[Sorry for the delay! With the New Years going on and all that, I thought it’d be best if I put off Q&A time for a day. If there’s anything that you’ve always wanted to know about China, or any context you feel like you’re missing, go ahead and submit your questions! I’ll do my best to answer them here!
Thank you guys for all your support over the past year or so that I’ve been writing this substack! You’re all awesome people!]
“The most prominent thing you feel when you’re poor is cold. I discovered this at a young age.
When I was little, my body’s never been cold or relaxed all winter. I’m always shrinking in, shaking, no warm clothes to wear. My mom said that you can’t wash down jackets, so I only get grew up with cotton, padded jackets. I’ve never worn down jackets until college. I don’t think we had fleeced pants or shoes when I was little, so there’s nothing to do except stamp my feet when I’m cold. It’s usually so cold in the mornings that I can’t even write in class because of how hard my hands were shaking. The classroom would only warm up because of how many people were crammed in it, plus how there wasn’t any windows. Nobody wanted to go outside. That whole true my entire schooling career. Even in college, when extra-thick thermal underwear and oversized jeans and UGG boots were just getting popular, there was no way I could afford any of it. I was happy enough when I could afford cheap knockoffs.
It’s only when I started working that I found out you could buy fleeced clothing in winter. You don’t have to use a thin cotton throw all four seasons of the year. You can buy extra-thick thermal underwear. The AC at work keeps the whole office warm. But once I get home, I still have to hide in my bed. My hands are ice cold whenever I take them out.
Then I bought my own house, and even in my tight budget, I made sure to set money aside to get the best radiators and AC. That’s when I could finally relax.
My kids only lived in the old house when they were little babies, and I kept a space heater on for them 24/7. Soon, they moved into a house with heating and have never freezed their whole life. They don’t know the embarrassment of needing more clothes when it’s cold out but not having it. They’ve got more clothes than their dad.
Now, we complain about how cold it is, but we take our clothes off as soon as we’re through the door, and the kids can lay on the floor and play with their toys. This is truly happiness for a southerner.”
Comments say, “A Korean drama’s said the same thing, that in the summer, everyone’s wearing T-shirts and jeans, and you can’t tell who’s rich and who’s poor. But it’s obvious in winter, because winter coats are all super expensive, and if you buy a cheap knockoff, it’s super obvious. Class differences are the most obvious in winter.”
“Just remembered a saying, that poor people suffer the cold and the heat.”
“It’s true. I’m working in Japan, and I see all kinds of beautiful Japanese girls maintaining perfect makeup in the dead of summer with no sweat at all, and I’m drenched just walking to school. I hated the summer. And in the winter, whether there’s a typhoon or a blizzard, they’re always coming to the department store to shop. Then I found out that they drive everywhere, so they don’t care about the weather. Really hurt me right in my weak spot.”
“And I’ve discovered that the third stage is: actually, super rich people don’t wear too much either. They all wear summer clothing in the winter, and don’t use thick blankets. Everything’s light and thin every season.”
“Yeah, they’ve got indoor heating, and they only go out a few steps to get into a car, and then a few steps to get out of the car.”
“This isn’t poverty. There’s just not a lot of resources back in those days. It’s just a mark of the times.”
“Just saw the news story of the takeout delivery driver stabbed to death by a security guard in Qingdao. Feeling kinda sad about it.
The delivery driver, Lee, was only 32-years-old, and the disaster happened only 6 days into his job. His short life was a perfect cut out of a lost and confused young man with no real goals and no sense of belonging.
Lee’s parents were both working class, his father working in a restaurant and his mom working as a nanny. In that kind of family, his parents still scrounged up a million RMB to send Lee to Australia to study abroad. His family has to put his younger brother through school too, and they eventually ran out of funds, and Lee had to take a year off of school.
After he returned to China, he wanted to start his own business. Since he liked carpentry, he wanted to hand-make furniture to sell online. And then he wanted to design a furniture-selling app. He taught himself programming for that. Then, tiktok videos took off, and he wanted to make tiktok videos to get more attention to sell furniture with.
But nothing he tried ever succeeded. Soon, he ran out of money to live on, and there was only one choice left to him—become an Uber Eats driver.
And then, the sixth day into his new job, Lee was involved with a conflict with a stubborn security guard, in the strictly managed Qingdao Zhonghai International Development, and was stabbed to death.
He never did manage to get out of his poverty trap. How tragic.”
Comments say, “I’m sure he was already in despair. This was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“Vulnerable groups are supposed to support each other, sigh.”
“I think Lee was honestly a naive and kind person. I saw the video, and he genuinely had no idea the security guard would stab him. He never even tried to dodge.”
“He really managed to make the worst decisions possible—normal working class family, and yet they put themselves in enormous debt for him to study overseas. Probably went to a shitty college in Australia that gave him no advantage in seeking a job. Can’t settle for a normal job because it feels like too little money after how must he spent on schooling, so he tries starting a business. And he chose the most risky and low-reward kind involving DIY arts and crafts.”
Lately, a lot of southerners in China have been flocking to Harbin for snow tourism, and the locals have come up with an affectionate nickname for them, “Southern tater tots”, because southerners in China are shorter than northerners on average.
A blogger writes about this phenomenon, “I mean, it’s one thing to joke and meme about southern tater tots. If the girls involved don’t mind, that is. But the popularity this meme is getting is making me really uncomfortable, like people talking about wanting to keep a southern tater tot for themselves. Or southern tater tots saying, “Thank you, onee-chan.” Like, this has gone beyond just making fun of people for their height. This is just reinforcing stereotypes—that girls have to be small and cutesy and helpless and soft. They have to be quiet and shy and raise protective instincts in people. How is this any different from the “baby bowl” incident? [A briefly popular meme on the internet where girls wouldn’t order their own food at restaurants because they can’t finish it, and instead have their boyfriend make a smaller serving out of his own food.]
In the end, it’s still just celebrating the “fair, thin, and youthful” ideal of beauty and weakening women. It’s the same old traditional Chinese marital view, where women are the best when they’re little kids. The more childish they are, the more loved they are. The more easily they’re controlled, the more popular they are. It’s not just southern girls that feel uncomfortable about this, us northerners get upset too. You’re just insulting women on both sides. Stop it, assholes.”
Comments say, “The most ridiculous comments I’ve seen say that it’s confirmed now, Harbin is definitely a guy. Like, what the fuck. Why can’t Harbin be a snow queen? Some Dongbei bros are so worried they’ll look intimidating to the tourists, that they’re talking to everyone in a baby voice. Stereotypically speaking, Harbin is much more like a Dongbei auntie.”
“And there’s people talking about how Dongbei women can learn from this. Learn your fucking dad. Girls can be however they want to be. Stop putting down some women to raise up others.”
“All the influencers posting videos about this are only talking about southern girls. Why aren’t anyone calling southern guys tater tots? Because they know it’s an insulting name. They’re worried about pissing men off when they call them tater tots.”
“There’s a really remarkable characteristic about Chinese people, and that is our cynicism and mockery towards royalty.
Whenever you mention royalty in China, aside from a couple of related people, most people think they’re ridiculous, laughable, a joke, basically.
You only have to look at how many Fuyi reaction images there are on the internet to see this.
This is a unique situation to China. Other countries aren’t like this.
You mention the Emperor in Japan, and it’s always very solemn and respectful. He’s beloved by everyone.
Same thing in Thailand. Nobody would try to joke around.
And the British royalty are representations of elegance and nobility.
Even in America, everyone is full of respect when you speak of the Pope.
Only China would completely dismantle the meaning of royalty, and turn it into a joke.
Honestly, this is very precious.”
Comments say, “That’s only towards Emperors of past dynasties though. China’s more respectful than anyone when it comes to our current Emperor.”
“China has a famous saying, “The Kings and Dukes and Generals and Chancellors all have no balls.””
“Have you not seen all the memes about Louis the XVI in the west? You still think they respect royalty?”
A tiktok video of the New Year’s celebration in Sichuan, where a countdown plays on a ferris wheel, and at the last second, an ad for a real estate company pops out. Everyone is very upset after waiting outside all night in the rain.
Comments say, “This company’s advertisement department can all be dragged out and shot. They’re just attracting haters.”
“What the fuck kind of black humour is this.”
“People are gonna go throw rotten eggs at this real estate company.”
“Lol, be happy. At least you got to count seven numbers. Over here, the government promised everyone fireworks, and we all stood outside in -17C weather all night and never saw a thing.”
An askreddit question, “Why are there less and less labourers in China, but more and more involution?”
The top reply says, “Because there are too many people enjoying life on your behalf. I work at a nationally-funded company that manufactures cars. Just two years ago, we had 6 shifts of workers on the floor, making cars. Now, we’ve only got 2 shifts. But aside from normal retirement, we didn’t cut down on the number of managers at all. Not a single one. On a factory floor with just 100 workers, we’ve got 6 supervisors, plus a bunch of people sitting in the office. Most people in our factory don’t earn money through their labour.”
Comments say, “What, people in an office isn’t earning money through labour? Sales, marketing, logistics, all of that doesn’t count as labour? Honestly, with robots as advanced as they are, a lot of things could be made using them. If it wasn’t for our employment rate, most car manufacturers would rather get rid of everyone on the floor. Robot arms are expensive, but you only have to pay for it once.”
“Every temple’s the same. No one’s reading the scriptures, but everyone’s sharing the communion.”
“Remember the 1.5-2.5 million TSA agents in subway stations all around the country.”
“Holy shit, this is some 4D chess here.
Lately, a video’s been posted, where people claim that a Xian ad company moved their offices to the Qinling Mountains, to try to force their workers to quit instead of having to pay them compensation for laying them off. Due to extensive commute times and no corresponding raises, a dozen workers quit their jobs.
And then they found out that the company’s moved back to the CBD again. And the company manager told reporters that the company only moved headquarters due to financial needs, and had informed their workers that this is only a temporary move. That they didn’t think people would quit over this either.
But the workers who quit told reporters that although they were told the move to the mountains would be temporary, they were also warned the move might last as long as a year. So everyone’s very angry that the company moved back as soon as they were gone.”
Comments say, “Seems reasonable. It’s their own fault for quitting.”
“Same thing’s going on with my company. Our head office closed, so everyone has to go to the branch office, and on average, commutes are getting longer by 2 hours. A lot of people quit over this.”
“Any company that can afford to move around like that on such short notice probably wasn’t doing great to begin with.”
“Oh my god ahhhhhhhh.
I’m, like, super serious about my work, right? Whether I’m on vacation or sick leave or weekends or whatever, if there’s actual shit coming up at work, I always solve the problem right away. Even when I came down with covid last year, and I could hardly even stand up, I still went to the office and backed up my computer before going to the hospital to get a note. I’ve worked from home with a 39C fever before. I did this for three years, and only got a 500 RMB raise.
Last time, I asked for a 1500 RMB raise, and my boss refused. Like, he said this is all my job anyways.
And now it’s coming to the end of the year. And I feel like I haven’t done anything with my life. I’ve got no boyfriend, no house, no car, no money. I’m seriously broken up over this. And I was just like, crying to myself, depressed, in my blanket nest, and I came upon this, like, funny tiktok video compilations. And there was a video in there of like, “accidentally sent a “I love you” text to my boss and now he does whatever I ask.”
And something just got to me. So I was like, fuck it. Who cares. And at my end-of-year meeting, I just went all out and pretended like the only reason I was willing to stay on for three years for such little money is because I have a crush on my boss (because scamming him is a lot better than slaving away for him eternally, right????) And the next day, he told me he’s gonna agree to my raise. And he wouldn’t look me in the eye. Oh god. What have I done. Am I so ugly that he can’t accept my confession, and is just agreeing to my demands so I’d leave him alone? Or does he actually believe what I said? Fuuuuck, I’ve fucked up so bad. Should I just quit? I have to sit opposite of him every day oh god I can’t do this ahhhhhhhhhh.”
Comments say, “Nooooo, don’t quit! You’ve basically got tenure now! Every time he assigns work to you, and you don’t want to do it, just give him the ol’ puppy dog eyes!”
“Your boss going home that night: I never knew I was so hot.”
“I want a raise too, but I’m too scared to try this, because my boss totally will cheat on his wife.”
What does the average Chinese person think about North Korea?
Somewhat niche: I knew for a while that China had a single time zone, but only just thought about what that would mean for western China. How does that work?