07/26/23 - You can pay 3.99 RMB for someone to help you cool down in this summer heat by sending you very cold jokes.
[Alright, so, I’ve got big news today—weibo has it’s own translate button now! If you expand posts, you’ll see that right at the bottom is a button that says “Translate Content”. The same goes for the comment section too. So uh, I guess I’ve been made redundant? I’m not sure if there’s a purpose to this substack anymore. What do you guys think? Do I actually offer a convenience over getting a weibo account yourselves? Let me know. I’ll obviously finish off my Chinese history series either way, and I might still occasionally write essays. But is the daily weibo content no longer useful?]
“Let me tell you about my situations—I don’t really know what to do about this. I just had a daughter. I don’t currently have a job. My in-laws want me to take care of the baby full-time, but they’re not willing to pay me. And my mom is the one helping me with the baby. Every month, they just give me 3600 RMB for formula.
I’ll explain my in-laws family a little. They own a daycare business, and has a mansion in the Minhang section of Shanghai, and a 130 square metre unit. They’re pretty well off. They promised that if I had a baby, they’re reward me 500K, but they haven’t given me anything. Right now, it’s my mom and me. My dad sometimes come over to help too. My husband works at the daycare his family owns. He gets just under 10K a month in salary that he gives me.
We’re young people, so we spend a lot. My in-laws want me to keep having babies, but they won’t give us any money. I can’t go out and find work, my baby’s only 8 months. Yesterday, my in-laws told my dad at dinner that they’re not going to leave anything to girls. They would only give their inheritance to a boy. I think they’re just trying to pressure me into having a boy.
I feel like, if they’re willing to put money on the table, I’d happily have another baby. It’s not like his family can’t afford it anyways. But they’re demanding this from us like bandits right now. I’m very upset, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to adjust my mindset. Could I get some replies and advice?”
Comments say, “Hasn’t she realised she’s just a birthing machine? If she has another kid and it’s also a girl, she’d only be worse off T_T”
“If you really need money, make them give you the 500K they owe you for your first baby first. Either way, this family is full of red flags.”
“She’s probably not from Shanghai locally. She probably married in to Shanghai. Her husband’s probably not from Shanghai either, because Shanghai people all want girls, not boys.”
A blogger shows off a Taobao Store named “Houyi Reborn”, where you can pay 3.99 RMB for someone to help you cool down in this summer heat by sending you very cold jokes, like bad puns. He gives a compilation of bad puns. The comment section is delighted.
“Maybe it’s just me, but does it feel like people have been really mean on Chinese Instagram lately? I just saw a girl ask that she’d bought a pearl necklace while on vacation in Japan, and had to pay taxes when she came back to China, what she should do about it. And down in the comment section, everyone is yelling at her, like, there are pearls everywhere in the world, why would you buy from Japan? I was totally shocked. I never imagined people would get mad about something like this?
There was a female restaurant owner posting pictures of her restaurant, saying, “Finally done remodelling. Now, we need to prepare for opening!” And the very first comment is, “God, it’s so ugly. You’re gonna go bankrupt soon.” Really, have these people never been beaten in real life?
I feel like Chinese Instagram used to be full of people praising each other and cheering each other on. The vibes were so healthy, that I feel like I was in some rich people daycare. Why has it gotten so crazy lately?”
Comments say, “I was thinking just yesterday that it’s too full of negative energy, and I was thinking about uninstalling it. But it’s so good for doing research when you want to plan a vacation.”
“Yup, I posted some picture of me after plastic surgery, and someone commented, “There’s nothing you can do to save this face.” I deleted it and blocked him. There’s all kinds of people there now, seriously.”
“I saw a really pretty 50-year-old lady post her picture asking if she’s got shojo-vibes. She literally got hundreds of comments ridiculing her for wanting to look like shojo at her age. Some were even posting their own pictures or their mom’s pictures, to show off what shojo look like.”
“I’ve been following a blogger who’s working as a chef in Japan, writing about what it’s like to work in Japan.
He’s 45-years-old this year, comes from Dongbei, took out a loan of 100K RMB to go work in Japan through an agency. He’s been working as a chef for 12 years in Japan. When he first went over, he worked 13 hours a day, and made 12K RMB per month. At the time, chefs made about 4K a month in China.
Right now, he works at a small restaurant, 11 hours a day, 4 days off per month, and makes about 16K per month. The owner provides housing, and his work including cooking food, washing ingredients, chopping ingredients, preparing ingredients, cleaning the kitchen, delivering ingredients, basically every job related to the kitchen. It’s very exhausting work.
The blogger says that every restaurant has its own rules and its own culture in Japan. Some places are exhausting but have great benefits, some places are super chill but don’t pay a lot. When you average it out, they’re more or less the same. Overseas chefs can run into a lot of limitations working in Japan, like it might be really hard switching jobs. So you end up putting up with a lot and demanding very little.
The blogger often advises people in his comment section who want to work in Japan that it used to be a great deal, but now there’s no point. You can’t make a whole lot more money, and you have to be away from home and not feel any sense of belonging. You’re better off just working hard in China. If he did the same job in China, in major cities, he’d be making over 10K a month too, but things are a whole lot cheaper in China. So quality of life is totally different.
Have people noticed? Working overseas is also something you have to do early. Once you’ve missed out, there’s no point in doing it anymore.”
Comments say, “I follow this guy too, and even now, he’s better off working in Japan than China. Aside from super fancy restaurants in major cities, only the head chef makes that much. Other chefs don’t get nearly this amount. And working in Japan just involves doing your own job, but in China, you’ve got learn how to build connections.”
“I follow him too. Only the food he eats himself isn’t made with science and hard work.” [an internet meme term for food additives]
“The same amount of work at a McDonalds in Beijing will only earn you 4K a month today too.”
Under an askreddit question, “How do you deal with loved ones committing suicide?” Someone replied, “An old cop once told me, if you find someone about to commit suicide while patrolling, don’t get any bright ideas about calling their family. Especially not before you’ve established communication with the person attempting suicide. You shouldn’t even mention their family. Because he’s tried it when he was young. While trying to talk someone down, he said, “Think about your family.” And then the guy unhesitatingly jumped.”
Comments say, “Mention his pets. If you’re gone, your cat would have to be a stray!”
“If students get depression, we have to notify parents, but parents are the exact reason they’re depressed. It’s suffocating.”
“Ask them if they’ve deleted their search history, if they’ve wiped their hard drive XD”
A mommy in Henan shows off her twins, where so long as one of them is crying, she has to rock both of them. It’s just that she only ever pats in one place. You can see the confusion on the twin brother’s face, like, “Mommy, he’s the one crying. Why are you patting me?”
A 48-year-old man killed his fiancee in her sleep because of Bride Price. This is a case published through the Chinese Court website, which reveals that the 48-year-old Wu met his fiancee in 2019. They quickly began dating. In 2021, December 9th, during a phone call, they got into a heated argument over the issue of bride price. His fiancee claimed that she no longer wanted to marry him. Wu believed that she had “tricked” him. Noon of the 10th, he bought a dagger and came over to her house with it at night. Around midnight, seeing that she was asleep, he climbed through the window into her room, and stabbed her multiple times in the chest, causing death. After the victim’s son called the police, Wu attempted suicide and stabbed himself in the chest and stomach, then climbed over the wall to escape. Two hours later, Wu was arrested by law enforcement. Gansu court believes that Wu should be charged with premeditated murder. Although Wu admitted to his crimes, it has nonetheless caused severe consequences, and he has no ability to pay back the family members of the victims for their loss. Considering the full case, they suggest sentencing Wu to death.
Comments say, “No wonder he was still single at 48. He’s so extreme.”
“China needs to update its marriage laws and include clauses about bride price.”
“I don’t understand why men kill people at the drop of a hat.”
“I was eating out today. There was just a curtain separating me and the next table over, so I heard a woman and two men heatedly arguing about something over there.
Girl: “If you’re wrong, you’re wrong! You never admit to your mistakes and you just keep changing the topic!!”
Man: “…No, but you’re also ridiculous for saying shit like, “You’re a man, so you’re supposed to blah blah blah.”
Girl: “I’m saying that you’re wrong! If you’re wrong, you should admit it!”
Man: “[Changing the topic]”
Man’s friend: “Woah, woah, woah, hold on, you’re both making good points, but maybe I should leave first?”
Man: “Stop sitting on the fence. Nobody who sits on the fence ever ends up well.”
Girl: “What do you mean, sitting on the fence?”
Man: “I’m talking about him. People who sit on the fence never end up well. You know about Xu You?”
Man’s Friend: “He got killed by Cao Cao.”
Man: “Let me tell the story!”
And then I listened as these two guys told the entire story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to this girl. ???”
Comments say, “Why is your life filled with such adventure.”
“I feel like a lot of men have ADHD. It’s, like, some sort of plague.”
“Nobody who fights in public ever ends up well either XD”
You still select posts and translate in “your voice” and I think that’s valuable. Also, you give us notes and place to comment
I definitely think the context you provide is extremely useful, even apart from the flaws of machine translation. I mean, if I wanted to just read a machine translation of weibo posts, I could already just copy and paste them into Google Translate.