Thorsten J. Pattberg Quotes & Sayings

Their culture is narrowly interbred, and some personal relations border on the incestuous, so they float each other's boat and write almost identical muck-raking stories. Everyone in China knows why they are, and their China-bashing is green-lighting all of us to join the onslaught. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Nations should compete for their terminologies just as they compete for everything else. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Not a single Buddha, bodhisattva, or shengren in Europe, but in Asia: all philosophers and saints? What is that probability? — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Western education remains a fetish of the colonial past. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Westerners who go native with Chinese ideas are called 'eggs' - outside white, inside yellow -, and are often systematically excluded from their expat community's activities, let alone the financial support system. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Where will they all sleep and dine? How do philosophers party? What should we print on the pillows and promotional cups? — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Science Magazine wouldn't in a dream think about publishing a single Chinese term. Chinese words and brands must be suppressed, crushed even, hold back at all costs. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

These days we are experiencing an unprecedented Anglo-Saxon bias against foreign terms. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

For 3,000 years the Chinese owned the concept of daxue, yet no Chinaman ever came of the idea - let alone succeeded - to elevate this word permanently into the English language. What to think of such cultural passivity? — Thorsten J. Pattberg

The New York Times must write from the position of highest authority, like the voice of an overlord and colonial master, which it cannot if the matter is discussed on foreign terms. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

There is a Cult of Western evangelists and self-righteous crusaders who are determined to dislodge non-Western nations and usurp their governments. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Taking part in the Western mission to civilize the East is highly spiritually rewarding. And what is political destabilization and social unrest but a sweet revenge for China's disregard for Western hegemony. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Even if he cannot put his hands on the foreign investment, or receive gifts or bribery, he will explore all means of Chinese hospitality, conferences, shark fun lunch, and foot massages, thus will indulge the high-flyer life of the moment, all on his organization's or the government's bill. Naturally, the Chinese host will want to bring his friends, and lengthen the negotiations. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Only if a Chinaman presents proof of affiliation with the West, has Western patrons vouch for him, and writes in 'pure' English, may he present his 'submission' to Western publishers. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

The wisdom of the East is immortalized in its vocabularies and must be liberated from European language imperialism once and for all. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Had I not come to China, I would have never learned that China is a wenming, that is has shengren and junzi, that is aspires to datong, and that "Confucianism" isn't a religion, that's not even its correct name, but is rujia. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Few people realize that the Bible discourages people from studying foreign languages. They story of the tower of Babel informs us that there is one humanity (God's one), only that "our languages are confused." That has always meant that, say, any German philosopher could know exactly what the Chinese people were thinking, only that he couldn't understand them. So instead of learning the foreign language, he demanded a translation. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

I am despised by an army of undiscerning academic highbrows, and ridiculed by semi-educated and vengeful "China-experts" whose era of translating Chinese into Western categories has now come to an end. The public is ready for non-European vocabularies. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

There isn't a hotel, massage parlor, ktv, or conference hall in town that isn't frequented by "little sisters" (xiaojie), escort personnel (baopo), hostesses (peinv), or other types of prostitutes (jinv). — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Most Western journalists in China prefer a Chinese-free international language, and thus bend over backwards to replace important Chinese terms with Western vocabularies. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Harvard has now de facto become a Chinese outpost. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

A Greek invention, democracy is highly overrated. For starters, it never worked in Greece. The first philosophers were fascists and, even today, 2,500 years later, the "cradle of Western civilization" remains an incompetent state. Roman emperors and a vengeful, authoritarian God are the true European success stories. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Our Western press soldiers from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, etc. (often 1 correspondent for every 200 million Chinese), happily manufacture stories, demonize the Chinese government, and fabricate heroes, saviors, and incidents for China, at will. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

The British call junzi a "gentleman," no surprise. The Americans have no gentlemen, so they translate junzi as "the superior man." The Germans have no gentlemen either, and "superior man" is reserved, so they call junzi an "edler" meaning a person of noble blood. To sum up, all Europeans call junzi anything but junzi, which is quite a scandal. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

I am all for the inclusion of foreign cultures, not their omission in our media. Foreign names, brands, and inventions must be allowed to show and to compete in US publications. Today, most foreign words are still banned. And almost 7 billion people whose first language is not English are silenced. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

No matter what China is going to become, China will never recover her true originality if she tries to please the West on Western terms. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

The Four Great Chinese Inventions - compass, gun-powder, paper, and print - are legendary. Less talked about are meritocracy and banknotes. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

This is the 21st century, yet Western scholars are happy to keep it colonial, describing Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism in Greco-Hellenic or Judeo-Christians terms. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Tourists and imperialists do not come to be taught. They call things the way they call things at home. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Translation, an archaic way of silencing, marginalizing or disowning other people's originality, must come to an end. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

The English word 'creativity' is derived from the Roman-Latin creo - to create. It is inextricably linked to the Western notion of a creator - a divine intervention and violent disrupter. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

China has already more millionaires than Japan, Germany, and Great Britain combined. Only in US politics, where the ruling elites belong to the dinosaurs, does the myth of Chinese lack of creativity hold its sway. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Sadly, Asia never cared, with the unenviable consequence that today's Zuckerberg's brand, Facebook, enjoys more copyright and legal protection than the entire intellectual output of China in the last 3,000 years. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

Most American and European scholars believe that the Chinese speak their languages, only that they "talk" in Chinese. — Thorsten J. Pattberg

If the humanities were science, the vocabularies of the world's languages would add up, not overlap. — Thorsten J. Pattberg