First, I've heard about "Social Credit System" being developed and gradually introduced. Does it have noticeable effect on daily life of average Chinese citizen, or it does not affect a daily life for the majority of people? - by EgorDuda
Honestly, it’s not something anyone thinks about unless they’re a civil servant, because it’s not something that’s enforced across the entire country. Every city has its own system, every city has its own rules, every city has its own rewards and punishments. And the rules on exactly what does and doesn’t qualify for taking away or adding points is always changing, since it’s not actually written into law, it’s always just local policy. So even the cops themselves often don’t know what they’re supposed to do. So, the “social credit system” honestly might as well not exist, as far as my family and friends are concerned.
Just about the only scenario where it’s actually going to affect you—that is, you get enough points taken away that you actually get strict restrictions put on you—is if you owe a shitton of money. So the “social credit system” honestly might as well be equivalent to the normal credit system.
You get points taken away for “impolite but not illegal behaviour”, like, I dunno, eating garlic on the subway. Or, like, not sorting your trash properly (in cities that demand that). But who on earth actually calls the cops because someone threw a paper bag into the plastics bin? So people do it anyways, because 99 times out of 100, nothing is going to happen. You gain extra points for doing charity work, like donating blood, but who would risk getting way too much blood drawn, getting AIDS, and getting endlessly harassed with phone calls to go donate more blood just for a couple of points, when all you get when you collect hundreds of points is, like, a slight discount on your subway fare card?
And if you don’t live in a handful of major cities, then you don’t deal with the social credit system at all.
And second, it'd be interesting to know, which foreign languages Chinese students learn, besides English. And how widespread learning those other foreign languages is? - by EgorDuda
In terms of primary and secondary school, it’s pretty much just English. Although it is theoretically possible to study Russian or Japanese instead and take those subjects for your college entrance exam, almost no parents are actually aware of this, and almost nobody actually does it (even though it’s kind of a hack, because the Russian and Japanese exams are much easier than English).
For the most part, people only bother to pick up a third language (outside of English) by the time they get to college, usually with the motivation of studying abroad or just straight up emigrating. Japanese is the most popular choice, second to English, because it’s just easier to pick up once you know Chinese. Korean comes right after—I hear it’s also easier to pick up once you know Chinese, I have no idea if this is true though. And then French and Spanish. Oh. I also forgot Cantonese. If you count Cantonese as a separate language from Mandarin, that’s obviously the most popular foreign language.
As for how many people pick up a third language (or fourth, if you count regional dialects as a separate language), I can’t find the exact statistics on it, but my gut says it’s not that many. People are already exhausted trying to pass their English exams, and anything else is not nearly as useful.
Some questions about Chinese historical dramas:
Why are there always all these refugees around? Were there a lot of refugees historically? - by OmgPuppies
Semi regularly. with ever changeover of Dynasties. You don’t see refugees as much when everything’s going well, but then again, not very many people writes dramas set in periods when everything’s going well. In order for the protagonist to shine, there’s gotta be someone, somewhere, fucking up majorly, so the protagonist can step in and be like, “Nah, this is how you do things.”
How come you always see New World crops in these dramas, long before the Columbian Exchange? At first I thought it was just a mistake, but it happens so frequently that it seems like it must be a conscious decision, and sometimes it seems like they're deliberately going out of their way to draw attention to these crops. - by OmgPuppies
A part of it is because a lot of times, writers don’t bother to actually do research and just copy the same worldbuilding as someone else used, so once one popular author makes a mistake, everyone starts making the same mistake. And a part of it is that a period drama with entirely period accurate cuisine would be too depressing for people to watch, and Chinese people are way too obsessed with food.
I cannot tell you how many time travel stories I’ve had to give up on, because the protagonist inevitably tries to start a restaurant in order to make some quick money, using modern recipes to wow ancient people. Like, “Oh, I know, I’ll invent hotpot!” Like, bitch, do you realise half the spices that go into a hotpot soup base is worth more than their weight in gold?
“Oh, these silly peasant fishermen—they don’t even know you can salt fish and sell it inland to people who can’t get access to fish!” Do you have any idea how hard it is to come by halfway decent salt?
“Fruit doesn’t keep well? Why not make it into jam?” Because the amount of sugar that goes into jam is probably enough to buy you a seat as the county governor?
But no, it is just a mistake. It just keep coming up because nobody particularly wants to correct the mistake. Sort of like how nobody goes into how gross wiping your butt used to be before we invented toilet paper.
Why is everyone always falling off cliffs? - by OmgPuppies
Because it’s a way to genuinely threaten the protagonists with death while a) looking pretty, b) not being too gory for the TV censors, c) giving them a quantum indeterministic amount of time to have as many flashbacks as is necessary, and d) is plausibly survivable every time.
In some of the dramas, there's things about various harem members getting larger or smaller amounts of money and competing for the higher allowances/rewards. But what can she possibly spend the money on? She can't leave the harem, men aren't allowed in, and I can't imagine there were a lot of female merchants back then. How can she possibly buy anything? - by OmgPuppies
Ah, okay, so I really should’ve covered this in my concubine essay. But first of all, your money can be useful because you can send it to your family outside. This isn’t as much of a concern if you’re already from a noble family, but consorts from noble families don’t tend to care as much about their pay. This is useful for consorts from poorer families, or who used to be palace maids to begin with.
Secondly, although you technically get room and board with your job as a consort, it’s not like you get to have whatever you want. There’s a set menu every day, there’s a set amount of fabric in set colours you get every year, there’s a set allotment of makeup. If you want anything extra, you have to pay for it yourself. And the set menu is literally the same every day, 365 days a year, for the rest of your life. So if you want anything off menu, or you want extra fabrics or specific colours/patterns, or jewellery, you need money. The amount of ice in the summer and coal in the winter is set in stone too, so if the weather is particularly bad and you need extra heating, you pay for that out of your own pocket too. (While men aren’t allowed in, eunuchs certainly are, and you tell them you want two extra bolts of fabric in pink or something, and give them the money, and they put it on the imperial shopping list.)
Thirdly, tipping culture is very much a thing in Dynastic China. You have to tip your servants if you want them to keep doing a good job. Now, if you’re the matron of a household, then this isn’t as much of a concern, because you own their contracts and you can literally sell them if you’re displeased with how hard they’re working. When you’re a consort in the imperial palace, you can’t dictate who you want to use and who you want to fire necessarily. And a lot of times, the servants have much a surprising amount of power over you, depending on your rank and your amount of favour. If you piss them off, you’ll find yourself getting the frayed/moth-eaten fabric, or the shady, kinda rotten food, or the substandard coal that smokes a lot. So it’s always a good idea to grease the right palms.
And lastly, you’re not necessarily stuck a consort for the rest of your life. If you have a prince, then when the current Emperor dies and your son is a grown ass adult with his own manor and all, typical custom is that you get to move out and go live with your son. So you want money as your own retirement savings too.
What I've been really curious about lately is the current state of the humanities (namely literature) in Chinese universities. What do they study and teach? What's the environment like in that sector of academia for students and instructors? I wasn't a humanities student in college. Here in the states, the general attitude among people is that it's frivolous and impractical, so I can't imagine what the perception of that field is like in China. Especially seeing so many posts about people just struggling to survive there - by Hank
Okay, I don’t have a whole lot to say on this topic, because I honestly don’t know much about it. I don’t actually know anyone who majored in literature, nor what courses are like. Based on webnovels featuring protagonists that major in literature, I’m pretty sure a it involves a LOT of memorisation. Which seems about right. It’s what reading comprehension is like in primary and secondary school—just a lot of rote memorisation.
All I can really talk about is societal opinion, and people very much think it’s frivolous and impractical there too, but they’re not going to get too judgey about it, because at least studying Chinese literature means you’re patriotic and love Chinese culture, probably. They’re not going to put down China’s own literature.
As far as job prospects go, honestly, your best bet is to become a CCP member while you’re a college student and immediately take the civil servant exam as soon as you graduate. And even then, your odds are great, since everybody is trying that route. At least majors like “Politics” and “History” and “Dynastic Chinese Literature” isn’t as useless, because that’s something the CCP is often looking for when hiring new civil servants.
But yeah, the general opinion is still that, “The only people who should major in literature are trust fund brats who don’t have to worry about putting food on the table and is just going to college for fun.”
So 90s. I remember when we talked about the internet being exactly this. "If you want to know what's happening on the other side of the world, you'll be able to go online and ask a stout yeoman of that parish what's going on outside their window. They'll tell you with grace and humility..." It was a crazy dream, and yet it lives on!
The whole social credit thing turned into a real nothingburger. I've never heard anyone talk about it.
Wait, why is it so hard to come by salt if you live by the sea? Can't you just boil some seawater?