the real conflict

No doubt words like "Chinese" mean something but it is getting much more difficult to say exactly what that is, as this thread amply demonstrates. I have met a few "Taiwanese" people here from the States who did not speak a word of Mandarin and had spent their entire lives in Western society. Pedantic individual that I am, it didn't take long before I started explaining to them that Taiwanese did this or Taiwanese thought that. Thankfully the humor of this was us not lost on any of us. On a deeper level though I think it is interesting to consider that I have in fact been more deeply affected by this culture than they are likely to ever be. I am extremely grateful that I have had a chance to step outside my culture a bit and I am equally grateful this is the culture that I stepped into. Every culture can learn from every other culture. Perhaps the real conflict is between people who believe this and people who don't.