| Samuel Huntington has argued that Sinic or Chinese civilization is characterized by political authoritarianism, subordination to authority, hierarchy and conformity. |
| Sinic culture seeped deeply into society, but it shaped the aristocracy and mandarinal families more than it did the peasantry, which preserved distinctive customs, beliefs, vocabulary, lifeways, and gender relations. |
| If Taiwan became the Sinic world's gastronomic museum, freewheeling Hong Kong became its test kitchen. |
