[It’s that time of the month again! If you’ve got any questions you’ve always wondered about China, or feel like you’re missing context, ask your questions here! I’ll try to answer them to the best of my ability!]
An entertainment blogger reposts a post from Chinese Instagram:
“A secret about the algorithm nobody will tell you: when you register on a pregnancy or parenting forum, you’ll get an “expecting mom” tag on the internet. At the same time, your partner is going to get an “expecting dad” tag. The “expecting mom” tag is used to recommend to you more baby products, childrearing advice. The “expecting dad” tag is used to recommend to him sexy videos, porn sites, and the nearest massage parlour.”
The blogger also attaches screenshots of one of the comments, “It’s real. My best friend and I have couple accounts in a game, plus my best friend likes to register her gender as male on everything. The algorithm thought we were husband and wife. One time, in some period-tracking app, I accidentally clicked that I was pregnant. And my best friend’s phone suddenly started getting a lot of junk texts about hot single ladies in her area. We spent ages before we figured out that was why.”
Comments say, “Where there is demand, there is supply. If he wasn’t gonna, no matter how many texts he got, he’d just skip by it. If he was gonna, he doesn’t need any texts to find it himself.”
“The very next weibo post after this is what tearing looks like during childbirth. My thought is, you’ll stay safe so long as you’re single and child free.”
“Nah, I think you’re overestimating men. Expecting dads aren’t any different from normal men. They don’t need to be especially marketed towards. This sort of rumour is just designed to split society apart.”
A blogger posts a long Japanese article about two Japanese uni students who attempted suicide, because of recently developing AI technology. In an interview with one of the girls, she explained that she had taken out a lot of loans in order to go to university to major in Art, and just three months after she enrolled, AI technology came out that can do in 10 minutes what takes her hours or even days to do. She lost all passion in her class assignments, but her mother is insisting that she finish with her major. A different girl agreed that since AI was introduced to her uni courses, all the manga, anime, and game art she learned can be made by AI, and it made her feel like she has nowhere to use her skills.
Comments say, “Did translators all go kill themselves when translation software got invented?”
“It’s not that big a deal. All the people talking about how AI can replace artists are all amateurs anyways.”
“How sad. Humanity’s liveliness and unique thoughts and creativity is unparalleled in the field of art.”
“My sister is so mean. When my niece got home, she said, “Do you know about Disney, mommy? The teacher says there’s a castle there and princesses, and princesses wear pretty dresses, and princes, and fireworks!”
My sister: “Yeah, of course I know. I’ve been there.”
My niece startled, staring at my sister with disbelief.
My sister: “Daddy’s been too. Your auntie’s been too. We’ve all been.”
My niece didn’t even know what to say. After a long time, she asked, “Why didn’t you take me?”
My sister: “Because you were too little to go at the time.”
Like she was holding onto her last straw, my niece carefully asked, “Has grandma went too?”
My sister: “Grandma hasn’t, no.”
And with a little bit of comfort that at least grandma had also never gone, my niece walked sadly away.”
Comments say, “Hahahahaha. My daughter asked me if I can take her. I told her, “I went on my own as an adult. You can go on your own as an adult too.”
“At least grandma’s never went. Otherwise, she’d have to spend her whole life healing from this shock.”
“Hahahahaha, your niece is pretty smart. She already knows how to minimise her sadness.”
“I applied to join the Communist Party, and my dad tells me now that he has a criminal record. I literally can’t breath. I can’t sleep. I can’t stop thinking about this.
I’ve always wanted to join the Party. I had to fight super hard for this slot. After I’ve submitted all my materials, when it came time for my background check, my dad suddenly told me that when he was young, he spent a year in prison because he got in some fights. I asked the local census office, and they said that if I want to pass my background check, then there has to be no criminal record. What should I do? T_T
I already know there’s no way I can pass the background check, but how to I explain it to my work? I really don’t want to tell everyone the reason, and everyone at work knows that I wanted to take the exam to become a civil servant.
I tried asking my dad for advice, and all he said was, “Well, I told you before hand. If you fail, you can’t blame me.””
Comments say, “Get your parents to divorce, remove your dad from your hukou, delete him from all of your contact lists, and then pretend that your dad’s missing.”
“What are you upset for? Do you know how bad a fight has to get before you get sentenced to a whole year of prison? Normally, people just stay a couple of days in jail. Children take after their fathers.”
“Why are there such unreliable fathers in this world. You should beat the shit out of him. At least this way, you fail the background check because of yourself, not because of him.”
A blogger reposts news that the latest Miss Netherlands beauty pageant’s winner was a transwoman, who beat nine women to take the crown. Next, Rikkie is going to attend the Miss Universe contest and have a chance at becoming the first transwoman to win the Miss Universe title. He attaches a long screenshot of comments on twitter of people being mad at this result, and says that, “This sort of thing is going to keep happening, because Thailand’s JNK Global Corporation bought out the Miss Universe beauty pageant last year, and as everyone knows, Anne JKN herself is a transwoman and has already claimed that she intends to make the contest “more and more tolerant”.
Comments say, “Basically, men are still getting dividends from their gender privilege. Nothing’s changed.”
“Women should just drop out of beauty pageants and let them fight it out. See who watches these pageants anymore.”
“If it’s a beauty contest, please pick out a beauty.”
“Gods of Medicine lurking in cities is a thing in reality. I know someone on social media who can’t open his mouth. He can only fit the tips of two fingers in his mouth. He can’t even get them further in. He has to eat tiny bites of food at a time normally.
I suggested he visit a Chinese medicine doctor. I said that last time, when I had a cyst in my sublingual gland, it was a single dose of medicine from a Chinese doctor that cured it! The friend went to the hospital with a very doubtful attitude, and thought to himself that he should get a CT-scan first. Maybe he’d need surgery or something. But there wasn’t a line for the Chinese medicine doctor at all, so he went there first.
The doctor asked him what was up. He explained the situation. The doctor felt around his bones a little, and then started sticking needles in him.
He’s crying in our group chat, “I feel like something wrong? Why did he start poking me full of needles as soon as we met?” That’s the doubt stage.
I asked, “He stuck you with needles right away? He didn’t ask anything?”
He said, “We barely said three sentences to each other before he started. He’s even poking me in the toe.”
A couple minutes later, the doctor pulled the needles out, and stuck them back in in different positions.
Everyone in the group chat is talking about whether all these posts about magical Chinese medicine is too unrealistic and exaggerated. And another member and I, who had both been cured by Chinese medicine before, both said that it depends on the situation.
And then the guy who got stabbed with needles posted and said that it was over.
We asked how he felt, trying to judge whether he’s at the, “Oh my god, this God of Medicine changed my life!” stage or the “Does this work or not?” stage.
The friend said that he felt like he could open his mouth a little more. Now he can get his fingers in to the first knuckle. (At the questioning stage now)
We kept talking about our experience with Chinese Medicine, and after another ten minutes, the friend suddenly said, “I’m not even home yet, and now I can stick my entire finger in! My mouth can clearly open bigger than before! What an absolute wizard!!!” (kneeling in awe stage)
Everyone in the group chat was like, “He’s already been totally convinced this quickly?”
The he was like, “Thank god I didn’t voice any of my doubts. I’m gonna book another appointment tomorrow for more acupuncture. I’ve got tinnitus too. I’m gonna recommend my friends to come see him too!” (blind faith stage)
People are like, “Wait, you’re going a little too fast.”
Friend: “But he really is a wizard!!!”
So see, Chinese medicine working like magic is based on reality.”
Comments say, “I got a migraine once, and went to the department next door to get some acupuncture for free. The old director complained the whole time that I play on my phone too much, as he stuck me full of needles. My headache went away almost right away! When he was pulling the needles out, he told me to come back for more sessions. And I told him that I’m scared of needles, and refused him, saying I’d rather take medicine. He stared at me for three seconds, then prescribed me some medicine. Guess what? The moment it entered my mouth, it was so bitter, I saw my life flashing before my eyes.”
“I know a Chinese medicine doctor once, who had a paralysed patient be carried in to see him on a stretcher. He did a session of acupuncture and some sort of heat lamp, and half an hour later, the guy could walk around holding onto a railing. After that, I’ve been absolutely convinced that it’s not that Chinese medicine doesn’t work. It’s just that some doctors don’t know what they’re doing.”
“I had back pain, and they stuck needles in my arm, leg, and forehead, and then it went away. I don’t get it, but it’s amazing.”
A tiktok video showing parents solving the problem of having a picky eater.
Comments say, “The baby’s expression slowly become more and more horrified.”
“He’s so good~ Mine would’ve started crying right away.”
“After a month, the parents have each gained 10 kg, and the baby still hasn’t gained any. T_T”
A blogger shows screenshots of a conversation happening in a comment section, where someone asks, “Is anyone having a second baby just to sit the month properly again, to fix the illnesses left over from the first baby they had?”
Someone replies, “You can’t take care of yourself normally? You have to have a baby to get healthy again?”
“It’s a month-sitting illness. I hear you can only fix it by sitting the month again.”
“I didn’t know month-sitting illnesses were more painful than having a kid.”
“Month-sitting illneses are around forever, but the pain of having a baby is temporary. If having a second baby can really fix the illness the first one left behind, it’s not a bad idea to try. After all, your body is your own.”
Comments say, “Just remembered an article about the truth behind month-sitting illnesses—that they don’t exist at all. That’s just what people call the natural damage that happens to a woman’s body after childbirth, because then they can ignore the woman’s suffering. All the accumulated damage from pregnancy and childbirth can be dismissed as you not being obedient, not being careful, not sitting the month well enough. They don’t have to acknowledge it as something you had to pay and sacrifice.”
“What if you can’t fix it? You gonna have a third baby and a fourth baby too?”
“Have you tried submitting this idea to the Nobel Prize?”
A tiktok video of a Shandong woman who married into a Pakistani rural village and had three kids, just to have her husband disappear on her. She rages, “You’re shameless! You’ve fucked me over! You’ve completely screwed me! I can’t find Mike. He’s not at any of the hotels. He won’t answer my calls. He says I scammed him. He knows what fucked up shit he’s done.”
Comments say, “You picked your own road. You picked your own man. Even if he’s a piece of shit, you’ve got to see it through to the end.”
“Now there aren’t any feminists talking.”
“Looks how upset the kid is. Why would you film this in front of him?”
I'd be interested in your take on this: https://azure-sister.tumblr.com/post/705938217672802304/
It's someone analyzing the (English translation of the) Remembrance of Things Past series, and wondering which of its oddities are due to differences between Chinese and American culture, and which are just the idiosyncrasies of its author.
Does the hukou system mean that China doesn't have many apartment buildings?