On the Chinese side of the date line, today is the anniversary of a 1947 Nationalist Chinese massacre now referred to as 228.  On February 28, 1947, the Nationalist Chinese military put down a largely peaceful protest with machine gun fire killing over 10,000 Chinese.  (The conservative estimate!)  This Wiki article gives a reasonable synopsis of the incident.  For more detail there are also several western eyewitness accounts in the public domain.  I've read one of them, Formosa Betrayed by George Kerr, which provides a chilling account, albeit one considered by some as slanted towards the Taiwanese elite.  This web page presents a different perspective of how mainland Chinese were targeted by both the Nationalist Party and local Taiwanese reprisals.

For the many sinophiles on this site, this is old hat, and I apologize.  Also, I am not expressing an opinion on unification, which is one that Chinese need to decide.  Nevertheless, to understand cross-strait relationships, one has to understand February 28 and the Taiwanese White Terror that followed.  2-28 is now commemorated every year by politicians and has a memorial park in Taipei

Has anybody noticed an certain amount of "爱国热情" (patriotic passion/fervour) in the expansion sections of certain upper-intermediate lessons?

I've just been studying "History" in the Saved by the Gong series (which is great by the way), and came across the following examples:

(A united motherland is the wish of every citizen.)

(The people of the entire country together conquered this rare winter storm disaster.)

(The ruling party has done a lot to stabilize it's ruling position.)

(In the early days of the establishment of the new China, a stable regime was of utmost importance.)

...

I'm commenting since this isn't the first time I've come across this sort of thing in the expansion section. In the past there have been sentences extolling the sacredness of the Olympic torch etc etc...

Now, this doesn't necessarily bother me, in fact I find it quite interesting.

I guess I'd like to know, who writes these sentences?

Has anyone else noticed a little bit of, dare I say it - propaganda - being squeezed into their studies?

Hi!

I'm taking a beginner's course in Chinese at the University. We're supped to write a small essay (a couple of pages) about any of the ethnic minorities in China. Any input on where to find reliable/suitable sources on the internet is highly appreciated!

/Dunder