China-Taiwan reunification

[siegecrossbow]

I don't see it happening without war.Taiwan has been independent for too long to just unify with China again without any trouble and in any case i don't think Taiwan is worth a bloody war for China .At the end of the day Taiwan will be the bigger beneficiary if it merges back with Chin.

You underestimate just how important territorial integrity is to China these days brother.

Since the late 19th century China, which was in her weak state, kept on losing territory/sovereignty to imperialist powers. We lost large tracts of Siberia to Czarist Russia, Taiwan to Japan, were forced to lease our major cities to Britain and Germany. Even in the mid-20th century we managed to lose Mongolia due to Soviet intervention (and Manchuria became a Japanese puppet state just a decade before). Although China is stronger now her people are very sensitive about protecting their nation's integrity. When we hear chants like "Free Tibet" and "Free Taiwan" it is almost as if we are being challenged by the Imperialists once again.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

As I've emphasized many times before it doesn't really matter whether you are fluent in mandarin or lived in the mainland your whole life. There are many in China who abandoned their culture/heritage and to me they are not as "Chinese" as many second or even third generation Chinese immigrants who I met on this forum. What really matters is how Chinese you are on the inside.

You're absolutely right.

I don't care if a Chinese person was born in another country/culture, and can not even speak a single word of Mandarin/Cantonese.

As long as they truly love China, they identify themselves as Chinese, and they feel a connection to Chinese culture and heritage... then to me, they are Chinese.

 

[Aeon]

Originally Posted by Chinese-Dragon
Another interesting question is whether or not Hong Kong will stick with Traditional characters? A lot of Hong Kong people (including me) are learning to speak Mandarin for easier communication with the mainland, so maybe it's best to standardise simplified characters across the whole of China?

Sorry, for some reason I thought you implied there are regions besides Taiwan or HK, ie some places in Mainland, that don't use simplified characters. Are there? For example, are the folks in Xinjiang learning/using Mandarin or something else?

Yes, the Japanese people also use Traditional characters, they call it "Kanji" (literally Han characters). In order to read an average Japanese newspaper, you will need to know more than two thousand Han characters.

Kanji - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (The Korean equivalent is called "Hanja").

So Han characters can often be used as a lingua franca in East Asia, for any society that is educated on Han characters.

Interesting - but are the meanings ascribed to them by the Japanese and Koreans the mostly similar or different as those used by Chinese?

Traditional characters have a cultural link to Ancient China, because you can read ancient literature that has been written thousands of years ago. Traditional characters have remained the same for a long time.

Very neat.

At the end of the day though, simplified is easier/faster to write, and improves literacy rates. So as long as we "store" the knowledge of Traditional characters somewhere (in history lessons for example), I wouldn't mind if all Chinese regions used only Simplified characters.

Yes, but among the Chinese if HK & Taiwan are the only places that use traditional characters, and their literacy rates are on par or perhaps a little above the Mainland, so how is the push to simplified characters going to seem justified from their perspective? If the CCP wants, is it capable of standardizing use of simplified in HK & Taiwan? Or is it too much trouble for too little gain & not the appropriate moment in time yet?

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Interesting - but are the meanings ascribed to them by the Japanese and Koreans the mostly similar or different as those used by Chinese?

The meanings of Han characters in the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages are usually exactly the same, with a few exceptions. So Japanese people will be able to read a lot of Chinese, and vice versa.

Yes, but among the Chinese if HK & Taiwan are the only places that use traditional characters, and their literacy rates are on par or perhaps a little above the Mainland, so how is the push to simplified characters going to seem justified from their perspective? If the CCP wants, is it capable of standardizing use of simplified in HK & Taiwan? Or is it too much trouble for too little gain & not the appropriate moment in time yet?

Ah, I see what you mean.

To be honest it's very difficult to say for sure. There are some like me, who think it's more efficient to use Simplified characters, since they are less complicated and faster to write. It would also make it easier to interface with computers (less strokes to write a character) and allow standardization with the Mainland.

There are others who feel a strong "emotional" connection to Traditional characters and will on that basis have a problem with standardization.

Keeping the status quo would seem to be the best solution at the moment, although I hope that in the future, Simplified characters and Mandarin will be used across China, regardless of whether you are in Beijing or Hong Kong.

(Traditional characters can be kept alive in History classes, and for the purposes of reading ancient Chinese literature).

 

[xukxuk]

How long will it take for the Mainland to switch from simplified back to traditional? Will it actually consider switching or stay with simplified for the next couple of decades?

this is only an excuse for those who don't want to unify
most of those deep greens are the japanese left over in taiwan
ie former taiwan president Li

 

[no_name]

The totem for my last name:

Last name of my mother (&#21570 :

To find out what your totem is like and the totem for the 100 most common last names, visit:

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[no_name]

 

[ao333]

Why are you guys even worrying about Taiwan. The new trade pact effectively draws all CPC-friendly parties closer to the mainland which in turn consolidates KMT's position on the island and allow them to remain in power. In a mirror view, DPP businessmen will be severely demoralized as stock investors will be seeking mainland-friendly companies with higher return rates to invest in, and as a result -- the prospects of DPP companies vitiated relative to KMT-chaired ones. This translates into less campaigning money or less cash for Green pundits and ads. For the majority of DPPs who aren't hardliners and place political ideology ahead of economical success, they will inevitibally become less vocal in their opinions as they're drawn to mainland opportunities and their money tree held hostage by the CPC, cultimating in silence within the Taiwan Independence Movement, creating a better environment for reunification talks.

A war is improbable as it would undermine all the hard diplomacy work the CPC has pressed for internationally during recent decades.

-- from my gf...

 

[Martian2]

Man, you guys make me feel like the last 1% of illiterate one from HK regarding Chinese languages, i have difficulties in simplify Chinese, terrible mandarin speaker, Chinese education equivalent to primary 5, but what the heck, hey i am still one proud Chinese.

Yeah, HK sure will set a perfect example for the world to see how successful "one country, two system" can be. I still recalled the hang over day, me and my friends crying in joy, since we all are born after the late eighties, so i assume our average life span is 76, we had a pretty good chance to witness the reunification of China and Taiwan. hope for the best and keep my fingers cross.

I guess I'm the lowest man on the totem pole. I only made it through first grade.

 

[yangtomous]

I hope unify ,we want unify.we are all Chinese.
and also there are thousand type languages in China. the national minority also has their languages.we learn Mandarin and English at School .and we also learn a local language from our parents. Like if you travel in Fujian province you may notice more than one hundred languages .

 

[lcloo]

中国魂，China Soul, the three Chinese characters that moved me most, sometimes in tear, especially for those who sacrifice their lives and family fortunes since the formation of ROC and later PRC.

Let the unification be in peaceful manner, even if that takes a long long road. Chinese around the world support the one united China

 

[Aeon]

To be honest it's very difficult to say for sure. There are some like me, who think it's more efficient to use Simplified characters, since they are less complicated and faster to write. It would also make it easier to interface with computers (less strokes to write a character) and allow standardization with the Mainland.

For practicality, I would also agree going with simplified. The less you have to write to convey the meaning the better.

 

[CardSharp]

Reading this thread makes me feel optimistic about the future and I even see glimpses of a Pax-Sinica.

 

[中国万岁-ProsperThroughCo-]

HK children using abacus, incredibly fast!

 

[Martian2]

HK children using abacus, incredibly fast!
YouTube - Hong Kong - Greatest Cities of the World - Part 3/5

That is a very interesting video for three reasons:

1) I didn't know that children can visualize an abacus in their mind to quickly solve a math problem at blazing speed.

2) Narrator: "It is apparently normal for Hong Kong tailors to have an Indian shop front." Raj is very smooth. Raj: "I'm giving you like one of the best price. And as my father would say, 'lose money, make friends.'"

I would buy a suit from Raj.

You doubt me? I bought a Toyota Corolla from an Indian salesman at Boch Toyota.

3) I used to be a Boy Scout with many merit badges. I'm just kidding about the badges. Every Boy Scout had lots of merit badges. Anyway, Hong Kong has an amazing Boy Scout hotel.