I thought I knew what a monad was and the only problem was all the tutorials and other people clearly struggling to understand it. But now I’m not so sure.
That made me chuckle. But I think the GP is using the term "monad" more in the sense of Leibniz's philosophy than that of functional programming or category theory – "monad" as meaning ultimately simple and indivisible, as "atoms" were in the original ancient Greek atomic theory (as opposed to modern atomic theory in which the so-called "atoms" turned out to not actually be atomic after all). Of course, even in that sense the GP is using the term figuratively – nobody literally believes that China is a single indivisible entity, a hive-mind or Borg, but the GP is claiming that Chinese society (and even the Chinese government) contains more divisions of opinion and interest and attitude than many outside observers assume. And I'm sure there is some truth in that – but, I think the GP is wrong in suggesting Taiwanese society is different – that is just as true of Taiwanese society, and Taiwan being a democracy puts these differences more out in the open (DPP vs KMT etc), China's more closed system means many of these differences exist behind closed doors; and even if sometimes people inside China get away with speaking of some of them openly, they have to be careful what they say and how they say it, to a much greater extent than people in Taiwan have to