According to CCTV news on the night of the 8th, Lanzhou University has published its list of accepted students for their Master’s Degree program in their core science and technology school for 2024. The top scorer for the postgrad entrance exam was eliminated for torturing cats.
Hu Xijin [well known Chinese pundit] makes another post sincerely hoping that the cat torturing student name Xu has learned his lesson and will change his behaviour and re-examine his values. Not only does he have to work hard himself, his family and friend need to help him with his mental health too. His life has just started. Hu Xijin hopes that after we’ve shut someone out of postgrad studies, as a society, we can open up another path for him, and treat this like a sickness and him like a patient and give him hope. Hu Xijin hopes that he can end up on the right path through life through his hard work, and become more friendly towards his environment, and disarm people’s distrust towards him. He hopes that Xu will be able to blend into society and find a job through his abilities to build a life for himself.”
Comments say, “He can get his mental illness fixed before he continues his studies then.”
“That’s too costly. Shouldn’t we give resources to kinder, nicer people?”
“Then shouldn’t Hu give him a job? We can leave university for people who have better morals.”
“As someone who has a son, I can tell you why some MILs take care of grandkids and some don’t, even if all circumstances are the same. My fans with sons can come in and see if I’m right.
The first case is that she doesn’t approve of her DIL’s family genetics and feels like this grandson isn’t worth taking care of. For example, if my son got a useless wife, or comes from a sexist family with five daughters and a son, I would never approve. But there’s freedom of marriage now, I can’t force him, but I can control myself. This is the wife you wanted, this is the kid you had with her, you guys go take care of them yourself. You can think of it as a way to express my attitude. I can’t forbid it, but I can avoid all the work.
The second case is that they don’t acknowledge their DIL has any value other than having and taking care of kids. I can show a counter example here. If my son was lucky enough to get a doctor wife (I know that’s very high hopes), even if she only makes 10K a month, I would do everything I can to help her maintain her career, because this is super valuable. It’s much more valuable to my family than a high salary. But if this wife hasn’t accomplished anything other than giving birth and doing housework, then why would I tire myself out taking care of the grandkid? I take on the work of taking care of a baby to free up my son and my DIL’s time to do more valuable work in society (and value doesn’t have to refer to money). If they can’t create value anyways, then they might as well take care of their own kid. If I’m well off, I can subsidise their efforts a little. If I’m not well off, there’s not much I can do.
The third case is that I know for a fact my DIL’s mom will come over and help out. I can push all the work onto someone else and just play and chill myself. Maybe take the kid out to some fast food, watch some cartoons, ride some fun rides. It’s not that much work, and I’ll leave a great impression of, “Paternal grandma is so cool! My maternal grandma doesn’t let me do anything!”
The fourth case is that I get along so badly with my DIL that we’re literally at each other’s throats. We can’t stand each other. If this doesn’t also fall into the first case, then she can do whatever she wants. Not like she’ll let me help even if I wanted to, right? But in this case, both sides probably aren’t particularly decent people.
So in conclusion, any normal in-laws who can’t scheming against their DIL and approve of her and recognise her value and get along with her would find some way to help her with childcare, so that she has energy and time to put into something more valuable. That’s how you make a family’s cake bigger. [An idiom that’s a solution to “wanting your cake and eating it too”—making a cake bigger means to create value rather than involuting to compete for the rest of the cake.]
A lot of MILs are limited by their health or their wealth so that they can’t take care of the kid, and have to rely on the DIL’s parents or a nanny, but they’d still find some way to make their feelings known—like helping pay for the nanny. Even if it’s not much, at least it’s an expression of their attitude.
And the people who have determined at the beginning that they won’t help their DIL with a child no matter what definitely fill one of the above conditions.”
Comments say, “Do these conditions still apply to whether the DIL’s own parents take care of the baby instead of her in-laws?”
“You don’t have to give a lot, but giving nothing at all is so low class. My mom gets 3500 RMB for her social security. She doesn’t take care of the kid, so she gives maternal grandma 2500 RMB a month. Everyone gets along great. Even though the maternal grandma doesn’t lack money at all, but if you don’t give anything, then it’s just so… [eye-rolling emoji].”
“It’s true, but this is super unfair to the maternal grandmas. MILs can fuck off if they don’t like their DILs, but even if the maternal grandma hates her son-in-law and his family, she can’t very well stand by and watch her daughter struggle on her own. She’s gotta help. I’ve seen a lot of this kind of cases around me…it sucks.”
Under the hashtag #Opinions about the marriage section of the civil code, a blogger writes, “If you want to marry a Chinese girl, you need a house, about 200K in bride price, and you have to turn over your salary, and you have to do housework, and you have to emotionally support her. You need to pay up at least a million, and still deal with a 43.5% divorce rate. How confident do you have to be to believe that she’s not going to divorce you? She just need to be married to you for a year, and she can take half your house and all of your bride price. Now, you don’t even need to get married—just living together long enough is enough for her to get money out of you.
If you marry a foreign girl (assume South East Asia), your rural self-built house is a mansion in their eyes. You can look up what kind of environment they’re used to. Making 5K a year is twice as much as elites in Vietnam. You give her 50K in bride price, and her whole family will be overjoyed. Based on unsourced statistics online, Vietnam’s divorce rate is probably around 7%. What do you think is more likely, 7% or 43.5%? As for work, based on my personal cherry-picked sample, it’s not a big deal. After all, a lot of women from Hunan just stay home and play mahjong all day anyways, since housework is so tiresome [doge].
As for Vietnamese brides running away, it’s not that expensive to start over again. With a million, you can try things out with 20 girls. Even if the price rises to 100K or 200K, you know what’s better for you, right? 20 girls or 1 girl? Of course, it has to be consensual (we don’t deal in human trafficking)
More importantly, aren’t feminazis all single and childfree anyways? What’s this got to do with any of them? Curious, isn’t it?”
This blogger attaches screenshots of the newest edits to the Civil Code’s marriage and family section. The main passages basically say that if a couple isn’t married but has been living together for a long time, then they are each entitled to their own earnings, bonuses, intellectual property, or other assets that they earned during that relationship. And any assets that were jointly bought can be split according to how much each party paid, how much each party contributed to the household, and whether it was an at-fault split up, to be decided in arbitration. If one party took on more of the responsibilities of the household during the relationship, such as taking care of children, taking care of elders, and helping the other party with their work at no pay, then the court can determine reimbursement for that labour based on time and energy spent and how much it impacted each party’s career.
If parents pay for a house for one party of the couple during the marriage, even if it’s paid off in full, if a divorce happens, then the other party has the right to a portion of the house based on pregnancies, household contributions, and whether it’s an at-fault divorce, etc.
If during a divorce settlement, the agreement is for one party to have full custody and for the other party to pay no child support, and some times later, due to external circumstances, the first party finds themselves unable to cover reasonable costs like living expenses, education, or healthcare of the kids, they have to right to come back to the table to negotiate for child support.
Adult children cannot sue their parents for child support back pay.
If after a divorce, one party of the marriage cannot maintain basic standard of living due to financial difficulties, the party who is better off has some obligation to help.
If one party cannot find a place to live after divorce, then the court may demand the other party allow them to stay in their house for a certain time, give them some amount of money towards rent, or other practical solutions.
Comments say, “When I went back to my hometown for Qing Ming [Chinese Memorial Day], I asked around Xiong’an, where I’m from, and bride prices are 1.2 million around there. Even divorced women with kids want that much money.”
“What the hell bullshit is this? Can you stop misdirecting people? Who tells you that if you marry someone, they get half your house? If you paid off your house in full before getting married, that’s your own personal property, not joint married property. Of course, if you “gift” your spouse your house by putting their name on it after marriage, it becomes joint property, and obviously you split it in a divorce. Even if you don’t gift it to your wife, and just gift it to a stranger, it becomes joint property too.”
“I don’t even know how to get a south east Asian girlfriend. If I think about it, marrying out is pretty hard. Who has a good tactic? I’ll be very grateful!”
“How do you live 2 months on 200 RMB?
My family gave me three months’ worth of living expensive this semester, but I ended up spending 2000+ on photos, and bought a qipao for another 2000 RMB, plus some other stuff. Now I only have 200 RMB left.
(Ahhhh I know I shouldn’t have spent all that money, but I just couldn’t stop myself at the time T_T)
I’ve bought some rice and eggs to make some simple meals for myself, but I’m really worried about my health.
I’ve thought about getting a part time job, but there’s like a labour oversupply in school. I don’t know what to do. I’m hoping for some advice from everyone! Thank you!”
Comments say, “Buy a jacket that goes along with your qipao with that remaining 200 RMB.”
“This is why some parents give their kids living expenses one week at a time.”
“I don’t know what to say. I’m making my own money and I wouldn’t dare to spend it like this.”
“A repost from a netizen: Living in a rundown shithole in western Second Circle [Beijing is built on concentric rings). I found this when I came down the stairs this morning. What can do I when I run into an old person like this?”
There’s a picture of a notice posted on the wall, reading, “Nobody park in my parking spot. I’m an old resident here. I’m pretty elderly. I’m keeping the spot open for my kid. If you don’t like it, you can report me. I’m old anyways, nobody can deal with me. Stop gossiping behind my back. I don’t care if you call the police or the fire department or the community centre or city management or whatever hotline you want. If you want to post this to the internet, feel free to. I got to the parking spot first, so it’s mine. Nobody can move my car. Stop talking about how I’m affecting the environment in the development and bringing housing prices down. I’m not selling my house anyways. What do I care if our development looks shabby and our units look cheap?
Go ahead and report me. If you dare to, you can even report the Western City Government for not doing anything. I’m not scared of anyone!”
Comments say, “Crowd fund this grandpa some locks. Put a new one on his car every day.”
“If you can’t handle the old man, go after the young one. Take him hostage.”
“1. This grandpa’s tone is a bit excessive. 2. Why don’t you think about why this problem would occur? Are there not enough parking spots in the development? 3. Maybe not all the residents of the development get a parking spot because a lot of outsiders are parking in your spots. I’m not trying to whitewash the old man. I just think that ripping this notice off or calling the police won’t solve this problem. He said you can report the government for not doing enough. Shouldn’t they be the ones to figure out the problem of not enough parking?”
Another blogger writes about a student being rejected by Lanzhou University for torturing cats. “Lately, a piece of news about a cat-torturing student has grabbed everyone’s attention. This student was exposed for repeatedly torturing cats before his exam, and drew a lot of ire from society. Although he got remarkable grades, Lanzhou University still decided to not extend him an offer after much evaluating. This has drawn a new round of discussion.
This case has gotten a lot of people thinking about our moral bottom line again. While we’re pursuing knowledge, we can’t ignore building and shaping values either. Knowledge and morality go hand in hand. A truely excellent person shouldn’t just be successful in their field of study, but also have integrity when it comes to their morals.
Lanzhou University’s actions have defended society’s moral code, and it communicated a clear message to us: education isn’t just about passing on knowledge, it’s also about building morals. We don’t tolerate any kind of abusive behaviour, whether towards people or animals. This sort of coldness towards life doesn’t just go against basic humanity, it also harms society’s progress and civilisation too.
At the same time, this case reminds us that everyone needs to shoulder on the responsibility of maintaining societal morals. We can’t just focus on our own wants and desires, we need to pay attention to whether our actions fit moral standards. Only when every single one of us can stick by our moral bottom line that we can build a harmonious, civilised society.
For this student, I hope this rejection was a heavy blow and an important lesson. I hope he can reflect on his actions and re-learn the importance of morality and become a person with good values. At the same time, we need to pay attention to similar cases and use our actions to maintain society’s moral bottom line.”
Comments say, “His teachers and classmates are worried about their own lives too. Who would dare to sleep in the same dorm as him?”
“Another post in the “Cats are more important than men” series.”
“I think he’ll only hate whoever discovered he tortured cats. He would never change himself.”
A compilation of Chinese analysis of this Illit Magnetic music video and whether it’s gross:
“What is the meaning of these white stockings? [At 1:24]
“What are the two joint flowers on the left side doing? The unicorn’s horn’s fallen to the ground—is this symbolism for lost virginity? I’m so grossed out by these two flowers.” [at 1:29]
“Is this an invitation? This makes me super creeped out.” [at 2:47]
“Look at the one-sided mirror! This looks like some sort of creep shot in their changing room. Like, the way the camera cuts makes it look like they caught someone creeping on them and hid from the closet to the bathroom.” [at 1:27]
“This is the worst MV I’ve seen from Korea yet. The very second shot is a split second image of white bed sheets and a red scarf. Tell me what that symbolises. Anyone who’s ever filmed anything knows there’s a position called “art director”. Nothing in an MV just appears there by itself. Why is this scar not blue or black, but red? Why isn’t it hanging up, or on a desk, or around someone’s neck? Why is it on the bed? These five chicks aren’t so popular that people are gonna spread tabloid rumours around them en masse. Everyone’s focused on this because of the MV and the song itself. Nobody cares who these five girls are. Even if you switched out the girls here for five underage boys, people would be just as mad.
Some people think we’re reading too much into this. So keep the constant bed squeaking noise throughout this MV in mind and look at any of the screenshots and the visual language that production company’s put right in front of you.”
“The whole theme of the MV is “finding the unicorn.” In the west, unicorns symbolise virginity. At first, the jigsaw puzzle is completely except for the unicorn’s horn. Then, they receive the “unicorn’s invitation”. And they change into more mature outfits and open the door with a sound of chains jangling. They could’ve used normal balloons, but they used plastic bags that look like used condoms. And there’s that uncomfortable camera flashing noise too. And they used Hitchcock focus, giving people a sense of dizziness and lightheadedness watching it.
It’s super obvious. Especially the climax part, where the lyrics are talking about “going straight on” and all of them end up in the corner of the wall, and the bed squeaking noise gets really loud, and everyone makes a crying gesture before punching through the wall. Here, in the background, you can here a breathy female moan, and right after that is the line, “this time I want…” This whole MV is so suggestive!
And then they start rolling all over the carpet and the bedsheets. Like the whole MV, it feels like they’re stuck in a hotel and can’t get out. It’s super stifling and they only get to sleep when the sun is almost up.
This MV is definitely someone’s fetish. It’s not dreamlike at all. Who the hell dreams about being in a hotel? These girls’ director/producer is super gross.”
“It looks like V-shaped underwear or something. This gesture means crying in Korea, right? This is, like, the scariest part.” [at 2:09]
“Why didn’t they use balloons? These plastic bags refer to condoms, right? How are we not supposed to overthink this? [at 1:56]
Comments say, “When I stumbled on their MV and stage, I thought it was weird. They’re acting too childish. They don’t come off like princesses, but like children.”
“I hope their fans don’t try to shut everyone up. You gotta help your idols protect your rights. They’re victims too. The person we should be mad at is the producer.”
“Sigh. They’re still underaged, aren’t they?”
“…43.5% divorce rate” is this fr?