Monday, March 22, 2010

Taiwan: Abysmally Unpopular Ma Ying-jeou -- and Disassembling Bad Analyses Thereof

Check out this recent post from the always-good View From Taiwan. Michael takes a look at an odd piece of recent "analysis" that, in his words:
Sometimes not too bad, sometimes completely wrong, Rigger [the analyst in question] mostly sounds like a colonialist missionary trying to explain to the audience at home, in a fair and open-minded manner, the beliefs of the local heathens, which he understands in terms of his own Christianity. . . Rigger does not appear anywhere to get the complexities of local politics. The whole piece is framed in the best Establishment style by the cross-strait relationship, as if Rigger were simply squinting through a telescope on the banks of the Potomac at Taiwan.
Alas, this is all too frequent a trait of "analysis" about Taiwan.

2 comments:

lumpy said...

Or, anywhere, really. Analysis of Japan is abysmal. I listen to or read lefties analyzing the US and I think they're staring at Mars. Currently, I blame myopic methodologies.

Michael Turton said...

Thanks for the high compliment!