There were whole reading sections in the HSK on the superiority of the Chinese civil service over other countries. That one came up a few times in mock papers (I did a mock paper a day for a year). Others on the genius of various Deng Xiaoping economic reforms (always Deng and never Mao for some reason).
That stuff is both annoying and also really boring. You just kind of go with it. The HSK is written by the Confucius Institute, so it’s their remit to push Chinese propaganda
Yeah, I’m a little surprised as well by the comments about ChinesePod. This summer I’ve been going through a bunch of their intermediate lessons, from the roughly 2010-2014 period (when they were in Shanghai, before they moved to Taipei I think), and haven’t picked up on any nastiness towards foreigners.
What’s more personally aggravating is how many times I’ve already learned and forgotten this material.
I’m fairly certain it is. I used to live downstairs from one of the hosts. His sink broke and started leaking into my apartment so I had to go help him shut it off. He didn’t have a studio setup in his apartment or anything that looked like he recorded there, so I assumed he worked at a studio in Tapei.
Could you give an example?
That 百靈果 so-called news podcast is just a verbal extension of Apple Daily, ETToday, the Blast Commune and their ilk. Younger people prefer to hear people yammer newsish gossip than read about it. If it’s bilingual it feels modern or they might think they’re learning something too.
I think slightly unfair. Its generally a good show. They are trying to be Taiwan’s version of the Joe Rogan Experience, but if Joe Rogan was to shout “go back to your own country”, then he would be getting cancelled as fuck
Erm, honestly it’s a step up. Generally it’s good that Taiwan now has these type of podcasts talking about global affairs and society issues. Years ago Taiwan was all ICRT and fucking moronic TV shows.
I can easily listen to bailingguo for pleasure, culturally doesn’t seem so distant from the West
I mean do you listen to the show. Its not usually like that. In general I think podcasting and these type of underground media have had an amazing effect on Taiwan. Its helping Taiwanese to get a better understanding of the outside world. They have interesting people on there like stand up comedians, politicians, musicians etc.
They even had one where they had a girl working in a Jiudian and interviewed her about her experiences.
They displayed their horrible prejudiced attitude to foreigners (white people basically ), in this case the they use ‘lao wai’ living in Taiwan though…How many times do they have to scream Get out of my country.
And then denigrating hard working foreigners in Taiwan. It’s not even funny …
Prickish behaviour. Reinforcing racist prejudice against foreigners in Taiwan.
I couldn’t get far. She is bellowing and laughing so loudly, for instance at 6:35, that the mic is actually distorting. It’s really quite painful for me. Not that I could keep up anyway.
That’s what’s so frustrating about these people. They hate on white people living in their country and then they go live in other white peoples countries and usually do child and spousal visas for their whole damn family. Insane hypocrisy
They are trying to be as well-known, but they’re not in the same class of quality. While I was never a regular listener to either, Rogan’s show is far superior. He’s a creative listener.
Some people think Apple Daily, ETToday and even Blast Commune are generally good. There’s no accounting for taste.
It’s good they have independent podcasts, but I don’t think “these types” add much. There are better ones out there. There are also worse.