Chinese users of Deskthority!

[green-squid]

你好!
I know there are some Chinese users here on Deskthority, and I am curious about some things. You know, China is a very interesting country, and it's kind of a Wild West. While I am not sure if I would want to live there for more than a few years, (since it's impossible to get citizenship anyway), but I'm curious!

What is it like living in China? Do you like it? Does the censorship going on (and the Great Firewall) affect daily life?

Thank you

[wobbled]

Mr.Nobody incoming

[Blaise170]

What makes China a Wild West?

[codemonkeymike]

I think the wild west idiom was misused. I can imagine that middle class city Life in China is equally as mundane as it is in most American cities

[Menuhin]

If OP has some time to spend many of these questions are probably answered in one or many other ways by these Vloggers:
https://www.youtube.com/user/churchillcustoms

Who have both married their Chinese wives and have their own channels:
(South African)
https://www.youtube.com/user/serpentza
(From the US)
https://www.youtube.com/user/laowhy86

There is also this another Vlogger who lived in some electronic hubs in China who recently was mentioned on a Reddit post about his DIY 800% memory upgrade to his custom made iPhone in China.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8DQr ... 37qNqTooOw

They answered questions like how safe the made-in-China vehicles right now are, and how bad the pollution in this or that areas are. Whether the Chinatown food overseas, e.g. in the US are real deals in terms of authenticity. And some explanations, they gave, for the behaviours of Chinese tourists - through their different perspectives.

[hansichen]

What makes China a Wild West?

It's more the capitalistic east, the USA could learn a lot

[xueyao]

I'm a Chinese migrant in Singapore. Been going back to China yearly and has seen the rapid growth of China. Living in China is definitely like a walled garden, where most foreign news cones from the state and online activities confined to the country. Truthfully, there is no reason for China not to have it's intranet, what with the few foreign websites available for viewing through the firewall. Life here ain't bad, just really censored and the lack of foreigners in most cities means the population has a lack of perspective of the world. Otherwise, the current China isn't a bad place to live and stay in, although what with the increase in censorship and control over it's citizen, the future will be extremely different than the life now.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

[green-squid]

If OP has some time to spend many of these questions are probably answered in one or many other ways by these Vloggers:
https://www.youtube.com/user/churchillcustoms

Who have both married their Chinese wives and have their own channels:
(South African)
https://www.youtube.com/user/serpentza
(From the US)
https://www.youtube.com/user/laowhy86

There is also this another Vlogger who lived in some electronic hubs in China who recently was mentioned on a Reddit post about his DIY 800% memory upgrade to his custom made iPhone in China.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8DQr ... 37qNqTooOw

They answered questions like how safe the made-in-China vehicles right now are, and how bad the pollution in this or that areas are. Whether the Chinatown food overseas, e.g. in the US are real deals in terms of authenticity. And some explanations, they gave, for the behaviours of Chinese tourists - through their different perspectives.

Hell yeah SerpentZA and Laowy! Love them both! But I'm curious about what chinese people think.

[green-squid]

I'm a Chinese migrant in Singapore. Been going back to China yearly and has seen the rapid growth of China. Living in China is definitely like a walled garden, where most foreign news cones from the state and online activities confined to the country. Truthfully, there is no reason for China not to have it's intranet, what with the few foreign websites available for viewing through the firewall. Life here ain't bad, just really censored and the lack of foreigners in most cities means the population has a lack of perspective of the world. Otherwise, the current China isn't a bad place to live and stay in, although what with the increase in censorship and control over it's citizen, the future will be extremely different than the life now.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Thanks bro!!

[UncleFan]

Many foreign websites are reviewed in China, such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc. This involves many political reasons, so I will not discuss it at DT. At least China is very safe.welcome to come to live in China.

[hansichen]

At least China is very safe.

As long as you don't go to 昆明 or 乌鲁木齐

China has lots of similarities and differences to the western world, some are nice, some are weird for Europeans. Go there by yourself and make your own experiences and ideas about the country or meet with other people who lived there. I'm definetly looking forward to travel to China again or maybe even work there in future. 我爱中国和德国。

[UncleFan]

At least China is very safe.

As long as you don't go to 昆明 or 乌鲁木齐

China has lots of similarities and differences to the western world, some are nice, some are weird for Europeans. Go there by yourself and make your own experiences and ideas about the country or meet with other people who lived there. I'm definetly looking forward to travel to China again or maybe even work there in future. 我爱中国和德国。

目前我已经生活在昆明两年时间了，我在这里读大学，的确这两个地方发生过一些很令人不愉快的事情，我在来昆明之前，我也曾认为我将处于一个危险的环境，我认为安全只是相对而言吧。我也很想在未来去德国旅游一次，想去参观CHERRY的总公司，不过可能会是很长一段时间以后，it will take a while

[Menuhin]

Spoiler:

If OP has some time to spend many of these questions are probably answered in one or many other ways by these Vloggers:
https://www.youtube.com/user/churchillcustoms

Who have both married their Chinese wives and have their own channels:
(South African)
https://www.youtube.com/user/serpentza
(From the US)
https://www.youtube.com/user/laowhy86

There is also this another Vlogger who lived in some electronic hubs in China who recently was mentioned on a Reddit post about his DIY 800% memory upgrade to his custom made iPhone in China.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8DQr ... 37qNqTooOw

They answered questions like how safe the made-in-China vehicles right now are, and how bad the pollution in this or that areas are. Whether the Chinatown food overseas, e.g. in the US are real deals in terms of authenticity. And some explanations, they gave, for the behaviours of Chinese tourists - through their different perspectives.

Hell yeah SerpentZA and Laowy! Love them both! But I'm curious about what chinese people think.

I am not exactly sure if this question is the goal of this thread, but if it is, then this question will yield the least for what you want to know about China.
There is a famous paper in the 1970s, named "What is it like to be a bat". And the subjective experience of Chinese people in PRC will not provide any substantial and relevant description to the modern day China, unless they are from some foreign countries or have been in some foreign countries for an extended period of time.
Plainly speaking, similar to a bat won't realize it is a big deal to sleep in an upside down position and hunt in the dark using ultrasonic echoing; a person from China, without any deep after thought of how things work in most countries, will not think it is a big deal to enjoy the 1.5 - 2 hour after lunch nap time every work day, or the 15 days of Chinese new year holidays. They also won't realize that their driving skills and style will post some immediate danger to the traffic if they drive in the same way in other countries.

These Vloggers who can speak Mandarin to a high level seem to help addressing social issues and questions that people in China have given up to care about.

[green-squid]

Thank you Menuhin. Your reply is very thought provoking. It is depressing to think that fun things people from countries who were born into it don't find fun, and bad things people from countries who were born into it don't find bad. Bats also may not have fun ultrasonic-ing. But it's true. There are some things like that in Hungary. But the majority of things are not fun here.

[Laser]

What's sad, there are countries in Europe now that managed to get out of the dark in the past, only to begin these years to slowly march right back into it. The future is full of batmen, it seems.

[green-squid]

What's sad, there are countries in Europe now that managed to get out of the dark in the past, only to begin these years to slowly march right back into it. The future is full of batmen, it seems.

Absolutely!

Here is a great video on why Hungary has been going more downhill after the fall of communism (which was already very bad, and the years before communism were also bad) and the current far-right government has been making it worse.
Turn on subtitles.

[FXT]

What makes China a Wild West?

It's more the capitalistic east, the USA could learn a lot

I'm not sure I agree. I like having basic freedoms and am grateful that I get to enjoy this beautiful state I live in.

[Mr.Nobody]

Am I late to the party?

In fact, you can use google map to know what the real China actually looks like. As to how does it feel like living in China, it depends on which city you are in; China is a geographically big country like USA., and regional differences are huge, you can't generalize it. Even in the same city opinions differ from person to person.

Censorship does exist, but it almost has nothing to do with your daily life, unless you are a heavy Youtube user like me, IMO the Western countries just have the nominal freedom, but in reality the big guys over there only devised another way to rape your mind with mass media and Facebook, almost like a rapist who has successfully convinced his victim to enjoy the process of being raped, no offence.

The last thing you need to worry about is safety, China is very safe,(don't forget we are shy mild Asians,) even the unsafe areas are okay for foreigners, because Chinese people just don't mess with foreigners except for those foreign assholes who think they are so superior and start to believe they can do anything in China.

Making friends couldn't be easier, because Chinese people are extremely curious about foreigners especially when you are not in major metropolises, they are also very friendly to foreigners and they automatically give foreigners prestige, maybe that's one of the reasons that some foreigners start to feel overly good about themselves and behave outrageously after living in China for a while.

For hygiene issues, there won't be any problems unless you eat too frequently at road-side stands.

SerpentZA and Laowy, these two guys get increasingly famous on the Internet recently, because the contents of their channels cater to some people's mental needs, however, their Channels are highly biased and misleading and full of elaborate crafty tricks to keep themselves under the disguise of being dispassionate, obviously they have small-dick syndrome, and they are trying so hard to feel better about themselves by belittling/slandering China, also they think they are smart enough that they can keep doing this without being noticed. If you want unbiased first-hand info about China, I suggest this channel: Where's Poppy.

ps:
China is a populous country, and the streets are noisy, you are going to be in crowd constantly, we get used to it, but for foreigners, you may feel like "Christmas shopping spree never ends here."

[kbdfr]

Sorry to have to heavily criticize a post which otherwise is highly interesting and descriptive, but

[…] a rapist who has successfully convinced his victim to enjoy the process of being raped, no offence […]

Obviously you have never been confronted with rape victims.
"enjoy the process"? That's a simply disgusting sexual fantasy which has nothing to do with the torture rape victims endure all their lives.
And even if there were a single rape victim ending up "enjoying the process",
it would have nothing to do with the mass phenomenon of "mass media and Facebook" with which you compare it.

[Mr.Nobody]

If you and me didn't have any history I'd have suspected you were a robot that is unable to read like humans do,ie., read the metaphor and the undertone. But I know you well enough KBDFR, you just can not help ruining the OP by distorting my posts.

Behold:
Topic starts to deviate...

[kbdfr]

[…] unable to read like humans do,ie., read the metaphor and the undertone. […]

That's exactly what my post was about:
- the metaphor: comparing a mass phenomenon like Facebook to a, if at all, one per a million case,
- the undertone: suggesting rape is something where the victim can be "convinced […] to enjoy the process".

As I wrote, your post was "otherwise highly interesting and descriptive", and I have rather appreciated the way you've been posting lately,
but suggesting rape victims can be "convinced" to "enjoy the process" (which, well considered, would obviously require repeating what you call "the process") is simply disgusting.
I would suggest you ask your wife/girlfriend/sister/mother how they think about it.

[Mr.Nobody]

Still the old KBDFR. Pick a word and make a fuss about it out of the context, old trick man. Isn't it patent that I was using the word "rape" metaphorically,( but you were reading it literally,) you can't actually sexually "rape" one's mind...that's why it's called a metaphor. Anyhow,if the word "rape" only arouses graphics concerning the lower part of human body, it's your problem, and you'd better keep my wife/girlfriend/sister/mother out of this conversation lest I drag yours into it, that's too low for any conversation to go, even for you....If you're consciously trying to make the talk degenerate...you are not, are you?

[wobbled]

But you went on to compare it to someone being raped and being made to enjoy it. It wasn't a metaphor. It was just a really weird comparison that wasn't needed.

[kbdfr]

Oh, wobbled,
next time you will be accused of systematically going after him

[tinnie]

China is the last place that I want to live in unless I want to die early.

[Menuhin]

@Mr.Nobody

... If you want unbiased first-hand info about China, I suggest this channel: Where's Poppy. ...

I also know this channel "Where's Poppy".
One big difference about this Vlogger "Poppy" is that her level of Chinese language was not able to let her communicate with the locals. Basically she is one of those who live in the bubbles and non-local circles, and has no idea what people are talking about her in Chinese, and could only approach / be approached by English-speaking Chinese. For example, she ordered food but didn't know what that was made of, instead of asking the locals around, she Googled on her iPhone and could not find any answer, and ended up just ate that; Serpentza & Laowhy86 and many other who are fluent in their local languages would have just asked the people around. Not necessarily superficial, but Poppy's observation and understanding of the locals and the culture could only be up to that.
There is no secret that she gets into a program to promote areas of China as a job in return for some monetary benefit, as she disclosed it in at least one of her Vlog. She edited out those parts from her Vlogs later on, but it is shown elsewhere.
https://travelmassive.com/community/poppypopescu
About her first job in China: "Collaboration with Career China, making videos to promote an area and their school".
In this interview, it is obvious that Vlogger Poppy seems to be quite conscious about self-censorship.

If her Vlog entries remain totally unbiased? I don't know, but I randomly watched a few of her videos - she has almost never criticized or sulked any aspect of China a single time. Perhaps it's her strategy to stay positive to help herself fight depression. At least, it seems her content remains at least genuine.
How can a beautiful girl like her feel bad anywhere that is safe and affordable to live in the world? Given that I believe China should be safe, e.g. unlike India, for her and for people from many nations.

Serpentza & Laowhy86's criticisms and praises are theirs, not mine, and I don't have as much exposure of the world and China as a vast country as they do - e.g. motorbiking to every states in the US, but they did that to the provinces in China. That fact is they speak Mandarin fluently and are curious to investigate into topics and talk to the locals, unlike the majority of the "non-speaking" non-local in China who hang out only within their circles and comfy bubbles.
It's important, if one thinks about improvements and evolutions, for a government and a community to have the capacity to be able to take in constructive criticisms positively, even it's from North Korea.

[matt3o]

Am I late to the party?
Censorship does exist, but it almost has nothing to do with your daily life

that passage is as naive as scary. Any kind of censorship is a treat to freedom, saying that "it's okay" (and only matters if you like Youtube) it is giving up to the regime. No matter if it's for "your own good", a government can't tell what is the greater good. You give people all the instruments to make up their own mind and they will decide for themselves. Saying it's okay is so wrong in so may ways and saying that it's just if you like Youtube it is even dangerous!

Sina Weibo Bans Gay Content

Internet police out in force for the Olympics

Chinese activist 8 year sentence upheld: Wu Gan

Let alone the whole Tiber and Dalai Lama situation.

That being said China is a great country and the few Chinese people I know are incredibly nice and friendly, but when I read that censorship is okay unless you watch youtube I understand that things are worse than I imagined.

[wobbled]

Very well said matt3o

[Menuhin]

@ matt3o

I think the "Censorship ... almost has nothing to do with ... daily life" understanding has to do with some deeply rooted cultural strategy to deal with problems and situations in daily life. Basically, in daily life, when it is too hard to make a change to a situation, or to provide a real solution, according to some, people in China tend to just give in and accept and adapt their lives to the situation.

These road-trip Mandarin-speaking Vloggers I mentioned above talked about this cultural phenomena "There is (virtually) no solution, we should not care":
https://youtu.be/oxP2fAqamZQ?t=502

On the other hand, I am very aware of what kind of content YouTube censors. And I see Google and Facebook as some of the biggest US government information collecting agencies - at the highest level, many Google and US DARPA secret projects are converged - those people knows only by names and on documents. Of course, general censorship is something else - not wanting people talk about something in China does not work really well I believe, because it should be easy to find many equal or similar sounding syllables to text out messages with "code words" on phones - at least I heard it was what happens when big incidents started to unravel and got banned on search engines.

What matt3o said, "give people all the instruments to make up their own mind and they will decide for themselves", is ideal. I just think government of PRC has to learn the art of dissemination of information / disinformation and nudging people into certain decisions, e.g. from their US counterparts during campaigns, if they want to do things their own way in that also look good. Everyone talks about Chinese having 3000-4000 years of culture, but at the same time, less than a thousand years of ruling experience in Europe, e.g. in the UK, have cultivated skills and tactics of doing shady things yet maintaining quite acceptable public image (e.g. Princess Diana's death and embalmed within 4 hours of incident without any autopsy, Scotland's vote for independence in 2017, etc). It got me into wondering what factors drive ruling people smart in these areas.

[Mr.Nobody]

But you went on to compare it to someone being raped and being made to enjoy it. It wasn't a metaphor. It was just a really weird comparison that wasn't needed.

Gee, you guys remind me so much about those communist persecutors who tried so hard to pin people down for political incorrectness, if you guys were living in in 1960s' China, I bet you'd have been one of them(or should I say two of them )

Oh, wobbled,
next time you will be accused of systematically going after him

Maybe he is not, but you definitely are, not an accusation but your behavioral patterns are so clear; I don't really mind, on the opposite I kind of enjoy it, but it's a pity when it costs an interesting thread. I hope you can focus on the point of the OP and have a normal conversation, stop acting like a pettish resentful vindictive teenage girl.