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Comment by gregschlom | Hacker News Reader

A bit surprised to learn that their product is called "God's eyes", given that this is a Chinese company - I thought religion was frowned upon in Communist China. Am I missing something?

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The really nice thing about this is that every single accident that the system gets into will have to be classed as an "Act of God".

You don't have to believe in god to call your product "god's eyes" anymore than you have to believe in dragons to use the word "dragon".

If anything, I would consider using the word "god" in a commercial tech product to be disrespectful to an actual believer.

The religious are more likely to object to this name. One can imagine a different name in Saudi, for example.

Among atheists one would think it would no more troubling than referencing Legolas in a name. [1]

In China I suspect they'd object to "Mao's Eyes" as a name for this.

[1] Many atheists may register an objection on the grounds of upsetting others in the community.

Mysticism in general is fine, you just can't be a political rival.

Plus, like in English, there are a ton of words people use more for the poetic impressiveness than because they're specifically asserting a supernatural power.

All religions not approved by the party are frowned upon in China.

Also, when a religion refuses to gain approval, the party quite literally hard forks it. Catholic? No, you have the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association; which was only recently tentatively reconciled after about 60 years of schism (though it’s still a very uneasy peace).

>Am I missing something?

I mean for one that religion isn't frowned upon and that it's just a marketing slogan, but also if you want to actually look at it, the Chinese phrase used by BYD is: 天神之眼, what they've in English translated to "God" is, in Chinese "Tian" (Heaven) a very common concept you have in Taoism or Confucianism or pretty much any Chinese mythology. You might have come across the phrase Tianxia (天下) "under heaven". But for an Anglophone audience "God" is probably catchier.

It translates into a patron god in Japanese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenjin_(kami)

I think it literally means god in Chinese. There are various ways to get god out sky (like laotian, tianna, etc...).

In a polytheistic context the invocation is much less severe, roughly equivalent to Apollo's Eyes or Zeus's Eyes.

But hopefully not Odin's Eye.

There's a Chinese car called Ora Good Cat or Ora Funky Cat, depending on market (sadly, someone who had at least some vague idea of how marketing worked got involved and it is now called "Ora O3" in Europe). It is generally understood that it is not in fact a cat, good, funky or otherwise.

Obviously there are people who don’t believe in god who use that word in phrases to convey a certain sense or meaning.

Atheists can't iddqd

Had to look tht up. Nice reference!

The original branding "Jesus, take the wheel" apparently had an awareness issue in China.

> I thought religion was frowned upon in Communist China. Am I missing something?

What gave you this idea?

I would love to hear someone refute this:

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/23/10-things...

Especially point #8, "The ruling Chinese Communist Party promotes atheism and discourages citizens from practicing religion"

I see. There’s not much to refute, the country doesn’t really promote so much organized religion. You should go to Beijing though, I definitely saw Christians there, and Chinese culture also has many elements of Taoism embedded even if they’re generally atheist.

Usually, you can tell whether an article has ideological and political biases by looking at its accompanying pictures. Recognizing this helps you critically engage with your sources.

as for your question

> "The ruling Chinese Communist Party promotes atheism and discourages citizens from practicing religion"

communisim is a materialism ideology, so communists should not practice religion, CPC members could be discharge if they do so

there's no limits for non-CPC citizens abt this, "religion freedom should be respected" is written in the constitution

this is not a question for anyone in China or have traveled in China, because if you were there you'll see how many people in temples there at weekends

a funny part, empire's propaganda sometimes against each other: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/22/temple-visits-...

you can "refute" this just by going to china. you will see buddhist temples, monks, christian churches and congregations, mosques, muslim people, halal restaurants etc literally all over the place. i don't think there's really anything to "refute" here

yes. what you're missing is religion isn't frowned upon in china. nobody cares if you call something "god's eye" and although most people are atheist, there's still a ton of people practicing many different religions right out in the open and its not against the rules

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