05/22/23 - A postpartum mother getting carried up five flights of stairs by four men.
A thread on, “What is the best food to pair with mantou (steamed bread)?” Top comment is, “Lao Gan Ma! A layer sandwiched between mantou is so delicious!”
Other comments are, “Condensed milk, obviously.”
“Spicy gluten.”
“Red fermented tofu!”
“Pickles.”
A blogger posts some food photos from Shanghai. “Pic 1, this is my first time seeing mantou, meat buns, and bread twists in such an upscale setting. I’m almost afraid to buy them.
Pic 2, this tiny box of cookies was 47 RMB. That’s 58 RMB per pound. I just wanted to see why it’s so expensive. It really was delicious. But so expensive.
Pic 3, Xiaoyang Shengjian (name of restaurant) is so tasty!
If I lived in Shanghai, I definitely couldn’t survive.”
Comments say, “Not only is it expensive, it won’t fill you up.”
“At least you’ll go bankrupt before you get fat.”
Cathay Pacific has gotten in trouble lately as recordings of their flight stewardesses making fun of passengers who can’t speak English has been exposed. Today, they issued a formal apology, promising that they have always aimed to deliver a high quality experience and they take this event very seriously. They’ve already contacted the passengers in question to investigate the situation. They once again apologise for the trouble this has brought people.
Comments say, “There’s really no need to apologise, this is your company culture. I don’t know English or Cantonese, so I’ll just have to stay away from Cathay Pacific.”
“Guess this is left over colonial superiority. How did a company that was so anti-China even survive?”
“I flew Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to New York once, business class, knew a little bit of English. You have to order with English. If you don’t understand something, nobody bothers to explain it to you. It was such obvious discrimination.”
Another blogger is covering the same issue, saying, “I’ve taken hundreds of flights, and the only airline I’ve ever seen to directly make fun of and insult passengers is Cathay Pacific. Most of their stewardesses are Hong Kong Independence believers.
Comments concur, “Cathay Pacific was pretty involved in the riots that happened in Hong Kong in 2019. There are a lot of cockroaches hidden in this company.”
A POV cam of what a two-year-old does when his mommy pretends to pass out. First he calls her name, then he goes and fetches her a blankie. Then, when she pretends to cough, he runs and gets his sippy cup for her. Noticing that some water had spilled out, he runs to get a tissue to wipe her mouth. Then, she whispers that she’s sick, and he yanks open the locked medicine cabinet with brute strength to get the cold medicine out of it, and hand her the instruction pamphlet to eat. She says her arm hurts, and he gives her a quick massage and blows on it, and tells her he “loves mama”.
The blogger reposting this remarks, “Wow, this little baby really surprised me. He’s using every skill he learned in this world to take care of his mommy.”
Comments say, “My kid came over to call me, then he tried to beat me awake. It hurt too much and I had no choice but to wake up.”
“My baby would probably sit on top of me and start trying to dig out my eyeballs while wondering what’s wrong.”
“When my daughter was a little over two, I tried this and pretended to fall unconscious. She called me a couple of times, and when I didn’t respond, she got my phone and called 120 (medical emergency number). I got so scared, I jumped right up, and she was all like, “Wow, mommy! How did you get up?””
“My girlfriend is mad at me for buying her a gram of gold for 520. I honestly had no idea what to get for her. I’ve already gifted her lipstick or perfume before. So I thought I’d buy a gram of gold online, maybe start saving up gold gram by gram. Once I got it, I found that it really was super tiny, inside a glass jar. And yeah, she despised it. I apologised that I really didn’t think this through, and I’d do better next time. But tonight, when we voice chatted, she brought it up again, saying that she was too embarrassed to even tell her mom what I’d gotten her. She showed me screenshots of her friends’ social media, where their boyfriends were sending them 1314 RMB (pun for together forever), or gold jewellery or what not. I got frustrated, and said something like, “What’s the point of comparing stuff like this? I’d never look down on a gift somebody else got me.” And now we’re both upset with each other. I know there’s a lot of girls on here, just wanted to ask everyone, is it my fault? This isn't a traditional holiday or anything, it only came about because of internet memes. Why can’t this little golden dot represent my heart? She didn’t get me any gifts, but I don’t really mind that. I just don’t know whether she’s upset because it's too small, it’s not pretty, or it’s too cheap. This probably won’t happen again.”
Comments say, “Okay, women, tell me what kind of holiday 520 is and what you got your boyfriends.”
“What is wrong with this comment section. I’ll give an honest answer: I think how much you give is really up to you. A gram of gold isn’t super cheap, it’s still 4-500 RMB. Your girlfriend is honestly a little bit vain. Finally, I just want to ask, where can you buy a gram of gold?”
“If you’d bought gold earrings that are a gram, or a super tiny pendant, that’d still be better than this.”
A tiktok video of a postpartum mother getting carried up five flights of stairs by four men. Her husband claims that he feels bad for her and doesn’t want her to overwork herself. He was worried that her c-section stitches will pull open, and also worried that her stamina can’t keep up, so he got all his friends together to carry her up the stairs. She’s very happy and very moved by this. He has his responsibilities as a husband, to make sure she gets home safe.
Comments say, “This is such a great husband.”
“Well, his heart is in the right place, but maybe you should live in a building with elevators. This is a bit too much on your friends.”
“A classic symptom of paedophobia is preferring to keep pets than to have children, preferring to do plaza dances than baby sit children. Whenever you see kittens of puppies, you have overflowing love, but you have nothing but contempt for kids. Other symptoms include having overly strict standards for children, including schoolwork, behaviour, and even appearance. Any failure to meet these standards will cause the child to be labelled a “brat”.
When societal culture is like this, most couples wanting to have kids will become uneasy, terrified that they cannot raise a child to not be a burden on society. How can birth rates possibly be high under these circumstances?”
Comments say, “A classic symptom of Stinky Old Man Syndrome is going on and on about responsibility and duty, elevating every topic to be a societal issues, but never saying how much money you’re going to put down.”
“Not having children is building good karma when the alternative is raising a whole bunch of brats.”
“Tonight, I was talking a walk in the park with my wife when we saw a family in their thirties out and about with a toddler daughter, feeding the animals. This park has an animal feeding corner, where you can spend 30 RMB to buy various feed for the chickens, ducks, and geese.
This isn’t that important, except to say that this young couple began arguing. It started over a complaint from the dad, saying something like 30 RMB is a tax on low IQ or something. The mom flipped out, started yelling at him loudly, using a lot of big words like sentimentality and romance. She got more and more worked up, and started packing up the kid to leave. The dad looked shocked and chased after them to explain, but that only made her more agitated, and her words got bigger and bigger, until I could barely follow her anymore.
I’ve been married for over two decades and been in plenty of fights with my wife, but it’s never escalated this much. After overhearing, we both felt a little ashamed. I told my wife, “This lady definitely went to university, and she majored in humanities for sure. This type of creativity and debate skills is certainly professionally trained.”
I told my wife how glad I am that she teaches maths. Thank god.”
Comments say, “Is it really appropriate to yell at your husband in front of a toddler? This has nothing to do with what words she used or whether she majored in humanities or STEM.”
“With the economy like it is, it’s not unusual to want to save money wherever you can.”
“This has nothing to do with her major, it has to do with her manners.”
“My postpartum depression went away. It’s not because I went back to work, but because I can finally see what my husband and MIL are contributing, so I feel like it’s less unfair. We wrote down all the tasks in the household and split the jobs.
When we don’t have the in-laws, my job includes feeding the baby, changing diapers, getting groceries, putting baby to sleep, getting vaccines, laundry, and washing bottles. And my husband takes care of cooking, doing dishes, mopping floors, taking out the trash, making money, cleaning litter box, and feeding the cat.
When my in-laws came over and I got back to work, my jobs included putting the baby to sleep at night, buying groceries, occasionally playing with baby, and making money. And my husband takes care of cooking, doing dishes, and making money. All the rest of feeding baby, diapers, vaccines, laundry, washing bottles, mopping, taking out the trash, taking care of the cat, etc are all done by my in-laws.
Aside from this, all I have to handle is the stress of being a good teacher. But everyone is pretty exhausted, I’m not alone in this, and that makes me feel a lot better.
If you’re feeling bad, take a good look at whether your household jobs are divided unevenly, and whether you need to assign some of the jobs away from you. If you’re just allow yourself to sink in your emotions and blind yourself to what other people are contributing, maybe you should sit down and have a talk with your family to get a clearer view of things.”
Comments say, “But every time I see my MIL playing with the baby, I still get furious.”
“You’re right. We split household chores this way too, and I knew this was the best option for me. If something is somebody else’s job, I’ll never do it even a little bit. This way, everyone is exhausted, but I never had postpartum depression. Thank god for my selfishness.”
“Today, a friend showed me her hospital records from seeing traditional Chinese medicine doctors. Most of them are state experts too. Her experience has been a rollercoaster ride. She gave birth 8am in 2017, and believed the nurses when they said that she could shower the same day. She took her first shower at 11pm that exact same day.
Because you’re low on blood and energy after giving birth, it causes you to sweat a lot. Sweating after giving birth isn’t due to heat, it’s just because you’re weak, you can’t keep your sweat in. I’ve mentioned this a lot.
She didn’t take care of herself after birth, and a loved one of hers passed away, so she got diagnosed with depression. I mean, isn’t it normal to be sad about loved ones dying? How is this a disease?”
Comments say, “When I gave birth, another girl in the same hospital room as me gave birth the same day. That very night, she took a shower. Nobody was bringing her food, and she was super young, and her husband just laid around and got take out every day. When I went to get my stitches taken out, her wound got infected.”
“It’s been 15 months since I gave birth, and I get cold flashes and hot flashes all the time, and sweat a lot.”