“My friend told me a couple of love stories at her work place. I’m writing a random one down, mostly to record a really excellent line of hers.
The couple in question worked at the same top university, but not in the same department. They were introduced to each other. The girl was an alumni of the school. After she graduated from her Bachelor’s, she stayed and worked in administration. At the time, she was just over 30. The guy was from an educated family, has a doctorate from a 985 university [equivalent to Ivy League], had previously studied overseas. He worked in a research lab, and then at this university. He was about 35 at the time.
He has really excellent qualities, so he had plenty of dates lined up, but he wanted to find someone who’s in the same social class at him. His ideal type was a female professor at his university.
But after they got marred, the girl had the pride of an intellectual, and was a clean freak, and didn’t want to have any sex.
The guy was like, “If you don’t want sex, why did you get married?”
And the girl was like, “Chinese women have to put up with everything.”
They got divorced within a year.
The girl’s boss was like, “It’s like she got married just to complete one of her KPIs in life.”
And it’s true. Her life didn’t change all before she got married, after she got married, and after she got divorced. She had the exact same job, the same title, the same lifestyle…
It’s like marriage was just something that everyone had, so she just wanted to try it out. If she didn’t like it, then oh well.”
Comments say, “That’s a really great guy she found though—no obvious flaws. If she missed out on him, she’ll never find better again…I don’t think she knows how hard it is for a woman over 30 on the dating market.”
“It’s pretty rare for anyone to not be into sex. I’m sure this is something that can be fixed.”
“Why are people so different? I want to be utterly chaste too…I’ve had to chat everyday with a Doaist monk to relieve my anxiety. It’s like my life has no point without a man.”
“How is Lee Jae-myung’s hunger strike going to end?
Die from hunger, become Korea’s Ghandi.
Listen to his friend’s advice and end his hunger strike.
Listen to the current president, end his hunger strike. If he doesn’t hold onto this opportunity, he might really die in protest.
The current president never advises him to end his hunger strike but he gives up anyways, and then he’ll have to retire, because he’ll no longer be relevant on the political stage.
As a political leader, it’s very tragic that he would need to resort to a hunger strike.”
Comments say, “There’s no justice in this world, only trades. I hope he can prioritise taking care of his body.”
“I feel like he’s gonna die. He’s going to wake up Korean people with his death.”
“He’ll die in the process of being arrested, and everyone’s gonna shift the blame. In the end, a newbie cop is going to become the scapegoat, and everyone will move on.”
A tiktok video of an American dad and his Gen Z daughter:
Comments say, “OMG, what a sweet dad. What a cute daughter. She has stars in her eyes.”
“That’s such a youthful and cute outfit! And she’s got gorgeous eyes! If she was in China, she’d get internet bullied so hard! I just saw someone on Chinese instagram today wearing a short black t-shirt and black pants, where the comments were saying they were dressed slutty.”
“I’m so envious of people who have a back to their head. They can wear headscarves like this T_T”
“Just read a horror story. The setting is that Earth is covered in various crises. Random horror events will take place at random places at random times, spawning all kinds of ghosts and monsters. There are teams of heroes who beat and resolve these horror events—if they win, the people in the area will be saved. If they lose, it’ll become a taboo’d zone.
That’s not the scary part. The scary part is that after the main character solves a horror event with his brains and his bravery and saved everyone, a normal bystander left a comment in the in-world forums: “Thanks for saving us. I was totally terrified of all the monsters. I wanted to move somewhere else, but I just bought a house, so I’ve still got 10 years on my mortgage.”
Comments say, “It’s true, though. Even if Sadako really crawled out of the house that took six people’s savings to fund and that I still had 25 years of mortgage on, I will grab her by the hair and beat her up myself.”
“But with monsters all over the place, why would houses still be so expensive you need to take out a loan?”
“Just saw a news story lately, that you can buy some kind of insurance when you buy a house in Japan, so that if you die without finishing paying your mortgage, the insurance company will pay the rest of the mortgage, so your family can just inherit the house with no extra debt. I really want this in China too.”
“I see a lot of girls complaining about being poor on the internet. But they’re not poor at all.
Real poor people live like this:
There’s only two winter outfits, two summer outfits, and two spring/autumn outfits in their closet. If they do laundry and it doesn’t dry in time, they don’t even have clothes to wear.
They’ve got two pairs of shoes that they wear all year around, and only 1-2 bags, all for under 100 RMB. They’ve been using them for years.
They never throw out clothes or shoes unless they’re completely unwearable.
They don’t drink soft drinks or tea or coffee or boba tea. They just drink boiled water. They don’t eat snacks and almost never eat fruit.
Their main purpose in eating is to get full—they eat mostly carbs with one veggie dish, maybe it’s stir-fried potatoes, or stir-fried rape, or stir-fried turnips, whatever is on sale right now. They’ll only eat stewed meat once or twice a week, or maybe super cheap fish/shrimp if they’re on the coast.
They never spend money on restaurants, not even fast food or take out for a 20 RMB.
They don’t die their hair or curl it, they don’t put on make up. The only skincare they use is generic lotion. They wash their face with tap water and use Fenghua shampoo [cheapest brand].
They live in the cheapest condo, use the cheapest furniture. They don’t turn on the heat in the winter or AC in the summer. They never call for a taxi.
They don’t travel, they don’t spend money on entertainment, they don’t spend money on games. They don’t have streaming website memberships or ever go to the movies.
Believe me, no young girls live this sort of life.
So, work hard on making money. Consumerism isn’t bad. What’s bad is not having money to consume to begin with.”
Comments say, “Dude, not even rural farmers live this type of life anymore.”
“I just discovered a bunch of clothes and shoes I bought for thousands of RMB that I never even got around to wearing. The shoes I wear the most are my 50 RMB pair.”
“This is the realest weibo I’ve read all of this year.”
Latest news that the Korean President has approved the court’s arrest of Lee Jae-Ming, leader of South Korea’s biggest opposition party.
Comments say, “I don’t understand, but I’m totally shocked.”
“The last man in Korea…”
“I didn’t know hunger strikes were illegal these days.”
Under the hashtag #property tax proposal has been delayed, a blogger writes, “It’s been delayed today, but who knows if it’ll pass tomorrow? Once houses stop selling, and land stops selling, then we’re going to need a property tax. This day isn’t going to be too far in the future. The real estate market is toppling.
If you understand the history of the two tax law and the one whip law, and the history of turning population tax into income tax, you’ll understand that a proliferation of property tax is inevitable.”
Comments say, “But there’s no logic to instituting a property tax in China—people don’t even own their property, it’s all still government owned.”
“Do you know how often People’s Representatives meet? If they said it’s been delayed, then it won’t be brought up again in five years.”
“What great news! Now if you buy a house that never gets built, not only do you have to pay back your mortgage, but you have to pay tax on it too!”
An instagram post asking, “My best friend is getting married, and told me to wear hanfu as her bridesmaid. Which outfit is best? It’s my first time going to a hanfu wedding, so I have no idea which one’s more suitable as a bridesmaid dress.”
The comments beneath say, “If you’re not going to a wedding, the first outfit looks the best. But as a bridesmaid, it’s not good if you outshine the actual bride, so go with the third one maybe?”
“Dude, outshine the bride? Do you have any idea what a traditional Chinese wedding dress looks like? Even if she wore all three at the same time, she couldn’t possibly outshine the bride. We don’t call it a phoenix crown and a dusk cloud shawl for nothing.”
“The first one! It’s red, so it’s lucky. Honestly, the comment section needs to calm down. No normal hanfu outfit is going to outshine a wedding dress. Traditional Wedding dresses aren’t here to fuck around.”
There’s a big compilation of Chinese wedding dresses underneath:
“A Traditional Chinese Wedding Dress is really no joke. My husband’s wearing an Emperor’s gown, and he still looks like my manservant.”
“A Taste of China [docu-series about Chinese food] has an episode about Xiangxi fermented vinegar. A woman from the area said that this food carried her through years of hiking through the mountains to get to school.
The hiking trails were incredibly rough and steep. She needed to get up at 3 or 4 AM to start on her journey. The sky was still completely dark, so her mother would walk her half the way.
As they walked and the sun began to rise, her mother would tell her, “Baby girl, the sun’s rising. You can walk by yourself from here on out. It’ll get brighter the farther you go. I need to go home and work.”
“You can walk by yourself from here on out. It’ll get brighter the farther you go.””
Comments say, “I remember this line too. I used to be scared of the dark, and after hearing this, I got over my fear XD XD”
“A Taste of China is really my absolute favourite TV Show. The mother-daughter who went mushroom hunting in Shangri-la, the uncle making cornbread on the Loess Plateau, the couple making rice noodles in Liu Zhou, the mother-daughter making fermented tofu in Huizhou, the uncle who was selling grilled tofu while dreaming about becoming a fisherman in Jianshui…they might not be wealthy, but their lives are full of hope. It makes me feel so lively and healed.”
“Oh my god guys, so you really can get arrested for looking at porn? My friend got a call from the police, and he had to go listen to some kind of anti-scam lecture and download the police app. His teacher even made him stand outside the classroom for a day. I mean, it’s tragic, but I still want to laugh at him. What a pure example of social death.”
A compilation of comments underneath: “I got called too, but I was a girl on some kind of gay dating app, so the police were totally confused too [Doge].”
“How can you even stand to look at porn? Anything with real people in it just makes me grossed out. It’s a little better if it’s aimed at women, but anything aimed at men just makes me want to slap the guy in it with my shoe.”
“Never log into Quirk with your phone number. Don’t say I didn’t remind you.”
“How ridiculous! How am I supposed to know how to have kids if I don’t read porn? If I don’t know how to have kids, how can I help China out with its birth rate? As for why I keep reading it, well, it’s because I’m just not particularly smart and don’t get it after once or twice. I’m just being a good student.”
“Doesn’t anyone feel like this is a huge invasion of privacy? Everyone’s acting like this is no big deal.”
“They don’t call you every time. It’s only when you pay money that you flag for being potentially scammed.”
"I’m so envious of people who have a back to their head."
??????
"We don’t call it a phoenix crown and a dusk cloud shawl for nothing."
Traditional Chinese wedding garb are truly extra. I'm so glad us southerners developed the qunkua over time; probably what I'll wear at my own wedding in a few years.