[It’s that time of the month again. You know what’s up. If there’s anything you’ve always wondered about China or some context you feel like you’re missing, feel free to leave a comment here. I’ll do my best to answer them!]
#2023 primary school students reach peak numbers. As the new school semester starts, almost 170,000 new students are entering first grade throughout Qingdao, over 70,000 more than sixth graders graduating primary school. The “Second Child Policy” was opened up in 2016, and now that batch of children are all going to school. At first, it was hard to feel the impact, but now it’s visible just how many kids are trying to get into school. The Director of Education explains that in most mid to large cities, primary school student numbers are reaching a peak in recent years.
Comments say, “And then it’ll drop off like a cliff.”
“So don’t worry. Even if you’re not having kids, someone else is. Rest easy.”
“So why are we still forcing people to have so many kids?”
“I’m say something that’s against the public opinion—if you’re still living in the broader environment of China, then never go against what the government’s promoting. Listening to the CCP won’t just keep you safe, it’ll keep you wealthy.
Go back three generations, and everybody was a poor farmer. What created such an enormous wealth gap? It’s whether or not people listened to the government. If the high school exam was restored, then you need to throw your life into passing it. So long as you made it into university back in those days, you went up a social class. If they’re opening up the economy, then you need to start a business. If they’re laying off government workers, you need to figure out a plan B for yourself. That was an age where there was gold all over the land. You know how people figured out how to get rich before the internet was around and there were get-rich-quick tutorials online? They watched the news!
Everybody watched the news. Some, so they could pass exams. Some, to figure out the unspoken truths. Some, as background noise while they washed dishes.
Everyone who bought houses in Shanghai back when they were giving out free hukou with it, who isn’t worth eight figures by now?
A ton of significant policies have been passed this year: Down payment on first houses has been lowered to 20%, 30% for your second house, lowering interest rates no mortgages, more tax breaks for dependents on tax returns. So long as you don’t currently have a house under your name, whether you’ve bought houses before, you get to enjoy first house discounts on houses you buy.
All of these policies point to two clear messages: buy houses, have kids.
And a lot of people are still complaining, why isn’t the government giving out stimulus checks to increase spending and having kids? Why don’t they solve this and that problem, and let people live in peace and prosperity? Anyone who talks about shit like this is just a big baby. They deserve to be poor. All they know how to do is sit there with an empty bowl and wait to be spoon fed.
Rome wasn’t built overnight. Everything has to happen in stages. There’s no such thing as a perfect opportunity. Everyone has to grit their teeth and dash out and take some risks.
If you don’t agree with you, you might as well stop reading here. It’s just like the stock market. Everyone who’s buying in and everyone who’s selling out are calling each other idiots. It’s because of people’s different choices that society has wealth flow and class difference.
For myself, my choice is:
If I can pay back my mortgage ahead of time, I will. That way, I can re-mortgage the house and get a much lower interest loan, so I can use this money in my business, and use the profits from my business to buy another house. I can control my amount of leverage by just buying smaller houses. But I still need to get my hands on as many houses as possible. In my point of view, of course, I’ll only buy houses in the core areas of first line cities [think New York, Los Angeles], second-hand houses with convenient location and amenities. I won’t touch anything else.
Remember, you can’t just buy any house. Location and quality is very important. That’s another topic too. I’ll just say, that with my tastes, I can’t even earn any money being a consultant for real estate people.
If you’re asking me what kind of business I’m doing, then, uh, I have nothing to say. For a public, free post on such a well-read platform, I can’t say too much.
2. The lower birth rate is, the more important it is to have kids. I’m going to focus on recovering my health, lowering my body fat percentage, and getting better constitution, and try to have another kid before I’m 40. I’m fine with either a boy or a girl, or even twins. If I can’t afford them, then I’ll just raise them free range. I believe in the power of genetics. I believe in the kids fighting for their own future. Once we’re old, children are our way of connecting with the world. The more connections you have, the more comfortable you’ll be in old age.
3. Believe strongly in the Chinese economy. The world is big. Anything is possible. Sure, it all sounds a little faith-based, but I believe in the power of positive thinking—whatever you think about will be reflected in your world. People who go around criticising and mocking and being pessimistic will never live happy lives. And practical people who are wealthy are always optimistic, happy types. They’re energetic every day.
Respect people’s fates. We’ll look back on this in five years.”
Comments say, “Yeah, have lots of kids. Everyone’s social security depends on you people having tons of kids.”
“Agreed, especially with the kids thing. A lot of young people’s been brainwashed by internet memeing. You don’t even have to get too old. Just get sick once while in your 40s or 50s, just a minor sickness, and you’ll get it.”
“I don’t know why the algorithm would recommend this kind of blogger to me. Why don’t you mention how many people were laid off from government factories? What about all those workers who were encouraged to work in factories, just to get laid off? They almost starved to death. You don’t mention everyone who failed at business either. There were tons of people who couldn’t even find a job before the internet proliferated in 2016. What’s the point of only looking at the lucky few who were successful? It’s just all 20/20 hindsight.”
“My brother stabbed a hole in my mom’s face, and cut her facial artery. She couldn’t have anaesthesia, and got infected after her surgery. Had to have a second surgery to cut away dead tissue. Now there’s a super obvious scar on her face. Everyone knows what it was like in early 2020. It was the start of the pandemic, and doctors and nurses were getting sick too. My mom was having to give herself her own shots (she’s a nurse too), and the nurse who gave her stitches the first time was new at it. When this happened, my brother wasn’t 14 yet. He was one month away.
I had left the country at the end of 2019, and only was able to come back this year. I had very little contact with my brother while he was in middle school. Often, I would just hear my mom complaining about him when she called me once a week or so. They would have huge fights. I’d hear the story from both sides, and try to mediate their conflict.
My brother was going to a private middle school. He gets one week end off every two weeks. He only gets to play on this phone for these two days. I think this is okay.
From this semester on, he went to a new school. His new dorm doesn’t have a private bathroom. The public bathroom is too dirty. He couldn’t stand the smell of cigarettes. He demanded he change schools or stop boarding.
He got to stop boarding, but he wasn’t satisfied for long. Give him an inch, and he starts trying to take a mile. He wanted to play with a phone every night. If my mom doesn’t give him the phone, he would stand by her bed and refuse to leave. My mom couldn’t stand it, and let him play with it for a couple of days. Then, he started falling asleep in class and being caught by the teachers. So my mom decided to give the phone to the teacher, and just return to a system where he only got his phone every other weekend.
I think this was the right decision all along. I don’t know what gave my brother the right to play with a phone.
He said if she gave it to his teacher, he’ll just stop going to school. Okay, so let him stop going to school. I’ve always thought he should go experience life on a construction zone.
After being torn for a couple of days, with my mom even ran away from the house out of anger once (honestly, I’ve never seen my mom like this…I grew up getting beaten by my mom), my mom was all like, “I can’t fight him, but I can avoid him,” and gave his phone to the teacher.
Once my brother found out, he started calling her a cunt, asking why she doesn’t go die, etc, etc. I wasn’t home yesterday, so when I heard about this, I was shocked. My mom is the most important person to me.
A couple of days ago, I was worried whether my brother would try to con my parents out of their retirement money. So at the time, I was telling them they need to watch out for themselves, they need to take care of themselves, and so on.
My mom hesitated, and said that there was something she never planned to talk about in her life. But at my repeated urging, my mom eventually told me that my brother made the scar on her face.
The moment she said that, I could tell from her voice she was having an emotional breakdown. I broke down too.
I was never the type of kid to be jealous of my siblings. I’ve never felt anything about it. But at that moment, I hated him. I’ve never hated him more. I almost lost my mom.
At the time, my mom had said she’d fell on the road, or fell while exercising. She’d lied to me. She only told me a month after she healed from the wound. Every time I think about it, I’d get scared. Just thinking about it drives me nuts.
I looked it up, and it doesn’t count as a severe wound by the law at all. The statute of limitations is only three years, and it’s already passed.
I remember that before I left the country, he tried fighting my mom once, and I absolutely flipped out. I ran up, pulled him back, and gave him a couple solid punches. How dare he hit my mom!?
Maybe now, his rebellious stage is over. I don’t think he’ll be violent again. But his attitude is still horrible. And I feel like he only treats my mom with such hostility. He’s not like this with me at all, like maybe he’s putting on a disguise or something.
I always felt like my brother was a pretty good guy other than not liking studying and being kinda strong-willed. I’ve talked to him a lot of times about how he’s gonna take care of himself in the future, and what kind of person he wants to be.
But now, I don’t care anymore. I don’t even have a job yet. I just want to try my best to protect my mom.”
Comments say, “You should double check whether that’s your mom or his mom before you worry about protecting her.”
“You know why he’s only like this to your mom? Because she spoiled him into it. Even very small children know what they can and can’t get away with, who’s actually going to enforce consequences and who’s not. To be blunt, your mom brought this on herself. Don’t bother with her.”
“What happened to your dad? Is he dead?”
In Jiangsu, a Mister Wang was introduced to a supposedly single Miss Lee by a friend of his, and after they began dating, Mr. Wang transferred her about 60K over the course of their relationship. One day, coincidentally, Mr. Wang discovered that Miss Lee was already married, and would block him before making social media posts bragging about what good food her MIL makes.
He sued her in court, and the judge ruled that the man in this case gave money to the woman with the goal of eventual marriage in mind. Since the woman hid her marital status, then the pretext for these transfers no longer apply. As a result, this money doesn’t count as normal gifts during the course of dating. In the end, Miss Lee agreed to return all the money he’d given her.
Comments say, “Shouldn’t you go to jail for fraud? Where’s our public prosecutors?”
“It’s not just fraud, it’s adultery too.”
“Thieves can’t steal your house. But wives can.”
“Eating out with my boyfriend once a week has become torture. An incomplete list of what he won’t eat: pigs feet, swamp eel, crayfish, frogs, pork intestine, spicy hotpot, kebabs. This is pretty much everything available for two people to eat on a weekend. It’s honestly so annoying that he won’t eat anything.
There’s, like, two solutions. First solution, we go eat stir-fry. But who the hell eats stir-fry every time they go on a date? And he won’t eat any bitter melon or celery either. Or the other solution, we just each order our own food. But I can only eat 4 dishes with hotpot. If he orders a separate hotpot, he’ll be full with three dishes. What’s the point? Or, going to eat frogs, the smallest portion is still three pounds. I don’t get to try a lot of variety, and I have to way overstuff myself because I don’t want to waste food.
It’s honestly such a big impact on my mood. He said that I can’t force other people to eat if they just don’t like it. He admits he’s just a picky eater. So, what can I do except be annoyed on the inside? But at once a week, I can’t stand being annoyed for this long this continuously.
I wanna break up…T_T This is the first time food’s been a problem while I’m dating…Gawd.”
Comments say, “The entire point of dating is to have someone to share a meal with tbh. If you don’t get along, then don’t force it.”
“I’m also in pain. Back during the lockdowns, I spent a week on snatching up a single serving of pork, and he yelled at me so much, I sat outside and cried for two hours. He asked why I’d buy pork? That he’d said he never ate pork a long time ago, why would I deliberately gross him out? Even though he totally eats pork belly at barbecue places. I love eating sweet and sour ribs, and couldn’t touch them for three years.”
“My best friend doesn’t eat anything with wings, or frogs, or lamb, or eggplants, or lotus root. Whenever we go out, I just let her order and eat whatever she wants. I guess we’re all more tolerant towards our best friends than boyfriends, huh?”
So many of the posts you translate refer to "sitting the month". I had never heard of that concept before but understand it has to do with a woman taking it easy after birth, eating special foods, not doing strenuous activity, etc. with lots of variations. How long has this been a cultural practice? Does it go back to ancient China or is it newer? Is it something that everyone does no matter what region they are from? Trying to get a more general understanding of the history and context for sitting the month.
What do people say about the Evergrande situation?