Yes, but there is almost total agreement there are seven continents. Read any school textbook from any developed country. We can even see if there is almost total agreement on Forumosa.
0 voters
Even by the four continent definition (which is purely from the standpoint of tectonic plates) the definition of island I posited still stands up
Yes, there are many ways how to divide the largest land piece. But I think there is little disagreements which land pieces are continent, unless the word is used in uncommon situations.
Exactly. Since these definitions are fuzzy. It goes back to Taiwan. What makes the island of Taiwan any less deserving of the name Mainland Taiwan? Nothing. Iāve already proven that all of our definitions of islands and continents have fuzzy definitions, what makes the PRC deserving of the word Mainland to a country it doesnāt control?
Since Taiwan is far bigger than the islands it also controls, the island, is the mainland for this country.
Nothing, lots of people refer to the island of Taiwan as Mainland Taiwan. I personally call it Taiwan Island though. Is that what we are arguing over? This thread has really gone off track.
I never said you were wrong. I just challenged it.
However, there remains no objective definition of what an island is. So therefore, it could just as easily be decided tomoroe that Australia is no longer a continent. Like pluto.
I dont disagree with you point about naming conventions but I think your arguments are off-topic. The real fallacy with calling China āmainland Chinaā is that it is a dog-whistle to places like Taiwan, which China claims for its own - which anyone with a brain can see is not true.
Right, thatās my point with the island debate. Tando insisted that Mainland/Continent was only for China. I challenged the notion by being devilās advocate and suggesting all lands are islands.
And I think instead you should argue that the term āmainlandā in that context wasnāt intended to be geographical but rather political.
I did.
Then it just got deeper.
Well I think it spiraled into something off-topic rather quickly 
Ah itās fine. It was fun to think out of the box.
Another thing I was subtly arguing was the western-centric point of view.
A lot of people are going to argue there is 7. But I know that itās not as universal as people think and I have met people who have argued 6, 5, 4 based on their education.
Since there are arguments for and against all these definitions, we wonāt ever agree as a species cause there is no definition.
but anyways, I maintain my argument that Taiwan is the Mainland for Taipei-controlled areas.
Still, I think your argument about islands versus continents is incorrect. To your point, there exists a definition of the word continent, based on the boundaries of the tectonic plates, which can bring the continent count down to four. However, Australia or Oceania will never be āun-classifiedā as a continent due to the fact that it is the main continental land mass of its own tectonic plate. The classification of the āislandā as a sub-continental land mass is widely accepted. And while there is no designation for the size of islands, numerically speaking, it is also fundamentally accepted that an island must be smaller than Australia, the smallest continent - hence the term sub-continental land mass.
Aaaand i mightve just sparked world war 3
I have been understanding and agree this part of your opinion.
did I? What Iāve claimed is people in Taiwan donāt refer PRC to mainland in Mandarin. their usage of 大éø continent doesnāt mean mainland ę¬å/ę¬å, at least now.
lmao. Itās all in good faith and fun and games.
But thatās the thing. One could argue that Ocenia is not a continent and just a fancy word for non-continental islands while Iceland is half in Europe and North America while India, Africa and Arabia are continents colliding with other continents. It gets messy real fast. Then we get to 9, 10, 11 continents. New Zealand has a shelf far far larger than the land over water.
India, Arabia and a whole lot more messy.
Usually when I hear 大éø, unless I am mistaken, it means 大éø(äøå)
Often out of habit it seems. So I encourage my green friends and suggest using 大éøčŗē£ instead. Explain a little bit of what I mean and their faces light up with a āWhy didnāt I think of thatā look.
I suggested it to the MP last night. He loved it.
I dont see how one can argue that when, by the most stringent definition of ācontinent,ā it makes the cut.
no. By any definition, mainland Taiwan/čŗē£ę¬å³¶ cannot be continent Taiwan/大éøčŗē£. In mandarin, mainland and continent cannot be a same word.
Wait. Pluto is now not even a continent. Quite a fall!
But thatās not the context. 大éø is used as Mainland. Thatās how itās used. Thatās how the government uses it. They use it as a synonym.
