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by Fomorian 1884 days ago
London was never Gaelic. The populations living in Southern England would have spoken Brythonic languages, not Goidelic.

And at any rate... it's pretty obvious he was referring to Wuxi today. I don't think anybody's about to have an issue referring to the Sparta of today as insignificant, its historical significance being whatever it might be.
1 comments
kragen 1884 days ago
Thank you for the correction! It was totally unfair of me to conflate all the insular Celtic tongues like that.

I do think I made reasonable arguments that Wuxi today is far from insignificant, didn't I?

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Fomorian 1884 days ago
Sure. I probably wouldn't call Wuxi insignificant myself.

My main issue was just citing Wuxi's historical importance and background to defend its significance, in comparison to pre-Anglo Saxon Britain. I see Chinese people do this a lot in regards to China, often to shut down criticism of the country from "lesser" countries, ie ones that were tribalistic or uncentralized during Imperial China's heyday. "We were the center of civilization while you were backwards tribals", that sort of rhetoric.

Not saying that's what you meant, mind you.

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kragen 1884 days ago
Sure, some Greek people do that too. FWIW I'm neither Chinese, nor a fan of centralization, and I know too well that neither virtue nor wisdom follows bloodlines. It's kind of despicable to see people attempt to defend their tribalism by claiming blood descent from non-tribalist people...

I started with Wuxi's history mostly because I find it fascinating but partly because, without that paragraph, I thought someone might respond, "Well, sure, Wuxi is a big city now, but it doesn't have the depth of culture and tradition of a place like London—it's just a soulless consumerist metropolis!" or argue, "Sure, London's population is only twice Wuxi's, but it's a very high profile city because for centuries it ruled an Empire on which the Sun Never Set!", maybe mixed with some deniably racist remarks about "imitation" or "IP theft" or "sweatshops" (of which I think the Guardian's "Australian smarts and Chinese industrial might" is a mild version).

I didn't want to leave an opening for that kind of silly nonsense. It misinforms people.

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