In the world of ROC, mainland China is mainland (dalu). End of story. What’s so hard to grasp?
BTW, whatever happened to the Hawaii independence movement? Now, that would be a much more interesting discussion. 
Only if I had something very large stuck up one of my orifices!
I happen to believe that Taiwan is part of China (not necessarily the PRC, but “China”). And yet I don’t have problems with calling Chen Shui-bian the “Taiwanese President”; I certainly have never gone around insisting that Taiwan must be more accurately referred to as “Taiwan province”.
I would probably be more careful if I was involved in actual diplomatic negotiations on this issue; my words might have implications"then. But when I’m just speaking, I’m content with getting my point across accurately and usefully.
i agree that saying mainland china IMPLIES that Taiwan is the island China. And we should stop doing this. should be CHINA and TAIWAN and never the twain shall meet
Why not call China as China, Taiwan as Taiwan, Hong Kong as Hong Kong and Macau as Macau? Sorry to say, but I never heard a foreigner saying Mainland China… when they say China… they only speak of the PRC without SAR’s…
CCTang, you didn’t get my point. Either that or you don’t want to concede I’m right. How can we sharpen our thinking if we are afraid of being wrong? I wasn’t asking you about your orifice- so why did you bring it up? I wasn’t asking you if you thought Taiwan is a part of China, so why did you bring it up? For that group of people that I know you detest- that group that thinks Taiwan in not and has never been a part of China, don’t you think it is logically consistent for THAT group NOT to say dalu? See- now you can answer without having pangs of disloyalty to your parent land, oops, I meant to say caregiver-land.
LA -
“In the world of ROC, mainland China is mainland (dalu).
End of story. What’s so hard to grasp?”
In the world of my English class, China is China.
End of story. What’s so hard to grasp?
tang -
“I started assuming …”
It’s been years since I’ve heard this one,
“When you assume, you make an ‘ass’ of ‘u’ and ‘me’.”
And boy I’ve been called worse by better.
Hard to react to the “aging” adjective , as has been pointed out
you are too.
In a sense we age even after we’re dead.
It doesn’t bother me a bit except it was brought up in a political forum.
However, If my kids were learning a foreign language, I would expect the teacher to full disclose his political leaning (if the teacher is going to mix politics with language lessons), so there would not be a sudden drop of words in the translation. 
ccpcannonfodder, even though i agree with you that if you think taiwan is a separate country from china, you just say ‘china’, not dalu, i do have to take issue with your promoting your political point of view to students in a school where you are not an owner. wait, so that i won’t be an ass, i will not assume that you are an employee. (step 1) IF you are the owner of the school, you should first inform the parents of the nixing of the dalu/mainland term before they pay out. IF they agree with you, then you have the right to teach their kids not to say dalu/mainland. IF you are an employee- you are obligated to teach the curriculum as written, OR, you can try to persuade the owner to change it vis a vis taking out the word dalu/mainland, OR if you can’t persuade them and they haven’t fired you yet for trying to persuade them, THEN you either teach using the word dalu/mainland OR you quit and get another job and start the process all over OR start your own school (see step 1). I just read your post LA- i see since you agree with me that you are getting sharper 
[quote=“v”]you could’ve kept engaging him. and what about my hawaii point? wouldn’t you agree that IF you believe that taiwan is de facto independent, you should abandon the dalu term and just say ‘china’? i agree his ‘not germane’ comment wasn’t advancing the topic- but if it’s an interesting topic to you, you just have to keep pounding away. AND you lumped me in with him in saying we could call china anything we liked, so that is why i had to get personal with the f toilet comment :fume:
from dictionary.com:
main·land [meyn-land, -luhnd] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
- the principal land of a country, region, etc., as distinguished from adjacent islands or a peninsula: the mainland of Greece.
- (in Hawaii) the 48 contiguous states of the U.S.
[/quote]
You make it seem like the only time someone can use the word “mainland” is when they’re from the country they’re referring to. What about someone from, say, Taiwan, who is planning a vacation to Hawaii, and then to some part of the continental US (but doesn’t know where yet). Would he not say, “I am going to visit Hawaii, and then I plan to visit somewhere on the mainland US”? By your logic, this would mean that Taiwan is a part of the US because he used the world “mainland”? According to you, he should say “I am going to visit Hawaii, and then I plan to visit somewhere on the big non-island part of the US” - thereby avoiding the word “mainland”. Give me a break.
“Mainland” is a geographic term, not a political term. If it were a political term, I suspect that all of my atlases would read “Mainland China” instead of “China”, and “Mainland United States of America” instead of “United States of America”.
[quote=“cctang”]
Only if I had something very large stuck up one of my orifices![/quote]
do you want something very large stuck up your orifice? chief, we have a volunteer…
why is taiwan part of china? are you thus saying that china is a region rather than a country? i am so confused. then what is the country represented by PRC called?
and you don’t call taiwan a province of china? so is it then a country of china (the region)? so we cvan have a one china policy then: all china is one china. in that one china region, there are a country called People’s republic (oxymoron) of China, which contains a semiautonomous region called tibet, another called Hong Kong, a third called macau, and to make them historically complete, a fourth called outer mongolia, a fifth called Assam, and a sixth calledd korea. and adjacent to this large country is another island called the taiwan. which is sometimes called the republic of china, the region… or are you saying that all these parts of china are part of one country China.
the term america is used for both the continent North America and the country called “the United States of America”. so i suppose tehre is some precedence there. now convince the CCP, and then the UN of your wise choice of words.
what point? and how accurate are you being here?
does mainland china include hainan, hong kong and macau? what use is the term mainland then if not to signify the part of china that is not an island? taiwan is not a part of china, and has not been since 1895, so we just need to refer to those folks over there as ‘coming from China’. who cares if they come from Macau or HK or hainan instead. use the word mainland only if you do want to talk about Hainan, HK and Macau separately.
Urodacus… well, I refer Chinese as people from the PRC, Taiwanese as people from the ROC (widely known as Taiwan), Hong-Kongese for the people from Hong-Kong and Macanese for the people from Macau. I think it is pretty much more relevant this way (as I was educated that way).
i agree with this assessment
i agree with this assessment[/quote]
i would refer to Chinese as anybody descended from that region China, such as the millions in the chinese diaspora (like in New York and Sydney and London and every othre big and small city in the world, basically), or in Malaysia, or in Indonesia, etc etc, as well as those living in the country China. the word Chinese has a different set of meanings to the word China. ‘Chinese’ refers to a racial sterotype, a culture and a group of related languages. China refers to simultaneoulsy a region and a sovereign authoritarian state, otherwise known as the people’s republic of china, even though the people there have nothing to do with it at all! 
people from taiwan are culturally Chinese (except for the aboriginals) but are not politically Chinese (well, maybe cctang is), despite what the KMT has forcefed you at school and through their media… ie they are in the same group as the residents of the country China when it comes to much of their cultural heritage (part from the japanese and the local aboriginal parts) but they are not in the same grouping politically: they are Chinese who do not live in China.
so calling taiwanese people Chinese is partly right, when you are talking about parts of their cultural and genetic background, but it is not true if you are talking about their political situation. then calling them ‘chinese’ is disingenious, ie it is perverting the truth to put your own political ideas across, which do not accord with reality.
hopefully this clears up any misunderstanding about the use of the words ‘china’ and ‘chinese’ in the english language.
cc tang is chinese and is in china. he is not taiwanese by the way.
that explains a lot.
I think cctang is in the US of A.
I think cctang is in the US of A.[/quote]
that could be. HIs english and mannerism is certainly very american. But all we know is that he is NOT Taiwanese, but Proudly Chinese
Yes, I can’t wait for urodacus’s convenient know-it-all classification of what I am.
I’m a PRC national from the mainland who spends most of the year in the United States. My wife has dual passports from the ROC and the US. Pray tell, what are we?
[quote=“cctang”]Yes, I can’t wait for urodacus’s convenient know-it-all classification of what I am.
I’m a PRC national from the mainland who spends most of the year in the United States. My wife has dual passports from the ROC and the US. Pray tell, what are we?[/quote]
confused??? HAHA just kidding. Hey CC? since your wife has US citizenship. All you have to do is live in the USA for 3 years and you can get a US passport and with that you will have zero restrictions on visiting Taiwan !!