How 'one country, two systems' ensures Hong Kong's prosperity and stability

[Chinese-Dragon]

That always stuck with me, especially because I happened to be in Taiwan when the HK handover took place in 1997. The Taiwanese I knew felt a kind of kinship towards HK as their fellow pseudo-country and were somewhat horrified/terrified/hysterical over what would happen. I asked one of my Taiwanese colleagues what he thought the Chinese policy towards HK would be, and he told me that the CCP didn't have a sophisticated policy, but rather a simple one: destroy HK, and build Shanghai. Having seen developments since then, I'm not yet convinced he was wrong, even if that was an extreme way of putting it. HK continues to do well, but Shanghai seems to be [once again] the favorite son, now. In any case, as you mentioned previously, the attitude towards China of what are now older Taiwanese certainly remains ambivalent, even if the younger generation seems more favorable towards the PRC.

I was very young when the HK handover happened (I was in fact with my family in Central watching the fireworks), but I do remember all the scare stories from all over the world, about how there would be "tanks in the street before long".

Of course, none of that happened. Life went on as usual.

My parents were much more skeptical than I was, but they eventually came around when they realized all the scare stories were not going to come true.

About Shanghai, I was never jealous of Shanghai, in fact Shanghai is probably my favorite city in the world after HK. There is always a worry about competition, especially with Shenzhen since they are right next door to us. But no jealously, not on my part at least.

My point in all of this is that I think certain circles in China don't view overseas Chinese as distinctly as you do in terms of citizenship. I wouldn't be surprised if some day, decades from now, China acts to defend the interests of overseas Chinese in places like Indonesia and Malaysia in the same way that Russia has done with Russians in Ukraine.

Interesting times, indeed. It's great to be alive and be able to see the new chapters of history being written.

That may be true, in my experience it's fairly evenly divided.

I do feel empathy with regards to "ethnic Chinese" foreign nationals, no doubt about that. We have the same history, we speak the same language. But the thing is, I have no idea if they consider themselves foreigners (American/Canadian/etc) or Chinese. If they do consider themselves Chinese first, then I will also consider them Chinese.

 

[Edison Chen]

Typical mainlander!

Perhaps your female Taiwanese friend came from the south with heavy local accent.

To be honest, Taiwanese in Taipei speak mandarin soundly much better than most mainlanders. From Beijing to inland who heavily influenced by local accent and dialect.

Isn't Taiwan Mandarin also heavily influenced by local accent and dialect? Beijing Mandarin is 100 time better than your language.

I was very young when the HK handover happened (I was in fact with my family in Central watching the fireworks), but I do remember all the scare stories from all over the world, about how there would be "tanks in the street before long".

Of course, none of that happened. Life went on as usual.

My parents were much more skeptical than I was, but they eventually came around when they realized all the scare stories were not going to come true.

About Shanghai, I was never jealous of Shanghai, in fact Shanghai is probably my favorite city in the world after HK. There is always a worry about competition, especially with Shenzhen since they are right next door to us. But no jealously, not on my part at least.



That may be true, in my experience it's fairly evenly divided.

I do feel empathy with regards to "ethnic Chinese" foreign nationals, no doubt about that. We have the same history, we speak the same language. But the thing is, I have no idea if they consider themselves foreigners (American/Canadian/etc) or Chinese. If they do consider themselves Chinese first, then I will also consider them Chinese.

Hong Kong is the model of Chinese cities, we can learn best experience from HK, to reform, to see the world. HK gives China a chance to modernize, good blueprint. HK is like a bridge connecting China and the west.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

Isn't Taiwan Mandarin also heavily influenced by local accent and dialect? Beijing Mandarin is 100 time better than your language.

不论怎样，台湾是向大陆出口软实力。他们的流行文化你们大陆全收。北京就出几个乱七八糟的摇滚乐，像窦唯那伙人。看中国也就出张艺谋，搞些垃圾变态电影。可能王菲较好些。

台湾输出的邓丽君，周杰伦，大陆文革后就没法出那种东西

 

[Edison Chen]

不论怎样，台湾是向大陆出口软实力。他们的流行文化你们大陆全收。北京就出几个乱七八糟的摇滚乐，像窦唯那伙人。看中国也就出张艺谋，搞些垃圾变态电影。可能王菲较好些。

台湾输出的邓丽君，周杰伦，大陆文革后就没法出那种东西

LOL 不得不承认，台湾保存了很多大陆传统文化，不仅仅是传统，就像你说的现代流行音乐，周杰伦，五月天，动力火车，SHE，萧敬腾，张宇。。。全都是台湾的。香港更多，就不一一举例了。再看看大陆，90%的音乐作品都是垃圾。

 

[kankan326]

Thanks for sharing, Mandarin is Taiwan's official language, but we mainland Chinese have different accent, they are too soft, and too women. We in mainland make fun of their(Taiwan) accent.

Taiwan Mandarin sounds feminine. I watched a Taiwan TV documentary probably made in 1960's. Strange enough the narration person spoke quite standard Mandarin in it. I wonder since when Taiwan Mandarin changed into feminine style. I guess it may be the result of Japanese Kawaii culture influence in Taiwan, which for me is a very sick culture, full of fake stuff.

不论怎样，台湾是向大陆出口软实力。他们的流行文化你们大陆全收。北京就出几个乱七八糟的摇滚乐，像窦唯那伙人。看中国也就出张艺谋，搞些垃圾变态电影。可能王菲较好些。

台湾输出的邓丽君，周杰伦，大陆文革后就没法出那种东西

大陆的电视剧，尤其是历史剧，远强过台湾，也向台湾出口。台湾只能搞涉及到娱乐性的东西，涉及到严肃点的就不行了。

 

[Edison Chen]

Taiwan Mandarin sounds feminine. I watched a Taiwan TV documentary probably made in 1960's. Strangely enough the narration person spoke quite standard Mandarin in it. I wonder since when Taiwan Mandarin changed into feminine style. I guess it may be the result of Japanese Kawaii culture influence in Taiwan, which for me is a very sick culture, full of fake stuff.

o? Seriously? 1960s, their accent is standard Mandarin? Now they changed completely. Although Taiwan culture has many good side, but I really don;t like their way talking, it's sick.

 

[Aepsilons]

 

[Edison Chen]

Thanks for sharing, my man. But I fast foward the video, I find her says nothing.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

不论怎样，台湾是向大陆出口软实力。他们的流行文化你们大陆全收。北京就出几个乱七八糟的摇滚乐，像窦唯那伙人。看中国也就出张艺谋，搞些垃圾变态电影。可能王菲较好些。

台湾输出的邓丽君，周杰伦，大陆文革后就没法出那种东西

台灣的軟實力？

Do you know what people say about 軟實力?

Hard power matters the most, soft power follows it.

That's why all the major countries in the world recognize the PRC as the true representative of China, and why Taiwan can't even join the UN, or use their own name at the Olympics, instead they use the name "Chinese Taipei".

And even in terms of soft power, out of the last 10 movies I watched, maybe 7 of them came from the Mainland. 2 from HK, 1 from Taiwan.

 

[terranMarine]

II asked one of my Taiwanese colleagues what he thought the Chinese policy towards HK would be, and he told me that the CCP didn't have a sophisticated policy, but rather a simple one: destroy HK, and build Shanghai. Having seen developments since then, I'm not yet convinced he was wrong, even if that was an extreme way of putting it. HK continues to do well, but Shanghai seems to be [once again] the favorite son, now.

Many anti CCP Taiwanese would think that but what has CCP done to hurt HK's interest? So far none, HK has her own government, freedom and the development of the city is not Beijing's responsibility. Some democratic party in HK and its supporters try to sabotage HK city planning or decisions. While these protests keep coming back, Beijing got more important things to do and that is strengthening the nation with more development. Shanghai is ofcourse very important after all it's the financial hub of China and the world's biggest container port is located in that city. Still HK serves as a role model for the rest of Mainland and Beijing will try to replicate the successes into other parts of China.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

不论怎样，台湾是向大陆出口软实力。他们的流行文化你们大陆全收。北京就出几个乱七八糟的摇滚乐，像窦唯那伙人。看中国也就出张艺谋，搞些垃圾变态电影。可能王菲较好些。

台湾输出的邓丽君，周杰伦，大陆文革后就没法出那种东西

The modern Taiwanese dramas suck, I don't watch them at all.

BTW, Deng's both parents were from North China, thus she cannot represent the Minnan culture of Taiwan.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

台灣的軟實力？

Do you know what people say about 軟實力?

Hard power matters the most, soft power follows it.

That's why all the major countries in the world recognize the PRC as the true representative of China, and why Taiwan can't even join the UN or use their own name at the Olympics, instead they use the name "Chinese Taipei".

And even in terms of soft power, out of the last 10 movies I watched, maybe 7 of them came from the Mainland. 2 from HK, 1 from Taiwan.

You have your preference.

Also I would like to add that due to the legacies of cultural revolution, mainland Chinese has a lot of moral, cultural and soft power deficit. PRC will never know how much SE Asian Chinese look up on China culture before 1949.

Then there are lots of grandmasters like Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Chen Yinke 陈寅恪, and also many of the pop culture from Shanghai. Today, SE Asian Chinese looks at Korean drama, and few years ago, Japanese drama.

Our pop music come mainly from Taiwan while 10 years back, Cantopop is quite popular.

Even Thai culture seems cooler.

There is not single PRC pub but quite a few Thai dance floor here.

 

[kankan326]

不论怎样，台湾是向大陆出口软实力。他们的流行文化你们大陆全收。北京就出几个乱七八糟的摇滚乐，像窦唯那伙人。看中国也就出张艺谋，搞些垃圾变态电影。可能王菲较好些。

台湾输出的邓丽君，周杰伦，大陆文革后就没法出那种东西

2008春晚舞蹈-飞天 Spring Festival Gala Dance-Fei Tian V2-2 - YouTube

CCTV 2007 Chinese New Year Celebration: Umbrella Dance - YouTube

Beautiful Chinese Dance【1】Spring Outing Dance - YouTube
像以上这种真正有中国文化底蕴的娱乐节目，台湾是绝对弄不出来的。These are the real Chinese culture.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

LOL 不得不承认，台湾保存了很多大陆传统文化，不仅仅是传统，就像你说的现代流行音乐，周杰伦，五月天，动力火车，SHE，萧敬腾，张宇。。。全都是台湾的。香港更多，就不一一举例了。再看看大陆，90%的音乐作品都是垃圾。

Taiwan is good at mongrelizing the Huaxia culture of China.

PRC promotes Marxism, but it doesn't worship Karl Marx in person.

Meanwhile Taiwan worships Jesus Christ over Kongzi and Laozi.

You have your preference.

Also I would like to add that due to the legacies of cultural revolution, mainland Chinese has a lot of moral, cultural and soft power deficit. PRC will never know how much SE Asian Chinese look up on China culture before 1949.

Then there are lots of grandmasters like Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Chen Yinke 陈寅恪, and also many of the pop culture from Shanghai. Today, SE Asian Chinese looks at Korean drama, and few years ago, Japanese drama.

Our pop music come mainly from Taiwan while 10 years back, Cantopop is quite popular.

Even Thai culture seems cooler.

There is not single PRC pub but quite a few Thai dance floor here.

Man, most Taiwanese girls are so tedious/superficial and with no personality at all.

I don't care if these sluts love to sleep with white men or not, as long as our precious Mainland beauties remain loyal with us.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

The modern Taiwanese dramas suck, I don't watch them at all.

BTW, Deng's both parents were from North China, thus she cannot represent the Minnan culture of Taiwan.

I like the Mainland movies the best now, especially the more "serious" dramas.

Taiwan movies are good for "entertainment". Hong Kong movies are also great for fun, but I prefer more serious and meaningful movies.

I remember HK used to make better movies when I was younger, now not so much.

Our pop music come mainly from Taiwan while 10 years back, Cantopop is quite popular.

In terms of music, maybe.