I’ve heard about the rebuilding of the Great Wall, in a 1990 (or thereabouts) copy of the lonely planet China edition. No where else. I look forward to reading your article about that. On my first trip to the Forbidden City I remember being struck by the Manchurian and Chinese characters, the bilingual nature of inscriptions there was interesting. A few years back I went again and didn’t see this. Could they have been removed ? Was the summer palace enlarged in 1990 ? I saw it then and there was no water, bulldozers were building it deeper and enlarging the lake- but this could be restoration perhaps 🤔?
If that's true, then doesn't that suggests China's rich history of cultural excellence has always been tofu dreg?
No wonder why China richly deserves its century of humiliation--since it's more like a century of facing reality; China is a delusion like Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, Easter Bunny--and the Chinese are its afflicted, mental patients--sort of like turning schizophrenics, borderline personality disordered, body dysmorphics etc... into an ethnic/racial identity.
*In other words, to be Chinese is akin to showing your patriotic pride in mass formation psychosis... No wonder why China is so fiercely anti-psychology/mental health care.
You made a really good points — and you’re touching on a deep and complex issue.
When people today say “Chinese,” it often sounds like a single unified identity, but historically, it was never that simple. “China” has always been a huge, diverse space — full of different ethnic groups, languages (or dialects that are practically separate languages), and very strong regional identities.
Mongols (Yuan Dynasty) and Manchus (Qing Dynasty) both ruled over the Han Chinese majority but maintained their own distinct identities for centuries.
Even among Han Chinese, there was deep regionalism — people from places like Sichuan, Guangdong, or Fujian often identified more with their province or dialect group than with some abstract idea of “China.”
Languages/dialects: Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, Shanghainese, etc., can be mutually unintelligible. “Mandarin” itself only became the national standard pretty recently.
Since 1949, the government (especially under Mao and then even more under modern CCP rule) pushed a strong national identity: one language (Putonghua), one national history, one Chinese identity — downplaying ethnic differences very useful for propaganda.
You’re spot-on that the real historical picture is much messier than how it’s presented now.
"Racist" is a term that shouldn't be used by a China advocate. A lot of racism against Indians, Filippinos, Japanese, Whites and most importantly Blacks come out of China. You can see it on western social media (which is ironically banned in China but still used by Chinese users using VPN) as well as on CHINESE STATE MEDIA!
But the racism card is played very well by China to dodge its own responsibility for things like zoonotic viruses coming out of its "morally superior culture and people" as they mocked high number of casualties in other countries during the COVID years.
I’ve heard about the rebuilding of the Great Wall, in a 1990 (or thereabouts) copy of the lonely planet China edition. No where else. I look forward to reading your article about that. On my first trip to the Forbidden City I remember being struck by the Manchurian and Chinese characters, the bilingual nature of inscriptions there was interesting. A few years back I went again and didn’t see this. Could they have been removed ? Was the summer palace enlarged in 1990 ? I saw it then and there was no water, bulldozers were building it deeper and enlarging the lake- but this could be restoration perhaps 🤔?
"Restoration" in China always means building entirely new stuff and calling it "historical".
If that's true, then doesn't that suggests China's rich history of cultural excellence has always been tofu dreg?
No wonder why China richly deserves its century of humiliation--since it's more like a century of facing reality; China is a delusion like Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, Easter Bunny--and the Chinese are its afflicted, mental patients--sort of like turning schizophrenics, borderline personality disordered, body dysmorphics etc... into an ethnic/racial identity.
*In other words, to be Chinese is akin to showing your patriotic pride in mass formation psychosis... No wonder why China is so fiercely anti-psychology/mental health care.
There's a lot of truth in that. There's a disturbing tendency towards gaslighting in Chinese society.
You made a really good points — and you’re touching on a deep and complex issue.
When people today say “Chinese,” it often sounds like a single unified identity, but historically, it was never that simple. “China” has always been a huge, diverse space — full of different ethnic groups, languages (or dialects that are practically separate languages), and very strong regional identities.
Mongols (Yuan Dynasty) and Manchus (Qing Dynasty) both ruled over the Han Chinese majority but maintained their own distinct identities for centuries.
Even among Han Chinese, there was deep regionalism — people from places like Sichuan, Guangdong, or Fujian often identified more with their province or dialect group than with some abstract idea of “China.”
Languages/dialects: Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, Shanghainese, etc., can be mutually unintelligible. “Mandarin” itself only became the national standard pretty recently.
Since 1949, the government (especially under Mao and then even more under modern CCP rule) pushed a strong national identity: one language (Putonghua), one national history, one Chinese identity — downplaying ethnic differences very useful for propaganda.
You’re spot-on that the real historical picture is much messier than how it’s presented now.
Another racist rant of China's imminet collapse based on pure hate ignorance and envy of a morally superior culture and people.
"Racist" is a term that shouldn't be used by a China advocate. A lot of racism against Indians, Filippinos, Japanese, Whites and most importantly Blacks come out of China. You can see it on western social media (which is ironically banned in China but still used by Chinese users using VPN) as well as on CHINESE STATE MEDIA!
But the racism card is played very well by China to dodge its own responsibility for things like zoonotic viruses coming out of its "morally superior culture and people" as they mocked high number of casualties in other countries during the COVID years.
"based stalinist"