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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Westerners still called "pointynose" in Taiwan
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Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 05:07:56 GMT
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In article <4qmbuv$lca@news.ccit.arizona.edu>,
Hung J Lu <hlu@aruba.ccit.arizona.edu> wrote:
[...]
>Many Taiwanese people think that all
>westerners like to be called "adok'al". But any name based
>on physical appearance is inherently bad idea. This us-versus-them
>mentality is very hard to root out in the short time. There is
>very little common ground between western culture and
>the eastern one. 
>
>Even with the neighboring countries like the Philippines, Malaysia
>or Thailand, the Taiwanese people have not shown a great deal
>of respect (Taiwan uses quite some foreign workers). For the
>benefit of Southeast Asia, romanization and wider use of
>English is the way to go. Southeast Asia needs a common 
>language. Without a common language, the us-versus-them
>situation will never disappear.

	Why should it disappear with one?  Whenever someone makes
a statement like this, I'm inevitably reminded of Douglas Adams'
babelfish.  What's the exact quote?  "By removing all barriers of 
communication between peoples, the babelfish has been responsible
for more and bloodier wars than anything else in history."



-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
