04/24/23 - It's pretty fucking rude of you to ask for peaches and grapes.
“If your mother-in-law said she liked your gold jewellery, would you give it to her? I’ve been in love with Chow Tai Fook’s triangular gold earrings since last year. But with the price of gold so high, I never could afford it. Even second hand, I couldn’t find a price that worked for me. I went to the store several times, and just a couple of days ago, I traded in some old gold for a new pair of earrings.
When I went to dinner last night, my MIL said my earrings were pretty. I told her I like them a lot too, that I’d waited a long time to afford them, that I traded in my old earrings for them. Original price was 1786 RMB. She repeated how she liked my earrings, and I told her that she can buy some herself.
Today, she suddenly pulled me aside and told me again how pretty my earrings were, and I started to get a bad feeling. Then she said, “How about you give this pair to me and you go buy a new pair?” I told her that I’d already worn these, it’s a little inappropriate to give them to her, right? And that the end of the conversation.
I told my sister about this, and she said that, “If she’s made it that clear, you should’ve just given them to her. Don’t be so calculating with family.”
My MIL is going on a vacation tomorrow, so I said, “Fine. I’ll give them to her when she gets back.” But my sister said nah, I should take my MIL to buy her a pair after dinner.
I called the sales agent at Chow Tai Fook and they said they were out of stock. I’m really upset. I’ve been saving up for these earrings for two years. Now, I have to buy another pair at an even higher price. What was even the point of all that waiting?”
Comments say, “Your sister is a fucking weirdo.”
A tiktok video of two women having a huge fight on high-speed rail because one of them has a baby who is ceaselessly crying. This has caused a lot of internet controversy, and now the topic #what should you do if you encounter a screaming baby on the train? is trending. In the video, a lady in the front row is screaming at a mother in the back row because she’s trying to sleep, but the baby in the back row is constantly fussing and keeping her up. Some commenters say that people need to keep a handle on their kids in public. Some commenters say that little babies are gonna cry, it’s what they do, we should be more understanding of that.
The comment section under this blog post writes, “It’s just a baby, not like it’s a screaming older kid who’s doing it on purpose.”
Chinese Embassy in France has made an official statement that the statements of Ambassador Lu Shaye is his personal opinion, and not representative of China’s official stance. People shouldn’t over think what he has said. China’s position on this matter has not changed.
When it comes to territorial sovereignty, China’s position has been consistent, clear, and respectful of every nation’s rights, independence, and territory. China is a staunch supporter of UN policies and decisions. After the Soviet Union broke apart, China is first to establish diplomatic relations with former Soviet block nations. China has always maintained respect and equality with former Soviet nations.
As for Ukraine, China’s position has always been consistent, clear, and in line with the international community. China is willing to do what it can to help resolve the crisis in Ukraine.
Comments reply, “Isn’t this just like how the US immediately jumps out to put out fires right after Pelosi is done visiting Taiwan? I see we’ve learned from America how to rile people up, then look all innocent.”
“It’s my first time to my boyfriend’s house. I’m from Chongqing, my boyfriend’s from Kunming. For Golden Week, I went to his hometown to see his parents. His mom asked me what kind of fruit I liked, and I said I liked peaches and grapes. His mom said right away that they don’t have it. Can’t buy it. I was shocked. Does Kunming really not have any peaches or grapes for sale in May? These are not super exotic fruits. They should be readily available, right? If she just didn’t want to buy any fruits, why ask to begin with?”
She posts the text conversation she has with her boyfriend, where she said she liked, “Softer peaches, and grapes you don’t have to peel.” The boyfriend screenshotted that to his mom, who replied, “Don’t have it.” And he screenshotted the reply back to OP.
Comments say, “It’s already pretty fucking rude of you to ask for peaches and grapes to begin with, how dare you specify softer grapes and grapes that don’t need to be peeled? What kind of impression do you think you left with your picky ass requests?”
A childcare blogger writes, “All extracurricular classes between three and ten years old is entirely unnecessary. I can give you a better replacement.
1. Art: Usually 180 RMB per lesson, with a theme every class, and a teacher teaching the kids how to draw a specific picture practically hand by hand so that the whole class produces the same art. Nobody who actually wants their kid to be into art would send them to classes like these. What’s important to art is creativity.
Replacement: 72-colour crayons and a bunch of white paper, and let the kid go wild. What’s important is giving them a good sense of beauty and taste. Get picture books with high quality illustrations, get compilations of artworks in museums.
2. English: Usually 200 RMB per lesson, two lessons a week, and teaches 100 words every semester.
Replacement: Have them watch Peppa Pig with subtitles, plus some picture cards, and talk to them in English in daily life. You can learn 1000 words easily in a semester’s time. If Peppa Pig is too advanced for your kid, there’s shows like Big Muzzy, Maisy, Penelope, or Super Simple Songs too.
3. Beginner’s Maths: 260 RMB a lesson, 40 minutes per lesson, considering the water breaks, distractions, and everything that goes on, each kid will probably maybe do 10 minutes of maths.
Replacement: Keep Numberblocks and Monster Math Squad on all the time. That’ll be enough maths to last your kid through to second grade. Get Mathlink Cubes, the boardgame too.
4. Reading: 8000 RMB for three months, super slow progress. According to a friend in the field, they deliberately slow down progress so they can charge you for more lessons.
Replacement: Read them an age-appropriate picture book every night before bed. Or tell them bed time stories based on their favourite cartoon. Maybe an episode of Alphablocks before bed. Or you can play Khan Academy’s DDM Reading.
5. Legos: 150 RMB per lesson, just a young lady who plays legos with your kids.
Replacement: Buy some legos at home, give him the box with the instruction book, and let him figure it out for himself. I’ll just put on some classical music in the evenings on a weekend, and leave him to play with legos while I work. If he encounters any trouble, he can ask for help and I can try to figure out what went wrong.
Honestly, any decent extracurricular class is just going for a cheerful, happy environment plus daily repetition. You can’t go without either. The first makes the kid willing to go and learn, the second brings results. So long as you understand the logic, you can create the chill environment at home, and keep up the routine at home, and get the exact same results.”
A new mother cries while watching her infant son, saying that, “Tomorrow, you won’t have a daddy anymore. Mommy doesn’t have a job right now, and grandma isn’t willing to help out. Our lives are gonna get hard from now on.” She says that she feels bad her baby will be from a single-parent family like she had growing up, and hopes that her baby won’t be mad at her when he grows up.
Comments say, “Girls need to wait two or three years after they’re married before having kids, so you can find out exactly what kind of person your husband is. A lot of people get pregnancy as soon as they’re married, and then their lives go to shit.”
An early childhood education author writes, “Just saw a complaint from a parent this morning. They said, “I honestly don’t know how to calm down right now, I’m so angry. My kid’s in second grade and he doesn’t know a single English word. Doesn’t know what it means. Doesn’t now how to pronounce it. His homework is just reading his textbook out loud to me five times. God, what a fantastic fucking teacher. She can’t figure out how to teach this shit, so she offloads the work onto parents. And then she’s the one getting paid for it? The entire class is taught in English, who the fuck can understand a thing? Why don’t you read a Korean book out loud to me?”
She attaches a picture of the textbook that her child is using, complaining, “The entire textbook is in English, with no Chinese translation, no pronunciation guide, and all anyone cares is that they can read it out loud. Fuck you department of education. Go fucking die.”
Comments agree, “It’s not just English. In my kid’s math lessons, they just watch a video, and then get given questions they have to solve. And they’re depending on the parents walking the kids through it when they get home. I can’t figure out what the hell the math teacher even contributes.”
Someone complains, “OMG, this is just so weird and unexpected. A super fashionable coworker of mine actually wears the same outfit two days in a row. I only noticed because she wore an outfit really similar to mine one day, and then the next day, she was still wearing the same thing. I thought it was just once or twice at the beginning, but now I’m noticing that she’s always wearing the same thing two days in a row. This is so fucking weird. Especially as hot as it is in Guangdong.”
There are 200 replies telling OP off. “Maybe you should buy her more outfits if you’re so upset about it?”
“I feel like you’re the type to sit by the crossroads in the village when you’re old and gossip about every little thing that goes on in other people’s houses.”
“In Dongbei, we wear the same clothes for a week.”
“Some people will buy multiple sets of the same clothes.”
“Meanwhile, I’m getting office gossip because I wear a new outfit every day.”
A tiktok video of two little boys laughing their asses off when they see a menu for “Fragrant duck poop lemon tea”. Commenters say, “This is a normal reaction.”
Are peaches and grapes expensive compared to other fruits in that area? Also what kind of grapes do you *have* to peel, I've never peeled a grape except if I do it just for fun
It's interesting to see how education in China has many of the same problems in the US. Having a silly immersion program/material is just the sort of thing people like here; it's similar to some of the ideas behind balanced literacy and other discovery learning trends. The childcare blogger is similar, though the classes do sound really slow.