

also funny they think lemmygrad is/should be representative of lemmy as a whole and wish to become mainstream???
💥⋅🛡️
cio of chen weihua fanclub 👺 she/they tme
🀄💱🍔
also funny they think lemmygrad is/should be representative of lemmy as a whole and wish to become mainstream???
Canadian Born Chinese not china-born chinese (would just denote as chinese national or former chinese national)
when it’s people you think should be your friends it’s incredibly isolating. In the last 5ish years of increased sinophobia ive had both trans and asian friends who are “left” of democrats try to get me to affirm sinophobic stances (eg through jokes) and the sad thing is, this is the norm. most westerners can expect ABCs (and CBCs) to pop out with some assimilatory “I’m one of the good ones” signifier.
anyway as an ABC I’ve definitely noticed that the torchbearer of sinophobia is other chinese diaspora. I loathe it so much, but it’s definitely an avenue towards personal success, particular in careers related to media, writing, art, etc. white society audiences crave to hear their sinophobia affirmed through a chinese face. I dont even have to scrape the gunk on the bottom of the barrel, the whole “container” is just infested, like these are just two randos I found on goodreads (diaspora writing in english on topic of china) (1) (2). on the flip side, if you don’t give them that (sinophobia affirmed through a chinese face), and stay quiet or ambivalent on the topic of the mainland, well that’s the hard road of proving yourself through pure merit. on the worst end, if you as a chinese diaspora dare say that communist china is actually good for chinese people, you don’t get a platform, you get brushed aside and more or less forgotten. han suyin (who published in english) is out of print since the cold war ended and the nonaligned movement evaporated. meanwhile pearl s buck’s the good earth is still being taught as required reading in american high schools.
1/ unsure for every case
2/ don’t have enough data but just stating the trend: the top ranked schools are all public, just check out the rankings, tip top ones are all public nonprofit.
3/ I’m not super familiar with the entire landscape to know if all public schools are strictly better or not; I’m just aware of general public opinion that private schools are more expensive and more mid. Generally, less prestigious. However, at least as a personal observation, wealthier parents tend to choose to find a way for their kid to go to an overseas university if they don’t like the private schooling options after midling gaokao results. (as american born chinese these wealthy “princess complex” international classmates colored my impression of mainlanders for a while during my uni years… i suppose that’s both to my own and their detriment :/ it is what it is)
iirc rural area hukou students and ethnic minority students get boosted points for gaokao also, there’s definitely affirmative action in that regard.
edit: clarity
the gaokao competitiveness for top schooling actually is inverted (monetarily speaking) compared to the west. The top schools are usually publicly funded and have lower tuitions compared to private schools. (that said gaokao is very intense, I had a cousin who spent a whole year to redo it to try to get better placement)
I mean, purely on the medical part, I’d say no. Dentistry and lowering infant mortality rate along with lowering maternity mortality rate is a very very very recent thing, although dispersal and access to these qualities aren’t evenly distributed today, globally and even among class divides in the imperial core.
Anyway, I just can’t imagine likely dying to childbirth in the course of having 10+ kids where 3-4 survive to adulthood if you’re lucky being Better :/
!! Also no baby formula. If you have a hard time producing [enough] milk (this is a common problem!) your infant is likely to have a hard time thriving. Animal milks are NOT a substitute for human milk for an infant. Peasant women who recently had a child/still produced milk would often be the ones providing nursemaid services for higher class families. Many other points about pests (even royalty had fleas…) and hygiene also. I’m yammering a lot but obligatory: technological progress in these measures aren’t necessarily brought about by specific economic models, eg not specifically capitalism in and of itself.
哪吒!!!!!!!!!
tamen de gushi by tan jiu is really cute… (err its manhua not manga but, anyway)
fuller nuance (love to see libs beat the shit out of that word) perspective from someone who is black and of black culture who i think has better angles on all points than I could - tumblr post. excerpts:
The Super Bowl will always be a bread and circus event that lines the pockets of white shareholders. The fact that they allowed Black people to perform is simply to give the appearance of empowerment and progress, thus assuaging our appetite for real revolution by letting spectators woop and cheer and have the feeling that something happened.
context: US flag and americana imagery:
At the end of the above, all African Americans should be wary of narratives that corral them securely within the frame of the United States. This is an intentional set of blinders that keeps you seeing yourself as belonging to this outsized plantation. We made connection to this land, but we were brought here in chains.
in essence I agree it’s resistance liberal politics
so, with the whole drake thing, it’s larger and not specific to drake himself but what he “symbolizes” which is why the line "you’re not a colleague you’re a colonizer“ comes into play regarding black culture/outsiders who would discard the people of the culture he used and wrung out like a wet rag once he’s ready to move onto the next thing/larger more mainstream stage
and idk if I “get” to say anything on the matter since I’m not black, and also only have surface familiarity with lamar’s work (of which I thought replacing the white with black in the US flags in squabble up music video was 💯). Original intentions when running drake-as-“colonizer”-phenomenon through the gamut of the rap scene is one thing, but it feels past expiry and possibly into hypocrite territory when kendrick himself is platformed up to the superbowl stage: the Peak Echelon of music celebrity in the US of A. Yes, twist the knife on the drakes (who just happens to be canadian and biracial) out there, but no hate for beyonce (or colin powell or kamala harris. obama even) you know what I mean?
like, that’s what the whole US-flag imagery during the half-time show reads to me, it just folds back into american chauvinism, a reminder to the audience that black american culture is an american culture first and foremost, “america was built on the backs of black people” but that means black people deserve to be the bannermen and flagbearers, a righteous and honorable position in the empire citizenry (my understanding of liberals’ position is, get rid of racism and cops killing black people and problem solved, more black people in power means problem solved, the whole idpol representation thing, a very idealistic conception of “how to dismantle the empire” etc), black exceptionalism as aspirational when it’s done by the right type of black person in the right way, etc
/ I think the whole superbowl thing makes it feel more assimilationist and unchallenging rather than liberatory or empowering. im not sure if kendrick was fully ironic or what when incorporating “the revolution will not be televised” while he’s being played on America’s most watched televised event.
maybe im too harsh. maybe im importing too much frustration from assimilationist tendencies from my own background (chinese americans/canadians) into this situation (wherein a certain YA novel author is my own “drake”). idk
hm i think this belongs in /shitultrassay
yeah I briefly glanced thru a bit and was like… I have limited time on this planet and I don’t need to try to accurately suss out whatever that is lol.
lol yeah didn’t say anything about the particulars of said comments. at a glance, saw a few Wrong (but better than average westerners’… maybe) takes on demography/demographics. I was just astounded on the regular interaction and again, sheer volume, on a site with a format and aesthetics that I would place as pre-livejournal/forums
actual article aside, I’ve never heard of this site before and i’m astounded in the sheer volume of regular comments on each post. interesting.
do you have any names of said analysts? this is the second time I’ve heard this “demographic decline” point* from non-lemmygrad users.
but she’s “already aware they are terrible people (except Sanders and AOC) but at least they are trying.”
oof. Those two might be left of dems but their track record speaks for itself… :/
I haven’t read the Ghodsee book, but wouldn’t be too surprised if it was eurocom.
Hang in there. I don’t really know what to classify my own partner politically but I at least know theyre somewhere on the left and think liberals suck. And they don’t take the other side when I push back against our more liberal friends when they speak ill of China. Deconstructing atrocity propaganda is an arduous uphill battle, even more so when it’s some else, but you’re right, framing it in condescending or ad hominem/they’re just liars (even if true) rhetoric isn’t very effective.
It’s very frustrating when liberals blame the very small sliver of non-republican opposition as the reason their campaigns failed, because it’s clearly just trying to find scapegoats instead of critically reflecting on why their campaigns were really unpopular, they have proven track records of repeated and repeated failed promises while shaking hands under the table with corporations to pass horrendous stuff… why when Ds are in power they make very minute gestures towards progressive policies and make a fuss that their hands are tied against making anything more concrete like roe v wade, and always make the biggest fuss when Rs actually pass policies that they promised – and this is somehow our fault when we point it out. The cherry on top of this shitty cake is their audience believes in this scapegoating.
gonna obscure context regarding material/historical conditions on purpose for meme reasons but: tiktok has got nothing on those guys out there writing zines and successfully sparking momentum for a mass movement (new culture movement tho. mad respect that stuff was necessary for laying ground for revolution & marxism in china)
also something I noticed is that people are CONSTANTLY snacking. within reason, like things people would have actually snacked on at the time period - peanuts, sunflower seeds. Mao tho, bro loves chowing on raw chili peppers lol
edit: also leftist infighting book club
hm, I generally try to avoid blanket adjectives like “bad” for entire movements or events. at least for those with targets that aren’t obvious “we’re setting out to exploit people”
western propaganda likes to overexaggerate famine (yay atrocity propaganda), while one of the main concerns of GLF was land reform-agricultural reform (speaking of agricultural reform and development - i remember reading about xi jinping’s background/starting from the bottom of bureaucracy: he had a hand in agricultural reforms for his municipality that boosted yield.). Without hitting the books at this very moment, I’ve also heard the famine situation reframed as residual of the pattern of famines that were already starting to phase out as stability returned to china (coming out of a century of strife, occupation, and wars–conditions that prevent a largely agrarian society from being able to focus on tending crops) + agricultural developments were works in progress to deal with naturally occurring cycles of drought years and flood years. regarding agriculture x climate, the biggest progress is towards drought and disease resistance in crops, but afaik that’s closer to contemporary era than GLF
of course there were errors or mistakes made in GLF (also discussed by internal critiques and taught to future generations) but the gist and spirit of “we need to industrialize and catch up” was not considered an error. off the top of my head as an example, low quality iron produced in rural centers obviously short of goals towards quality steel production
I don’t think offensive play is necessary, and as with the other “plays”/economics and tech, I think PRC leadership is showing a steady hand with the long game/goal towards completing peaceful unification without firing a single shot. The process of dedollarization and erosion of western hegemony towards multipolarity means they aren’t in any rush, on the contrary, it would be foolish to do so. If anything, I think we (as observers) and obviously the Chinese should be on the lookout for false-flag attempts.
no it is not demeaning, 华人 is like the widest net/semantic space with regard to “chinese person” (eg anyone who has chinese heritage, encompassing of any chinese ethnicity not just han, also encompassing any nationality). it’s standard/politically correct to say “海外华人” for overseas chinese
I don’t speak canto but this comes close? 竹升 afaik sometimes it’s used derogatorily (unsure of slur status) but i’ve also heard there’s some like reclamation of it idk (also I see that wikipedia thinks that “banana” is a Thing but I’ve literally never seen anyone call a bobalib “香蕉人” irl)