always the marketing factor. Muslims don’t want to see “Israel” on their globe, Indians and Taiwanese need their weird adaptations. Hmmm, maybe they could make three different globes for the Taiwan market, each marked with the flag of the appropriate political party?

Personally, I think someone should sell customized globes, so you could change the names countries to whatever you wanted (Polack country? Vincent-stan?) or add Atlantis and Lemuria. Hmmm, they should do the same with Bibles, so people could add new verses or change the name of “God” to their own names, or whatever.

39

Yes you are right, but only if the capital is Taipei and the communist gangsters in Beijing are fired and Taiwan and China are ruled by democracy from here in Taipei!

40

[quote=“wolf_reinhold”]I have never been inside a Costco, never seen one and don’t even know where one might be located.
Does that make me incredibly cool or unbelievably uncool?[/quote]

Check the place out Wolf, there are a lot of bargains on things and they have products that you can’t find anywhere else as well. The fee is not that high, I think you can afford it, and you should think of it as a membership fee to be able to shop there and pay wholesale prices instead of retail, the fee is one of the reasons that they can charge less. Whatever, it isn’t that much money, get over it!