Under the hashtag #why are middle class people so crazy over Sam’s Club’s Poor Fuck Package? A blogger writes, “Real poor fucks would never go to Sam’s Club. The membership fee, plus what you buy in the store adds up to a couple hundred bucks easily. Thousands, even. There’s a reason Sam’s Club is jokingly called “The Thousand Dollar Store”.
Just joking. The real reason is because Sam’s Club just isn’t suitable for Chinese large to medium city families. Why?
The portion sizes are too big. You want bread? Here a dozen. What are you gonna do, eat nothing but bread for days?
The roast chicken is great. 39.8 RMB per chicken. You even have to stand in line for them on the weekends. And sure, the chicken is delicious, but it’s way too big. You have to split it into two meals. There’s no way you can finish it in one sitting. By the time you’re eating the leftovers, you might as well just go to a supermarket and buy a smaller roast chicken.
What’s Sam’s Club suitable for? When a couple has tow kids, and their parents all live nearby. You can drive your SUV over and shop for the whole family. If you’re a young couple with no kids, or just one kid, you just shouldn’t go. If you absolutely have to, at least joint shop with your neighbour or something.”
Comments say, “You can put Swiss rolls into your freezer and just thaw it when you want to eat it, though. You can prevent a lot of waste that way. Same with bread—they taste just as good re-baked. Honestly, Shanghai bakeries just have crazy prices.”
“Got two in our family, and we can’t handle Sam’s Club portion sizes either.”
“It’s so true! If there’s just two of you, you’re better shopping for groceries online from Hema. A portion of veggies is 150g to 400g, just enough for two.”
Lately, an entrepreneur in Guizhou had done a bunch of projects for the government, with payments owed totally hundreds of millions. But the government claims that they’re deep in debt too, and is only willing to pay her 12 million to settle the bill. She was unwilling to accept this offer, so she threatened to sue the government.
The government then went into full force harassing her, including fining her company 124 times, totally several million RMB.
The day before the court hearing was due to start, her and her team of lawyers (a total of 12 people) were arrested for “disturbing the public peace”. Her main attorney had published a video on the internet shortly beforehand, explaining the situation and warning people that he might be disappeared, and this video has since went viral.
Today, another lawyer posts: “December 2023, Guizhou entrepreneur Ma Yijia has named me, Zhou Xiaoyun, as her defense lawyer.
After many twists and turns, I have accepted this request shortly before Chinese New Year, 2024, and have visited her in Guizhou’s jail many times. I have recently returned home, safe and sound.
I will be true to my job and my responsibilities, and do my best to protect her legal rights. Thank you for your support. I won’t say any more.”
Comments say, “The judicial system isn’t independent. Everything works exactly how the local government dictates.”
“She still believes in laws and the government. I kind of want to laugh at her.”
“It’s not weird to hear about something like that happening in Guizhou at all. My dad did a public road project in Kaili, been finished for over a decade now, and never got paid for it. Every year, he goes to seek payment, and every year, they dismiss him with 10-20K and shoo him off. A couple of years ago, he organised a protest at the government, and none of the videos could spread on the internet.”
A news story from Overseas Chinese News, “#Chinese Student in Canada flies in to class because rent is too high. Tim Chen, who goes to the University of British Columbia for art flies into Vancouver twice a week, commuting by plane. Every month, he saves more than 1000 CAD in rent. Each return ticket is roughly 150 CAD, so he spends a total of 1200 CAD per month on plane tickets, which is only half the rent of a one-bedroom in Vancouver.
Chen used to rent in Vancouver for many years, but after taking some time off of school, he was cshocked by how high rent had gotten when he came back. Vancouver is the city with the highest rent in Canada, with only 9% vacancy rate. This makes renting even harder. Chen plans to continue commuting by plane until he graduates. Chen believes that this schedule helps him manage his time better, allowing him to concentrate on studying while on the plane.”
Comments say, “Clarification: he’s only got 2 days with classes per week, not even 8 hours of classes per day, and the airport is super close to the school.”
“The school doesn’t have dorms? Where does he live during the week then?”
“I mean, I’m fine with him flying twice a week, but where does he live while he’s at school?”
“Why not buy an RV?”
Jiangxi has instituted a new policy that couples with bride price under 39K have priority when it comes to their children getting into schools. There’s a lot of debate on the internet over whether this policy is fair, whether it’ll be effective, and so on and so forth. A blogger writes on this topic, “Binding education with bride price has went beyond the realm of fairness or not. This is the worst decision I’ve ever heard of. Do you guys really not know what’s causing marriage and birth rates to drop?”
Comments say, “Even if they institute the policy this year, in 7 years, when these kids are actually going to start school, the government can go back on their word any time. Just wait and see.”
“It has nothing to do with bride price. The lower the bride price, the less people marriage. Do you understand that, experts?”
“All the people making policy and making suggestions don’t live with us mere mortals.”
A blogger posts a very popular conspiracy theory on the Chinese internet lately, “Media reports that many McDonalds in Japan are shutting down due to their meat being contaminated with human tissue and children’s teeth.
A Japanese franchise says that their meat is sourced from America, and over 250,000 children go missing in America every year. They say that this is the easiest way of hiding bodies, to mince it up with a knife.”
The blogger comments, “I feel like my IQ just took a critical hit. Does he have any idea how many kids are born in America every year? What, they were all eaten?”
Comments say, “They don’t understand just how cheap meat is over there. Giving up on cheap, abundant beef to go after high risk, high cost human meat…for what purpose?”
“I know this poster. I posted some opposing opinions in his comment section before, and he immediately started ad hominem attacks, and then blocked me. Back then, he had less than 10K fans. Now, he’s still gaining tons of fans every day by spreading fake news.”
“If he’d said they were eating illegal immigrants, I might have believed it. Does no one consider the sheer cost involved in abducting and transporting and processing children into meat? That’s gotta be at least 10,000 times more expensive than normal meat.”
A blogger asks, “Is this the first person born after 2000 to get executed?” And shows a real case of a lethal injection scheduled for 2nd of March, 2023, for a girl in Jiangsu, Wu Jiayue.
Her boyfriend broke up with her, and after trying to get back together and failing many times, she went over to his house, where his cousin (15-years-old) was hanging out alone. Angry with her boyfriend, and venting it on his cousin, Wu Jiayue started a fight with the cousin and pushed her out of an open window, causing her to fall from the 8th floor and die. After that, Wu Jiayue stole 9500 RMB from the bedside table drawer and fled the scene. The next day, police arrested Wu Jiayue right before she was about to commit suicide.
The victim’s family refused to sign a letter of forgiveness. She was sentenced to first degree murder, plus robbery for 9500 RMB. The case was appealed, and the second judge gave the same ruling.
She has been executed on the scheduled date.
Comments say, “2000’s babies are revolutionising the execution field.”
“Huh? Women murdering people get sentenced to three years + 4 years probation, no? Robbery and stuff can just be ignored. Hey, @Chinese Women’s News, you gonna do anything about this or not?”
“The problem was that she killed the wrong person. If she’d murdered her boyfriend, she would’ve been fine.”
Always a fascinating read!