A language under attack: China’s campaign to sever the Uighur tongue | Hacker News Reader

A language under attack: China’s campaign to sever the Uighur tongue

hongkongfp.com

11 pointshker10 comments

I know it is an unpopular opinion, but I'd prefer everyone to switch to the same language. That would greatly simplify a lot of real-world situations, and increase culture proliferation.

Along the same reasoning, the less active languages there are out there, the better.

Would that include you being willing to switch to a completely new language that takes you a good decade to become fluent in?

Yes, it would. In fact, I am an immigrant.

I think the unpopularity is more in the practical issues than in the theory. I'm sure everybody would be happier understanding each other, but not if it's accomplished by force or discrimination.

I don't understand the recent spate of China articles on HN. Most appear far more polemic and have a looser relationship with the truth than your typical HN article.

Well the reason for the existence is pretty straight forward if one looks at the climate of US foreign politics and its treatment of China at the moment.

And that's not to say that the discrimination against the Uighur minority isn't real, but language unification policies have been practised by pretty broad array of countries, for example France, where Corsican or Breton and many other dialects were eliminated from education and public life, and where the official language is still nationally administered.

The reason being that it's essentially seen as anti-republican and communitarian and that someone who does not speak the national language cannot participate in affairs of the state.

Hong Kong Free Post is considered to be a reputable news source

Is this even on-topic for Hacker News?

Although looking at the guideline, it seems to be dependent on the reader:

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[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Complaining about things being off-topic is one of the few things that is actually off-topic on HN.

From the link you cite:

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