Irvine511 said:
i wanted you to explain this:
[q]The direct translation for "Nationalism" in Chinese, is a 100% positive word, it's equal to call someone a hero.[/q]
and, i wonder, does this give you permission to take one post in this thread and then expand it to make a sweeping generalization about the intelligence of 300m Americans?
you rightly resist broad generalizations about China, it's people and government. and i am certain it's far more complex than any of us who aren't Chinese could possibly understand.
but understand that other countries are just as complex as yours.
so we share. and we learn. and we all move forward.
Well, well, about the last sentence, I'd put "and pay copyright" in it.
Okay, first, when I say "China", I mean the people and the land. If I want to refer anything to the government, I use "CCP government" or "PRC government". Simply because we never officially wrote the full stop to the civil war. Strickly speaking, there are two governments in China, both claim they have the full right to the country. One is the PRC government, aka CCP government, have the right to the country, but in fact, can't do much things about Taiwan; another is the ROC government, aka the loser in the civil war, claim they have the right to the country, but in fact only effective in Taiwan. Therefore, it's very important to clearly distinguish the two.
Second, when I talk about Chinese people and American people, I wasn't generalize everyone who live in the two country, but rather refer to the people who hold the mainstream idea. For example, the phrase "America is a great powerful nation" for sure won't be 100% agreed by everyone on this planet, but if majority of the people agree with this phrase in some extent, I'd take it as the mainstream idea, and say "people on this planet think 'America is a great powerful nation'".
Am I made it clear now?
Okay, let's move to your question.
First, the definition for nationalist in Chinese is something like this: One person that loves his motherland unconditionally, and willing to sacrifice his personal interest for the interest of the majority group without any selfish thought for his own nation.
So, to qualify the nationalist title, there are two criterias: 1, love the motherland; 2, put others in front of himself. Generally speaking, the criteria 2 is the defining one, because it's "what you do".
Now I'll give you some example:
1. Mao Zedong (the CCP leader, winner of the civil war) called Jiang Jieshi (the ROC leader, the loser of the civil war) a nationalist, for the contribution he did in the WWII in defence the Japanese invader and the silent permission for letting the CCP navy warships went pass Taiwan channel in full load when southern sea got some problem.
2. The doctors and nurses who also have family members died in the earthquake, and they didn't even have time to make a phone call to the survived family member or to find the body of the dead ones. But work selflessly to save the other victims that send in to the hospital. Their behaviour was called nationalism.
3. The art students who painted the banner for demonstration had to work 2 days non-sleep due to the workload, and he was called a nationalist on the internet forum.
4. The disabled beggar, picked up the 100 note that a foreign tourist dropped in his little box, went straight to put the money in the donation box for the earthquake victim is called a nationalist.
5. The hundreds taxi driver who volunteerly transport wounded people from Du Jiangyan (a heavily damaged city) to Cheng Du (a much luckier city in comparison) hospital for treatment are called nationalist.
6. When a foreigner did something that could fit in the nationalist standard, we give him the title "internationalist". Dr. Henry Norman Bethune had this title.
Is it enought to explain your confusion now?