Comment Re:Don Quixote, anyone ? (Score 1) 156
Oh, come on, the Qin emperor, bless his tiny meglomaniacal heart managed at least two successful ones. His standardization of the written system and massive book burning were both hugely effective and influential to this day. (One could probably make some kind of argument around the great wall for a third, though casting something which was a massive defense project AND a means of disposing of malcontents as cultural engineering would at least take effort.)
The recent standardization of the spoken language is young enough that the jury is still out, but it switch to mandarin has been pretty startlingly large even just in my lifetime, and it's huge even in the overseas communities. I've watched Seattle's Chinatown go from being primarily Taihanese and Cantonese to mandarin overwhelmingly dominating. Which is handy for me - I speak mandarin - but... weird.* Especially with the influx of new people and new money. And a lot of the families that have been in the area for generations and speak Cantonese at home are choosing to send their kids to school to learn Mandarin because they see it as advantageous for business. And, of course, you have the recent reworking of the written system, which is also huge, and incredible influential. (And a pain in the ass when you essentially have to learn them both, but I digress.)
Or... what about the end of foot binding? Because, seriously, it's gone.
Puns, though... yeah, I just can't see that happening. Far too much a part of the languaguage and culture. Far too commonly used in protest - and frequently anonymous protest. I'm remembering the little bottles in '78, when people were calling for Deng XiaoPing to return... (XiaoPing is a homophone for "little bottle.")
* Much of this is me being grumpy. There are places I've been going since I was five that aren't there any more. And the new places don't make pineapple custard buns as well. I have a pretty long list of new places I'm entirely in favor of.