Chinese Olympic Swimmer Sun Yang announced his marriage on Weibo today, attaching his official government marriage photo. His wife is Chinese gymnast Zhang Doudou. The comment section is full of congratulations.
“My relative gifted me a 30K RMB pearl necklace. Is it real? Can everybody take a look for me? It came from one of my dad’s friends. He said it’s super expensive, but could this be a knock off? Did he get lied to?”
Comments say, “You should probably send this to a professional lab, instead of taking three photos and asking randos on the internet.”
“If you’re gonna give a gift, isn’t it better to gift 30K’s worth of gold, rather than 30K’s worth of pearls? It’s most likely fake. Of course, I’m not saying the pearls are fake. Just that it’s probably fake they're worth 30K.”
“It doesn’t look like akoya or Australian white pearls, so it’s probably not worth that much.”
“Would you ever avoid watching a show because you really hate an actor in it? Like, a highly-rated show. I’m the type of person where if she is so much as a background extra, I’d avoid the show. And I hate a lot of people, so I haven’t seen most shows. It’s pretty hard for me to find a show where I’m okay with everyone involved. Maybe there’s something wrong with me?”
Comments say, “Absolutely, like a certain botox’d somebody with no facial expressions.”
“I don’t watch anything with Yu Shuxin or Song Qian, not because I hate them or anything, but their face really breaks my suspension of disbelief.”
“Well, yeah, like anyone who’s broken the law or cheated or insulted China.”
A tiktok video from a young mother, displaying her stomach 10 days after a C-section. “I’m pretty happy how well I’ve recovered.
The video caption explains that she was 43kg before she got pregnant, 53kg when she gave birth. Her wait measurement is 83cm. 10 days after her surgery, her weight is now 46 kg.
Comments say, “Ten days after a C-section? Where’s your incision? I’d believe you more if you said a month.”
“Your uterus shrank in ten days? You’ve even got abs. Stop giving new mommies body image issues! >: (“
“Stop kidding me. You wouldn’t even be able to get out of bed after 10 days. How are you standing?”
A blogger posts someone’s instagram comments, which reads, “I had babies young, and it was so easy recovering my figure afterwards. When my son becomes an adult, I’ll still be in my thirties. It makes me happy just thinking about it. My son’s all grown up, and you’re still worried about making money, paying off your house, buying a car, and raising your own kids. Why would anyone think it’s not a great idea to have kids young?”
“I’m born in ’05, and I’ve got a super cute baby.”
“Born in ’04. The first day after our marriage, he’s already ignoring me. Is it really a good idea to marry young?”
Comments say, “Back when I was in middle school, there were tons of young mothers. Now that I’m graduating high school, it’s still the same.”
“I’m born in 2004 too, and I still feel like a kid who doesn’t know how to do anything. I can’t believe there are people the same age as me with their own children.”
“How are people born in 2004 even allowed to get married?”
A compilation of people telling the internet their surname, and commenters coming up with a pun based off their surname for them to use as a username. It would be too much of a pain in the ass to translate, I think, and puns are never funny once you explain it, so I’ll just make a note that there’s about a dozen name-based puns here.
“I’m my grandma’s oldest grandchild, but I have a rural hukou. All her other grandchildren have city hukou. So, perhaps surprisingly, I have the lowest status in my family. My grandma would hide fruit from me, to give to my aunt’s children. She’ll even tell them, “Eat these in secret, don’t let Zhang Jianguo [OP] find out.
At the time, I was four years old, mastering the brand new skill of hide and seek. They never imagined that to give them a surprise, I hid myself inside the kitchen stove. Yes, inside. A place no one would ever think to look. When I heard what my grandma said, I climbed out of the stove, up onto the crossbeam, and opened the cabinets. There, I found the fruit she’d hidden from me.”
Comments say, “You’ve experienced suffering, but you haven’t become a part of suffering. You’ve kept your kindness. Your life will be worth it.”
“This is the same as my maternal grandma. She saves all her food for her sunzi [grandchildren by her sons], and gives me rotten food. I would often get so hungry that I steal bread. I was already three or four years old, and she wouldn’t let me wear pants because she didn’t want to bother with washing my pants. All her grandchildren by her son would always have cute outfits. I had to master the skill of sucking up, and kiss up to all my cousins and neighbours, and try to con food out of them. Once I left her place, I never wanted to go back.”
“I cried seeing your post. I’ve been through the exact same thing when I was little.”
A news story, “Should one go through with a marriage one’s parents disapproved of? Lately, in Guangdong, a lady shows off her married life with her husband, claiming that they’ve been together for 8 years now. The lady claims that her parents disapproved because her husband is very poor, but she believed that if they worked hard together, they would earn a good life for themselves. But she says that until this day, she still lives in a 700 RMB a month rented house, earning 4000 RMB a month in salary, eating 10 RMB fast food. She says that they still have no car and no house, and she doesn’t know how long this is going to go on. Internet comments say that this is how 90% of people live.”
Comments say, “If you’re asking this, you’re already regretting it in your heart.”
“It’s pretty awful to still be stuck like this after 8 years, but the economy isn’t doing well lately. It’s harder than ever to make money.”
“Most people in their thirties are paid about 4K a month. This is pretty normal. Most people who buy a house do it with family support.”
“Wow, some people really do suffer tragedies while giving birth. Even now, I’m totally shocked. I’ve been hospitalised lately, trying to prevent a miscarriage. I’m super bored all day long, and basically spend all my time looking down the corridor, at the good news coming out of the delivery room. Whoever had a baby! And count to myself how many boys, how many girls.
There’s a little herd of pregnant ladies here. We’d walk around in the corridors and chat with each other. Last night, just as I was getting ready for sleep, when the lady in the next bed to me said that there was a woman doing vaginal delivery who went into the delivery room at 7am, and only gave birth at 9pm. It was a girl, and she’s been sent to the neonatal unit.
I sighed to myself that giving birth really is a chore.
A little later on, around 10pm, the same lady came in and said the baby had died.
Everyone in the hospital room was shocked. How could something like this happen?
The lady told us that the baby had her umbilical cord looped around her neck twice, and she was oxygen deprived. The new mother’s mother had passed out from crying. The dad was squatting along the wall quietly. The MIL had a very grave expression and was talking to him about keeping this news hidden from his wife.
The lady told us that the mother had requested a C-section multiple times, but her family members wouldn’t agree, so she had to go through with a vaginal delivery. She even asked the MIL why she didn’t consent to a C-section? Is it for the cost?
No one in this family answered or argued back.
All the nurses and doctors in the corridor went to the delivery room, including some heads of departments who had come running. I hear they’re trying to preserve the mother’s life. She’s in a very dangerous situation too, bleeding heavily.
All the other pregnant women on this floor stood in the corridor silently, watching the delivery room. I don’t know how she’s doing. I’ve been thinking about this all night. I hope she’s made it through this.
If I get any news tomorrow, I’ll update again.”
Comments say, “It’s ridiculous shit like this happens. We let the mother sign for everything herself.”
“I thought the patient got to decide so long as they were capable of deciding?”
“This isn’t an accident. Her family murdered her.”
“Adults put way too much attention on kids. I got a consultation question today, worth 199. The question was only one sentence: “I’ve got a two and a half year old—we agreed to go to someone’s house, and when we got to the door, he changed his mind and wouldn’t go in.” For this question, someone was willing to pay 199 RMB to listen to me explain. I honestly felt bad even charging.
A lot of adults really put way too much attention on their kids lately, to the point where a lot of very natural, age-appropriate behaviour from kids has been given undue significance by their parents. Either they think, “Oh no, is there something wrong with this kid I haven’t discovered? Am I delaying them?” Or it’s, “If I ignored their feelings right now, am I causing them trauma? Would they need to spend their whole lives healing their childhood?”
So long as you’re a parent who even thinks these questions to yourself, your children wouldn’t need to spend their whole lives healing their childhood, because you have bottom lines. You have basic principles.
To address the question—a two and a half year old changes his mind at someone’s doorstep and won’t go in, what do you do?
First, lower your expectations. Don’t expect that if your child says they want to go someone, then they’ll actually want to go and never change their mind. Not following through on their agreements is a privilege of children.
Second, make them go in anyways, just like how they might not want to go to kindergarten every day. If you don’t have a choice, even if your kid hates kindergarten, hates leaving you, you still send him every day. Because you’re an adult. You’ve got your own plans. You need to go to work.
Finally, once you’re in your friend’s house, explain the situation to them, find a private space, and comfort the kid. If you can’t figure out how to comfort him, try to find someone who can.
There are lots of things that kids don’t want to do, that have to be done. Putting kindergarten aside, for example, if you booked a vacation and bought plane tickets, and at the last minute, your kid changes their mind and refuses to board the plane, what do you do? Give up on the whole vacation? Don’t actually fly anywhere?
If your kid doesn’t want to hold your hand while you cross the street, even if you’ve already made agreements with him that he has to hold your hand when crossing the street, but he’s refusing to listen to reason now, what do you do? Let him walk across the street on his own?
To summarise: There are tons of stuff a kid doesn’t want to do, that has to get done in life. If you have the time, then sure, communicate with them and see if you can reach a solution. But if you don’t have the time, or this is a matter of principle, then don’t bother communicating. Just make them go in. You can comfort them afterwards.”
Comments say, “Oh my god, I just remembered Zhang Ze’s story [Chinese actor], that his whole family had bought boat tickets, and he absolutely refused and forced everyone to go to the zoo with him instead. And that boat sank.”
“It’s a privilege of kids to not carry through on their agreements? What age group does this apply to? I’ve got a six-year-old, who cares less and less about agreements the older he gets. I’m really frustrated.”
“I’ve got a 5 year old son, who seems really curious about really risky behaviour. Like, when we get into the elevator, he’ll stick his hand between the doors. We’ve told him tons of times that it’s really dangerous, but he just keeps insisting that he’ll pull back his hand in time.”
wish washing -> with washing
Is it common in China to tell the recipient of a gift how much it costs?