Word: mainland
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...forgotten pinpoints of land rank with the Rock of Gibraltar and the Maginot Line as among the world's most notable military anachronisms. Yet they are still guarded by an intrepid army of some 100,000 Chinese Nationalists, who are sporadically shelled every other day from the Communist mainland. TIME Correspondent Roy Rowan visited Quemoy and filed the following report...
...distant voice of a woman. Her words are lost. Only the rise and fall of her singsong voice, propelled by a powerful loudspeaker, is faintly audible. But the soldiers manning the pillbox know her message by heart. In the name of Chairman Mao, she is beckoning them to the mainland, just 1 ½ miles away...
...soldiers are not to be seduced. They are doggedly anti-Communist-RECONQUER THE MAINLAND! a sign at the airport proclaims. They maintain defenses that probably will never be used, and when the woman broadcasts from the mainland, they shout back. Neither side listens...
...with perfect precision-running, jumping, stamping and shouting-all the while simulating the loading of the big gun. Most of the troops have little opportunity to fire live ammunition, however. Instead, the Nationalists concentrate on "psy-war." They have a high-powered radio station that reaches deep into the mainland. High-altitude balloons intermittently shower propaganda leaflets on the "enemy," with slogans like "Chiang Kai-shek is concerned about you." The hope is that the leaflets and the broadcasts will inspire mass defections. In fact, the last defector from the mainland to reach Quemoy was a fisherman who swam ashore...
Pidgin English. Nonetheless, this Utopia of equality produces results that are similar to those on the mainland. Honolulu's Kahala Elementary School and Palolo Elementary School, for instance, have similar buildings (concrete blocks, carpeted floors), employ similarly skilled teachers, and use the same curriculum. Yet on uniform tests, the children in Kahala score roughly twice as high as Palolo's students...