Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeng_xinren
Never read “The Ugly American”.
But I have read the Chinese version of “The Ugly C h i n a m a n and the Crisis of Chinese Culture” by Mr. Bo Yang.
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: The Ugly ******** and the Crisis of Chinese Culture
Some of the customer reviews (especially the first one) on the amazon.com are excellent.
Overall, it is a very good book. I read it long time ago.
It focuses on the worst behaviors of Chinese people and the worst part of the Chinese culture. It is not intended to give a well balanced picture of the Chinese people and culture. But it is good to know how bad we and our culture are sometimes.
This book was a best seller in mainland China in 1980s or early 1990s. It is not censored in mainland China as one reviewer claimed.
There is also a book of “The Ugly Japanese or that sort” by a Japanese author who used to be the Japanese ambassador to Argentina. But I only read its brief introduction long time ago.
PS. The title of the book has a word "C h i n a m a n".
It is a degrading word calling Chinese. I am very glad to know that the WAB censored this word. Thanks. I really appreciate that.
But I don't feel insulted by this word in the situation of this book. Mr. Bo Yang is very respected in mainland China. |
Well this one has caught me off guard, Can someone explain why the word about "a man from China" is deemed to be offensive?
We have numerous places named after that man, a resteraunt in Sydney is called "the happy ********", at least two creeks called chinamans creek, a rocky feature not far from here is called "chinamans hat". Should all these places be renamed for political correctness or should historic names be left alone?
I also understand that African Americans are not called negros now. Why is this?
I'm not trying to stir the pot, racily, I'm just curios as to the change of thinking.
Us Aussies are sometimes criticised about the way we use words that are very naughty as a term of endearment. An example, the word bastard is used in; G'day ya old bastard. We even have "the order of old bastards", It's a charity organization where members pay a fee each year that goes to a charity. When an old bastard spots another old bastard in the pub, he goes up to him and holds out his membership card and says, "G'day ya old bastard". If the other old bastard can't produce his membership card, he MUST buy the other old bastard a drink.
About the only names that rub us up the wrong way are bludger and "are you a pom?"
Freddie