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That's interesting. I learned that historically, China has been many 'nations', with related but different languages - more like Europe than like the US. And I
by wolverine876 4y ago
That's interesting. I learned that historically, China has been many 'nations', with related but different languages - more like Europe than like the US. And I learned that every Chinese government has struggled to hold together these regional peoples under one central government.
The current map of China is one variation of many, many historical maps, which vary considerably. (Ask the Tibetans, in particular.) It might look like a cohesive government today, but so did the USSR - the Communists suppressed the ethnic differences, but the USSR exploded into many different countries when the Communists lost power - including Ukraine, Belarus, Modova (afaik), the Baltic states, Central Asian countries, and more.
I wonder what the truth is of China now; it's a question nobody asks.
- TylerE 4y agoThis is true for more places than many realize. Japan, Italy, and Germany are all 19th century (in some cases very LATE 19th) inventions.
- PestoDiRucola 4y agoI don't know about Japan, but this is certainly not the case for Italy and Germany. Even though they might have started existing as political entities in the late 19th century, the idea of "Germany" or "Italy" existed long before that. To give you an example, both Dante and Machiavelli mention an idea of a unified state for Italians. Not to mention the Roman home province of "Italia" which corresponds more or less with today's Italy.
- bernawil 4y agoIt's not that unique, really. It's quite the same as India. I guess it's harder for us westerners to appreciate Chinese diversity because they don't broadcast so much English content about themselves. If the European Union had been more successful and had a couple more generations totally immersed speaking English, you could imagine some Chinese people in the year 2123 saying 'wow, Europe is actually a whole Civilization politically unified as a nation. Who would have thought". That'd be true today in a timeline where Napoleon won.
- PestoDiRucola 4y ago> That'd be true today in a timeline where Napoleon won. Or a timeline in which the Roman Empire never collapsed. Which is what I think is a better comparison to China.