In Hubei, Wuhan, a first grader was ran over at school by a teacher. He passed away after being taken to the hospital. Hanyang Department of Education and the school had revealed that the accident happened during class hours, and the driver was a fourth grade teacher who has already been taken in by the police.
Comments say, “This school had underground parking, and cars are supposed to only come in and leave through the back gate, but a lot of teachers go through the front gate for the sake of convenience. What a shame, such a small kid.”
“This is partially the fault of the school layout and management, and partially the fault of the teacher involved. Even if she was picking up another teacher, couldn’t she wait outside the gates?”
“My school wouldn’t let us play on the fields because cars were always driving in and out. This is all because the school didn’t manage car flow, and didn’t have pedestrian areas. That’s what caused the accident! This school’s management is absolute shit!”
A famous author writes, “I feel like two illnesses have been super romanticised. One is autism, and the other is Alzheimers. A lot of people don’t understand what autism is, and just think it means kids who don’t talk much, “children of the stars” and all that. And when Alzheimer’s is mentioned, people just think of a lot of articles being like, “snowy hair, doesn’t recognise anyone, but he still remembers those he loves the most” and so on and so forth. Honestly, this kind of romanticisation is super cruel to the family who have to take care of these people. If you actually do your best to take care of these people, it’s not just hard work, it’s practically burning your life in exchange for theirs.”
Comments say, “Especially people who compare taking care of Alzheimer’s patients with taking care of babies. It’s not nearly the same scale of labour.”
“Maybe autistic kids under five are cute, but I’ve seen a sixteen or seventeen year old boy at Costco who was taller than his mom, insisting they had to buy something and getting into a fight with his mom. He doesn’t have normal IQ, and yet he’s stubborn as hell. You couldn’t communicate to him at all. I’ll always remember that mother’s look of despair on her tear-covered face.”
A doctor had Chat GPT translate posts by a Chinese influencer citing an American researcher, Patricia McKinsey Crittenden, on how sleep training causes autism, and therapy only worsens autism, and emailed the posts to Patricia asking her thoughts. She posts the reply email she got, which can roughly be summarised as 1. I never said that, 2. We don’t know what causes autism, and 3. We don’t know the best way to treat autism (except that supportive parents are vital).
Comments say, “Honestly, you’re just wasting your time. The influencer will just say your translation wasn’t accurate. You can’t ever argue against close-minded people. Honestly, if you don’t have kids, you’ll never know what it’s like to raise them. I might think she has a point too if I don’t have babies. And all of her believers probably have never come into contact with autistic kids.”
“Oh, I’ve seen this influencer’s posts. She sounded super extremist, so I never read further. But I had a friend who was a doctorate in childhood education, specialising in autism, and she was absolute shocked reading this woman’s posts. I’ve met a lot of autistic patients in my hospital too, and I can’t stand people smearing the reputation of these patients and their family. I’ve already blocked her.”
“I got two buns and an ear of corn for lunch, and my boyfriend said that if I eat too much, I’ll get fat, and he won’t be able to keep up with my spending after we’re married. I’m 160cm and 53kg. Am I really…?”
She attaches screenshots of her boyfriend’s texts, reading, “You spend that much money on lunch?”
“You can’t spend every cent you earn. You need to save it for big stuff.”
Comments say, “Nah, this isn’t that simple. Normal people aren’t like this. You can’t tell anything by just two texts. If this is real, then you’re just showing off your relationship.”
“Yeah, I’m suspicious too. There’s gotta be more than this. You’re not mentioning the king crabs and sushi and steaks and snacks you’re eating, right?”
“Is his dick covered in heroin? Why haven’t you broken up yet?”
A test of EQ: “You sprayed on some perfume before leaving the door, and happened to end up in the same elevator as your boss. He says, “Are you a butterfly? You smell so good.” What do you reply?”
Comments say, “I’m just trying to cover up my smell of poor.”
“Are you a bee? Constantly buzzing in my ear.”
“Don’t worry, I didn’t buy it with the couple of quarters you pay me with.”
A test of EQ: “You arrive at work at 9 o’clock, and as soon as you step in, your boss says, “You’re pretty good at getting here just in time.” What do you reply?”
Comments say, “Yup.”
”I never get out of here just in time though.”
“You too, you too.”
A fifteen year old girl was transferred to Dongwan hospital from Shenzhen Children’s Hospital. She was severely malnutritioned, with multiple organ failure, and had fallen into a coma. Her dad explained that since Chinese New Year, she hasn’t ate anything for the last 50 days or so, only drinking water. She was 165cm tall and only weighed 24.8 kg. Her parents have forced her to go to the hospital multiple times, but the first time they went, she tried jumping out of the car while they were driving multiple times. After she was taken into a room in the hospital, she hit her head with the shower head and tried to jump out of the window. The doctors said that she had an uncontrollable mental illness, anorexia nervosa.
After being treated in the ICU for over 20 days, she still failed to wake up. After much consideration, her parents decided to grant her freedom. Her mother accompanied her at the end of her life.
Comments say, “You need to love yourself before you start loving other people. Just fifteen, it’s such a shame.”
“160cm, 60kg, I’m still having a great time eating as much as I want. Confidence first.”
“Our twisted sense of beauty has killed god knows how many young men and women in the peak of their youth. It’s such a tragedy.”
Someone shares some suffocating texts with her mom. She sent a video of her on vacation to her mother, who replies, “Who is this, your sister or you?”
OP: “Me.”
Mom: “But it looks so much like your sister. Send me another one.”
OP: “I only took one video.”
Mom: “I’ve watched several times, and I don’t think it’s you. It looks like your sister. All the gestures are her gestures. How could this possibly be you?”
OP: “What the hell? I told you it’s me. So what if it looks like her? What do you mean, how could it possibly be me?”
Mom: “I’m gonna send this to your aunt. You always wear your hair up, you never let it down. And you don’t brush your hair back with your hand.”
OP: “And? So? I told you several times this is me. What are you even doubting?”
Mom: “Your aunt said this is your sister too. Are you saying my eyesight is bad?”
OP: “Maybe we do look alike. It’s just a video of my back after all. But there’s honestly something wrong with you. I’ve told you multiple times this is me. Are you implying I’m stealing my sister’s video and lying about it being me?”
Mom: “So your aunt has bad eyesight too?”
OP: “I’m not talking about eyesight here. Videos sent on wechat is always blurry anyways. But I literally told you multiple times it’s me. What are you even doubting?”
OP’s sister joins the group chat, “Yeah, it’s not me. I dyed my hair blonde.”
Mom: “But your aunt says it’s you.”
OP’s sister, “And I said it’s not me. What is there to lie about on this?”
Mom: “But what about your aunt? Does she have bad eyesight too?”
OP’s sister: “? Honestly, I don’t even care if you believe me or not. Not like it changes the truth. We all know who that is in the video.”
Mom: “What about your aunt? She’s sleeping right now.”
OP’s sister, “It’s not like she took the video. How would she know better than I do? Why won’t you believe me when I say it’s not me?”
Mom: “But since when do you brush your hair back exactly like your sister?”
OP: “What are you even implying? Why the hell would I lie about my sister’s video? It’s just a shot of my back. It’s normal that we look alike. Why do you refuse to believe me after I’ve insisted for this long? I’ve never heard of brushing your hair back being my sister’s copyrighted gesture. What is even the point of arguing about this?”
Mom: “A mother knows.”
OP: “Lol. What, do you think I can somehow get money out of this if I convince everyone it’s me in the video or something? I told you multiple times it’s me. Isn’t it normal for siblings to look similar from behind?”
Comments say, “Why can’t she understand basic Chinese at her age?”
“Ridiculous, and yet suffocating.”
“She just wants people to admit that she’s right.”
A Chinese medicine doctor writes, “Whether it’s a c-section scar or just a normal injury scar, you can use this. After surgery, a lot of girls, on their stomach, after surgery, um, the c-section, the scar will swell up and get red, like an Alaskan crab leg, all fat and red, what do you do?
So this, this Bombyx batriticatus (a white moth), the scar colour, your scar, wow, this leg is so pretty, this scar has no black its, you apply the white moth.
It’ll slowly change the colour, change it back, back to normal colour. Use the white both, and use the qinjiao we talked about before.
The qinjiao makes the scar close, makes it flat. Then, the white moth, the white moth’s purpose is to change the colour back.
So if you have spots on you, like, we have someone called Song, covered in acne scars, acne scars are good luck, but acne scars are really spotty looking, it’s not good looking, okay, use the white moth. White moth use.
You have to grind it into powder and apply it, don’t be so inflexible, like, just put the white moth larvae on my face? That’s scary. It you put the larvae on, it’ll fall off, what do you do? Okay, you have to grind it into powder.
You can apply it to external injuries. Other than here, other than here, white moth can do anything, any spot, or scar. Spot is like when there’s a hard thing inside, really deep. you put the white moth on, it’ll pull it out.
If you press on it and there’s something hard inside, rub the white moth on, and the hard stuff will come out, it’ll get sucked out, no matter how deep the root, however deep the root of the spot is, the white moth can suck it out. So this is for external use, you have to grind it into powder for external use.”
Someone asks, “Are tutoring agencies really dead?” And a blogger replies, “As an old teacher, I’m 55 years old now, and I’ve been working in tutoring agencies since 2004. A lot of social media are talking about how tutoring agencies are dying left and right. It honestly makes me laugh. Remember, so long as high school entrance exams and college entrance exams still exist, there’s no way tutoring is going to die. No matter how much pressure the government puts on it, it’ll still exist in various forms. It’ll just look different. Even if you have the best teachers in the world at school, tutoring will still exist. Parents are never satisfied. If you get 100, they want 120. If you get 120, they want 150. They’ve sustained the tutoring industry.
And honestly, you know what the average teacher is like. Parents and tutors know too. Those people are hating on tutoring agencies, who are hoping for it to die every day, wake up. These days, not only are tutoring agencies not dying, it’s making more money than ever even in the face of government pressure. It’s the parents who end up picking up the bill.”
Comments say, “After my tutoring agency shut down, all the teachers in it became one-to-one private tutors who charge 200 RMB per hour.”
“I don’t know what he means by what the average teacher is like. I’m a teacher, and all of my coworkers and myself are super hardworking and do everything we can for our students.”
“If you really want to shut down this industry, you have to reward people for reporting them. If every person who reported got 100K, see what happens.”
Beneath this post is an announcement from Jiangsu News warning parents to not buy too many tutoring sessions or pay too much beforehand. There is a lot of risk in tutoring agencies, and parents need to be cautious when they sign up. In 2022, a lot of students and parents have been sold on various tutoring packages, and buy one get one free promotions to pay for more tutoring sessions upfront than they need. This has increase the risk that the tutoring agency will run with the money, or run into trouble getting refunds. The Department of Education and Chinese Consumer Association is urging all locales to protect the legal rights of the parents involved and limit the number of civil cases that result from tutoring agencies. They’re also warning all parents to choose their tutoring agencies with care and pay with caution.
Comments say, “Isn’t it all one-to-one private services now? You pay for every lesson right before the lesson.”
“What about teachers who are making a high salary but still doing tutoring on the side? This is sad and laughable.”
A tiktok video of an apartment building with huge balconies, but no privacy.
Comments say, “What privacy do you need on a balcony? The whole point of balconies is sunlight, brightness, openness. Privacy is for what you don’t want people to look at, secrecy. If you want privacy, get a basement.”
“There must be so many mosquitos.”
Someone jokes, “See? This is why I didn't buy this unit.”
“I saw on instagram someone design their balcony to look like this. It’s great, both practical and creative. I want to remodel my house to look like this too. That way, I can actually use my balcony space for growing flower and drinking tea, and I don’t have to hang my clothes up to dry every day.”
Comments say, “I’ve got a dryer, and my experience says that you’re still going to have to hang your clothes up to dry. Experience says that a lot of materials can’t be dried. A lot of t-shirts will shrink in the dryer. And slowly, it’ll become, “Well, this piece is kinda expensive, what if it got ruined in the dryer? Let’s just hang it up”. Also, dryers don’t work if you have a small load. You can dry your underwear though, that’s pretty convenient.”
“Yeah, you’re still gonna have to hang clothes up, but you can get great ventilation going in the area you’ve left empty, even get heat vents if you live somewhere humid. That way, you can dry your clothes no matter what the weather.”
“I have to get a taxi to work and back every day, I feel so bad spending money. God, I really hate spending this money. I spend 20 RMB on taxi rides every day. My work is only 1.5 km away from my place, but I don’t know how to ride a scooter and don’t own one. And I owe people 4000 RMB. I finally got a job, and there’s no other work closer, so I just have to get a taxi every day. But I really don’t want to spend this much money on taxi rides. It adds up to 600 a month! I feel like I’m losing out on so much. Life is so hard.”
Comments say, “So wake up half an hour early and walk to work? It’s just 1.5 km. I thought your work was 15 km away.”
“Or learn how to ride a bicycle.”
A blogger asks, “Why can’t women choose how they give birth on their own? I’m 37 weeks and 5 days along, just went for my check up at the public hospital, wanted to make an appointment for a c-section, but the doctor wouldn’t let me. He says that I don’t fit the criteria for c-sections. I’ve read a lot of what c-sections and vaginal deliveries are like throughout my pregnancy, and I want to choose c-section. I’ve already got haemorrhoids, I’m worried about them getting worse, I’m scared of episiotomies, I’m scared of tearing, I’m scared of ending up having a c-section anyways. I asked at a private hospital yesterday, and they said they need me to attempt vaginal delivery first too. God, being pregnant is so hard. I can barely even go to the bathroom right now, how could I have the energy to give birth? Everyone should have the right to choose.”
Comments say, “Dude, it’s still a surgery. If you don’t fit the criteria, are you just cutting yourself open for fun? From my experience, vaginal delivery is a lot better than c-sections.”
“It’s cause you can have another baby quicker with vaginal delivery. It’s all for the birth rate. They can’t have too many c-sections.”
“You’ve got to fit the criteria for vaginal delivery to do vaginal delivery too. If you don’t fit, you have to get a c-section whether you like it or not. It’s all based on people’s individual circumstances. Don’t go around feeling like the hospital’s trying to screw you over all day.”
Stories about suffocating, obnoxious parents seem to be a really common theme here. Should we read these as unusual cases (i.e. normal parents are not like that at all), or as emblematic of some underlying thread in the culture (i.e. most parents are like this to greater or lesser degree, and this is just an example of a greater degree).
I at first misread "Chinese medicine doctor" -- the intended meaning is of course "(Chinese medicine) doctor" but I read it as "Chinese (medicine doctor)"