![\"Taiwan](\"https:\/\/pinyin.info\/news\/news_photos\/2006\/06\/ma_ying_jeou_thought.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAlthough the election has passed, here’s one more post on a Taiwan campaign banner. <\/p>\n
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This banner reads qiǎngjiù Mǎ Yīng-jiǔ sīxiǎng<\/span> (“rush to save Ma Ying-jeou thought” \/ 搶救馬英九思想).<\/p>\n Referring to a prominent figure’s “thought” is much more common in China than in Taiwan and is predominantly associated with Mao Zedong — not the sort of figure to attract votes from pretty much any<\/em> segment of Taiwan’s electorate. <\/p>\n The standard phrase is Máo Zédōng Sīxiǎng<\/span> (毛澤東思想 \/ 毛泽东思想 \/ “Mao Zedong Thought”). See, for example, the Cultural Revolution-era poster at right, which reads “Mao Zedong Sixiang wansui!” (“Long live Mao Zedong Thought!” \/ 毛泽东思想万岁). As far as I know, though, people in China didn’t have to urgently rush to save it. Searches on Google and Baidu for “抢救毛泽东思想” (“rush to save Mao Zedong thought”) yield no responses at all. On the other hand, giving a Japanese reading of “banzai!<\/em>” for wansui<\/em> (万岁) might change the feeling of urgency some. <\/p>\n Before turning to a look at numbers, I’d like to offer a few more observations about this banner: <\/p>\n Here’s a table of the results of Google searches for the “thought” of some prominent political figures, with Confucius thrown in for good measure, as he was more of a real philosopher than all the rest of them put together. Also, to give a sense of the relative numbers of Web pages, I’ve added the search results for 的, the most frequently used Chinese character; this provides a very rough and unscientific ratio of about 2.4 Web pages in China for every 1 Web page in Taiwan. <\/p>\n I ran four variations on each main search. In addition to looking for the exact phrase of “[someone’s] thought” I checked the results as restricted to .tw domains, .cn domains, Taiwan governmental domains, and PRC governmental domains. <\/p>\n (alternate form)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Thus, the phrase “[somebody’s] thought” is overwhelmingly a PRC usage and associated with Mao Zedong more than with all the others put together and multiplied by 20. So what’s it doing here with Ma Ying-jeou’s name?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although the election has passed, here’s one more post on a Taiwan campaign banner. This banner reads qiǎngjiù Mǎ Yīng-jiǔ sīxiǎng (“rush to save Ma Ying-jeou thought” \/ 搶救馬英九思想). This is an unusual banner for a number of reasons, not … Continue reading ![\"Cultural](\"https:\/\/pinyin.info\/news\/news_photos\/2006\/06\/maozedong_thought.gif\")
This is an unusual banner for a number of reasons, not just because even die-hard KMT supporters might be hard pressed to say what exactly “Ma Ying-jeou thought” is. (I’m not trying to set up any punch lines here — really.) <\/p>\n\n
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\n Search phrase<\/th>\n Translation<\/th>\n Total<\/th>\n .tw<\/th>\n .cn<\/th>\n .gov.tw<\/th>\n .gov.cn<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n 的<\/td>\n de<\/em><\/td>\n 769,000,000<\/td>\n 95,100,0000<\/td>\n 246,000,000<\/td>\n 15,800,000<\/td>\n 35,900,00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 毛澤東思想<\/td>\n Mao Zedong thought<\/td>\n 2,330,000<\/td>\n 8,200<\/td>\n 1,140,000<\/td>\n 174<\/td>\n 342,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 孔子思想<\/td>\n Confucius thought<\/td>\n 64,000<\/td>\n 3,160<\/td>\n 21,500<\/td>\n 200<\/td>\n 2,860<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 鄧小平思想<\/td>\n Deng Xiaoping thought<\/td>\n 27,800<\/td>\n 256<\/td>\n 14,900<\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n 1,660<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 孫中山思想<\/td>\n Sun Yat-sen thought<\/td>\n 10,300<\/td>\n 1,210<\/td>\n 2,720<\/td>\n 196<\/td>\n 361<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 江澤民思想<\/td>\n Jiang Zemin thought<\/td>\n 4,120<\/td>\n 59<\/td>\n 573<\/td>\n 5<\/td>\n 98<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 胡錦濤思想<\/td>\n Hu Jintao thought<\/td>\n 2,400<\/td>\n 34<\/td>\n 1,140<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 198<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 蔣介石思想<\/td>\n Chiang Kai-shek thought<\/td>\n 850<\/td>\n 15<\/td>\n 251<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 17<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 馬英九思想<\/td>\n Ma Ying-jeou thought<\/td>\n 326<\/td>\n 31<\/td>\n 1<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 李登輝思想<\/td>\n Lee Teng-hui thought<\/td>\n 85<\/td>\n 52<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 蔣中正思想<\/td>\n Chiang Kai-shek thought<\/p>\n 54<\/td>\n 27<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 7<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 蔣經國思想<\/td>\n Chiang Ching-kuo thought<\/td>\n 34<\/td>\n 11<\/td>\n 7<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 陳水扁思想<\/td>\n Chen Shui-bian thought<\/td>\n 33<\/td>\n 7<\/td>\n 6<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n