A blogger shows someone else’s advice-seeking post, which reads, “They won’t let my daughter raise the flag at school.
She’s in kindergarten, and is a really excellent girl in my eyes. She’s completed maths up to third grade, she’s the youngest member of her Olympic Maths group. I haven’t tested her vocabulary, but she can read all her picture books without asking us what words mean. She’s on Level F of the ABC Reading English picture books. She’s the youngest and fastest member of her Rubik’s Cube club too. A lot of parents ask me how long it takes her to finish her kindergarten homework, and they’re shocked when I reply about 15 minutes, because it takes fighting and screaming at their kid for 2 hours.
But when it’s her class’s turn to raise the flag at the kindergarten, she doesn’t get to walk the flag up, or to give a speech. She’s not even in the marching formation. I’ve never given her teacher any kind of gifts. Am I just delusional when I think she’s exceptional?”
The blogger asks, “Are we really starting in kindergarten nowadays?”
Comments say, “Looking at what she posted, she’s already got an awesome child. Would she really get this anxious over such small stuff? I think she might just be humblebragging.”
“Are kindergartens so involuted these days? In my memories, all we ever did in kindergarten was dance and play games.”
“They pick who raises the flag based on height, facial features, and coordination (marching in time to music).”
A blogger posts two different videos, and says, “Oh my god, how different the world is. I don’t know why, but watching these two videos back to back makes me want to cry. Australia cares so much about women and children’s health and safety! If the whole world was like them, would domestic violence happen a lot less?”
The first video was by a lady in Australia, who says, “This morning, two police cars drove up. Before I even had time to react, the police kicked down the door and came in. It was five super buff male policeman, and a police woman. They saw my daughter first, and told her really sweetly, “Are you April? Don’t be scared, we’re here to protect you.” My daughter was just excited to see that many policeman at our house.
They asked me where my husband was and told me to not be scared, that if I didn’t speak English, they’d get me a translator, and that family services is on their way. And then they rushed up the stairs to arrest my husband. After they grabbed my husband, he was just as confused as I was.
Then they split us up and started questioning us separately, asking me how we get along, whether he’s ever abused me, whether he’s ever verbally abused me in front of our child. I was like, “No, we’re great.” And the police explained that they received a report that April said at school, “Daddy is a meanie. He hits mommy and me with a gun all the time.” And I was like, “Ohhhh, I know what’s going on.”
This is what my husband and I do for a hobby at home—we have nerf gun fights. And I showed the police our nerf guns in our bedroom. And all the policeman checked out our nerf guns inside and out and finally accepted that it was all a misunderstanding. But they still sternly lectured us that we can’t put our daughter in a stressful and scary environment at home. For the whole next week, my husband and I have to report in every day and accept training. Now I’m just regretting why we’re so childish.”
The second video was interviews with women in prison in China, who were sentenced for killing their husband due to domestic violence. The video starts with them listing their sentences, which range from 12 years to death with a reprieve [basically, it’s a death sentence, but you get to sit in prison for X number of years first.] All of them strongly demanded that their faces don’t be censored for the interview. When asked why, they say, “This is a warning to society, and maybe a chance for forgiveness from society for people like us. We’re good people. We’re not evil, really. We’re not bad people. We’re really not bad people.”
The reporter asks how many of them turned themselves in to the police right after their crime, and all of them raised their hand.
The uploader goes into each of their cases. The first is An Ruihua, 43-years-old, stabbed her husband 27 times. One of her eyes is blind. It happened a few years before the murder, when her husband hit her with a beer bottle and it shattered on her face and the glass shards flew into her eye. She didn’t fight back at the time. She’s been beaten for 20 years, and she put up with it for 20 years, until finally, her husband got drunk and got physical with her one last time. After years of repression, she exploded. She can’t even remember how she stabbed him 27 times. The policeman involved says, “It was so cruel.”
She says, “I just felt like I went crazy in that moment. No matter how hard I try to remember, I can’t.” In her case file, it shows that over 700 local villager joined in a petition to ask the judge to sentence her lightly. Her children wrote letters asking for forgiveness. And even the victim’s mom defended her actions.
The MIL says in the interview, “I don’t hate her at all. My DIL is a really good person. She’s nice to me. She was pushed to this point. It was that bad. Every time he drinks, he gets a knife, and it’s like this all night. He’s riled up all night.“
The reporter asks the victim’s daughter, “How do you think he treats your mom after getting drunk?” And the daughter replies, “Extremely cruelly.”
Turns out, he wasn’t just beating his wife. He would beat his whole family after drinking. It was relatively normal to get beaten into the hospital. An Ruihua’s daughter tells the reporter that she might have lost her dad, but at least she doesn’t have nightmares every day anymore. At least no one hurts her anymore.
The second case is Dou Xiaohua, 31 years old, killed her husband with a blow to the head with a stick. To this day, she refuses to believe that the man who hurt her is actually dead. The reporter askswhy, and she says, “He wouldn’t die. He hasn’t killed me yet—he wouldn’t die.” She confirms that after 8 years, she’s still living in the trauma of her husband.
When Dou Xiaohua was 15 years old, because of the poverty her family lived in, they decided to marry her off to a man 11 years older than her. “I’m gonna get married to him? I couldn’t imagine it, getting engaged and getting married when I’m so young.
The reporter asks her what her impression was of her husband at the time, and she said, “The first time I saw him, I was terrified.” She says that her husband had a very vicious look. He was glaring at her the moment he met her.
Dou Xiaohua was a social, happy-go-lucky girl, and after marriage, her husband forbid her from talking to anybody, whether male or female, not even her own family. “He was always worried that other people would talk me into leaving him.”
Every time her husband was in a bad mood, he’d whip her with his beat or beat her with his shoe. She was covered in scars, wearing long sleeves and long pants even in summer to hide them. After a few years of domestic violence, her husband began to resent her for not being 15 years old anymore. He passed Dou Xiaohua a knife and told her to kill herself. “He said, “Don’t worry about why. You’re too old now, so you have to go die.” And I remember thinking to myself, “Do I have to die because I grew up?””
When Dou Xiaohua refused to commit suicide, her husband decided to kill her one night. Dou Xiaohua sensed this, “I could tell, because he kept looking at his watch, like he was waiting for a certain time. I remember this clearly. It was 4:50AM, the sun was just coming up, and he was like, “It’s almost five. So. Are you gonna do it yourself, or do I have to do it?” And he stared at me with these bloodshot eyes.”
She tried running away, but her husband marched her back their house with a knife to her back. “I asked him if he’d be satisfied if I died. He said, “Your sister, your parents, your kid, I’ll blow them up too.”” And I remember thinking to myself, “You’re not satisfied with just my life? I put up with you for 8 years. Is that not enough?”
So while her husband was distracted, Dou Xiaohua picked up a stick from the ground and hit him over his head. After that, Dou Xiaohua quickly threw her clothes on and picked up her child and went back to her parent’s house. But her husband never woke up again. “I even said at the time, “Why are you bleeding?” And I wiped it up for him. And then I looked at the watched, and it was really 5 o’clock. And I was like, “Huh, it really is time. It’s five. Well, you take a nap. I’m going to the courthouse and getting a divorce.” And I picked up the baby and left.”
The reporter asks if she ever fought back all these years, and she says no, this was her first time fight back, and it was her last time.
The third case is Yanjing, 36-years-old, shot her husband to death. Her husband was the bodyguard of a coal mine owner. After Yan Jing got pregnant, her husband threatened that she had to have a son, because he’ll strangle the baby right away if it’s a girl. She said that’s something animals do. But unfortunately, a daughter was born, and her husband was deeply disappointed, and what Yan Jing feared the most happened.
“He walked towards the baby, and I was trying to pull him back. And he hit me and pushed me aside, and I saw him reach around the baby’s neck.” Yan Jing picked up the black market AK that her husband had bought and aimed it at his head. After a loud bang, her husband fell to the floor.
The reporter asks, “What was your sentence?” And Yan Jing replies, “Life.”
“Was it worth it?”
“I would be willing to even die for my baby.”
“But you lost your freedom.”
“How can I equivocate my freedom and my baby’s life?”
The reporter asks the women whether they imagined there were so many people like them in this world before they came into prison, and they all reply no.
Due to the time limit on videos, the uploader can only cover the rest of the cases in a second video.
Comments say, “Even her MIL is speaking up for her. You can tell how much torture she must’ve went through.”
“Death with reprieve is a bit much, isn’t it? This should be self defense, because their lives are in danger. At most, it’s manslaughter, right?”
“Do I have to die because I grew up? T_T T_T T_T”
“Why the hell isn’t domestic violence a criminal offense!?”
“How the hell could that police man at the start call An Ruihua cruel when she’s the victim here?”
“When someone beats you because they’re drunk, they’re still lucid. They’re just using alcohol as the excuse.”
“They never got any salvation after years of being beaten, but they’re cruel for fighting back finally? Don’t these men deserve to die?”
A blogger shows a compilation of posts by Beijing students:
“11th grade in Beijing, my school’s adding on study sessions until 8:30PM. How do I go on?
I’m in a prestigious high school in Beijing, and it’s kind of stressful. All my classmates are involuting like crazy. Study sessions at night is nice for kids with no discipline like me, and I’m happy my school is giving me this opportunity to finish more work at school. But study sessions run from 6PM to 8:30PM, with only a 10 minute break in between. I have to sit at my desk the whole time and can’t talk to anyone (including asking the teacher any questions or discussing questions with classmates). After I’m done with work at school, do I have to keep studying at home too? How do I maintain my efficiency?”
“I feel like Beijing is the worst province after Henan. Where else do students have to get up by 6:50AM? The sun isn’t even up yet!”
“I wish I was a student in Hebei or Shandong. At least there’s a general atmosphere of involution here. It’s less than a month until the college entrance exam here, and everyone’s laying flat. I can’t even work up the energy to study.”
“I’m so glad I was born in Beijing and don’t need to take the college entrance exam. In 12th grade, the busiest year, I can still skip class to go to the beach, rent myself an ocean view room, and enjoy the breeze. My sister’s preparing for her exam, working 5AM to 10PM every day. I miss her, and I feel bad for all the students in the Shan and He states [Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan]. Hope all of you get excellent marks!”
Comments say, “I hate you. I’m already in my postgrad program, but I still hate all of you.”
“Is getting up at 6:50AM really bad? Everywhere else, you’d already be sitting in class by 6:50 AM.”
“People hate Beijing people for a reason.”
On a lot of your posts you use the word “involuted”. I can’t tell from context what exactly this means. Marian-Webster suggests “the act of entangling or becoming complicated” or “a shrinking or return to a former size”
Could you maybe add the weibo link the last post? 🙏