Someone makes a submission: “My brother and SIL are having a huge fight to the point of divorce over the new year. My brother’s ex-wife had died when she was ran over by a scooter while out shopping for gifts for her grandma. Since then, my brother’s sent 2000 RMB to his ex-wife’s parents every month, which is 10% of his income. He let his current wife know first thing when they got together, and she said that she was okay with it. They got married around Chinese Independence Day, and now, his wife is saying that if he continues to give them money, then she’s not going to get pregnant.
She also contacted my brother’s ex-wife’s family the day after Chinese New Year and told them to have a sense of shame and stop begging my brother for money. So, they’ve returned all the money that my brother’s sent them over the years. They said that they never intended on touching the money and was going to give it back anyways when my brother had a child. They also said that it’s best not to contact each other anymore, and he doesn’t need to visit their daughter’s grave anymore either. And then they blocked him.
My brother was furious and told his wife to go back to her parents and get prepared for divorce. Said she had no sense of morality. My mom doesn’t want my brother to get divorced—she was going to try going to the ex-in-laws with some gifts and apologising, but my SIL won’t let her. She felt like she hadn’t done anything wrong. She said my brother has no legal obligation to pay this money, and it’s not fair to her.”
OP expresses she is super annoyed by all this fighting throughout Chinese New Years.
Comments say that digging around in OP’s previous posts, it seems that her brother only got his job because his ex-in-laws had pulled connections for him. Even OP’s job is gotten through the same connections. Those in-laws had helped her family way more than just 2K a month. Not only that, but it seems her current SIL had shown her brother’s place of work a bunch of private texts from him complaining about his job, and now he’s suspended.
Girl posts about getting the HPV vaccine on social media, and gets a bunch of angry comments from a uber driver. She explains that she’d added him when he gave her a ride before. When she blocked him, he even sent requests to be added back as a friend, before continuing his campaign. It seems like he thinks that she’s just showing off her wealth, getting vaccines that are a couple of thousand dollars a shot. “Ugly, shitty personality, and way too much confidence, I have no idea how you’re even alive still. God, I wanted to slap you in the face when you were riding in my car.”
A news story of a lady who got pregnant as soon as she signed her employment contract with her company. Because her boss legally can’t fire her, he chose to close his company over night, start a new business, and rehire the entire old staff except her. Top-voted comment says, “Scheming people like this deserve no sympathy. She’s only causing working women to face more bias.”
A blogger talks about her grandma, who is from Ningbo. She used to buy these tiny octopus home and cook it with pickles. She called these tiny octopus “mangjiu”, which in Shanghai dialect sounds like “wangqiu” (tennis). OP doesn’t eat this kind of stuff, she thinks it’s too fishy, but she’s always been curious what tiny octopus have to do with tennis. Is it because they curl up when cooked through and start resembling tennis balls?
It was only a long time after, when she’s graduated from university, that she realises that “mangjiu” means “tide-gazer” in Ningbo dialect. That’s the name of the little octopus. It’s actually a pretty romantic name.
Shanghai dialect and Ningbo dialect are very similar, but there are still little differences everywhere. Like, her grandma called chicken wings “yeso”, which means “wingtip”. And “just past three o’clock” is “three beats of the gong later”. She asks if there are other fun dialectic terms.
In the comments, there are submissions like, “a propped-up flower” meaning “umbrella”, “suddenly appears” meaning “lightning”, “cauldron crown” meaning “cooking pot lid”, “white turtles” meaning “goose”, and “salty tide” for “octopus”. I’ll make my own submission that in my hometown, we call strawberries literally “high profit fruit”.
China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran declare that they are re-establishing diplomatic relations and will reopen their embassies in each other’s territories within the next two months and send representatives to each other, and commit to working together to increase international peace and stability. Comments are insisting if China doesn’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for this, it’s a fake prize for sure.
An influencer living in Japan posts an apology video after she claimed that the Japanese government gave each child who got covid 100K yen in monetary relief. You don’t even need to apply, it just appears in your account. After a lot of people pointed out she is lying her ass off, she has been forced to admit that she lied to get more views and is actually living a life worse than pigs and dogs in Japan. In the comment section, people in Japan are saying, “But I did get the money though? I got 200K? That’s not counting the 50K in utilities relief.”
A mom is posting that her kid is going to primary school, and she gets a lot of complaints from teachers that her kiddo is very hyperactive, talkative, and always asking lots of weird questions. She called called in to school again for a meeting at 3:30, but like always, she was made to wait at the gates for over an hour. If she doesn’t wait around, the teacher says she’s not cooperating with the school’s efforts. But she doesn’t have unlimited time either. After a lot of patient waiting, all the teacher has to say is the same. Her kid is too active, talks too much, she needs teach him how to properly behave at home. She’s annoyed, wondering isn’t it the teacher’s job to teach? She knows about all this already, but she feels like he’s just a very outgoing, optimistic kid, and there’s nothing wrong with him. But the teacher gets mad every time she brings that up as a possibility.
The childcare blogger reposting this says, “Yeah, only in primary school would parents do this shit to a teacher. If this was high school, they’d just jump right ahead to advising that her kid should withdraw.”
“The teacher’s already done a pretty good job using polite language and saving everyone’s face. She’s only resorting to calling the parents because she’s been pushed to the limits of her patience at school. Your kid is probably not listening to the teacher at all and affecting the rest of the class.”
“The only thing she did wrong is show up late to the meeting. That deserves an apology.”
Comments say, “You don’t know. I’ve got a relative with a perfectly normal, happy-go-lucky kid who got a lot of complaints from the teacher for perfectly ordinary 6-year-old behaviour. Turns out, the teacher just wanted bribes. If the kid’s really having behaviour issues, take a video and discuss specific behaviours.”
A childcare blogger talks about a young mother she is following on Chinese Instagram, who documents her life living in Shenzhen. She is very pretty, looks like a model. Her family of four (MIL, her, her husband, and a kiddo) lives in a tiny house filled with garbage. A lot of commenters tell her to clean up a little, and she explains that her MIL pays the rent and that is all her MIL’s stuff. She’s not allowed to touch any of it.
In order to have time to take care of her kid, she’s just working odd jobs. Makes about 3K a month. Her boss offered her a promotion at one point, and she had to turn it down, because she doesn’t have time to work full-time.
She says she has to keep living with her MIL, because at least that way, food and rent is paid for. She can’t possibly survive on her own, because her husband is unemployed. He claims he’s making a living giving people rides on his motorcycle, but he doesn’t give her any of his money. Apparently, he’s quite into motorcycles, keeps wanting to make repairs and modifications on his bike and asking for money from his wife and his mom. He’s got four figures of debt that she and her MIL are still paying off.
Occasionally, you can see her husband in her videos. He’s dark and fat and dirty. A lot of commenters wonder why she’s marry someone like that when she’s so pretty, and she said that so long as he doesn’t cheat and isn’t a murderer, she feels like all the rest doesn’t matter. Life will get better.
But she complains a lot about how tight her financial situation is, because kids are expensive. She wanted to sign her kiddo up for dance lessons, but her husband said that there’s no money, just piles of debt. But she never seems to realise that her husband is problematic. She seems mostly happy that she’s getting to “take advantage” of her MIL. Often brags about how much groceries her MIL paid for.
The blogger says this is probably a very typical life for a underclass woman—the only standards they have for men is to not cheat and not break the law. She doesn’t get what the purpose of marriage is for them—to find themselves a slavemaster?
Comments say, “You have to think of it from a different angle. Her husband is superfluous here—she’s actually married to her MIL. Her MIL sounds like she makes at least 8K a month, gives her a place to live, pays for groceries, and probably helps with housework and childcare. That’s a lot better than most men.”
Every time I see these stories my mind is blown. Thanks for sharing.