Lawyer Zan Fanqing is representing the murder victim in the Handan case, determined to bring about justice for this child. He reassures the internet of his determination with quoted passages from Chinese poems.
“This is the result of Fudan opening up its cafeterias [to people who aren’t students there]. It’s crowded as fuck at 1:15 PM!
I’ve been waiting for hours for my food! So, what, outsiders get to enjoy our cafeterias while actual students have to eat off campus? I even stumbled on a post yesterday saying someone shat on our lawn. God, I wish the world would fucking explode. We’re actually studying and living at school. And we can’t get any food by 1PM! And there’s nowhere to sit! I hear Shangdong University students are dealing with the same shit. Sympathetic hug.”
Comments say, “But school cafeterias have subsidies to make it extra cheap. If you’re not even going to school, why do you get to enjoy the subsidies too?”
“All out of staters in Shanghai should be deported. We should build a 10 metre concrete wall around Shanghai, and anyone who tries to come in gets shot. Only white people get to come in. This is what true Shanghai people actually think.”
“I knew that’s how it would end up—utter chaos. Why would we try to imitate that open campus shit? I don’t know what genius came up with that idea. There’s gonna be different results in different countries. This is far from the end of it.”
“Seeking advice. My sister tried to commit suicide by jumping off a building and got saved by someone. How much should I pay them? What should I do for them? Anyone know anything about this?
Now, the guy is saying that he’s having problems with his back. He’s going on and on, and I’m feeling kinda awkward, but it’s not like I’m not gonna pay him. But wanting to pay him feels a bit different from him coming over and explicitly asking me for money, you get me? Now I don’t know how much I should give him. Any ideas?
He basically stood by and tried to talk my sister down, and then reached out and grabbed her. Afterwards, my sister told me that she didn’t actually want to die. She was just pretending.”
Comments say, “Wow, with family like you, no wonder your sister wanted to commit suicide.”
“My suggestion is to have her try it again when there’s no people around.”
“Next time, don’t pretend, and don’t fuck up other people.”
“I don’t know why, but everything feels so trashy and hick. I remodelled myself in the standard modern, minimalistic style, but I just can’t stand to look at the final result. I don’t even know what to change. I can’t put anything in the living room without it standing out like a sore thumb, so I’ve just cleared everything away. Any bros have any advice?”
Comments say, “It looks like a demo unit, but as someone with OCD, this makes me happy. It looks super clean and neat and easy to maintain.”
“I love this colour scheme. I don’t think it’s trashy at all.”
“If you really hate it, you could gift it to me.”
Under the hashtag #why can’t I turn my life around even after getting into a great university, a blogger writes, “The biggest different between Chinese and American education is that
If you have a direct relative who graduated from Yale, like if any of your grandparents or your parents went to an Ivy League school, you can definitely get into an Ivy League yourself. You just need to study and mind your own business. You don’t have to push yourself to the brink to involute. Keep in mind, going to Ivy Leagues doesn’t mean you’re super rich. Most students are from middle class families.
Once you graduate from an Ivy League, you can have a middle management or higher job on Wall Street or Silicon Valley or other Fortune 500 companies, guaranteeing that you and your family can maintain a middle class lifestyle. You don’t have to fight just to keep what you have.
But you can’t do that in China.
Forget three generations. Even if both of your parents graduated from Qinghua, that’s no guarantee you can get into Qinghua.
Even if you went to Qinghua, that’s no guarantee you can actually stay in Beijing and buy a house there, nor does it guarantee you can support a family on your income, or maintain your middle class status.
This difference exists between Chinese and Japanese/Korean education too.
The best universities in Japan and Korea tend to have an acceptance rate of around 2%. But the best universities in China, 985 Universities, have an acceptance rate of less than 1%. If you calculate the 50% graduation rate of the high school entrance exam, it’s just 0.5%. If you’re talking about Qinghua, equivalent to Korea’s Seoul University, has an acceptance rate of 0.05% to 0.1%. In all three countries, there’s not a lot of legacies. If your parents went to Qinghua, you might not get in yourself. If your parents went to Seoul University, you might not get in yourself. But the acceptance rate is doubled in Japan or Korea.
So whenever Japan and Korea film TV shows or documentaries about how hard people work to pass the college entrance exam, how bad the involution and competition is, Chinese people just think it’s hilarious, like it’s a bunch of people playing pretend. It’s a bunch of ridiculous drama over nothing. Anyone who takes these shows serious and thinks Japan and Korea are a hell of involution and feel like they’re so much better off are just plain idiots. But to some extent, living inside a dream if a form of bliss, so let’s not disturb them.
Graduating from a top university in Japan or Korea can ensure your family a middle class or above lifestyle, but Chinese 985 Universities cannot guarantee that. This isn’t even a matter of education anymore, but economics. There’s too few highly-skilled, highly-paid jobs in high end industries. They can’t satisfy the amount of demand for jobs. We still need to work hard.”
Comments say, “If there’s nothing in the pot, no matter how hard you work, there’s gonna be nothing in your bowl.”
“So poor people have no chance of going to Ivies in America at all?”
“I can add another stab—it’s not just that we don’t have enough high-paying jobs, but our consumer habits are involuted as hell too. In other words, it’s easy to fall in the trap of “not making enough money” and yet “shops the most in the whole world”. It’s not that bad if you make very little money so you spend very little money, but right now, we don’t make enough money but we still have to spend a ton of it. It’s like pain on top of pain.”
“Germany’s really starting the four-day work week schedule.
My boss called a meeting today and asked everyone’s opinion, and the current proposal is, from Monday to Thursday, we work from 7AM to 5PM, with a 45 minute lunch break, starting next week. We’re gonna try out this new schedule for 6 months. I never thought I’d ever work a 4-day work week in my life!”
Comments say, “Wow, some people really live like this? It’s like you’re in a parallel world.”
“But they start work at 7AM. For me personally, I think I’d prefer to work from 8:30AM to 5:30PM and just get two days off a week.”
“In my next lifetime…(sob)…I will never be…(clutches mouth)”
“My husband wants a paternity test. How do I tell him off with dignity?
Like he said, we both have straight hair, and the baby’s hair is a little bit curly. And since he’s been born, my husband’s been going on and on about why our baby has monolids, or high hair line, or a flat nose. He’s always complaining about how our baby’s ugly. Now, he brought up doing a paternity test. I’m forcing down my rage. Of course, I know I’m not guilty. So how do I tell him off?”
Comments say, “It’s just ego + thinks the baby’s ugly. Parents’ love is still conditional. When they get a smart or pretty baby, they all say it’s thanks to their genetics. If they get an ugly baby, they always think it must be someone else’s genes.”
“Get a divorce and a paternity test. If the baby’s his, you get all the money. If the baby’s not, he gets all the money.”
“Even if he thought something was up, normal people would assume they must’ve got the wrong baby at the hospital, right? Why does he suspect you first? I wouldn’t put up with that shit if it was me.”
A compilation of hilarious exchanges on Xian Yu [Chinese craiglist]:
A pair of air pods being sold for 630 RMB:
“Hey, so….If I become your boyfriend, will you give these to me for free?”
“What’s the lowest you’ll sell for, sister?”
“Sweetie, it’s already the cheapest I can go. I don’t accept haggling.”
“I’m also a student.”
“I charge students 50 RMB extra. I never got to haggle as a student, so I feel cheated.”
An iPad being sold for 620RMB:
“120.”
“I’ll give it to you for 2 RMB”
“122 RMB??”
“Call me daddy and I’ll give it to you for two bucks.”
“Daddy.”
“I don’t let my son play with iPads.”
A hoodie being sold for 888 RMB:
“If you’ll sell it for 688 RMB, I’ll buy it right away.”
“Go to bed.”
“I’m a student. [location data at University of Science and Technology of China]. No, seriously, are the letters USCC not worth 300 bucks? If they’re not, what if I add on IT?”
Some kind of ornament being sold for 5500 RMB:
“Can you go cheaper?”
“How much cheaper?”
“I’m taking my civil servant exam right now. I could help you out in the future.”
“I don’t care what exam you’re taking. Just tell me a number.”
“If you give this to me before I pass my exam, it won’t count as bribery.”
“Russia under Putin’s leadership is facing a crisis. A music club in the outskirts of Moscow shows that even in Russia’s central region, police forces are very weak and stretched thin, with a lot of gaps. The video shows that at least 4 people were involved, and they didn’t meet with any resistance at all. They sprayed into the crowd as much as they liked, taking their time, and only one person has been arrested, and all the rest are still at large. That is so say, terrorist forces have the ability and opportunity to keep acting within Russia. And it’s unknown just how many of these vicious armed forces exist inside Russia. #Russia has entered a state of war
Although the “Islamic State” has claimed responsibility for this attack, and the American consulate in Russia has posted a warning about an attack on Moscow, and Ukraine has expressed that they have nothing to do with this, nonetheless, the reality of the situation is that the terrorists who have been laying in wait in Russia and the Ukrainian army on the battlefield and their supporters in the west have formed some kind of agreement to gang up on Russia, even if you have no evidence of any of that.
The fires of war has spread to the centre of Russia in this bizarre way, and this attach is going to encourage everyone else who is aggressively attacking Russia. And Russia finds itself caught with a war on two fronts—having to both maintain their superiority on the battlefield, and protect and strengthen their logistics at home. That’s going to become increasingly challenging.
Lately, Putin and other Russian leaders have been using the word “war” in some occasions, to replace the term “special military action” that they’ve been using before. The Kremlin has already issued a statement to the tune of “We’re in a state of war” yesterday. Although Russia hasn’t made a nation-wide mobilisation, if they can’t get a speedy victory on the Ukraine front, then war is going to leak into more and more areas of Russia.
This terroristic attack is like a stab into Putin’s regime. Let’s wait and see how Putin is going to get his revenge and comfort his people.”
Comments say, “Any attack aimed at civilians is inhumane!” [spamed over and over again]
A compilation of various paper offerings you can burn for your ancestors, including a coffee machine, hotpot + barbecue stove, a 7/11, bras, an ATM, fashion handbags, king crab, a safe, a gas station, and game console + controllers.
Comments say, “Game consoles and barbecue are things that young people like, meaning whoever buys this had a friend or family pass away young. Before, I might’ve thought it was fun, but I just went to a young man’s funeral today, and whenever I see these, I just wonder if someone else is grieving out there just like me. I don’t know how to put my feelings into words. I don’t mean to imply that older people can’t like these or that it’s less sad when old people die or whatever…”
“When I saw the last game consoles, it made me want to cry. The people buying these love their deceased loved ones and want them to keep experiencing life…”
“So why do you look up products like these?”
“Also, this little paper kitten. A Daoist says that his pay is really low, so he fold paper offerings as a side gig, and some people ask him whether it’s a pain in the ass to make the bamboo skeleton inside the cat. It’s all getting burned anyways, seems like a lot of trouble to go to. If he made the skeleton lighter, it would be cheaper to produce. And he said that building a stronger skeleton will make for a healthier kitten.”
“TIL you can’t wear your school uniform to the college entrance exam.
Zhejiang student here, just stumbled onto a post asking what to wear to OP’s college entrance exam, and I left a comment suggesting their school uniform, and I got a whole bunch of replies saying you can’t wear that to your exam!
This is my first time hearing it, now I’m curious. What other states don’t let you wear your school uniform?”
Comments say, “Oh, you can’t wear it. Definitely don’t wear your school uniform. When I went to my exam, the girl at my neighbouring table asked me which high school I was from. I guess I had a stroke or something, and told her First High School [Chinese high schools are numbered, and usually, the smaller the number, the better the school, like a ranking]. And the neighbouring girl burst into tears and fell on her knees and begged me to let her copy off of me.”
“I always thought you took the exam at your own school. Is that not the case?”
“Nah, we mix everyone up in my hometown. You have no idea where you’ll end up, and nobody wears their uniform.”
“Most elite high schools remind people to not wear their school uniform.”
“Yeah, it’s cause they’re worried about other students harassing you.”
“I hate. The girl who bullied me in primary school, do you still remember me? Do you remember pressing a red-hot spoon into my arm, burning a big, bright blister onto me?
After you were done burning me, your friend was worried I might tell the teacher. And you laughed and said that your dad was the principle. If I dared tell a teacher, you’ll have your dad expel me. At the time, I was terrified. I apologised over and over to you—I don’t even remember why you would do this to me. I just remember that you gave the spoon back to me and forced me to eat with it. My grandma made my lunch that day, and I love her cooking, but all I tasted that day was my skin and tears.
The scar from the burn you gave me is still on my arm, although it’s faded a lot now. But I still don’t dare to wear short sleeves in the summer. I don’t want to explain to people where I got it from.
I’m 24 now. I’ve become a teacher. I’ve finally found the courage to wear short sleeves in the summer. But I ran into you again, and your dad turned out to be my boss. When you walked by me, I happened to be eating lunch. As soon as I saw you, I couldn’t help my nausea. I knew my spoon was clean, but I could still feel lit burning up. I could still taste skin and flesh. Why can you just walk by like nothing happened? Why would you forget?
Perhaps you noticed my gaze. You turned and smiled at me. How scary. I managed a smile back, but I can’t ignore my scar now. It’s pulsing on me. Even though it was cool, I could feel my arm getting hotter.
Your dad smiled and called you, “little brat”, and asked if you knew me. You told him you don’t remember. I haven’t forgotten. How dare you forget? What am I to you? After so many years, I thought I’d gotten stronger, but how can you turn me into the same little girl crying in the corner with a burnt arm with a casual sentence?”
Comments say, “I just want to ask the comment section, do you really think it’s easy for a normal, random teacher to switch schools? OP made this submission because she feels powerless and helpless in real life. Not everyone can just abandon their job on a whim and spend time and energy transferring to a different school.”
“If your first reaction after all those years was to flip out and vent all your rage, then the moment you were done venting, you would’ve gotten closure and been able to move on. But you chose to smile at her instead. Now you’ll never escape for the rest of your life. Even when you’re in your 70s or 80s, lying on your deathbed, you’ll still be the little bullied girl forced to eat with a burning spoon. She didn’t just bully you in primary school. She’s bullied you for the rest of your life.”
“All the commenters saying it’s not that easy to quit her job, OP obviously has strong PTSD from her bullying. Plus, her direct boss is her bully’s dad. Can she really continue to do her job and live her life? To use a bad example, a lot of medical student commit suicide precisely because they can’t abandon the sunk cost of what it took to get through their degree and go through training (not that it’s their fault), and in the end, they’ll have sunk their life in too.”
No the Nation of Islam has certainly not claimed any responsibility in the terrorist attack in Russia. The Islamic State did. No relationship whatsoever. The Nation of Islam is a peaceful US religious organization without any connection to terrorism. The Islamic State on the other hand is an extremist terrorist organization based in the Middle-East.