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The PRC is not a monad like most hit piece journalism and armchair geopoliticians would like to make you believe to sell you their easy to implant ideas. The RO

The PRC is not a monad like most hit piece journalism and armchair geopoliticians would like to make you believe to sell you their easy to implant ideas. The ROC does behave more like a monad if that's a thing, but on the PRC side the military and the banks don't even share the same plan for dealing with Taiwan. I agree on the cultural and economical aspects both governments work together but I am not sure that on other aspects tensions are not as high as in the 1970s or worse. I wish they were not, I just don't know.

dan-robertson 5y ago
I thought I knew what a monad was and the only problem was all the tutorials and other people clearly struggling to understand it. But now I’m not so sure.
- skissane 5y ago
  That made me chuckle. But I think the GP is using the term "monad" more in the sense of Leibniz's philosophy than that of functional programming or category theory – "monad" as meaning ultimately simple and indivisible, as "atoms" were in the original ancient Greek atomic theory (as opposed to modern atomic theory in which the so-called "atoms" turned out to not actually be atomic after all). Of course, even in that sense the GP is using the term figuratively – nobody literally believes that China is a single indivisible entity, a hive-mind or Borg, but the GP is claiming that Chinese society (and even the Chinese government) contains more divisions of opinion and interest and attitude than many outside observers assume. And I'm sure there is some truth in that – but, I think the GP is wrong in suggesting Taiwanese society is different – that is just as true of Taiwanese society, and Taiwan being a democracy puts these differences more out in the open (DPP vs KMT etc), China's more closed system means many of these differences exist behind closed doors; and even if sometimes people inside China get away with speaking of some of them openly, they have to be careful what they say and how they say it, to a much greater extent than people in Taiwan have to
chaostheory 5y ago
Thanks to XJ, tensions are high again. All of Deng Xiaoping's hard work and planning have been thrown away by Xi.
- FooBarWidget 5y ago
  That's a very unnuanced, MSM kind of take. As a Chinese, I am very disappointed at the absolutely one-dimensional analyses of western China watchers. Their takes are rarely accurate, often full of ideological bias, and they don't help me understand China better at all.
  - TheSmiddy 5y ago
    It would be a hell of a lot easier for the west to understand China if China would let their citizens interact with the wider internet.
    - FooBarWidget 5y ago
      That isn't my experience. There are in fact quite a lot of Chinese people that jump over the firewall. Most of the time, their opinions are quite different from the mainstream western perspective. But when they voice such opinions on western platforms, they tend to be labelled as shills. Only negative, dissenting opinions about China are accepted. I am in favor of relaxing the firewall. Yet I hold no illusions about that yielding a better outcome when it comes to inter-cultural understanding: it think all in all it's just going to lead to more flamewars.
    - theteapot 5y ago
      Check out quora.com, It must be whitelist or something ... it's a real melting pot ...
  - chaostheory 5y ago
    And your comment isn't "one dimensional" and "unnuanced"? As a fellow Chinese person, it's pretty accurate. Deng Xiaoping deserves the credit for modern China's economy. China was slowly but surely opening up and slowing becoming decentralized for efficiency, and it was a moderate rule by committee with term limits vs a one man dictatorship for life that's veering into a centralized economic planning disaster reminiscent of Mao. He is destroying China, one industry at a time. I can understand your "patriotism" if you're commenting from the mainland. Not so much if you're writing from elsewhere.

dan-robertson 5y ago

I thought I knew what a monad was and the only problem was all the tutorials and other people clearly struggling to understand it. But now I’m not so sure.

skissane 5y ago
That made me chuckle. But I think the GP is using the term "monad" more in the sense of Leibniz's philosophy than that of functional programming or category theory – "monad" as meaning ultimately simple and indivisible, as "atoms" were in the original ancient Greek atomic theory (as opposed to modern atomic theory in which the so-called "atoms" turned out to not actually be atomic after all). Of course, even in that sense the GP is using the term figuratively – nobody literally believes that China is a single indivisible entity, a hive-mind or Borg, but the GP is claiming that Chinese society (and even the Chinese government) contains more divisions of opinion and interest and attitude than many outside observers assume. And I'm sure there is some truth in that – but, I think the GP is wrong in suggesting Taiwanese society is different – that is just as true of Taiwanese society, and Taiwan being a democracy puts these differences more out in the open (DPP vs KMT etc), China's more closed system means many of these differences exist behind closed doors; and even if sometimes people inside China get away with speaking of some of them openly, they have to be careful what they say and how they say it, to a much greater extent than people in Taiwan have to

chaostheory 5y ago

Thanks to XJ, tensions are high again. All of Deng Xiaoping's hard work and planning have been thrown away by Xi.

FooBarWidget 5y ago
That's a very unnuanced, MSM kind of take. As a Chinese, I am very disappointed at the absolutely one-dimensional analyses of western China watchers. Their takes are rarely accurate, often full of ideological bias, and they don't help me understand China better at all.
- TheSmiddy 5y ago
  It would be a hell of a lot easier for the west to understand China if China would let their citizens interact with the wider internet.
  - FooBarWidget 5y ago
    That isn't my experience. There are in fact quite a lot of Chinese people that jump over the firewall. Most of the time, their opinions are quite different from the mainstream western perspective. But when they voice such opinions on western platforms, they tend to be labelled as shills. Only negative, dissenting opinions about China are accepted. I am in favor of relaxing the firewall. Yet I hold no illusions about that yielding a better outcome when it comes to inter-cultural understanding: it think all in all it's just going to lead to more flamewars.
  - theteapot 5y ago
    Check out quora.com, It must be whitelist or something ... it's a real melting pot ...
- chaostheory 5y ago
  And your comment isn't "one dimensional" and "unnuanced"? As a fellow Chinese person, it's pretty accurate. Deng Xiaoping deserves the credit for modern China's economy. China was slowly but surely opening up and slowing becoming decentralized for efficiency, and it was a moderate rule by committee with term limits vs a one man dictatorship for life that's veering into a centralized economic planning disaster reminiscent of Mao. He is destroying China, one industry at a time. I can understand your "patriotism" if you're commenting from the mainland. Not so much if you're writing from elsewhere.