I was equally out of touch. Again, do the risk/benefit analysis. If you give that much weight to the benefit, then that’s in and of itself an issue.
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A random history question that’s been bugging myself and my colleague: why is China, China? As in, how has China built such a sense of cultural identity that has allowed it to stay as a cohesive (compared to similarly sized groups elsewhere) whole for as long as it has?
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CHina was once a collection of different nations, then an emperor (the Qin emperor) decided he wanted more power so he took over everyone and forced them to come under his system. He set up an imperial bureaucracy everyone else figured out was better than what they had themselves (the system was the idea of a previous semi-mythical emperor), so they adopted it. They also didn’t have their own writing systems for the most part, so they went along with that.
Side note: if you listen to the different dialects in Chinese, they are pretty much incomprehensible. That’s because they were once literally different languages
Efficient communication+efficient government+strong cohesive values (confuscianism)+ lucky geography = cultural and economic developement. Dynasties changed, but until 1911, no one bothered to change the culture or system. Even the Mongols and Manchus eventually became “Chinese”
Side note 2: part of the reason the Qing dynasty failed to embrace western technology is because they were too tied to traditional values and wanted to “prove how Chinese” they were
This one goes to confucius, and the fact that 99% of Chinese people are Han. If one of the core values of your civilization for literally thousands of years is to not be an outlier and stick to the status quo, people tend to be very very cohesive
Sidenote 3: Asians aren’t good at math because of some innate ability. there are two most likely explanations:
- The structure Chinese language makes numeracy easy, so Chinese children literally have a head start in learning math
- Math, and to some extent science, doesn’t tend to produce any socially disruptive ideas AND happened to be the key to innovation/development => the government heavily emphasized it. LOTS and LOTS of practice starting from primary school (1st graders doing hours a day of HW over summer break)
China produced lots of famous poets, but none of them wrote social criticism and would likely have had their head chopped off for doing so. Also, most poets were known alcoholics → a lot of China’s most famous poems were either written while drunk or are about drunken revieres.
Hope this clears things up!
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Week 24: Day 6- Conditioning
Took yesterday off, don’t regret it
10-1 DB manmakers w/ 20-2 alternating lunges in between-20lb DBs
Death march: 3x20-20lb Dbs @dagill2 these HURT
2xDB complex (7pushups+7 renegade rows/side+7cleans+7 squats+7push press)-20lb Dbs
- pretty intense, felt good going in- not as bad on cardio as expected, really hard on grip, LOVE death march, complex fun, but pretty pooped
Daily work:
2x20 rows/side-20lbs
1x20 towel pull apart rows
1x20 y to w
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Would it be fair to suggest that the difference between the Chinese “empire” and, say, the Achaemanid Persians or the Roman’s could simply be that the Chinese got there early enough to be able to develop a joint written language and culture rather than later empires which had to knit people together who already had their own written language and culture?
I’ve heard both of those theories before, as well as a third one from Malcolm Gladwells Outliers (I think), which is that essentially Asian kids persevere fractionally longer on maths problems than others and this marginal difference adds up over the course of an education.
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Maybe, as well as not trying to conquer people who were not their own (the countries were seperate, but almost all of them were Han and used confuscianism). China did/does have issues with ethinic minorities ie the Uighurs in Xinjiang or the Tibetans
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If this is too political you can shut it down right now, but any thoughts from you on what’s been going on with these guys? Just curious about your views, ‘cause of the Chinese connection, haha.
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That’s the thing- it’s not as cohesive as you’d think it is. A lot of it is successful propaganda over thousands of years where the ruling dynasty and its rulers would brand itself as a continuation of the previous “China”.
What people consider China today is basically Han Chinese. Anna is correct in saying the Qin emperor is the one who started the concept of an unified China by conquering a number of rival kingdoms and establishing the Imperial system that all following dynasties used in some form. But it’s the Han dynasty that created the concept of “China” that all succeeding dynasties basically linked itself to whenever they came to power.
That’s the crux of all this- each succeeding dynasty really had nothing to do with the preceding dynasty, since they were either victors of civil wars or some other internal conflict (the “Three Kingdoms” period is probably the easiest example of this), or outside invaders or some other conflict (Yuan dynasty and the Qing dynasty are the easiest examples). They all still considered themselves part of “China”- effectively a continuation of the precedent the Han dynasty established.
That’s why ethnic Chinese call themselves “Han Chinese”- it’s the result of a single overwhelmingly powerful cultural/ethnic group that eventually subsumed all other relevant cultural/ethnic groups. It’d be like as if England conquered the entirety of the English isles during the middle ages and kept it so peaceful and prosperous that, eventually, everyone decided that it’ll just be better to call themselves English.
There’s probably far too many reasons why China remained united while the Persian empires and the Roman Empire failed to do so and I think attempting to pin it down to a couple of reasons is… difficult. If I had to take a stab at it though- I would guess that it would have to do with-
China faced remarkably few foreign invasions. As far as I know, the only serious foreign threat the Chinese faced were from the people of the Eurasian Steppes. These were serious enough that they occasionally defeated Chinese dynasties and subordinated them, but it was never permanent. The two times where the people of the Eurasian Steppes decided to outright conquer China, they decided to integrate themselves into the existing power structure sufficiently enough that it didn’t break the status quo. These are the Yuan and Qing dynasties. I think this was because China literally saw itself as the center of the universe and all its neighboring countries were sufficiently cowed into agreeing (except Japan, but no one cared about Japan until the 1800s).
As far as I know, China never faced widespread migration from foreign groups or saw the kind of massive internal migrations that Europe and the Middle East experienced throughout history. It is easier to maintain an unified culture when it is allowed to remain sedentary. If I had to guess, this is again due to the fact that China saw itself as the center of the universe. It was immensely powerful no matter which dynasty it was, and it had the power to control quite a lot of things.
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@magick @anna_5588 thank you guys, massively appreciated the time taken here.
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There has been systematic discrimination and attempt to “assimilate” them going back centuries. It’s just that the CCP now has bigger guns. This is unacceptable
With that said, I’m of the opinion that the Western Media is quite unfair towards the Chinese government, including on this matter.
The truth is that the Chinese ppl have suffered for so long, most of them don’t give a crap about freedom as long as everything “works” (ie not starving, economic growth, no unrest). THis might, and is, changing as the situation gets good enough for people to care about freedom/other non survival ideals. Also, it’s hard to govern a country of billions of people without some authoritarian control.
exactly. There wouldn’t be so much strife if the CCP were okay with dissenting groups (ie in the US), and if the Uighurs were Han and were willing to assimilate
@magick
Your understanding of Chinese history/culture is impressive!
Week 25: Day 1- Easy day
Sprints/Plyo NOT happening
2x(25 pushups+walk 800m ish loop), 2x(30 alt lunges+walk 800m ish loop), 25lb weighted vest
- great workout to get blood flowing- good and quick, got HR up a bit, stopped pushups after 2 rounds b/c shoulders not happy
“Fun stuff” and daily work
21 DB clean and jerks/side- 32lbs, 3:18
3x(10rows/side-20lbs+10 towel pull apart rows+10 Y to Ws)
- felt really good, loved the clean and jerks- great improvement, cut short the daily work because upper back got work
I enjoy history and have a basic understanding of Chinese history after taking some classes back in college + reading up on it.
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I’m genuinely happy about the support and traffic your log gets. You’re in good hands!
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Improvement!
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You can thank @dagill2 for this
My hamstrings were PISSED
I think 42 DB clean and jerks count as upper back work 
Week 25: Day 2
Press: 3x7/side-32lbs- 90sec rests
Military press: 4x(13/side-25lbs+9rows/side-32lbs)-90sec rests
5x(20sec kickboxing/side+20sec rest)
curls: 1x40-25lbs
- upper back pretty tight going in so press harder than expected, still made progress so not too bummed
“fun stuff” and daily work
2x(20rows/side-20lbs+20 towel pull apart rows+10 Y to Ws)
Tabata KB snatch-25lbs
- @T3hPwnisher you’re right, these are REALLY fun
Other updates:
- Sodium’s been out of control (smoked salmon, cottage cheese, generously salted cabbage…). Feel great performance wise with sodium, but bloated and look horrible (arms and face puffy, extra “stuff” on midsection, definition gone) → body image at all time low.
- This afternoon, my mom set out some leftover bbq ribs for dinner. I had the intention of challenging myself not to eat any, but failed. Still fits my allotment, but very disappointed at myself- hot cold empathy gap
- Chinese New Years dinner coming up and feeling really anxious
- My research advisor finally got back to me. Turns out he was really sick over break, and is now really behind on the project… will be spamming reddit for the other project in the meantime
As I’ve been tagged I once again feel culpable, so I need to ask
Why do you have an allotment?
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Sad, I hope you will get well
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Your body image is not at an all time low, it’s exactly where it normally is - providing you with the notion that too skinny is just right and just right is obese. I’m sure if you posted a picture right now and I put it next to one from a year ago it’d be like one of those “spot the difference” games, if the artist messed up and forgot to make any differences.
Not touching a plate of BBQ ribs isn’t a challenge, it’s a borderline crime! If you want a challenge, challenge yourself to be as open and honest with your therapist as you are with us on here.
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