What is it like? What do they think of the west over there?
Is it as eeeevil and authoritarian as the western media says it is?
I had my Chinese friend look at our website. She thought we're weird as a hell. Y'all need to stop with the Xi Fetishism lmao
Lol, yeah, we're basically doing the same thing libs did with Obama/Hillary.
Yeah, it's definitely hard to tell. My impression as someone who's been lurking since day 1 is that a large percentage of users here are unironic China/Xi-stans.
Yeah in-jokes are like that I guess. We may have the immortal science, but that doesn't mean "Papa Stalin" or "Papa Xi" isn't super strange from the outside, even from the perspective of other comrades. I'm certainly guilty of this as well. (Especially with our favorite Cuban revolutionary himbos) I'm not even sure what the correct direction or idea to take from this would be.
Xiaboos
But for real, I get defending these countries against Western imperialist propaganda, but this site goes way overboard in the other direction oftentimes
Something I imagine a lot of white South Africans would rejoice at - they would feel right at home in Ohio.
As someone who has known a lot of mayo bros from Ohio, the Ohio Guy chapo bit is spot on.
I know those type of Ohio guys but I always find it funny when people talk about Ohio as especially trashy/shitty/racist/whatever. I think it's exactly average and representative of the US. Ohio is the whole country in microcosm, in metonymy.
Pretty indistinguishable from say Indiana, Pennslyvania, Illinois outside of Chicago, et al
PA maybe, but not Indiana. Ohio is a heavily urbanized state.
That's cool, I'd be weirded out by us too lol. Sounds about like what I thought China is like (Just normal country at the end of the day)
I genuinely wonder what it is like to live in a place where the future doesn’t just look increasingly bleak.
me too. It's probably the only country in the world where that is the case.
I actually had the opportunity to move to China, but chose not to pursue it because of my studies. Before the pandemic, I would go there every few years to visit family, and it was really cool. Chinese cities have this bustle, and my experience was that people often acted in a way that would be considered rude in my home country Japan, but to me it felt really genuine, and like every other Asian country had great street food too. Public opinion has definitely shifted hard on the USA, the turning point was around the Trump administration, where the complaint was less about him being racist or whatever but people were just more bewildered that someone seemingly as dumb as him got elected. I would say around until Trump the US was actually highly respected - people preferred US/Western products, etc... and elements of that still remain but it seems that the true Imperial Nature of :amerikkka: is becoming more and more recognised.
Thanks, that's really interesting. I wonder if people there think Biden is dumb too lol
I lived in China as a kid and been back a few times (though last time I been back was over 10 years ago) so I only have a limited experience but here are roughly some of my memories. Though China is extremely diverse given its geographical extent and I lived in Shanxi province.
The big cities are like a lot of other big cities in the world: busy, noisy and polluted (though air quality has improved since the last time I visited). The country side and small towns are pretty much the opposite and the people are pretty friendly even to foreigners. (In contrast to a lot of American small towns who feel like they want to murder you especially if you're not white)
Littering and public smoking are pretty commonplace (both in big cities and small towns and rural areas) and Idk if it's changed in the last 10 years (wouldn't surprise me if it hasn't)
A lot of cities and towns have "market streets" where farmers would sell produce directly off their trucks or wagons and you could buy street food. Street food is pretty common as well and some of the popular stuff I remember are: skewered cumin lamb (羊肉串), candied hawthorn (糖葫芦), fried doughnut sticks (油条), savory tofu pudding (豆腐脑/豆腐花), meat bun (肉夹馍)
The village I grew up in is very different from North American villages in that the houses and shops are all grouped together like a small town and the farmland surrounds it. (rather than each person has their own house and land) Personally I think this kind of development is better because you can easily visit your neighbours, and buy stuff without needing a car and it fosters a sense of community. I remember there would be a daily morning broadcast which would announce stuff on sale at the market and any events happening.
The trucks that the farmers use were often small tricycle style trucks (like tuk-tuks) but usually with an open cab or a motorcycle like front, some also had to be started with hand cranks. Sedans and motorcycles are used for driving to other villages or into the city.
The houses themselves are made of stone and concrete and the general style is a open air central area with the "rooms" around it. The central area would often have gardens and sometimes manual water pumps (so basically you don't have a "front yard" or "back yard" but a "central yard"). Most houses would have solar water heaters (and you'd have to boil water in the winter). You don't really have a "garage" but some houses have a oversized front entrance where the car or truck would be parked. When I was a kid there was only very basic electricity (lights, fridge and TV) and no plumbing (the bathroom was literally a hole in the ground and every few weeks a guy would come take your poop for fertilizer). Most houses today would have more electricity available (so you could have more electric appliances and internet). I'm unsure as to the plumbing situation.
The culture is very family driven and the small towns are usually very close knit. Most family members are very close even to their extended family. I think members of my extended family probably have more friends than I do which really highlights the shortcomings of atomized western culture. Patriarchal beliefs are also fairly commonplace and I remember one of my uncles exhibited some toxic masculinity. Most people I feel just live pretty normal lives. (work, go home, have holidays, etc)
The thing I remember the most fondly were the trains (and subways). HSR wasn't a thing when I was a kid and only in the early stages the last time I went back in the early 2010s but the slower trains have a :comfy: vibe of their own and the tickets are very affordable for most people.
check out Dianxi Xiaoge on youtube if you're interested in seeing more about village life in China. She's also amazing at cinematography and her videos are shot really well.
I live in China, and they literally make me post to GenZedong all day. Thanks red fash.
I've lived here for six years but I'm not chinese. My mandarin is not good enough to read newspapers beyond headlines and bits and pieces, so my knowledge of local politics is mostly second hand.
I've found that old people distrust the west more than the young. Middle class and rich people often think of europe as an ideal holiday destination, a good place to study abroad, and that european imported products are good quality. North europe is well developed and have solid welfare states. Italian food and french wine is famous. They might also think the US is a good place to study or do business in, despite their government. Australia is a good place to import milk powder and cheese from.
And I know you're kidding but what does "evil and authoritarian" mean exactly? Day-to-day life here is not more oppressive than in the west. The standard of living has increased immensely for pretty much everyone in the last two generations (:deng-smile: :xi-lib-tears: ) and you can point to all the tuhaos in imported sports cars and laugh (please do) but it's most noticeable for the inland and countryside woring-class people. THere's still a long way to go though.
Propaganda is everywhere and very noticeable, but not dystopian in my opinion, and probably not more omnipresent than in the west (especially the US), it's just more noticeable because you don't need They Live glasses to see it, it doesn't try to disguise itself as much.
If you need something to watch tonight:
Beyond the Mountain (Documentary about one of the poorest places in the country, rural Sichuan, also heartwarming and not propaganda)
My People, My Homeland (Anthology comedy movie, also obvious propaganda but utopian rather than dystopian propaganda, also it's an all-stars of mainland comedy actors)
Sounds like a nice place with its own ups and downs like any country.
And I know you’re kidding but what does “evil and authoritarian” mean exactly?
I mean the things the west accuses China of sometimes. Accusations of a surveillance/police state that censors people and makes people 'disappear' if they speak badly of the government. You know, those kinds of things.
a surveillance/police state that censors people and makes people ‘disappear’ if they speak badly of the government.
Probably does happen to some extent. I'm no expert and I've never heard any personal anecdote or seen anything to suggest it, but stuff like the Causeway Books affair in HK for example makes me think "disappearing" of "free speech/human rights advocates" happens in some cases.
That's really interesting. It's cool to get insight from someone who has lived there because everything I hear about China is from the perspective of... well, people who have never lived there. Lol.
Thanks for sharing! 👍
There are a few, I think the language learners com has some. Do we still do struggle sessions over this one? We used to have one weekly but I think china doing the most to save the lives of it's citizens from coivd has really taken the wind out of the sails of the anti-china posters here.
It's fair. We do ignore the actual criticism of china because we only see fake ones in the media. It is a real place, so bad stuff would have to happen there. I just never hear about it cause I don't read any mandarin really. It's all tbeater of the mind propaganda war that makes it down to our level.
I have a friend who's lived there for 5+ years and loves it, and he is not even a communist, although maybe his experience has changed that. Last I visited him though, he was largely apolitical.
I had an excellent time there and there was really nothing out of the ordinary. It was much as you'd expect. Transit was awesome, paying with WeChat seemed really cool and seamless, and people were super friendly and happy to share their country with a westerner. I felt safe everywhere I went. A few times I went out on my own in a couple of different cities there, and obviously I stuck out like a sore thumb and could hardly speak any Mandarin, but if anything, people saw that and went out of their way to help me. The food also ruined Chinese food here in the west permanently for me, even eating out in general isn't the same. I don't know if everyone there eats out like this, but all our dinners out consisted of a table full of food that everyone filled their plates up with, instead of the usual a la carte style here.
The only negatives for me was traffic and pollution. For some reason it seems like China modeled a lot of it's development after the US, aside from it's transit. I'm talking massive boulevards, huge highways, sprawl, etc. The few times I had to take a car there really sucked, and that's where air quality was most noticeable. Most evenings when the sun was low, it was just a great orange ball hanging there, you could stare straight at it. I could feel the heaviness of the air in my chest when we were stuck in the huge lines of traffic. But maybe that was the Chinese cigs I was smoking, lol.
It was an awesome experience though and I really want to go back someday. It hurts me to see the hate and vitriol towards China here in the West, because I can't reiterate enough how kind the people there were and how they just want to be our friends.
treat enthusiasts are the primary offenders here, people who really like treats think the west is numba one because chinese treats are not as good. education is another issue people (with means) think the west is better in, although there is starting to be more comparative discourse here.
after 89 most people learned to be apolitical and the cpc has been actively quashing radicalism at every end of the spectrum since then, consequently for most people the west takes up only as much real estate as state media allows it to. most people's lives are not so far in the gutter that they need to fantasize about moving to another country in search of a better life and so they tend to concentrate on what is at hand.
(inter)national bourgeoisie so privileged that geography doesn't exist for them, petit bourgeoisie looking for the next rung up on their social ladder, proles with their noses to the grindstone, standard shit.
most people’s lives are not so far in the gutter that they need to fantasize about moving to another country in search of a better life
I've been doing that a lot lately, even though my chances are very very small :sadness:
everyone hates the fucking west. have you seen us? we're fucking terrible pieces of shit that invade poor countries, steal their resources, murder their people, and enslave the rest through corporations.
we're literally the fucking great satan.
Very true. I was mostly curious to hear directly from someone who lives in China though. I think it would be interesting.
i feel like if i lived in china i'd have much better shit to do than chill on chapo.chat. not knockin us or nothing, but we're kind of a coping space for westerners who are a little too smart and trapped.
I wouldnt move to china because I can barely understand english from native speakers and I can almost never correctly parse an accent from a non-English country
Depends on where you live. English is very popular in a lot of places due to its lingua franca status
I'm pretty sure your account gets fuckin deleted if you go outside
