Thursday, June 01, 2017

Today's Laff

When you name your wedding decoration company after a woman who killed herself rather than get married...

This gem of insight from 1985 was actually published as a peer-reviewed paper. Seriously?
The Taiwan Independence Movement (TIM) developed out of the circumstances that followed the restoration of Taiwan to the sovereign jurisdiction of the Republic of China in 1945. Tensions betwen mainland‐born Chinese and the local‐born Chinese produced a revolutionary “national liberation movement” that has become increasingly “Maoist” in orientation. Originally following an orthodox “Marxist” revolutionary strategy, the failure of the TIM to win support among the Chinese of Taiwan has led its leadership to make recourse to terrorist tactics. The change is understood to be the consequence of the failure of political persuasion and the inability of the revolutionary leadership to win support in an environment of expanding economic opportunity and surprisingly equitable distribution of welfare benefits.
Every factual assertion in the abstract is comprehensively wrong. But it does show what kind of incredible slant the Taiwan democracy movement had to overcome. It should also be read as a warning about what kind of sewage is flowing out of China. Consider this epic on Chinese expansion in the South China Sea that also made it into a refereed journal with the same publisher. Just read the abstract and you will know how awful the remainder is... or this one which asserts that Spratly visited the Spratlys before he was born.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL, my head is still spinning from the PRC spin. Also cute is how the ROC is conveniently recognized when it suits Beijing's purpose, again and again.
Wayne

Anonymous said...

What--Fido Dido was a chick?!!

Anonymous said...

Michael,

I don't know if you noticed it or commented about it previously, but the 1922 book "Among the Head-Hunters of Formosa" by Janet Montgomery McGovern - mother of the original Indiana Jones, Dr. William Montgomery McGovern, and great grandmother of actress Elizabeth McGovern - is remarkable.

Jenna uploaded a PDF copy of the old book on her blog, so thanks most of all to Jenna for that.

The Head-Hunters of Formosa book, while occasionally off-target on some historical facts and showing a few petty biases in places, is nevertheless an extraordinary account of 1917-1919 Taiwan and aboriginal tribes by an uniquely extraordinary, brave and strong-willed woman.

Absolutely worth a read.