05/09/25 - Chinese grandmas are so hardcore. You gotta respect them.
[I had a tragic accident where I spilled an entire glass of water all over my laptop. It’s in the shop now, getting fixed up, but it’s going to take a week (and I might never get my data back T_T). I’m using an absolutely ancient piece of shit Chromebook to write this which doesn’t have anything installed on it. As a result, I can’t provide links to the posts easily. Hopefully, the wizards can rescue my laptop and things will go back to normal in a week.]
“Chinese grandmas are so hardcore. You gotta respect them.
Coming back to Beijing from the Netherlands this time, while waiting to get through European customs, I got to personally experience this.
A Chinese tour guide had a giant group with him full of grandpas and grandmas vacationing in Europe, entering from the Netherlands. I was curious why the tour guide was just standing around like an idiot. Is he not worried about how these grandpas and grandmas are gonna get through customs questioning?
Turns out, I was too young.
A grandma very calmly walked up to customs, where the female agent looked at her passport and asked her very serious in English, “What are you travelling to the Netherlands for? How long as you staying?”
The grandma responded very seriously in Chinese, “I have no idea what you’re saying. I’m here on holiday!”
The previously aloof customs instantly became confused and awkward, because she had no idea what the grandma just said to her.
So word by word, she asked the grandma again in English, “What are you travelling to the Netherlands for?”
And the grandma very resolutely answered, “I don’t know what you’re saying.”
I was behind her in line and I went to break up this neverending cycle and made myself translator. The customs agent saw how big of a problem communication was so she didn’t ask any more questions and just let the grandma through.
When the grandma happily walked through customs with her shoulder bag, she turned back and told me, “Thanks, young man!”
And I smiled back and told her to have a happy trip.”
Comments say, “They are moms after all.”
“You gotta respect how calm Chinese grandmas are in foreign lands. They’re not worried about language barriers at all. And your helping hand sure gave her a little bit of warmth in her trip. How sweet.”
“That cycle’s gotta be broken by a younger person in line or else nobody would get to move that day hahahahahaha”
#Strongly call for Pakistan and India to both remain calm #Ministry of Foreign Affairs discuss escalating situation in India and Pakistan “Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson responded to reporters’ questions on the India-Pakistan situation.
Question: “Lately, the tensions in India and Pakistan have continued to escalate. Pakistan declared that in the early morning of the 10th of May, India attacked the Pakistani Nur Khan Air Force Base, and Pakistan plans to strike back. So far, Pakistan has launched Operation Iron Wall. What does China have to say about this?
Answer: “China is closely monitoring the India-Pakistan situation and is very worried by the escalation of events. We strongly call for India and Pakistan to both prioritise peace and stability and to remain calm and reserved. We can solve things peacefully through political means and avoid further escalating this already tense situation. This will only benefit India and Pakistan and is helpful to the peaceful development of the region, and is what the international community wants. China is willing to continue working towards this goal.”
Comments say, “I support a ceasefire.”
“The victims of war are the peasantry. I hope for world peace.”
“Stop fighting.”
“Does anyone else feel like old people now are more and more selfish?
I felt that way before too, but now I understand that they’re not selfish. They’re just scared of death.
That’s the fundamental reason. When my mom was 40-50 years old, she frequently boasted, “When I’m old and can’t move, I’ll just buy some rat poison and eat it or go jump in a river. There’s always a day to die…”
And now? She’s almost 75-years-old and she’s more scared of death than anybody. Although she has all kinds of old people health problems and has to take a dozen different pills every day, if I ever forget one of them, she immediately freaks out, “I thought you were educated and everything! What are you trying to do, kill your mom?”
She says her biggest dream is for her children and grandchildren to do nothing all day except surround her and take care of her and chat with her. And she gets upset if I say that’s a selfish desire.”
A compilation of small changes that completely change people’s lives:
“During my high school entrance exam, there was a multiple choice question in maths that I didn’t know how to solve. I had finished everything else and it was 5 minutes until the end of the exam. I was super stressed out, my brain was completely blank, couldn’t even understand the question. When there was only a minute left, someone suddenly yelled really loud from outside the window, “D!” It was really loud and super clear. I immediately looked over but nobody else reacted. The proctor never reacted either. I almost wondered if I had imagined it. I filled in D, and it was correct. The multiple choice questions were each worth 2 points, and I was a single point over the admittance line.”
“I picked a really boring elective during college which had nothing to do with my major, so I never paid any attention in class. I just show up to play on my phone. In the last lecture, I ran out of charge on my phone and even my portable charger was out of charge. I got so bored that I actually listened to the lecture for five minutes and found it was kinda interesting. Later on, I got a postgrad degree in this subject, studied this subject, and now I have my PhD and teach this subject at a university.”
“I saved a cat that almost got beat to death by a kid. I was on my way to commit suicide. I saw it and figured that I was going to die anyways so I shouldn’t get involved, and went to get medicine I was going to kill myself with. After I got my medicine, I saw it was still alive, so I put it in my pocket and went home. Never took it to the hospital or anything. I just told it that, “It’s up to you whether or not you live.” I wanted to find out if it would make it or not, so I just watched it and didn’t kill myself, and it made a miraculous recovery. I thought it was magical and thought, “Maybe I should live a bit longer too.” I lived with it for the longest time. One day, I fought with my parents against about my illness, went back to my rental and had an emotional breakdown, and swallowed a bunch of pills. It scratched my window open, jumped downstairs, and found my landlady who runs a store in the development. She saw my cat limping around and called me and I never picked up. She had saw me go home and knew I was at home, so she went to knock on the door and I never opened the door. So she opened the door with her spare keys and saved my life.”
“I remember back in 2006, my cousin suddenly decided to put down her summer homework and ride a bike for 10km to come play with me, and managed to save me while I was drowning in a river. I spat up a whole bunch of water after getting saved. I’d filled up.”
“Right before the Gaokao, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get into uni. Shandong is just too involuted. So I signed up to study overseas in Japan. The tuition every year was around 100K or so. After a month, I saw an ad for studying overseas in Italy and it only cost 50K a year, so I switched my application to Italy before my Japanese visa came through. This is my 18th year living in Italy now.”
“Came across an ad for studying abroad in Japan on Weibo and accidentally clicked on it, and felt like I wasn’t doing anything during the holidays anyways so I might as well go. This is my 9th year living in Japan now.”
“I translated a book on the internet out of pure interest, and an editor got in touch with me, and I became the official translator for the Chinese version of this book.”
“Over 40-years-old, mom to three kids, been a housewife for 10 years now. A company across the street from my development started hiring, so I went in as a joke. Worked three months until they couldn’t afford to keep paying me anymore, and I hopped to a different company, and switched companies again a year after that. And slowly, I went from hermitting at home to the exit to my development to the core of downtown, back to mainstream society. Now I’m a Chinese culture content creator, English translator, business trainer, and Chinese culture lecturer, and it has been a wonderful journey. I couldn’t believe it myself. Some people on Rednote say I’m lying, but I’m not. You can search for Mei Shao’ai online, mom of 3, almost 50-years-old this year, working hard in the workplace after being a housewife for 10 years.”
“Golden week is over! Please review all the cities you went to!”
Comments say, “Xiamen is pretty chill.”
“Beihai. The bed and breakfasts here are pretty involuted, cheap and you get great service. Restaurants are great too. I’ve really fallen in love with Guangxi people. They’re so gentle when they talk, and everyone is super chill. I want to retire here.”
“My development. It’s really boring but everyone is really friendly, and my mom and dad will visit all the time.”
“Yantai is honestly gorgeous. It’s just kinda inconvenience because there’s no subway. But all the beaches are gorgeous and it’s not super crowded.”
“Kunming, I love you! Once I get a job, I’m going to buy a house there and spend the rest of my life there.”
“Jiuzhaigou. Honestly, even during a drought, it’s so beautiful that it’ll BTFO most 5A tourist spots in the country. You’re going to marvel at how a lake can be that clear. The Pearl Beach Waterfall that was featured in the Journey to the West TV show is here too. It’s not a lie when people say that you’ll never want to look at water once you’ve seen Jiuzhaigou. If you’re out early, you can go to Old Songpan to eat bison hotpot. It’s not super commercialised so you can see how the Tibetans live. (But it’s 3000m above sea level so some people might get altitutde sickness. If you’re into food, go to Chengdu and Chongqing and look up the recommended list and it’s all going to be good. There’s a mall around Chongqing’s Liberation Monument with like 20 cat cafes in it, where the price is involuted to half what Guangzhou charges. I petted cats and dogs for two hours before catching my train out.”
“The Hongze Lake Swamp Park. I highly recommend it. It’s so quiet and natural. They have lion dances, bamboo boat rides. It’s about half a mu. The woods aren’t very tall but it’s really fun. There’s an aquarium and some other performances like circus motorcycles. There’s lotuses and peony gardens with peococks and baby deer! There’s something for everyone here! Rent a bicycle or take a train around the park and you won’t get tired at all!”
“Guilin. Was okay.”
“Went to Hangzhou. I like that there’s a lot of greenery there, and it’s really chill to take a walk around Xihu, and the subway is super convenient. But if you go during a holiday, it’s going to be absolutely packed, and Xihu and Yintai are going to be shoulder to shoulder. Everywhere else is okay, and the cars will yield to pedestrians. Great views of nature, and there’s a lot of anime shops in Yintai. There’s lots of pretty cosplayers in the streets too. You just gotta watch out because most restaurants close at 2PM and only open again around 5-6PM. I’ve never ran into this elsewhere before.”
“Suzhou is beautiful. I went to Wuxi too. Lots of people at every attraction, but it’s so pretty that I can forgive the crowds. Food is tasty too (but I didn’t have time to get to everything I wanted). I don’t want to leave. I want to live here.”
“Went to Hengdian with my parents [town where most period dramas are filmed with a lot of permanent sets that are never taken down]. Everything is priced reasonably, except hotels are super expensive. The attractions are fine. Their taxis don’t stink. Lots of people. You have to wait in line for 30+ minutes for each performance. For more details: You have to rent a car to see the Ming Qing Palaces. You can wander around, but don’t go in Taihe Palace because your parents will get conned into paying for photos with the Emperor and Empress. There’s lots of interaction to be had with the Qingming Shanghe Picture. It was fun by my parents thought there was too much sun. Old Shanghai/Guangzhou/Hong Kong is really fun to visit at night. Parents loved it.”
AI will take over the world… unless someone comes at it with a glass of water.