Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2024 September 1

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September 1

One of my favorite goals

What are some ways to be less angry and more level-headed? It's a goal I've always wanted to work towards. TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 03:52, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

There was a recent study that found acting out your anger does not reduce it, whereas being deliberately calm and peaceful does. I know, astonishing, right? It's a clickbait kind of title (which angers me): Venting doesn't reduce anger but something else does. The "something else" includes the typical collection of hippie stuff like yoga, as well as simply "taking a timeout". Not recommended are complaining, rage rooms and boxing.  Card Zero  (talk) 08:36, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

"Serenity now! ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:25, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Well, taking off the ref-desk librarian hat to give a personal opinion for a moment, I think if you see the anger itself as the problem you want to resolve, you're pretty likely to get stuck. Then you get to feel bad about not making progress, and maybe that makes you more upset, etc etc self-reinforcing cycle. You're more likely to get somewhere if you can identify why you're angry in the first place. Then you can try to avoid being angry at all (rather than just trying to be less angry when you become angry). You might also discover that you're trying to deal with anger on a much higher difficulty rating than most people - for example, a lot of physical/mental health conditions can cause you to become angrier, or angry more often. I'm rarely angry (lucky me), and one of the more recent times I can recall being so, it was because I had run out of a daily medication that I couldn't get refilled in time - I found the anger a real surprise! You might be living that way every day and not have noticed because you've "always been that way". Bodies are messy and minds are part of them. -- asilvering (talk) 16:27, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Ah, I see from your userpage that you're in high school. In this case you're probably stuck with "the typical collection of hippie stuff" for now. Teenage emotions are just really... loud. Eventually, you get older. -- asilvering (talk) 00:06, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

If you find anger or anxiety or anything else is a significant impairment on life, you should consider asking a professional for resources and mitigation strategies.

That said, one great use of ChatGPT I've seen was someone using it to check and clean their outgoing emails and social media posts for passive-aggressive (and aggressive-aggressive) anger. As noted earlier, anger is self-reinforcing, so being able to check it when it starts, and being shown in near-real-time how to communicate in a de-escalating manner, is a huge modern boon. (You might also ask ChatGPT for advice on mitigation strategies when you're feeling angry in the moment, which may be somewhat more reliable and friendlier than a search engine, but as a LLM its best way to shine is on tasks involving language.) SamuelRiv (talk) 18:58, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

I would examine the causes of your anger. What - or who - makes you angry? Don't get mad, get even. Some people have entirely opposite ideas, and there is essesntially nothing you can do about it. Walk away. Or you may be in an emotional double bind, which is exceptionally difficult to identify and solve. Consider the STOPP technique [1][2]. Sometimes this isn't possible: my dad, now aged 94, has always been utterly impossible to deal with (might as well talk to a brick), and I recently exploded at his narrow-minded intransigence, telling him to **** off and die, you old ****. I feel happier now, but he's probably not going to leave me anything in his will. MinorProphet (talk) 14:26, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Instead of taking the bait and getting angry, how might it have gone if you laughed at him? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:56, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

I would have received that familiar, stony, uncomprehending, hate-filled glare which Trump has perfected. Some people are incapable of laughing at themselves. MinorProphet (talk) 00:02, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

And then you could laugh at him some more. Instead of getting angry, you could tell him he's full of malarkey. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:09, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

I tried that a few years ago (telling him he was full of malarkey) and threatened him with a double-bladed lock-knife, to which he took exception, being a lawyer and a pathetic coward: and now I have a criminal record. Hint: don't try this at home, folks. MinorProphet (talk) 02:55, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

We have crossed over into the TMI zone. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:08, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

Yah, but you're greedy for that. MinorProphet (talk) 06:07, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

<tumbleweed>

More TMI. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:12, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

I think "TMI" is an abbreviation for "too much information". 80.44.89.207 (talk) 17:21, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

And the boy wins a cigar! ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:29, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

How and when did the word "Taiwan" become the common name in English of Republic of China?

I speak Chinese and in Chinese the word "Taiwan (Chinese: 台灣)" more commonly refers to the island (as you can see in Chinese wikipedia 台灣 is the island), the location or Taiwan Area (a term both available in PRC and ROC, which means a region with its own law, and a way to avoid conflict with no emphasis on belonging), which are neutral words and do not emphasize unification or independence. Taiwan is Taiwan and ROC is ROC, which are their original meanings. But in English the word "Taiwan" is regarded as the common name of Republic of China and it seems to be described as a common sense for I can't find reliable sources talking about it.

How and when did the word "Taiwan" become the common name in English of Republic of China? Does this give people the feeling that Taiwan is already independent as Taiwan equals to Republic of China and there is no need to announce independence? By doing so, are people who claim "Taiwan" is the common name in English of Republic of China supporting Taiwan independence?

The use of "independence" for Taiwan can be ambiguous. If some supporters articulate that they agree to the independence of Taiwan, they may either be referring to the notion of formally creating an independent Taiwanese state (Republic of Taiwan) or to the notion that Taiwan has become synonymous with the current Republic of China and is already independent (as reflected in the concept of One Country on Each Side).

— Taiwan independence movement, a Wikipedia entry

By the way, as I am too interested and bold in Taiwan topic, I am not allowed to edit the topic right now. If you think there is something needed to edit, just do it. ZeehanLin (talk) 16:05, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

I'm old enough to remember when it was called Formosa almost as much as Taiwan. (Perhaps more when referring to historical events, the age of Spanish and Portuguese exploration, lives of the early Christian missionaries etc. But I'm old enough to have been taught those things.) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 17:39, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Formosa refers to the island mostly. ZeehanLin (talk) 12:27, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

For everyday habitual use, English-speakers need a country to have a short one- or two-word name without an internal preposition. "United States of America" is too long (and has a preposition); "United States" by itself is OK, but many people prefer "America". "German Democratic Republic" and "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" were never useful for this purpose (which is why "East Germany" and "North Korea" are preferred), and "Republic of China" isn't either. If abbreviating "Republic of China" as "China" is blocked, then what's left is "Taiwan", which in that sense is quite natural as an English short form. It may be awkward in some respects, but is still much better than "Chinese Taipei" used by the Olympics! AnonMoos (talk) 20:14, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

North Korea and South Korea, West Germany and East Germany were established at a similar time. But the relationship between Taiwan and China seems to be more complicated. It doesn't seem quite appropriate to compare them. ZeehanLin (talk) 13:53, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

It's actually harmless to say this in spoken language, but it seems that everyone uses Taiwan as a formal common name, which can easily conflict with the island. ZeehanLin (talk) 13:56, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

There's no such thing as a formal common name. If you are using common names, you aren't being formal. There are formal short names, which often match the common names, but the two things are different.--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 09:34, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Also, how could it "conflict" with the island? If you have list of "Germany, Peru, Kenya, Taiwan", anyone who seriously believed that "Taiwan" in that instance referred to the island would have severe cognitive deficits. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 11:46, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

ZeehanLin means that this usage conflates the island and the country, as if the island were the country, and not merely part of it. It's roughly analogous to calling the UK "Great Britain", although that doesn't have the severe political baggage; I suppose a better analogue would be if (1) some revolution overthrew the Australian government, and Albanese set up a government-in-exile in Tasmania, (2) both the revolutionaries and the existing Albanese government kept using the name and styles of the Commonwealth, and (3) people started using "Tasmania" to mean both the island and the jurisdiction that only had power there. Also, using the name can cause confusion in other ways; see the discussion at Wikipedia:WikiProject Ireland Collaboration/Poll on Ireland article names for example. And it can require disambiguation on physical geography articles, e.g. the subject of the Taiwan article has a land area of 36,197 km², but List of islands by area, going with the island rather than the jurisdiction, gives an area of just 34,507 km². If you weren't aware of the difference, this might be confusing; even the list of islands has to throw in (main island) below the Taiwan link, lest readers be confused. Nyttend (talk) 20:34, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

I'm not seeing how this is more "problematic" than it is for other island countries that control small islands as well as the namesake large island (such as Cuba and Sri Lanka). I'm also not seeing why your Albanese government example would be a problem. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 12:16, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

When I was in grade school, we called the island "Formosa" and the country "Nationalist China". Those seem to have gone by the wayside. Work colleagues of mine who were from that country tend to call it "Taiwan". As to stuff like "Democratic Republic" of communist countries, those terms are seldom used except in a formal or official sense, because they are seen as propaganda put forth by totalitarian dictators. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:02, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Looking in Newspapers.com, the expression "Taiwan (Formosa)" was being used as early as 1901. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:06, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

For what a gbook ngrams is worth, it shows a decrease in Formosa from the 1950s. CMD (talk) 12:45, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

Baseball Bugs A thought strikes me — nobody ever uses "East Congo" or "West Congo" to refer to a couple of countries with confusing names; they're the only ones where the formal names get any significant common use in my experience. And unlike Korea, Germany, Viet Nam, and China, they were never forcibly divorced from each other because of communism; ever since actual states were first formed there, they've been separate entities. Maybe there's a connection between these facts. Nyttend (talk) 20:20, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

Baseball Bugs -- "Nationalist China" was suitable as long as the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang dominated there, but it lost its monopoly of power some time ago. AnonMoos (talk) 21:06, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Now Beijing seems to be distinctly more nationalist! I think the RoC ought to grant independence to each of the mainland provinces. —Tamfang (talk) 18:11, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

Occasionally people will say Free China, but obviously this conveys a particular political position. I haven't heard it in quite a while, maybe because the implicit subtext is that the ROC is the legitimate government of the whole of China, which (quite irrespective of whether it would be desirable or not) does not seem to be a realistic aspiration at the current moment. --Trovatore (talk) 21:20, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

A more blatant (and facetious) way of implying that that I've seen on Reddit is to refer to the PRC as "West Taiwan". Iapetus (talk) 10:19, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

I seem to remember Made in Taiwan becoming the challenger to Made in Japan as the origin label for cheap tat in the 1970s. DuncanHill (talk) 21:26, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

"American components, Russian components..." Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:20, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

OR: I lived and worked in Taipei during the transition. Prior to the 1980s, it’s all politics. If you prefer the KMT, it’s ROC; if you like the CCP, it’s Taiwan (or, in international conventions, “Taipei, China,” or “Taiwan Province of China.”). From the 1980s, Taiwan was commonly used by anyone not pro-CCP, or forced by the PRC to use one of the "polite" titles I cite above. And, since the ROC includes many small islands that are not Taiwan, using Taiwan also began to mean “we really, really don’t want any Mainland government to have the least bit of control over our lives.” DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 19:05, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

So you want to know when the world decided to Taiwan on? Clarityfiend (talk) 01:02, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

I remember seeing, probably in 198x, tourism posters for “Taiwan: island province of the Republic of China”. —Tamfang (talk) 18:13, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

8 pointed star emblem

[3] What if anything is signified by the necklace emblem that German politician Sahra Wagenknecht is shown wearing? Thanks. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:C030 (talk) 23:48, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

I’m going to guess that it is simply jewelry, and does not signify anything special. Blueboar (talk) 01:12, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

We have articles on Rub el Hizb (the title should actually technically be "Rub' al-Hizb"), Star of Lakshmi, and Star of Ishtar, but none has a close resemblance. It looks like a general quasi-Arabesque design... AnonMoos (talk) 01:42, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks all. Yes she is of partly Iranian descent and I guess she chose the symbol accordingly. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:C030 (talk) 21:08, 2 September 2024 (UTC)