Subtle Politics

My main teacher was telling us what the different bodies of water around China are called today. To illustrate, she drew China on the board. I noticed instantly that she drew Taiwan and Macau. This isn't any suprise to me, but I just thought the loud bell that went off in my head when I saw it was humorous. If I hadn't studied the China-Taiwan regional conflict in Professor Kennedy's class, I would have just stared on like the rest of the class.

She didn't pause at all before drawing Taiwan and Macau. It was completely normal, and nothing to be considered before doing. It was just a simple fact of geography to her. I haven't gotten a chance to really see what kinds of opinions on issues like this are ingrained in people's minds. I'm not going to seek out the opportunities, either, because I'm a foreigner and I'm using the Chinese government's money to be here. Talking about Taiwan, and a number of other things, are good ways to get in trouble. I was briefed on this in several ways when I arrived here.

In fact, the rest of this entry is going to be some flagged words that, if the censorship wasn't already in place on blogger, would get my page blocked in China.

Taiwan. Falun Gong. Jesus. Democracy. Independence. Censorship. Tibet. Xinjiang. Catholocism. Christianity. Uighur. Certainly there are more, but I don't know how deep the internet censorship goes.