04/06/24 - You know how expensive it is to visit the Forbidden Palace? How does the British Museum keep running if it’s free?
A blogger reposts someone else’s post, “No Chinese person can walk calmly out of the British Museum. This is the robes of a Chinese Emperor from 200 years ago, now on display in Britain. I’m so mad. Which Emperor does this belong to?”
And shows a compilation of comments underneath: “If I went to the British Museum, I’d walk out calmly, because none of this stuff has anything to do with us peasants. It doesn’t matter to me where they’re displayed.”
“It was humiliating, but if these weren’t stolen back then, they might not have ended up much better today.”
“I’ve been. I was pretty calm.”
“We need to thank Britain for preserving them so well, or else they would’ve all been burned.”
“The British Museum is free to enter, so I’m fine. They’re taking good care of these artefacts. Their donation box didn’t have any RMB in it, so I dropped a few in, since it can’t be cheap keeping all these artefacts preserved.”
“You know how expensive it is to visit the Forbidden Palace? How does the British Museum keep running if it’s free?”
“Thank god it’s in the British Museum so we can still admire them today, or else they’d either be in a private collection or destroyed.”
“In my eyes, these are just symbols of feudalism and conservatism. I guess in other people’s eyes, they’re precious art or something.”
“Anyone with the slightest bit of historical knowledge knows that if these weren’t out of the country, they would’ve been all destroyed in the 60s. Almost all the artefacts remaining in China today had to be restored from back then for this reason.”
“Isn’t it a good thing that all of humanity can admire the precious jewels of Chinese civilisation?”
“Emperor Wanli’s body was burned and thrown into a canyon by a random soldier.”
“I’ve never seen such nicely preserved robes in China.”
“Took my kid outside to buy some groceries for next week’s lunch and saw a box of chicken livers. So I asked him, “Do you like livers?” Just as I expected, he asked, “What’s a liver?”
I almost told him, “Livers are the biggest organ in the human body.” I had to force it back and change it to, “Livers are the second biggest organ in the human body.”
So he asked, “What’s the biggest organ?” And I told him it was skin. And I felt really proud of myself for knowing the answer to that. But I didn’t think he’d keep asking, “What’s the smallest organ then?”
I had no idea. I guessed it was probably some lymph node? Or gland? Or something? But I wasn’t sure exactly which one. So I admitted to my kid that I didn’t know and that I’d look it up later. Then I did, and it wasn’t anything I guessed. It was pineal body.
It’s so easy to be stumped by a kid’s questions, because you have no idea what angle he’s gonna come at you from.”
Comments say, “So, the question is, are chicken livers the biggest organ in a chicken’s body?”
“You can tell you’re a PhD. If I was asked what’s a liver, I’d probably say it’s a smooth, mushy thing, tastes good stir fried or marinaded. And it has lots of iron.”
“It’s so rare to see a parent admit that they don’t know something. Whenever my daughter encounters something she doesn’t know, she starts making shit up, and I have to put in twice the effort to correct her.”
“Let’s talk about the biggest news going around Chinese-American circles lately.
The American Federal Government’s split “Asian” in their official papers into more detailed categories of “Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Vietnamese, Filipino, or Other” for the first time since 1997.
Right now, as soon as the news came out, the Chinese-Americans reacted the most strongly. A lot of Japanese and Koreans seem fine with this new development. Honestly, right now, with tensions between China and America as high as it is, nobody knows whether America’s gonna come out with more extreme policies targeting Chinese Americans. Japan and Korea obviously aren’t worried because they’re American allies. A lot of them might even think that they might blend into American society better once they’re more clearly labelled.
The official story for why they’re doing this is that this was proposed during Obama years, and only got executed in Biden’s time. The purpose is to help gather data and support different ethnicities in a more efficient way. To be honest, anyone can tell that this is bullshit. If you can help Asians better by labelling them in more detail, then why didn’t you do that to begin with? Why not more finely divided Europeans or Africans?
There are experts whitewashing this, like dividing Asians up are because there’s a big difference in language and ethnicity and culture between Asian countries, but Eastern and Western and Northern Europe are filled with different ethnicities, languages, and even religions too. Why not specify them? Why not distinguish between English, Irish, and Scottish people?
If they’re lying about why they’re dividing up the Asians, then the true purpose might to be separate out the people they want. Like, to be blunt, maybe this is what Hitler said when he started separating out the Jews too, “All the policies we’re coming out with are beneficial to the Jews! The Jews should support this!””
Comments say, “Well, see you guys in the concentration camps.”
“Why do you care so much about what’s going on in America?”
“Uh, actually. They are going into more specificity for all races.”
After Qing Ming just passed, Tiao Xiu [rearranged holidays? A system where you get days off for public holidays, and then have to work extra weekends to make up for it. For example, for this year’s Qing Ming, people got Thursday and Friday off, but have to work this Sunday and the next Sunday to make up for it. This arrangement is usually a government decision, not company policy.] has been discussed widely again. On the 28th of March, Huazhong Agricultural University has already announced that based on their calendar and curriculum, they’ve decided that students and faculty will have some public holidays off and all weekends off all year, and not have to study extra days to make up for it. A staff member at the Huazhong Agricultural University’s Academic Affairs Office says that everything in the notice was true. Due to where public holidays fall in 2024, people might end up going to work or going to class 6-7 days in a row. The school decided to have all weekends off to avoid this scenario. But some students might still have class on the weekends, and everything is planned for in their curriculum. Studies will progress as normal, and too much holidays won’t be a problem.
Comments say, “This tiao xiu shit fucks up all my rhythm in life. I come back more exhausted despite the break. My biological clock is all off. It’s inhumane. It should be cancelled entirely.”
“Different provinces should get different days off. What’s the point of going out when everyone’s on holiday at the same time and there’s traffic jams and crushing crowds everywhere?”
“They should just give people 3 or 7 days off, whether it contains a weekend or not, and have work time be as normal otherwise.”
A long article about an American couple telling the media about being abandoned in Africa after booking a Norwegian cruise. In order to catch up to the cruise ship, they drove for 48 hours straight through 6 countries to get to the next port the cruise ship would stop at. They and a few other passengers had signed up for a local tourism cruise that lasted 2 days and didn’t not return to the cruise ship in time for departure.
When they made it to the harbour, the cruise ship was still there, but the staff refused to let them board. They tried calling the cruise company, only to be told that they only accept emails, and the emails sent out weren’t responded to on time. So the American couple was stuck with another four Americans and two Australians in Sao Tome and Principe.
Among these 8 passengers abandoned by the cruise ship, they had one disabled person with an amputated limb, one person with a congenital heart defect, an 80-year-old stroke victim, and a pregnant woman. All of their luggage, medicine, and credit cards were back on the cruise ship, And they had to figure out how to get to the next port all on their own.
They accepted media interviews while driving day and night to the next harbour, and explained that the local Africans were exceptionally friendly, giving them directions, showing them to hotels, and even helping them get in contact with the local American embassy to fly the 80-year-old home first.
The cruise ship explained in a media interview that these 8 tourists did not sign up for the cruise ship’s own portside program, but signed up for a local tourist group on their own. That’s how they missed boarding time, and they’re responsible for their own mistakes. The company has reminded them time and time again what time the ship will depart, and the cruise ship even stored all the passenger’s passports at the customs office at the port, so that if someone missed boarding time, they’d still be able to manage on their own. But perhaps due to public pressure, the cruise ship has decided to allow these passengers to come back on board in Senegal and refund all the costs incurred in their attempt to catch up to the ship.”
Comments say, “I think it’s the passenger’s own fault. If everyone acted this way, then the ship wouldn’t be able to operate at all. You can’t just do whatever you want while travelling abroad. It’s childish to expect everyone to bend over backwards for you. Though, for sure, this cruise ship wasn’t particularly friendly either.”
“Wow, they sure are chill. I always have a mental mantra going on reminding myself of important times and dates like this.”
“If they haven’t left harbour yet, they could’ve sent out a raft for these people, so long as they pay for it. One side is ignoring the rules, and the other side is being cold and heartless. They’re both at fault.”
“Everyone’s been talking about the “Asian subcategory policy” and how it’s going to affect Chinese Americans.
Let me just briefly explain what this policy means.
All kinds of forms in America collect data on your race, sort of like how Chinese forms ask about your ethnicity. Before, Asians would tick the box that said “Asian or Pacific Islander”, whether you’re Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Fijian, or Nauru. It’s all the same box. But now they’ve subdivided Asians in a lot of detail, like Japanese, Koreans, and Vietnamese can all tick their own box. If you’re from an even smaller ethnicity, like the Miao people, you can tick “Other” and write in what you are.
A lot of people say this is foreshadowing for a Kristallnacht like in Germany, but I don’t think that’s the case. Or at least, it’s not gonna happen any time soon (though it would suck if I was wrong). The most immediate effect of this policy is probably what Chinese Americans are the most concerned about:
There’s going to be a lot less Chinese Americans getting into good schools, to adjust the population ratio, because right now, a lot more Chinese Americans are getting into good schools proportional to their population. After they’re subdivided out, their quota is going to get slashed and given out to other Asians or other ethnicities.
Chinese Americans are gonna have a harder time getting into big businesses in America for the same reason.
This is all a lot more likely than Kristallnacht, and a lot faster to accomplish. If things go as I think, then it’ll be within the next two years.
I mean, why else would the American government put so much effort into passing this policy and changing all the forms in their institutions and schools? If they’re not planning something, you think they just ate too much or something?”
Comments say, “Then you can just say you’re Other. Nobody knows if you’re an ethnic minority or not anyways. I have lots of friends saying they’re Hui people, but they’re at most only quarter Hui.”
“If you can define yourself to be whatever gender you want, why can’t you identify to be whatever race you want?”
“This is a double-edged sword, depending on how you use it. Maybe we’ll lose out in college admissions, but we can try harder to get represented in government and boards of directors.”
A blogger writes, “I just saw a post doing a PSA about doctors checking baby’s for hand deformities, and the comment section is saying that public hospitals don’t check for missing fingers or toes?? I was like, “How is that possible!? It’s one thing to not check gender, but you gotta check whether the baby’s missing fingers or got extra fingers, right? This comment section really shocked me.”
The blogger attaches screenshots of the comment section: “Ten years ago, hospitals still checked fingers and toes, but now they don’t anymore because they’re worried about young people aborting kids who are deformed. But kids get screwed over too if they don’t check fingers and toes.”
“I don’t think you’d be screwed. I’ve got a lot of classmates with various problems, and everyone’s got a much more modern mindset now. At most, they might get special attention during biology class. But we’re still friends and all.”
“But you’ll have a harder time finding a job, and you’ll get bullied, and it’ll affect your chances at marriage, especially if you’re just from a normal family. If it’s a small deformity, it’s fine, but if you have, like, no fingers at all, you really will get singled out in society.”
“I don’t understand why the government’s always going on about producing high-quality babies then. If we can’t even check their hands and feet and have a bunch of disabled kids, is that really high quality?”
“They really don’t check in public hospitals. I even asked specifically, because I wanted the doctor to show me the fingers and toes and ears, and she was like, “There’s no point.” I was blown away. She explained that it’s one thing if the baby is perfectly cooperative, but if they had to count fingers and toes on every baby, they’d do nothing else all day. They’d only give it special attention if there’s a family history.”
“Yeah, public hospitals don’t count fingers and toes. I only found out my baby has six toes on each feet after she was born. I thought about getting her surgery while she was young, but the doctor said they’d have to transplant skin and cut into her bones and maybe do several rounds of surgery, and it still wouldn’t look perfect. She takes after her dad, so I wasn’t too worried about it at first. Now, I’m just concerned whether her classmates will bully her for it.”
“Personal story, because they wouldn’t count fingers and toes at my ultrasound, I went and got at least 8 more ultrasounds just to confirm this. I even went to several different hospitals. Not a one of them will count them for me. Absolutely refused. If a hand or foot comes into view, they’d even quickly move away. And they all just claim that fingers and toes aren’t a part of the checkup, like they’ll die if they did a count or something.”
I'm guessing most Chinese people don't understand the DEI push in Western culture? Predicting a new holocaust because of a more inclusive census was kind of entertaining.
All those comments about the robes and other treasures in the British Museum are on the money. At least we can still admire them without paying for it, right?