This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I thought you were Russian for some reason. Silly me, you traveled so many places and it’s hard to imagine non ethnic Chinese doing that to be honest. On this site it’s usually either Russians or ethnic Chinese sympathetic to China. The Chinese part is self-explanatory; I consider self-hate the cardinal sin. Russians because they’re perhaps well-positioned to calibrate American propaganda on China by looking at their own experience of it.
I mostly agree with your post. On a modern vision of Chinese architecture, there are many working on that, reviving traditional forms and bringing them into contemporary life. Chinese humanity studies are very weak though, and the better human capital usually don’t go there, so I’m not sure how well it goes.
I’d also note that modernization greatly damaged Western traditional cultures first, through sheer proximity. We’re certainly not alone in this homogenizing trend. If anything, we’re better positioned to navigate it. I’m not hopeless, especially compared to the western black pillers here.
I have no illusion that Chinese culture is better preserved outside of China. China is the root, and without the root, how do the saplings survive? What’s happening in Taiwan is tragic and pathetic, but I think given enough time the gravitational pull of mainland China will change the Taiwanese culture enough that we don’t have to walk the same tragic path as the Russians.
My rough read on Malaysian Chinese is that you’re numerous than most diaspora Chinese, and analogous to borderer types living adjacent to foreign (and ethnocentric and underdeveloped) Malays, so probably retained more customs than most diaspora communities. But I don’t think youd preserve more than the Cantonese in Guangdong or Hokkien in Fujian, so I’m not really disagreeing with you there. What the Straits Chinese actually think of China is a question I’d like to understand, considering how heavy censorship is at home and how difficult it is for me to know the opinions of Malaysian Chinese (I did ask a few on my trip to Semporna, but only a few samples), but that’s for another time.
More options
Context Copy link