A body of the National People’s Congress, the country‘s highest law-making institution, has publicly acknowledged petitions to legalize same-sex marriage, a rare development that has triggered a nationwide discussion of a topic that was once taboo.
While the depiction of the homosexual relationship central to the novel has proven a problem in visual adaptation, given China’s overall conservative attitude towards LGBTQ+ issues, the element of Daoist magic key to Modao Zushi‘s narrative also represents a cultural trope that was once considered taboo in modern China.
It feels almost taboo to cough or sneeze on the subway, as many people have joked about online.
Even saying the words «Ramadan fasting» became taboo.
It is sometimes assumed that the absence of nuclear war since World War II proves that nuclear weapons are not relevant for national security, will never be used in conflict, or that a taboo against nuclear weapons will deter their use in the future.
The Nuclear Taboo Exists, But it Can Be Broken
It is sometimes argued that a normative basis of restraint, a «nuclear taboo,» is responsible for the lack of inter-state nuclear conflict.
While such a taboo almost certainly exists, it is unlikely to prevent states from using nuclear weapons on its own.
This is not to say the nuclear taboo has no effect on policy.
The taboo, combined with the mindset that the weapons would not be necessary for victory, contributed to President Harry Truman’s decision to not use nuclear weapons in the early days of the Korean War, and prevented Gen.
Arms control agreements, for their part, have reinforced the nuclear taboo by seeking to control potential escalation, provide transparency, and minimize the situations where it would be advantageous to use nuclear weapons.
Considerations of nuclear warfare have become taboo, which has contributed, in part, to the non-use of nuclear weapons for so long.
But the taboo does not guarantee that nuclear weapons will not be used in the future, and history shows us that taboos are often broken.
Recent evidence suggests that the nuclear taboo may not be as robust as many assume.
The unfortunate reality is that the nuclear taboo is falling apart.
What explains the current taboo on topics regarding the coronavirus?
Similarly taboo was questioning the notion that everyone who died with COVID-19 died because of it, even when the dying and the deceased were not tested for the virus and the methodology of ascertaining causes of death seemed too often reinvented or changed weekly.
More Taboo Questions
In 2018, Jing Daily listed ten taboo topics brands should avoid for risk-proof communications in China’s cyberspace.
The Tiananmen crackdown is not officially commemorated in mainland China, where the topic is taboo and any discussion heavily censored.
The event remains a taboo topic of discussion in mainland China and will not be officially commemorated by the ruling Communist Party or government.
And canines are used in jewelry, allowing the wearer to show they have the money and influence to obtain something so rare and taboo.
So we looked into understanding consumers and we found out what is really holding women back, and it’s all the taboos linked to periods, menstruation and the vagina.
Do you know where the origin of the word «taboo» comes from? It actually comes from the Polynesian word «tapua» – and that means menstruation.
So it shows how deeply linked our category is with taboos.
And because it’s deeply linked with taboos it’s very much rooted in values.
And that makes it very interesting because our job goes beyond just selling products – we can really impact girls’ and womens’ lives by helping to remove those taboos that hold them back.
We had a very clear brief of what we wanted to get out of it. » And we had very clear boundaries. » And these boundaries were that we could not lose what our brand stands for today. » Our blue rhomboid was remembered by every second or third person even though it had been around for centuries. » And we’ve been associated as a brand that is pink. » So we knew we shouldn’t lose our blue rhomboids and we knew we couldn’t lose pink. » And we knew that in some parts of the world, we already were associated with being a bit taboo–breaking. » And those were the three elements that I said we must not ever touch, but everything else was open. »
Bao is from Kang County — a rural region in China’s northwestern Gansu province, where talk about sex remains firmly taboo. »
«We should learn from an early age that these things shouldn’t be taboo, nor unspeakable,» says Jiang. »
Certainly, a key factor in preventing further use of nuclear weapons has been credible deterrent strategies and the maintenance of survivable nuclear deterrent capabilities. » But a degree of luck, too, has contributed to establishing a norm of non-use of nuclear weapons. » It also helps that the major powers have all been rational actors—mutual self-interest in avoiding mutual self-annihilation has been a powerful motivation against using nuclear weapons. » That’s generated a taboo against use of nuclear weapons, which, as Nina Tannenwald argued, ‘has stigmatised nuclear weapons as unacceptable—«weapons of mass destruction»’. »
In considering the prospect of a more dangerous and contested future, the key questions are whether our luck will hold, whether deterrence will continue to work or remain relevant, and whether that taboo is real enough to enable us to avoid nuclear-weapon use in the future. »
But what about the nuclear taboo? It’s impossible to really know whether the likes of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, or military decision-makers in Pakistan, see nuclear weapons as non-usable in a crisis. » The issue of Russia’s integration of non-nuclear and non-strategic nuclear weapons and the debate over ‘escalate to de-escalate’ in Russian nuclear doctrine have generated uncertainty over whether Russia would use nuclear weapons pre-emptively in a local crisis. » China maintains a ‘no first use’ posture, but concerns are growing that it could seek to race to nuclear parity, which could see that commitment erode. »
The US, UK and French nuclear arsenals remain configured for traditional deterrence roles, but the US arms control community has raised concerns that new W76-2 low-yield warheads for the US Trident D-5 missile and a nuclear-armed submarine-launched cruise missile could lower the US nuclear threshold. » New technologies such as hypersonics and advanced autonomous systems add to a more uncertain and complex future for the stability of nuclear deterrence and the efficacy of a nuclear taboo, and it would be a brave assumption to suggest that nuclear weapons will never be used again. »
BANGKOK – The traditional view in China that death should not be openly discussed has meant wills and formal discussions about inheritance have been something of a taboo topic. »
Menstruation taboos can be found all over the world – here are 10 of the most common. »
In 2016, China’s swimming star Fu Yuanhui revealed she was on her period when she competed at the Rio Olympics, breaking a major taboo and sparking nationwide discussion. »
In a system where local officials’ performances are overwhelmingly judged based on the economic well-being of their jurisdiction, the idea of shrinking cities is almost a political taboo. »
Mr Nasr said the most important thing right now about talks on Afghanistan is the breaking of the taboo. » For a long time the US did not want to talk with the Taliban. » This is significant that the US has broken the taboo — now the talks are on the table. » It could happen again. » This is a process, and the first stage is whether both can achieve a ceasefire. »
Mr Nasr said negotiations are not surrender treaties. » The US and the Taliban won’t get what all they want. » The Afghan government is not a factor because it doesn’t bring any power to the table. » The real negotiations are going to happen between the Taliban and what we used to call the Northern Alliance — power brokers of Hazaras, Tajiks and Uzbeks in the north. » They have to come to some kind of a power-sharing deal. » Then there is the question of what happens after the US leaves. » There has to be some kind of military force on the ground to keep these people apart from each other, which probably will be a UN force. » The Taliban won’t see a sizeable US force as a mutual guarantee of the deal. » This story has just begun. » There are some positive signs: the taboo is broken, Pakistan and the US are on the same side, and Iran, Russia and China will also like the US to leave. »
In addition, deep-seated taboos about death prevent many families from discussing hospice care with dying relatives, making it even harder for them to pass away in greater comfort. » In 2015, the most recent edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality of death index — which ranks countries and territories on factors including access to palliative care, affordability of health care, and community engagement with end-of-life services — placed the Chinese mainland at 71 out of 80. »
Social taboos around death and dying also prevent people from engaging with hospice care, says Wu. » She estimates that she sees around 130 patients pass away in her care every year, but few people in the wider community come to Chengjiaqiao in the first place. » When Wu approaches the families of people who have been recommended to seek palliative care, many of them resist admission to Chengjiaqiao. » «In most people’s eyes, hospice care means giving up the ghost. » It means making their relatives wait for death.
Euthanasia is illegal in China and in most of the world. » But in a country where an estimated 255 million people — almost 18 percent of the population — will be at or above 60 by 2020, end-of-life care is a critical, if still largely taboo topic. » Just last week, Gu Jin, the chief physician at Peking University Cancer Hospital and a delegate to China’s «two sessions» legislative meetings, proposed implementing a nationwide «death education» curriculum for students of all ages. » Netizens ran with the idea, suggesting the country «open the door» to euthanasia as well. » While such a change is many years away — if it happens at all — that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start thinking about what it would mean for patients and how best to prepare for it. »
«If the U.S. decides to field space-based interceptors, it will upset the status quo by breaking with the taboo of weaponizing space,» International Institute for Strategic Studies analysts Michael Elleman and Gentoku Toyoma said recently in a policy paper. » «Such moves could provide a rationale for other actors to exploit this domain, creating an arms-race dynamic among major space powers». »
The text of this article was generated by the Breaking The Silence system that collected 36 news articles posted on the web from January 2019 to September 2020 and clustered for the taboo subjects related to China
