Posts by Keith Ng
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It's in two parts because there aren't spaces between individual characters, and therefore the PA backend treats whole sentences as a single word - so when I posted the whole thing together, the post hijacked the entire front page. (Since the front page displays the first 50 "words".) Figured that might have been a bit greedy to do that... 8-)
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applies to the Tibetan protesters around the world as well?
The most interesting - and confusing - part of this is that the action takes place in the subtext. A group of Tibetans waving Tibetan flags sends a completely different message from a group of Chinese waving Chinese flags.
Just by being there, waving a flag for a country that doesn't exist, they're sending a strong message about their status as a "lost people" and convey a sense of cultural subjugation. And of course, the "Tibetan brand" carries a lot of weight, thanks for the Dalai Lama (as opposed to this).
So, no, the same criticism doesn't apply. Even if they nominally do exactly the same thing, the message is completely different.
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With all due respect, Seamus, going into a Chinese nationalist rally with a Taiwanese flag on your t-shirt (yes, I know, technically a Republic of China flag in an anti-Japanese context) isn't really the best way to start a conversation.
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Is there any sense in Chinese nationalism of an equivalent to American exceptionalism -- of manifest destiny? Is China supposed to be destined to save the world? Or just China?
No - and perhaps manifest destiny was the term I was looking for in my post. Towards the end of the Mao-era, there was an idea of China being a leader of the global socialist revolution, but without communism, that idea makes no sense at all now.
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my question is how you see this "unified motherland" projection effecting little places like new zealand?
do you think this type of reaction is only because of the olympics? or could you imagine another situation where china mobilises its non-resident citizens to voice the party's position?
I don't think the students were really expressing "the party's position" - it's a position that they genuinely hold, and take very personally. But like I said, they really need to think about how they want to express it, and how to do it in a way that engages with, rather than alienate, the West,
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strong stuff. i wonder if a generic kiwi whitey could've written this article without being accused of being xenophobic.
Yeah, I think I'm shielded from that to an extent, but at the same time, I'm also vulnerable to being called an Uncle Tom, banana, etc. Still, I think I can make a claim to a neutral perspective more than most.
how do the chinese demonstrators reconcile living in NZ with their chinese nationalism?
Awkwardly.
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Especially when it came to catching little boys seeing who could pee furtherest up the wall.....
Funny how often the same theme pop up in our tertiary institutions.
Hearteningly, 18-year-olds can pee much, much higher.
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You should totally put that Dub song online... sure to be an election-year hit.
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You mean You Don't Understand?
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A more useful change of defamation law might to make it illegal to threaten defamation action - without proof of actual defamation.
If the allegedly defamed accuser can't prove defamation - they have to pay special damages to the publisher/author...
It would be one way to remove some power from a deep-pocket litigant.
Speaking as a former journalist-defendant (albeit in a non-defamation-related case) who's not a lawyer and can't really afford lawyers, I would argue that it's the non-legal avenues that are the most effective. Last time, we had to go through the whole High Court process to overturn an injunction (and pay lawyers to do so), when ultimately, the process was useless. Our PR campaign cost nothing, was far more effective in putting pressure on the other party, and ultimately settling the issue in our favour before we even got a hearing.