Alright I feel like discussing this.
It’s difficult to ever bring it up without being accused of being racist or what have you.
So let me say from the outset that I have no problem with people from any other race or culture. In fact I love the diversity of the world - I find, and have since I was young, other cultures fascinating, and I love learning about the world.
Yet with the way things go in the modern world, barriers are being increasingly broken. But no one - at least no one in power - seems to be bother to consider the consequences.
One language, one culture. Every city is the same globalised culture. Does this sound appealing or interesting to you?
We try preserve dying cultures and languages, but the way technology is advancing - communication, transportation and the like, the inevitable result is the hubris tower of Babel. And there is the illusion that we live in some transcendent society that is immune to the human condition.
Anyway, in many Western countries - and Australia is a good example - immigration rates are huge. Consider a country of 25m bringing 200-400k new citizens a year. Most end up in the capital cities. The result is very obvious for anyone living in them.
As a result the identity of the country has completely changed… to what? There is no identity as a result.
That’ the thing. I’m fascinated by other cultures, and love learning about them. That’s why I learned Mandarin, and lived in China and Taiwan. But I’m also rather fond of the Australian identity, and I’d rather it persists. Within a few generations it will be night but completely gone.
I’d like to see the entire world amalgamate into a single culture united under a single government, but that probably can’t happen until everyone in the world lives under nearly the same conditions and believes in a similar style of government. What you find interesting may be one of the things holding back human progress. 🏻 🏼 🏽 🏾 🏿
Boring? Maybe but humanity has shown that it cannot respect “other people”. If we all become one culture and one language there will be less friction. Not zero but less.
Not really the case. Go to any country, and you will find plenty of regional differences which locals will be happy to point out. UK: Londoners, the north, Cornwall, Scotland, Wales, Essex… they all have their stereotypes and identities. I am sure Australia has something similar. Taiwan sure does.
The fear of “globalised culture” rubbing out everything is vastly overstated.
Depends. 35% of people in London are foreign born. The change in demographic happened within basically a generation or 2. It’s quite different than other parts of the UK and it happened quickly.
The OP is from Australia with a smaller population than Taiwan. 400k immigrants a year really changes the demographics, especially since they’re concentrated in cities.
When I got to Rome, I don’t really want to see African migrants crowd around historic sites selling shit. Nor would I want to see a bunch of Italians around Cairo selling me made in China pyramid toys. But you can argue the Egyptians are not the same people of ancient Egypt which was ruled by different people anyways and Italians aren’t the romans that built Rome.
Can anyone ever see mass migration happening in China a la the US or Europe?
Those that support open borders seem to give a pass to China, South Korea or Japan.
I’m really not familiar with English history but I imagine the range of regional difference and identity is a result of its colourful history.
Australia really doesn’t have much in the way of regional differences, despite geographical separation. I only amounts to teasing over small differences.
Media has a significant influence in the social engineering project; when everyone consumes the same media…
The issue of mass immigration to me is really when immigrants don’t align with the local culture. A recent poll showed that a shocking number of Chinese immigrants in Australia don’t believe that democracy is the best form of government, they would make up the bulk to the immigrants to Australia. So you can see how that’s problematic.
A lot of them get information from Weibo and tow the party line living in free Australia. I wouldn’t want them to come to Taiwan.
Yeah actually there has been a huge influx of chinese, and the results are… well interesting, and I’m sure you’ve seen news stories indicating that
Not 100% related but actually Chinese history in Australia is pretty interesting. There has been various waves of immigration. A large number came during the gold rush, and there’s a community from that time in a regional town called Bendigo, which has a Chinese history museum and there’s a dragon dance performed for the easter festival there
I was also reading in the paper just yesterday morning about Chinese-australian ww2 vets
Probably true, being a country with not much of a history, I suppose Australia is a bit of a cultural wasteland (in the sense that more time is needed for differences to develop).
But for any other country I have ever visited culture is very much present, be it any European, South American, African or Asian country.
I can’t remember numbers. I think 30% was born overseas and something like 60-70% has parents from overseas.
However the vast majority came from the UK until maybe 3 decades ago
Parts of Sydney and Melbourne have heavy Chinese influence. That being said still have their Aussie slang/accent and own sports culture (not at all American or Euro) Aussies still have Bogans and some cashed up Bogans culture too. Music, well it’s English pop and country music (Which seems not a UK thing).
🏻 