While there is plenty of intriguing drama, romance (including some of the most incredible erotic depictions I have ever read) and heroic action throughout Chung Kuo, the real story is the clash of philosophies.  After 200 years of mostly peaceful and relatively prosperous world rule, despite the best efforts of the 7, information leaks out to contradict their version of history, especially via a secret document whose possession is a death sentence if caught, the "Aristotle File."  And technology causes unforeseen changes in a culture where "change" is a bad word.  And, corruption has slowly but surely crept into every aspect of what at first glance appears to be a minimalist benign Confucian totalitarianism.

I think that any objectivist would enjoy this and benefit from seeing how the Chinese cultural mindset works out in the concrete, in the minds and actions of the characters.

In relation to Google's departure from China, I conclude that the ruling party intends and has, so far, been relatively successful in creating a social/political/economic model strikingly similar to the world that Wingrove depicted in the early '90's.  Like the NAZIs attempted and intended, once their rule was consolidated, or Orwell's portrayal in "1984," the Party intends to take an ever more sophisticated and thorough control over information in general, especially anything that does not fit their goals.  The typical Chinese citizen will think that he is getting a full picture, for example painting Japan as ultimate evil, the Dahli Lama as a political threat, and Taiwan as a U.S. puppet that rightfully belongs to the Mainland.  Any feed that denies the official truth will be carefully altered.  Anyone who publically asserts a different view will disappear.

The only problem, long-term, is that such a process cannot be ultimately contained.  Eventually, it will eat itself, just like the string of dynasties before it.

(Edited by Phil Osborn on 3/13, 2:51pm)

Last night I saw the movie "Formosa Betrayed."

My impression is that this is a "message movie."  If you were turned off by the political subtext in "Avatar," you probably will not like this either.  It's easy enough to portray anyone on screen as a hero or villain.

However, just because something is propaganda, does not mean that it is incorrect.  I have plenty of independent corroboration of what happened in Taiwan under the Kuo Min Tang.  Just to give one example, a physicist who works out at the same Ballys that I do told me how his family just barely escaped being machine gunned as Chiang's army, notorious for brutality, rape and general corruption (which is why the Reds won the mainland) swept through Taiwan from one end to the other, killing everyone who might possibly oppose them.  They told the Taiwanese that they were brothers, and then they saw how rich and prosperous they were and decided to steal everything.  Two million fascist Chinese ended up enslaving 18 million Formosans for the next fifty years in a brutal police state responsible for the murders as well - as the movie portrays - of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.

Fortunately my friend's family had dug a spider hole in their living room hidden under the floor to escape expected bomb attacks under the Japanese.  Their house and virtually all their possession, however, were reduced to shreds and rubble as it was machine-gunned to pieces.  My friend says that the admitted figure of 20,000 unarmed protestors that were gunned down by Chiang's goons is a small fraction of the estimated 100,000 who were killed in the weeks after.

Every doctor, dentist, engineer, school teacher, businessman - anyone with brains and ability - was murdered in the same pattern as the Soviets set in the Ukraine and then again in Eastern Europe at the end of WWII. 

This is a rather chilling movie, to say the least, but it's good that someone is getting the truth out, even if over half a century after the fact.  Too bad it will probably never be shown on the mainland.

(Edited by Phil Osborn on 3/17, 8:44pm)