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via: wang jianshuo's blog, read it here: Seoul Changes Chinese Name

one commenter says:

the name Han Cheng for the Koreans is derogatory, as Han means Chinese race and Cheng means city, so in essence chinese people is calling the capital of Korea a Chinese city which for sure would upset many Koreans.

another argues (translation from chinese):

it just makes me sick that koreans want us kowtow to thme by asking us change the chinese name of their capital, just like they translate the "korean airlines" into "da han hang kong" (in chinese, it means "great korean airlines"). if they ask us to use the new name for their capital, should we also change the chinese for "korean airlines"?

it's very interesting to observe the way how language is used in asia. i use "asia" because i find many similar cases in different asian countries, this time is korea.

in asia, language is not only a tool to describe the world in an objective way, it is also a tool to express one's internal feelings, emotions, value judgements, etc. to me, the changing name thing is just silly because either Han Cheng or Shou Er or even a meaningless X3T is fine, as long as it clearly tells people what city they refer to. but koreans seem want to get some self-respect from the new name.

you can find a lot of similar cases in reading history. we call the sino-japanese war between 1937-1945 "anti-japanese war" and japanese call that "great east asia war", and different peoples are labled with different names to indicate how they are valued in history, actually in chinese history people will get a name called Yi Hao after he dies, Yi Hao will tell you what kind of a person he is and how he is valued in history.

if there are two phases in a man's understanding of the world, the first stage is to understand the world in an objective way, then based on that a man makes his own analysis and judgement. the language should be as objective as possible because the first phase is the basis for making a good analysis and judgement.

the asians seem to put a lot of non-objective elements into the language and therefore fail to use the language in a proper way.

via: der spiegel, read it here: Should Germany's History Become Europe's?

the ignorance of history in both the west and east is just awesome. here is what the article says:

A recent BBC survey shows that 45 percent of British adults have never heard of Auschwitz. The number jumps to 60 percent when those under 35 are quizzed.

and it expressed itself in many ways, here are two pics, the left pic is taken in an italian fashion show in 2001, in the right pic the chinese movie star zhao wei dressed in a japanese army flag to appear in a fashion show.

the author argues in this article:

Indeed, it now seems as though Germany -- in a Europe that appears to be slowly forgetting the gruesome message of the swastika -- has become the historical conscience of the continent.

in many cases, germans are more sensitive to anything related with their dark past, and they earnestly did everything they could to repent that part of their history.

the movie schindlers list reveals that it is the love and respect for human lives that make the nazi atrocities so ugly, not anything else. unlike some asian countries, who still can not get beyond the "national interests" when it comes to facing their past, germany has surpassed this limitation and realized that it is to their best interest to prevent this happen again.

i was wondering how many years it will take japan to reach to the same level germany has already been? and no doubt when it comes to reflecting that history, chinese should ground more on the love and respect for human lives rather than merely on the hatred towards the barbarities in the past.

after all, the ultimate purpose of remembering history well is love, not hatred.