When is a mainland not a mainland?

Google says mainland=大陸=continent

mainland=continent?

I’m not sure, because for me dalu has also been used for mainland China.

Continent is 洲? Isn’t it?

Or part of a continent, yeah, that’s the idea.

What do Chinese people and/or anglophones who live in Tasmania or Prince Edward Island say? (I guess Manhattanites think of themselves as the mainland.)

“Interior”

That can mean piece of land, of any size, depending on the context it appears in. like Luzhou in Taipei for example.

I don’t know if things are different now, but many people used to call the PRC the mainland (in Cantonese) in my experience 20 years ago. If they don’t now, maybe it’s because of the political situation.

in my time in HK, all my friends and acquaintances (HKie ppl, not foreigners living in HK) called PRC folks mainlanders (大陸人,daluyan in canto). I still keep calling chinese ppl as mainlanders to this day… it’s a habit

Living in Penghu we call Taiwan the mainland in our family.

2 Likes

People in Hainan call people from Chinese mainland, mainlanders

People say mainland all the time, but it’s less politically correct than before. Younger people will say China and Chinese more

1 Like

many want also to differentiate as much as possible from mainlanders (very yellow folks in the political parlance in HK, the pro-democracy), so by calling mainlanders Chinese it’s like saying they r foreigners, not of the same country.

One thing I like and respect about Taiwanese is they are good at seeing things contextually and dont get super hung up on this stuff

2 Likes

When I was working in HK 10 years ago, I was reprimanded by my boss for calling them Mainlanders. I asked if it was derogatory, and she said no it was just an informal term not to be used in the workplace especially not in front of Mainland customers.

I then asked what they prefer to be called, and she said “Chinese”. I then challenged her by asking “Are you sure? Aren’t we all Chinese?”

That did not go well with her.

1 Like

Yeh, in my impression Hong Kong has gone rapidly from a place where terminology was straightforward and free of political implications to the undisputed leader of ‘political correctness with Chinese characteristics’, especially now with the CCP slave John Lee locking people up for expressing their opinions.

What a great place it was, now cesspit of the party…

I thought people in Hong Kong refer it as 內地, i.e. inland.

1 Like

Yes, that’s the most PC term for everyone involved.