I spent the most of this week in Singapore attending the annual Morgan Stanley Asia Pacific Summit and visiting clients. This is only my second time visiting Singapore, and the first time was 4 years ago at the same Summit, pre-Covid. I have also got to meet up and had wonderful chats with some subscribers of
Oh no, Taiwan politics changed so fast. KMT-TPP alliance is now broken before it is even formalized. My issue this week definitely won't age well. :(( I shouldn't under-estimate the randomness of 21st century politics and rush to conclusions. https://twitter.com/KP_Taiwan/status/1726191915429970073
For compensation, hope I can treat you a beer, my subscriber dear, if you live near.
Nov 18, 2023·edited Nov 18, 2023Liked by Robert Wu
Interesting articles and thoughts. I don't read Chinese as a mother tongue but enjoyed reading many Chinese novels and some text books. I have dyslexia in English, but not in Chinese, so it was a god send that fate put me into Chinese instead of Russian for my University Foreign Language requirement. Hence I'm not sure what you mean about low quality language. That said I can have some empathy, because I have found that the start pages on many large Chinese websites were/are almost as awful for me to read as Yahoo's early page(perhaps a model for their businesses?). Since the model stuck, there must be a reason. However is it the language, the culture, the near monopolies, or other factors?
Since you mentioned a follow up on the language issue, then I hope the following reference will help you. "How to write, speak, and think more effectively" by Rudolf Flesch. In the early sections of the text, Rudolf Flesch introduces Chinese as a highly evolved and effective language, superior to English and from which many lessons can be drawn to improve communicating in English. Flesch was no "flash" in the pan, even today Chat-bot / Search AI includes a number of his rules. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Flesch
Hi, I think there is a distinction between written Chinese language and oral language, between written online Chinese and written offline Chinese, between online + openly available language and online + non-openly available language. Overall, the online, written and openly available Chinese language quality is very low. I think at the most fundamental level it’s because Chinese people are very private and reserved in terms of communication. Words are scanty, and words are looked down upon compared with deeds. Oratory skills is not something to be respected a lot. When we say things, we better think carefully. So spontaneity is rare. So for example in the sphere of government policy, you will have a formal final document, but no access all the deliberations (unlike in the US you can have access to endless number of debates and speeches in the congress, etc)
Note that all of this discussion does not even touch on the issue of censorship at all, which also fundamentally stems from this “expression is not so important” part of the culture.
Nov 18, 2023·edited Nov 18, 2023Liked by Robert Wu
Not all censorship is hard, most of it is soft. Academic writing in much of the western sciences is horribly sullen - a form of censorship to keep out supervision from the non-members, leaving a large market for popularizers of science writing/pod casts, who in turn are shunned by the science community (a form of censorship). I'm afraid many Asian (edit: exchange & graduate) students get enough of a dose to buy in to the hopium of the west without enough to see the bare bones.
Noam Chomsky's two most famous books both deal with the soft censorship - one directly (Manufacturing Consent) and one indirectly (On Language: Chomsky's Classic Works Language and Responsibility and Reflections on Language). He'd have had a field day with the soft censorship in both Chinese and Japanese cultures (I'm sure there are others, but I don't speak them); but believe me the West can also offer lessons on how to be even more effective in censorship.
Yes, thank you. That makes sense, and I see that as more of a cultural issue than a language issue. I find the same issue in Japanese culture, where the only truly open communication is filtered through large quantities of alcohol, much of which like the next morning hangover was forgotten as soon as possible (North East China use to have a stifling work culture so it has a similar problem, no idea what it is like in the last 10 years).
It would've been more interesting to ask Biden what he thought of Xi's power consolidation and its political, social, and international implications. Or what he thinks are the prospects for democratic reform in China under Xi Jinping, but that wouldn't make for sensational headlines.
Oh no, Taiwan politics changed so fast. KMT-TPP alliance is now broken before it is even formalized. My issue this week definitely won't age well. :(( I shouldn't under-estimate the randomness of 21st century politics and rush to conclusions. https://twitter.com/KP_Taiwan/status/1726191915429970073
For compensation, hope I can treat you a beer, my subscriber dear, if you live near.
Interesting articles and thoughts. I don't read Chinese as a mother tongue but enjoyed reading many Chinese novels and some text books. I have dyslexia in English, but not in Chinese, so it was a god send that fate put me into Chinese instead of Russian for my University Foreign Language requirement. Hence I'm not sure what you mean about low quality language. That said I can have some empathy, because I have found that the start pages on many large Chinese websites were/are almost as awful for me to read as Yahoo's early page(perhaps a model for their businesses?). Since the model stuck, there must be a reason. However is it the language, the culture, the near monopolies, or other factors?
Since you mentioned a follow up on the language issue, then I hope the following reference will help you. "How to write, speak, and think more effectively" by Rudolf Flesch. In the early sections of the text, Rudolf Flesch introduces Chinese as a highly evolved and effective language, superior to English and from which many lessons can be drawn to improve communicating in English. Flesch was no "flash" in the pan, even today Chat-bot / Search AI includes a number of his rules. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Flesch
Hi, I think there is a distinction between written Chinese language and oral language, between written online Chinese and written offline Chinese, between online + openly available language and online + non-openly available language. Overall, the online, written and openly available Chinese language quality is very low. I think at the most fundamental level it’s because Chinese people are very private and reserved in terms of communication. Words are scanty, and words are looked down upon compared with deeds. Oratory skills is not something to be respected a lot. When we say things, we better think carefully. So spontaneity is rare. So for example in the sphere of government policy, you will have a formal final document, but no access all the deliberations (unlike in the US you can have access to endless number of debates and speeches in the congress, etc)
Note that all of this discussion does not even touch on the issue of censorship at all, which also fundamentally stems from this “expression is not so important” part of the culture.
Not all censorship is hard, most of it is soft. Academic writing in much of the western sciences is horribly sullen - a form of censorship to keep out supervision from the non-members, leaving a large market for popularizers of science writing/pod casts, who in turn are shunned by the science community (a form of censorship). I'm afraid many Asian (edit: exchange & graduate) students get enough of a dose to buy in to the hopium of the west without enough to see the bare bones.
Noam Chomsky's two most famous books both deal with the soft censorship - one directly (Manufacturing Consent) and one indirectly (On Language: Chomsky's Classic Works Language and Responsibility and Reflections on Language). He'd have had a field day with the soft censorship in both Chinese and Japanese cultures (I'm sure there are others, but I don't speak them); but believe me the West can also offer lessons on how to be even more effective in censorship.
Yes, thank you. That makes sense, and I see that as more of a cultural issue than a language issue. I find the same issue in Japanese culture, where the only truly open communication is filtered through large quantities of alcohol, much of which like the next morning hangover was forgotten as soon as possible (North East China use to have a stifling work culture so it has a similar problem, no idea what it is like in the last 10 years).
It would've been more interesting to ask Biden what he thought of Xi's power consolidation and its political, social, and international implications. Or what he thinks are the prospects for democratic reform in China under Xi Jinping, but that wouldn't make for sensational headlines.