06/02/23 - FAQ Answered!

[Once again, I’d like to offer an essay on an aspect of Chinese culture or history that takes a little longer to go into than these questions. Lemme know in this poll which one you want to see!]

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Can you explain a bit how the "hukou" system works and why it exists? - By CinnabarTactician

The reason the “hukou” system exists is because it’s existed for thousands of years in Dynastic China. How did it work back then? Well, the life cycle of a Chinese Dynasty is that as each household is established, they would be given a plot of land from the government (usually about 16-17 acres), 70% of which is government land that you were allowed to farm, but you cannot sell or pass down to your children. Those parcels of land go back to the government when you die. And 30% of be completely your own. You can do whatever you want with it. And the government passed out various other agriculture subsidies on a per household basis, such as seeds for people who can’t afford to buy seeds, cattle on loan, farm tools for rent, etc. All of these designed so that people can make a decent living off of their land.

There’s no point in handing out these benefits on a per population basis, because children and old people, and to a lesser extent women, can’t do farm work and won’t benefit from land. When tax is calculated, it’s done per household too. That system of households as a unit ended up carrying over even into the modern day, when the economy isn’t agriculture based anymore.

Nowadays, the concept in China is that you can only enjoy the public services of the place that you actually pay taxes in, and this is accounted for with your hukou. It’s exactly to prevent situations like, “Oh, Beijing has a super easy college entrance exam, so I’m just gonna go take my exams there!” or “Shanghai has the best hospitals, let’s all go to Shanghai!” Places that are backwaters in China are much more backwaters than any rural town in America, but China’s still got insane population. No major city can handle people all over China flooding in to use their infrastructure.

So a lot of basic infrastructure is gated behind getting a local hukou. So how do you obtain a hukou in, say, Shanghai or Beijing? Well, you have to have a degree, the higher your degree of education the better. Having studied overseas is a plus. And you need to have paid a certain amount into social security in this city for a certain period of time, like a year or two—that is, to have stable employment. Or it comes with certain government jobs or if you enlist. Or you could just own property—though the reason people want hukou to begin with is for subsidies towards buying property in Shanghai.

So it’s a very common opinion to see on the Chinese internet, that a hukou is a modern Chinese caste system that keeps the poor poor and the rich rich. Having a Shanghai hukou means that from birth, you have access to the best hospitals, the best education, subsidies towards buying houses in Shanghai which are practically guaranteed to rise in value, and ease in finding a wife. And having a Gansu, Zhouqu hukou means that from birth, you’re hours away from the worst hospitals in the nation, have next to no access to even basic education, and barely even have running water and electricity.

There's this concept of "ask culture" vs "guess culture", where in "ask culture" it's considered fine to ask for whatever and equally fine to say no, and in "guess culture" asking is an imposition and you should really only ask for something if you're sure the answer will be "yes". My impression is that China is quite heavily "guess culture", more so than the West. What's your take on this? - CinnabarTactician

It definitely is, and I don’t think it’s necessarily a cultural thing. At least, not in China. I’ve written before about how China is a very connections-based society, because it simply developed way too fast for laws and rules to catch up. It’s vital in China to know how to rub elbows and grease wheels and wine and dine if you want to get anything done or be successful. And so, around every single minor little thing, a deeply enigmatic culture has sprung up, exactly so that people can use it as a way to signal that they know how to play the game. Where in America, “ask culture” and “guess culture” might be a difference in what people consider to be polite, in China, everything is “guess culture” to weed out people who can’t read a room and have high EQ, and select for people who are good at the social game.

So, not only is it “guess culture”, people deliberately make it as hard as possible to actually guess, so that they can figure out at what level you’re playing the game.

I’ll translate an askreddit post that’s always stuck with me, as an example.

The question was, “My boss took me to a dinner party, and told me to ask why the food wasn’t here yet. What should I do?”

The top-voted answer is, “That depends on who’s paying for the meal, and what stage the meal is at. It can mean lots of different things. If it’s full of your coworkers and no outsiders, like some kind of company event, then he just means why the food isn’t here. Just go get food. Keep an eye out though, if there’s only one other female coworker there and she’s drunk, don’t actually go out and find a waitress. Stand by the door and call for one to come to you.

If this is a dinner party with clients, then lots of things could be happening. Pay attention to what the conversation was about just before this came up.

If you’re at the beginning of the meal, no food has been served yet, and people have been talking for a while, then your boss might be genuinely hungry. He might have noticed no food is here, and felt like he lost face and hasn’t treated his customer well. In this case, hurrying the food is more about the ceremony than the actual effects. Don’t call a waitress over in front of your boss—he can do that himself. You’re performing theatre for your client, so you have to make this look Very Important.

Half-run out of the room, and remember, to never come back by yourself. Always come back in with a waitress with food—that’s called actually solving a problem. Otherwise, if you return by yourself, sit down, and everyone is still waiting around for food, your boss is going to be mad.

If you’re half way through your meal and the conversation is going well, and he suddenly pauses to have you hurry the food up, then he doesn’t want food. There’s something coming up that he doesn’t want you to hear. Just go outside, have a smoke, then come back and tell him you told the waitress to hurry.

If you’re visiting your client and he’s paying for the meal, and most of the dishes have already been served. Well, theoretically, whoever pays is responsible for the meal. So if you’re visiting someone else’s company, and near the end of the meal, your boss tells you to hurry up the last few dishes, then he’s not asking for the food. It’s a round-about way of indicating you should go pay for the meal.

You’re visiting, you’ve got a good business relationship going, they don’t want to kick you out right at dinner time, so they might have invited you out to dinner for politeness’ sake. This type of business meal usually doesn’t cost too much, but it might be annoying for your client to get it paid for by his company, so you should offer to pay yourself.

If you try to write off expenses as “eating out with the supplier”, from Finance’s point of view or their boss’s point of view, that’s a little weird. Are you getting too friendly to those suppliers? So, a lot of times, clients will pay for it out of their own pockets. The client and your boss are peers, so they might be shy about actually fighting over the bill, but it’s different if their subordinates do it.

So just go out, pay the bill, then come back and eat. When you’re finishing up, ask if anyone wants anything else, and casually mention that, “Oh, I got the bill settled while I was out earlier, I hope you’ve enjoyed dinner.”

Usually, the client and your boss will have a small polite squabble, and he might even tell you off that it was none of your business, but he’s happy deep down.

If you don’t have the skill to identify these situations beforehand, just ask what your boss wants directly before you go to dinner, to avoid any mistakes with good intentions.

Another couple of points of note before you to get more food.

1. If some dishes have already been served, then before you leave your party room, look at what’s on the table, remember what’s missing, and see if any of the dishes was something the boss or the client was particularly looking forward to. Then tell the waitress exactly which dishes you want them to hurry on.

2. If the main dish hasn’t been served, don’t go out and yell, “Hurry up!” and then come back in. Ask the waitress what’s taking so long, how long before it’s ready, so you can give a more complete report when you come back. For example, “The kitchen says that we picked particularly large crabs and they need to be thoroughly steamed, so it’s going to need an extra 10 minutes.”

3. If no dishes have been served, after you’re done telling the waitress to hurry, actually watch them go into the kitchen. Otherwise, a lot of them will just say that they’ll hurry, but won’t do it. If there’s any free snacks out for people who are waiting, bring back a plate of sunflower seeds or oranges or something, so people have something to snack on.

4. If you’re really in a hurry, ask them to look it up in their system, and ask the manager to call the kitchen on their walkie-talkie in front of you. It’s super noisy in a kitchen, so unless they get a specific order from the manager, a waitress calling out, “Hurry up for table 7!” is just white noise to the cooks.

5. If they’re really unusually slow and you’ve ordered a lot of food, go talk to the manager and ask why they’re so slow today. When he apologises, ask if they can give a free fruit platter or a discount. They’ll usually agree, and now you’ve got some results to show your boss.

The best way is to not wait until your boss says something. If you notice food is taking a while, go hurry it yourself. That’s why you were brought along to dinner. You should take a seat by the door, so you can more easily be a good assistant.

I’m glad people like this post—I’m going to share some other dinner experience and how to avoid situations like this. Usually, when you’re on a business dinner, your boss isn’t going to order food himself. He’s going to ask you to take care of it. Let’s pretend that there’s four people this day—you, your boss, and two clients. How do you order for them?

Don’t ask what they want to eat. This is rude. You should order just about enough food, and leave one or two dishes to be decided by your boss and the clients. There’s quite a lot of rules to this, to get dishes that are going to come one by one, and not a huge long wait, followed by all the food all at once, followed by a huge long wait.

First, ask if there’s anything people won’t eat. Then, get 2-4 cold dishes. Get a good balance of meat and vegetable, savoury and sweet. Make sure that people have something to snack on right off the back. The best cold-dishes are refreshing, and easy to pick up with chopsticks—like crunching lotus root, beef, duck feet, almonds, etc. Choose whatever is in season. Don’t pick anything like mashed eggplant, rice noodles, smashed eggs, rabbit heads, or peanuts, that are hard to pick up, easy to drop, and difficult to eat cleanly.

If there are elderly people at the table, they might not be able to handle cold food. If you have a high budget, you can consider getting some soup to warm the stomach. If your budget is low, then get chrysanthemum or pu’er tea. If you want to appear high-class, don’t get coke. Get corn juice or almond milk to drink with the cold dishes.

You can order the cold dishes and drinks as soon as you enter your party room, and look at the hot dishes slowly.

As far as hot dishes are concerned, make sure you have 1-2 stir fries, 1 deep-fried, 1 steamed, and 1 soup. The dishes are going to come out in order at regular intervals, so that people can finish one dish just as another one is prepared.

If you want to show that you’re detail-oriented, get one dish from the client’s hometown. Make sure it’s not a main dish or anything, just a side. For example, “Mister Wang, I hear you’re from Sha’anxi. This place supposedly has good rice skin—try if it’s authentic!”

Don’t get a main dish, because he’s eaten it hundreds of times before and is sick of it. A side dish is a way to bring up nostalgia. A main dish is just showing off badly. Imagine going on holiday overseas and visiting a local friend there, and they take you to a Chinese restaurant. How disappointed would you be?

If there are ladies present or small children, add some sweets.

If people are drinking, there’s no need to get main carbs. When they’re nice and buzzed, get some noodles or noodle soup. It’ll be very popular. If nobody is drinking, wait for the middle of the meal for the main carbs, and leave it up to everyone else to decide what they want.

Try not to order any fish or chicken with bones, because these are hard to eat elegantly. If you accidentally order it not knowing what it was, and find that it’s a whole chicken or a whole fish or something like that, do not split it into servings and hand it out to people. Ask the waitress to do this.

Remember, that your main purpose during this meal is to be your boss’s partner. Remember what the conversation was about, and help fill in for your boss, or round out his mistakes, and record what both sides agreed to, so you can execute it when you get back.

If its an important client, make sure to keep track of what he ate the most of, so that you can spin the table for him. If he didn’t eat much the whole time, wait until near the end of the meal to ask if it wasn’t to his taste, and if he’d like to add anything.

If your side is paying for the meal, ask how everyone ate and if anyone wants anything more and make sure the answer is no, before you go pay. If you want to pack things up and take it home, ask the waitress to do it while the client’s are leaving. Walk them out the door, say goodbye, then return for your food.”

What's the mainstream music industry like? These posts give the impression it's pretty similar to American pop star dynamics. Are there any interesting/notable differences? Are idol groups as culturally relevant as in, say, Japan or Korea? (Also do you have any singer/band recommendations)? - by arrioche

Um, so, I gotta say, I have a really bad fever when I was a small child, and it made me completely unable to hear music. Like, you know people with brain damage who can’t talk, but they can sing? I’m like the opposite. Music just sounds like meaningless noise to me. So, I can’t really tell you what the mainstream music industry is like in China, on a quality level. But I can tell you about the entertainment industry drama that I am hearing. And the drama is this—there’s barely any singers left in China anymore.

By singers, I mean people who actually primarily make their income through the songs they sing and doing concerts and publishing albums and stuff. There’s still the older generation, like Jay Chou or Eason Chan, or Jacky Cheung. But they’ve been around since the 80’s, practically. In the last 10 years, there really hasn’t been any proper singers, because music just doesn’t really make enough money, compared to other things that you could be doing in the entertainment industry.

A lot of singers become staples on reality TV shows. A lot of singers are trying to become actors instead. A lot of singers are straight up just livestreaming on tiktok instead of actually having a singing career.

The same thing is going on as far as idol groups go. They exist in China, technically. But not really, though. Mostly, you’ll see reality TV shows where young, fresh talent from various talent agencies attend for the opportunity to be in a boy or girl band. They’ll make a bunch of money from being in the reality TV show. Form their group. And then…immediately all throw themselves into other reality TV shows, trying to become actors, or, more likely, just livestreaming on tiktok.

It seems like the goal of any band or singer is to get famous enough, that they qualify for the better ways of making money, like being an influencer. Or acting. Acting makes an unbelievable amount of money in China, even if you’re not all that famous.

That’s not to say China doesn’t have music. There’s a lot of exciting things happening in the Chinese music scene (or so I am told?) on the indie side of things, especially on the Chinese internet, where (ironically) random streamers are getting famous for the original, cool music that they’re making. But that’s the state of mainstream music, based on the discussion I see on the internets.

Again, big disclaimer here. All of this is hearsay. I have no idea myself. I can’t hear music, so I don’t go looking for it.

What sort of image does China have of what the West is like? Any common misconceptions? —by OmgPuppies

“The West” is a very broad term. China has different conceptions of different parts of the west. There’s the very neutral western countries, which haven’t done anything bad to China—like Iceland, or most Scandinavian nations. Most Chinese people’s concept of them is extremely positive—wow, a place with beautiful nature where people get paid leave every year and tons of social benefits and the men actually change diapers. Why wasn’t I born there. I declare that from today onwards, I identify as Icelandic, and no one can deny my identity. And to some extent, people will feel this way about other European nations like France and Germany too.

There’s the Commonwealth, which China has much more mixed feelings about. There’s a small subset of people who are still very angry about the British being asshats to China at the end of Qing Dynasty. Yeah, I know France and Germany were there too, and were just as bad, but it’s not as focused on in Chinese textbooks. Most people are very mad about Britain not returning priceless Chinese artefacts which are in their museums right now. Most people think it’s ridiculous they still have a monarchy. And they make fun of basically pointless Master’s Degrees you can get in just one year in Britain, because a lot of Chinese people get those just to qualify for better hukou in China. But for the most part, people aren’t really that genuine in their enmity towards Britain? It’s mostly a target of a lot of memeing. For the most part, people are like, “Yeah, they’re like mostly like Scandinavia, but I feel weird about being as unabashedly enthusiastic, because they stole our shit bro.”

I think the biggest area of misconceptions and xenophobia comes in Chinese people’s opinion of America, and this is like 90% because of CCP propaganda, and 10% because every country kinda hates America a little bit. There is a very, very strong push on the Chinese internet for stories of crimes in America, poverty in America, immigrants not being happy in America. China covers every single shooting and robbery and police violence case in America that crops up. A lot of people’s opinion of America seems to be a place where the average person gets shot twice a week, and they have to pay the hospital half a million dollars to fix every gunshot, and every city is like San Francisco and covered in homeless people who are going to stab you and take your wallet so they can afford another hit of marijuana. Every single joking twitter meme about, “God, America sucks” is reposted in China, to remind people that America, indeed, sucks and you should never, ever go.

Where did covid come from? It’s a bioweapon released by America. Why is Russia at war with Ukraine? Because America provoked them into it. Why do we have to work sweatshop jobs all our lives and still not be able to afford a house? America. Why is beef so expensive lately? America. And they use all the stories of American racism against black people to assume that there is the exact same amount of racism against Chinese people.

I’ll note that it wasn’t always this way. People used to have a more…well, more centred view of the west, at least. But the America-hate has really ramped up in the last 3 years since covid, and I’m pretty sure this is just, like, the standard thing where nationalism ramps up when the economy slows down. So maybe this is a phase that will pass? But there really is a lot of North Korea style, “They hate us because they fear our freedom” propaganda going on in Chinese middle school class rooms.

You mention quite often tax on low IQ. Is IQ a big thing in China and do they make international IQ comparisons? - By TonyZa

IQ is only a big thing in so far as having good grades and making it to university is a Big Fucking Deal in China. It’s not something that parents will go out of their way to get their kids tested, for the most part. You already know how they’re performing on tests, because Chinese schools have tests all the time. The phrase “tax on low IQ” only comes up because it’s just a commonly used turn of phrase in China, to describe things more expensive than they’re worth. I don’t think Chinese people are particularly obsessed about IQ at all. It seems like most parents still believe that if you push any random kid hard enough and make them work for 22 hours a day, they can get into Harvard?

I don’t think they care at all about international IQ either. At least, in all my years of surfing the Chinese internet, I haven’t seen that discussion come up once.

For a question: this is probably far too broad, but I would love to hear more about historical attitudes towards adoption. It really struck me in the post about the stability benefits of concubinage that it worked out as a system because adoption went without question. How did that come about? - Tikkitakki

I’m not entirely sure, but I think it came about because women don’t want to die in childbirth. And women don’t want to raise a child just to have them die at 2 years old, and then have to risk dying in childbirth again. I mean, honestly, if I lived in Tang Dynasty China or some shit, I’d also rather adopt any day of the week than go through pregnancy and childbirth myself. It seems fairly simple that if you take a kid as a small toddler and raise them yourself, they’re just going to think you’re their mom anyways. It’s not really any different than having a kid of your own, is it?

It helps a lot that there were a lot of relationships in China that resembles a pseudo parent-child relationship, and this is actually protected by law. For example, your teacher is half a father to you in Chinese society, and filial piety laws and social customs extended to your teacher too. If your teacher gets sick and needs money for medicine, it’s both socially unacceptable and actually illegal for you to not pony up what you can. It’s not a Super Serious Crime, but it’s enough to potentially get you blacklisted from government jobs, so people took it very seriously.

Sometimes, people would get a Chinese god-parent, but it was secular in China. Called a 干爹 or 干妈, literally dry-dad or dry-mom. And that’s not a complete legal adoption, the same way taking a concubine’s child is. You’re not written into their family tree or anything. But again, you’re taking on real social and legal obligations when you enter that relationship.

The concept that you can take grown, adult strangers, and enter a pseudo parent-child relationship, and all of society will accept this as totally legitimate is already a thing. Taking an infant and being a legit parent to it seems a lot more natural by comparison.

This leads into an interesting topic of why China enforced various cultural customs by law and how that’s also key to Dynastic China’s success. Vote for the topic if you want to read more about it!

Could you explain the differences/stereotypes associated with each major city or region of China? For example you mentioned that entrance exams are less competitive if you grow up in Xinjiang or Tibet - does that affect how Tibetan people are viewed in other parts of China? - feze

Alright! Time to round up my big list of state stereotypes in China! This isn’t just my personal opinion—I rounded these up across a lot of posts talking about regional stereotypes in China. I apologise that a lot of the stereotypes are negative—I think it’s kind inevitable in a way, and it’s also more fun that way. Obviously, don’t take this too seriously.

Anhui: Literally who? The province that people are the most likely to forget about when listing provinces. So forgettable that there’s barely any stereotypes about them, except that they’re…poor? They’re the rural shithole surrounding Shanghai. It’s like the Rhode Island of China. People keep forgetting whether it’s an actual state, or just a city.

Fujian: Fishermen who worship Poseidon still, kinda sexist (?), what Guangdong eats for breakfast. Impenetrable as fuck dialects. Short. Like the Louisiana of China.

Guangdong: Believes anything north of Guangdong is The North, likes to eat Fujian people, Cantonese, drinks shittons of tea and soup. Whether you’re a beggar or a billionaire, there is one standard Guangdong outfit—wifebeaters, shorts, and sandals. Since they have the Silicone Valley of China in Shenzhen, it’s sort of like the California of China. It’s laid back, but super high in GDP and economic development.

Gansu: Silk road! Pretty wall paintings at Dunhuang on the Silk Road! But also super poor. Poorest state in China. So very poor. It’s like the Mississippi of China, if Mississippi had America’s biggest Cathedral built way back in the day or something.

Guizhou: Lao Gan Ma sauce, the saviour of many international students. It’s cheap, and it reminds you of home. Moutai, the only good hard liquor in China. People here know voodoo. Also super poor. They got shittons of mountains though. They got so many mountains, the Japanese couldn’t even attack them during WWII. They got so many mountains, that SARS couldn’t even spread in Guizhou. So many goddamn mountains. It’s like the West Virginia of China, if West Virginians know voodoo.

Henan: Steals manhole covers. Steals, in general. Lots of conmen and scams come out of here. They’re all criminals who don’t take enough showers. Henan Man is China’s Florida Man, as far as media reporting of crime goes, so I gotta say that Henan is like the Florida of China.

Hebei: Bullied by Beijing a lot. Has super fierce women who will fight you if you bully her husband. Other than that, there’s not a whole lot of stereotypes about Hebei. They’re like almost the vanilla of Chinese states. I guess that makes them Ohio, as the most generic state.

Hubei: Talks super loud. Are scheming, cunning, ruthless businessmen who’ll fuck you over and make you go bankrupt if you don’t stay alert 24/7. I’m not quite sure what comparison to make here. Perhaps they’re the DC of China.

Hunan: Everything is spicy. They invented the dish, “red chilli peppers stir-fried with green chilli peppers”, their local TV channel has the most reality TV show of any channel. Their girls are even spicier than their peppers. This is a specific enough stereotype that I’m not quite sure what state it corresponds to. New Mexico, maybe?

Hainan: Island, hot, people are super lazy and low ambition, shaped like Peppa Pig’s head, coconuts. It’s definitely the Hawaii of China.

Heilongjiang: It’s a part of the Dongbei tri-state area, and all three of these states have much the same stereotype. Lots of organized crime, people like to show off and brag and make up stories, people drink way too much, the birthplace of Chinese standup comedy, everyone there is a comedian, funniest accents in China, super extroverted. They’re the Texas of China. But cold and snowy.

Jilin: A part of the Dongbei triangle, see Heilongjiang above, basically.

Liaoning: A part of the Dongbei triangle, see Heilongjiang above.

Jiangsu: Wealthy, lots of history, has Nanjing, people are known for being snooty and higher than thou and kinda preachy, and oblivious to other people’s feelings. They’re like the Conneticut of China, at least the old money parts.

Jiangxi: Super high bride prices! Involutes like crazy, especially in schooling. They study so hard, but only ever just for the test. Greedy in a short-sighted way, obsessed about tiny profits. Very conservative. Not actually that poor, but they look that way, because they’re poorer than all the states around them. Jiangxi is just sort of…disappointingly mediocre. Like the Indiana of America.

Qinghai: Fly-over state, super low population density, lots of ethnic minorities, super corrupt local governments, really poor. Definitely the Oklahoma of China.

Sichuan: PANDAS. Mahjong. Hotpot every day. Super fierce and fiery women. Men who are afraid of their wives. Highest concentration of househusbands. Ceaselessly optimistic and cheerful. I guess a little bit like the Montana of China, if Montana had a lot of stay-at-home dads?

Shandong: Super tall people. Even taller leeks. Birthplace of Confucius and takes him super seriously. Have to kowtow to your seniors for Chinese New Year. TRACTORS. Super abusive schools. Qingdao beer—which is sort of like the Budweiser of China. Drinks the most in China. Women can’t eat at the same table as men. It’s like the Alabama of China, if Alabama took on the whole Everything Is Bigger in Texas thing.

Shaanxi: TERRACOTTA SOLDIERS. Super straight-forward. Doesn’t have any time for that round-about bullshit. Get to the point. Most men enlist? Eats a shitton of carbs. Likes folk songs? Their dialect makes it sound like they’re always on the verge of a fight breaking out. Kind of impulsive. Maybe the Georgia of China? But instead of a southern drawl, everyone speaks German.

Shanxi: They’re all scrooges. Like millionaires who have a successful companies, who are still loaning high-interest loans on the side, who still works day and night in a field, and only eats rice and beans, and wears the same jacket for generations. Super meek and obedient—not a single large-scale peasant rebellion in Chinese history has started in Shanxi. Not once. Will put up with anything. Scared of authority. Will literally actually just sit there and starve instead of fighting. But sucks up to authority—everyone’s trying to be a government official. Look, I know it’s gonna be controversial comparing any US state to Shanxi, but I’ve kind of committed to this format by this point. So, I’m gonna say, they’re the Canada of American states.

Zhejiang: New Rich, more money than taste, likes showing off, everyone has mistresses, makes the shadiest and lowest quality products, companies keep failing because the boss ran off with all the money. Maybe the California of China? Especially if you count tech company scams, I suppose.

Yunnan: MUSHROOMS, people going to the ER because of MUSHROOMS, people getting out of the ER to continue eating MUSHROOMS, HALLUCINOGENIC MUSHROOMS. It’s the Colorado of China, if instead of marijuana, you had MUSHROOMS.

Special bonus edition:

Macau: CASINOS. Super tiny. It’s obviously the Vegas of China.

Hong Kong: Lots of high-end shopping, super snooty, looks down on mainland Chinese, a lot of superiority, kisses white people’s ass though. Also, lots of organised crime. It’s definitely the New York of China.

Taiwan: Where the girls are super girly, and the men are also super girly. High-pitched voices. Talks like this~ All the time~ Even the men~ Especially the men~ Kawaii culture. A lot of celebrity gossip? The San Francisco of China.

Ahem. Now that I’m done making fun of Chinese states, I’ll briefly cover the original question of how people feel about places like Qinghai or Tibet having lower scores. To be honest, people don’t feel too much about it. Everyone understands that Qinghai and Tibet have lower admittance scores because they’re super poor, they’re super backwaters, they don’t have the resources that other states do. And even if they had the choice, people wouldn’t switch their hukou to Qinghai or Tibet in order to take their exams there, because switching it back to anywhere with decent infrastructure is going to be a pain in the ass. It’s just not worth it. And that’s why it’s okay.

People are a lot more assmad about Beijing having lower admittance scores than anywhere else, because Beijing is already a major city. People with Beijing hukou are already at the top of the pyramid, with the greatest access to education and resources in China. The only reason to give them lower standards is because their parents are Important People in the Government, and so they get special privileges and get to go to uni without actually having to try. There’s quite a lot of complaining on the internet, but everyone also shrugs and acknowledges that it’s not going to change, because if you made Beijing use the same standards as everyone else, too many Important People’s children would have to go to community college.