11/25/23 - China’s exports are still going strong, and have soundly won this trade war on all fronts.
[I’m going to be going on a last minute family vacation to Canada starting next Tuesday for a week. I should still have time to keep the blog updating, except perhaps flying out and flying in, when I might not be able to get to a place with wifi in time. In case I miss any days, I will definitely make up for it by interviewing my parents to try to see if they’ve got any interesting perspectives to offer.]
“Normal family in Beijing, in Beijing’s most chill educational zone. Since my husband’s ancestral home is a school district house, my kiddo went to one of the top three schools in Beijing for elementary. His grades aren’t bad, and there’s not too much pressure on him. There’s only pressure on the parents. Everyone’s driving Maseratis to take their kids to and from school. It costs 12K a year to ride the school bus. Kids host their birthday parties at big manors. The gifts you bring probably isn’t even worth as much as the paper the invitation was written on.
All the kids have all kinds of talents like figure skating, curling, equestrianism, golf, fencing—all stuff you can’t get good at without insane amounts of money. The kind you can’t even take poor kids to.
There’s several different types of parents. One is local natives with a school district house (like us). One is major taxpayers in different districts, like CEOs and business owners. One is famous people in various fields, like actors, athletes, TV hosts, experts, etc. The kind you’d recognise by name. And one is government workers, people who work directly for the core government departments.
One time, during covid, my company wanted me to go on a pointless business trip, and I told them that if I got sick because I went out, then my kid’s classmates might get infected, and then their parents will get infected, and maybe all of congress would have to shut down. My boss was worried about things getting out of hand, so he didn’t make me go.
And finally, what’s left is noveau riche families who bought a house in our district as soon as their kid was born so they’d have a good school to go to. Like, second or third generation government worker, upper management at IT companies, partners at famous law firms, etc.
So there’s a ton of involution among the parents. To make sure our kid feels like he fits in at school, we had to try our hardest for everything. Thankfully, he’s a pretty motivated sort of kid, so he’s been able to take part in most school events. That’s not bad for a kid from a basically normal family.
Can’t help it. I can’t even blame the teachers or the school for being suck ups. If the kids are putting on a drama show, and someone’s mom is a famous actress, and someone’s dad is a famous director, and they come to help the kids rehearse and provide costuming and props, can you get away with not giving their kid the leading role? Plus, their kid grew up in that environment and has natural talent. My kid can only ever be a background extra, or maybe play the villain or something.
If you hold an event on environmentalism or something, and someone’s dad is an expert in the field, could you not put their kid in the centre of all the photos and give him the most shots in the school’s promotional video?
If you want to improve your garden, and someone’s parents offer to do it for free, with a design blueprint ready to go on the principle’s desk, could you not give their kids a little bit more resources?
That’s just the involution on the surface. There’s plenty invisible involution too.
The teacher asks the kids to write about an interesting thing that happened during their break. Some went skiing in Hokkaido, some went to see maple leaves in Canada, some rode ponies in America. Some put on their own art exhibition, some went to an international piano competition, some learned calligraphy from a famous master, some participated in filming a movie. Basically, it’s all mindblowing stuff, but that’s just their daily life.
Due to covid, there wasn’t a graduation party this year, and it saved us a lot of trouble. All the past graduation parties were fancy as fuck. Every class was decorated up like it was a wedding venue, or coming of age party. There’s no need to worry over a budget, because plenty of parents bring their own materials. The school just has to put together 500-1000 RMB at most.
Now that I’m done with primary school, it’s time to go on to middle school. We’re in the comfiest district in Beijing—few kids, plenty of high schools, 90% graduation rate. So long as you’re not retarded, you can go to high school. But you still need to try, if you want to get into a good highschool.
By the time it’s middle school, there’s a lot less parent participation. All the kids can complete any events or school projects on their own. Now is when the kids start involuting among themselves.
Why do people say that Haiding in Beijing is the most involuted school district? Because first, Haiding is the best school district in Beijing. And second, Haiding’s education resources are divided very unevenly. The good schools are the best in the country. The bad schools are…really, really bad. And it has a high population. So the top students really are geniuses. And another thing is the families. Most parents in Haiding are professors in various research labs, so they do a good job at raising their kids. That’s not something us normal parents can compete against.
The top student in my kid’s class, his parent is supposedly a professor at China’s top university. The kid’s got high IQ and EQ, and knows basically everything. Sometimes, the questions he brings up in class even stump the teachers. And he just has a very deep way of thinking, considers problems differently from all his peers. And he’s got a strong personality.
My kid’s envious, of course, but he can’t compare. He knows what he is.
Maybe it’s not as tiring to study as a kid in Beijing—at least, it’s not like Hengshui [a highschool that’s structured like literally prison, except with more human rights violations] where every second counts, and the graduation rate is sure higher. But the involution happens in other areas—your mindset, your worldview, the breadth of your knowledge, your EQ, your values, your other capabilities, whether it’s sports, art, or whatever. You’re always competing with the best kids in the whole country. This requires you to develop more broadly, plan more for your future, and work yourself even harder.
Involution is everywhere. It just takes different forms.”
The blogger who reposted this content writes, “I read about half of this before I had to stop. It’s so involuted T_T It was literally making me sweat. Every word this answerer wrote made me feel a kind of loss, anxiety, insecurity…honestly, I’ve never been this worried and scared and confused reading murder mystery novels.
I feel like Hengshui is a lot better at this, because at least you can still feel like hard work is going to pay out in the end. At least you have a chance to make it to the front. But in this kind of environment, it doesn’t matter how hard you work, you’ll never be able to afford a helicopter, right? Even if you push yourself as hard as you can and make all the progress you can and get a better score than your classmate who spent 3K a week on tutoring, their parents can just throw a couple of million RMB at America and put them in a world famous university.
A couple of years later, you’re still fighting and working hard and emptying your wallet to go to the same world famous university for a Master’s Degree, spending 6-figures a month renting a tiny studio apartment and working part-time through your degree, when you see the same classmate walking by with Fendi socks. Like that powerlessness, like you’ll never catch up to him even in another eight generations, really makes me think Hengshui is better. Because at least only poor people’s kids go to Hengshui, so they’re motivated to keep fighting.”
Comments say, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, sweating this, powerlessness that. I feel like it’s all just new bougie fussing over absolutely nothing. Everyone should just do the best they can with what they have. That’s what it means to be human. As a parent, why are you focusing on the elite and saying your dreams are where they started to begin with? Why not look at the farmers who have to dig for their food in the field every day? Your parents worked hard their whole lives, so you can get educated enough to type here, and you’re spending your time complaining instead of helping push your kid along?”
“In western Beijing, everyone rides a scooter to take their kids to school. Driving a Maserati…you’ll be in dead stop traffic for hours.”
“I’ve got a coworkers in western Beijing, and when his kid started going to school, he sold a house in Fengtai to afford a Porsche Cayenne, just so his kid wouldn’t lose face getting picked up from school.”
“It looks like fate, but actually, this is because we walked the right path and we were powerful!
Has anyone noticed a couple of crucial turning points? When America was bombing and crashing planes into Chinese embassies from 1999 to 2001, America was determined at that point to crush China’s development. But then 9/11 came, and America got drawn away by Afghanistan, and sank itself into that swamp for 20 years, until they had to run away with their tail between their legs. And in 2001, two months after 9/11, China joined WTO, and from that point on, it’s like China’s exports and manufacturing turned on a cheat code or something.
After wasting its time in the Middle East for a couple of years, American started fucking with China’s economy again, and then the 2007 financial crisis came. By 2009, Americas bring up their plans to return to the Asia-Pacific, though it wouldn’t be implemented until 2011, because this is the year that China officially overtook Japan in GDP, becoming second in the world. And China’s manufacturing industry had official overtaken America too. One of my friends working as a diplomat in America recalls, from this year on, he felt like the atmosphere in America got really weird. They were really interacting with him like they were wary of an enemy, instead of working with a friend. Honestly, the financial crisis was the best camouflage for China’s manufacturing industry shooting up to be number one in the world, because at the time, America depended on China. They needed help with their debt problems. And over these years, China’s export and industrialisation went up another tier. In 2011, we even finished building the J-20, and all kinds of warships were popping up like bamboos after rain.
By the time 2018 rolls around, America finally declares total trade war like they’ve went fucking mad. And starting with blacklisting Huawei in 2019, they declared a technological war on China too, basically not even disguising their intention to stop China’s development in its tracks. But starting from 2020, covid hit. China’s exceptional ability to organise and manage itself provided the world with the necessary industrial products and daily items to combat covid. China’s exports and manufacturing rose to a record high in world market percentage. China’s manufacturing was responsible for 1/3rd of the world total.
And America itself ran through their own financial credit by raising too much debt, causing themselves to call into a state where, “The deficit is larger than GDP by 3%, national debt greater than GDP by 70%, that is, basically bankruptcy.” And this year, America’s deficit is going to reach 7-8%, and the total debt will probably be 140% of total GDP. This is twice over the red line that Americans set for themselves. China’s exports are still going strong, and have soundly won this trade war on all fronts. And as for the technological war, with the release of Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro, China’s gained the upper hand and is on the offensive now.
And America’s tried to raise a number of alliances against China, from AUKUS, or the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or the Chip 11 alliance, and other anti-China alliances. They’ve done their best to try to get the middle east and Russia to join their camp too. But the Russia-Ukraine War completely destroyed America’s attempts to buddy up to Russia, and China and Russia are more closely economically tied than ever. The total trade between us is over 200 billion USD now, and might easily break 400 billion USD in the future.
After China settled the Iran/Saudi conflict, the Israel-Palestine conflict began, and all of a sudden, America had to deal with both Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine. Continuing to war against China has completely lost support among the muggles. Australian leadership has even outright declared that good Chinese-Australian relationships is better for the world, and any country that seeks to ruin that relationship is evil, just to warn the Americans.
Overall, it looks like that luck has been on our side every time, but actually, it’s because we’ve always been aiming for a win-win, always doing the right thing. Plus, we are extraordinary at organisation and as a race, we’re very smart. That’s why China gets lucky every time. It’s because we’re strong enough to get to that point anyways.”
Comments say, “China pulling Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates into BRICS and raising their international position and giving them a platform is a series of strategic decisions that’s very insightful and well thought out. What a perfect victory.”
“We had to pay a lot in 2008 too. That time, it was basically cutting off our own flesh to feed a wolf. But for America, the days when a dozen countries dedicates its resources to keeping America afloat is over now.”
“Looking at history, so long as there are no internal traitors working against us, China never has major problems. Right now, there’s just a lot of Quislings who are well-connected and very active. Thankfully, they can never make it that high in society, so although they’re harmful, they’re not going to do significant damage.”
A compilation of people’s cringy moments as a teenager:
“When I was in elementary school, I got made fun of by a classmate for having small eyes. In middle school, for my birthday, my parents got me a professional photoshoot, and everyone in my family said I looked really good in it. So I looked up my primary school’s group chat, and spammed it full of my photos, and even said in the group chat, “Just because my eyes were small then doesn’t mean they’re going to stay small forever. Don’t envy me too much.””
“When I was in 7th grade, I liked to wear a lop-sided pony tail, and I’d always do it in the direction of the boy I had a crush on. I have no idea what I was thinking at the time. Was my hair a cannon that would blow his brains out of his skull so he starts loving me back too?”
“When I was in primary school, I liked to pretend I had multiple personality disorder. If my hair was down, I’d be super ladylike, and if I had my hair up in a ponytail, I’d be super outgoing and energetic. Did that for a while before my mom couldn’t take it anymore and cut my hair into a bob T_T”
“Liked emo shit in high school, and once, I was just sitting in my seat, and out of nowhere, I picked up my water bottle and poured it all over my own head. Startled the hell out of everyone. And then I’d force on a smile and say, “Sorry for inconveniencing you all.””
“When I was in primary school, my classmates and I were comparing whose dad had the stinkiest feet. To win the argument, I took my classmates home while my dad was taking his afternoon nap, and had them all smell my dad’s feet. And everyone agreed my dad had the stinkiest feet. And I was super proud of it too.”
“When I was graduating from middle school, I really liked Song Joong-ki [actor], and would spam his photos in my school’s group chat saying, “This is what a real man looks like.” Then I got muted for 365 days T_T”
“When I was pursing my crush, I gave my sister a dollar to write a letter pretending to be a guy who had a crush on me. And I stuffed it in my crush’s desk, hoping to awaken his jealousy.”
“I watched Fairy Tail when I was in elementary school, and drew a Fairy Tail logo on the back of my hand with a pen. Then I thought it looked too plain on its own, so I drew chains extending from it all the way up to my elbows. When I was eating, my mom saw all the scribbles over my arms and told me to wash up before I ate. And I started cackling and covered my left eye with that hand and told my mom, “A mere mortal dares to give me orders? Do you know who I am, peon?” And my mom picked up her backscratcher and beat the shit out of me. My dad almost died laughing. I cried as I washed my hand and even told myself in my heart, “You can only be a mere human from now.””
“In middle school, I made up an identity as “my older brother” to talk to a guy friend, and even wrote him anonymous letters telling him to take care of “my younger sister”. Nearing graduation, he said he wanted to meet my brother, and I didn’t have anyone to offer him, so I told my best friend to dress up like a man to meet with him. And my best friend got found out because she was still wearing women’s slippers. And in the end, he was like, “Your brother is actually you, isn’t it?” This cringe has stayed with me to this day. My best friend still cusses me out for it every time she remembers.”