Vocab review and refinement
- There was a term in that video I linked to last time (something about the fabric, I think) that reminded me of this maker. The historical recreations this dressmaker put together (this one in particular) and the processes she used (and showed) answer questions that I'm centuries and continents from being the first to ask. (It isn't difficult to see parallels between these, for instance.)
A little something light before I head into the heavier topics that caught my eye.
- Speaking for myself, I do enjoy using the term 白左, and appreciate the information on the term, as well as on its use in its place of origin and elsewhere. This part of the article, I think, explains the differences:
"For [those who lived through the Cultural Revolution], idealism evokes the passionate, deadly, often hypocritical Maoist fervor of the Cultural Revolution, and so any mention of lifting up marginalized people and destroying the status quo today is interpreted as preamble for a breakdown of all social order. To them, baizuo ideology isn’t just silly but dangerous, and it threatens the relative stability and prosperity they’ve come to enjoy.
But this set of affiliations is only the case for anti-CCP users abroad. In the mainland, where it’s used most, the word is slung mostly by pro-CCP speakers attacking liberals seen as being brainwashed by foreigners or too concerned with human rights.
In both cases, it’s an attack on those who put issues of justice and identity ahead of the demands of national greatness."
I've used the term to imply that those I refer to have collectively made choices, specifically within culture and politics, that enable a 敌害, and I do see that as a danger that those I deem 白左 are either blind to or complicit with, so I agree very much with the characterization of its use by those outside its origin, though I've yet to see what greatness there is in the choices that have been made in this area.
The use within its own borders regarding accusations of not-your-skin tone, though, made me laugh at the memory it prompted (tan skin here, white skin there, humans are eternally weird). Slightly beside the point. I do have a question - what do I call those who withhold and distort information, and then call brainwashed the people from whom information is withheld? Because from what I see, it's the 白左 doing the 洗脑筋, while back at base, it's the 白左 being 洗脑筋. (Also, if the first two characters are enough to show the verb, what meaning does the third add?)
- From 四大发明 to current events, there's 火药味 in the air, and eyes on the origin.
- A digression, this, but count me among company other than those who envy this bit.
- Nearly forgot: that's two now. Both archery and firearms require stillness on the inside for precision on the outside. Making it more difficult for those who are willing to train stillness makes it all the easier for those who are willing to break the law for the weapons.
- Ending with this because it's adorable.
