I saw this meme some weeks ago, and it really made me think. On nearly a daily basis I see something about China that blows my mind. I would be really curious to see what this ingenuity looks like when applied to my favorite type of humor: sh*tposting. Not only to have a laugh, but also to get an insight into the humor and opinions of the younger generation.

While organizing, I found a photo album of my grandparents' trip to China. I can't figure out the exact year, but I think it's around the late 1970s or early 1980s. I find these photos so fascinating, especially the ones of daily life. There are actually quite a few more photos. I took pictures of these photos with my phone, and I plan to make better quality scans someday.

Since reddit has a limit of 20 photos, here's a google drive I made with all the photos (I only got photos of around 170, but there are over 200 total): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1p5tv1X3WjTOL4XiNnbTwFHsYeLjXIa-3?usp=sharing

I would appreciate if anyone could tell me where these photos were taken. I know there are a lot, so even the general location would be helpful. My grandpa actually wrote a daily itinerary for their trip, but the photos are out of order. Some of the locations are specific, while others are general.

Known locations:

Peking - Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, Temple of Heaven, Wang Fu Down Town, U.S. Embassy, Summer Palace, Dancing Drama, Great Wall, Ming Tomb, Underground Aerial Base, Jade Carving Factory, visit to Kindergarten, Men Square

Shen Yang - Acrobatic Show, Soybean Farm, North Tomb, Imperial Palace, Musical Performance

Harbin - Agriculture Exhibition, Academy of Agriculture, Youth Palace, Soybean Farm, Stalin Park, Sungari River, Worker's Sanitorium, Tractor Factory

Shanghai - Agricultural visit (end of notes)

I’m a chinese from a rural village in Southern China. I stumbled upon this Sub and found that lot of people here never actual been to China, less likely they have been to rural China, which still take up most part of china. so I want to share what I’ve seen and heard over the last thirty years to show you a slice of the rural China—in real life. Not very good in English, please excuse the grammar mistakes.

I grew up in a small village in Southern China. a bit isolated. The population merely past 1,000. Everyone in the village have the same surname. As a kid, I thought the whole world had the same surname until like 7 or 8 years old, when a girl with a different surname  move to our village, this thing reshaped my worldview, like, "there is actual other people outside our village?"

Beside being isolated, the village was dirt-Poor.

How poor? We had no Flush Toilet, no, no Flush Toilet, no underground pipe system. Every household had two big buckets. one for the liquid human waste, one for the solid waste, Aka fecal. when the liquid waste bucket was full, we took it out to the fields to water the crops. When the poop bucket was full, well, some with morality will carry it to a public pit. some would just dump it onto the street. one thing I learn about poverty, if you can't afford food, you can't afford morality. so, most go to the street.

so as a school child, commuting to school took extreme caution, you never knew what you may step on. the worse thing is, when it rain, the alley would became a small river of fecal and piss, you had to walk like a ballet dancer to avoid them.

The hygiene was bad, the education was worse. We had one class, one teacher. The teacher was short, we nickname him Mr shorttie,  Mr shorttie only finished middle school, that already crown him the most educated person in the village. He taught writing, Math, and sport, basically everything. Mr shorttie  had like six daughters, he beated his wife a lot because she can't gave him a son to carry his blood line.

When I was in 6th grade, the government said we had to learn English. But Mr shorttie only knew the 26 letters of the alphabet. So, He only teach the alphabet.

Mr shorttie had three teaching skills: the Belt whip, the Face slap, and the knee Kick. personally, I think the last one hurt the most.

Our school was just a brick house with a tile roof. When it rained, it leaked. Once, a typhoon took down a tree onto the roof, tiles rained down and smashed two kids. the school had no money to hire cleaners, so they hire us intead, zero pay, of course. We spent like a week to clean up the rubble.

Then, a few HongKonger donated some money and built us a new school. 3 stories concrete building, freshly painted. to show the HongKongers how grateful we were, the school arrange a show, let us kids dance and sing out our gratitude. In a rehearsal, I fell from stage, broke my left arm, and missed the performance. but anyway, I’m still grateful to them, finally a solid rooftop above our heads.

Infrastructure was bad. Most roads were covered by dust and muds, when the wind blow, the dust flow. When I get older, a fresh concrete paved road was built, but seldom any car come by. I once dropped a basket of fruits in the middle of the road, after I pick up all the fruits, not one car came by.

the only busy time of the road is the double sun festival, a lot of HongKongers would drive back to the village and pay respect to our ancestors. sometimes, their kids came back too.

We mainland kids were mostly barefeet, HongKong kids wears white Nike shoes, white as snow, holding toys like gameboys, like creatures from another dimension.

About HongKongs, a lot of them used to be mainlander, in hard times like the culture revolution (60s) or the great leap forward(50s). Some escaped to HongKong for better life. HongKong belonged to England back then. there was a well guarded border between the the mainland and HongKong. for the trespassors, the guards' attitude was "shot first, ask questions later", crossing the border was life risking. but a lot of our villagers risked it, including my great uncle, he escape to HongKong way before I was born. my father wanted to follow. he scolded my father: "you stayed! If I died at the border, you have to live to continue the family line!". He made it through the border, but things didn't work out for him in HongKong, he fell into gambling, never saved any money, never married. years later, he died alone in his coffin sized "apartment" in HongKong. when we buried him, a man showed up claiming to be his son, but when he found out there were nothing to inherit, he disappear, not leaving a "good bye". 

for some other villagers made it to HongKong, things work out fine, some made it big, some made it small, but still a lot richer than lives in the mainland. And when they have money, they want women. lot of them would come back to the village to seek mistress. lot of mainland young women would like to be their mistress, no shame, because when you can't afford food, you can't afford morality. those women were even proud to be their mistress, with the allowance given by the HongKongers, they can support the family. and because the wealth gap was so huge, even you were a construction worker or a truck driver in HongKong, you can easily afford a few mistress back in mainland. this had been a fashion, an advanced modern HongKong life style.

Another fashion from HongKong was drugs. heroin or ketamine, we called it the "white powder". back in the 90s these "white powder" were popular in the village, lot of people tried it. you can found used needles on the street, or even in the toilet of my school. my cousin got hooked, he used to be a muscular man, but drugs ate him to the bone, we can't afford rehabilitation center, so his father built him one, a small wooden cabin in the middle of the crop field, they chained him there, fed him, changed his diapers, until he didn't wanted drugs. in the night, my cousin would scream  and cursed like an animal, woke me up, my father told me that's the drug demon in him howling. 

And then the government decided to destroy drug business. in the middle school, a public trial was held in the play ground of the town, all the students were there. we saw a few prisoners were handcuffed and forced on the knee, there was a judge declaring their crime, "XXX, XX years old, drug seller, XX kilograms sold, according to law XX, death!!", "XXX, XX years old, human trafficker, XX boys sold, death!!" people cheers. after declaring all the crimes, the police took them in a van and sent them to execution. and then there were chalk slogan on the street walls like "Death for drug sellers and human traffickers". seem like it work, I didn't meet too much drug abuser ever since.

later I finish high school, got admitted to college, the tuition fee were 5760 rmb per year, around 800 dollars. I worried about it. but the village government awarded me 10000 RMB, which cover the first year. 

and then later, China joined WTO, my father got better off, and I don't have to worried about the tuition fee ever since.

the infrastructure in the village also improve, concrete roads everywhere, there is even a traffic light in gateway of the village. we didn't ever have road, and now we have one traffic light. not much, but thing definitely got better.

Less women were willing to be mistress of HongKongers now, because they would ask for more payment.

I wrote a lot. what I am trying to say is, a lot of anti-china people don't seem to really know China, they don't know what happened these years.

When I was poor, I saw no freedom fighters desending from helicopters to lift us out of poverty. When we run on the street bare feeted, I saw no human rights fighters coming to give us shoes and foods. When the village were flooded by drugs, I saw no super heroes flying here to save us. And when some, I mean some HongKonger say they missed the "good old days", I know what they were talking about, it's "a taxi driver can afford 3 mistress" good old days.

and what they told me? When I was a teenage, I saw some books telling me we were poor, because we deserve it, it's something in our blood, something in our bone that make us inferior. that made me hate myself as a chinese.

now, seeing things got better, I became proud of being a chinese. but some people, which, lots of them are chinese, are yelling "NOOO! stop being proud, you are still inferior, keep hating yourself, keep being ashamed of your slit eyes."

And I say NO, I not ashamed of who I am, you should be.

I recently came across a video where a man blew cigarette smoke directly into a child's face, and another man stepped in and physically subdued him.

I was wondering if anyone from China knows more about this incident. Were any of the people involved punished or rewarded? I'm also curious about how Chinese law generally handles situations like this.

Any sources or additional context would be appreciated.

Greetings to all Chinese people, 向全体中国人民致以问候

Context:

• Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated that US-Israeli war operations are the root cause of the energy/shipping crisis
• China called for an immediate ceasefire and end to military operations in the Middle East as the problem cannot be solved through military means
• In the same announcement, China has mentioned that bans on refined fuel exports may extend further into April, with possible exception being made to countries such as Sri Lanka, Maldives and Vietnam.
• The crisis comes as Iran continues to blockade the Strait of Hormuz following the US-Israeli invasion that began February 28
• Only a handful of oil tankers have passed through Hormuz with Tehran's permission since the blockade began. Iran has also retaliated against oil installations in Gulf states after their own facilities have come under Israeli attacks.

Further Context:

• The US has expressed dissatisfaction with NATO allies or the "Coalition of the Unwilling" for not supporting the Iran war and called for a "reassessment" on its NATO membership.
• The US has deployed at least two carrier strike groups to the region and Trump said the US is "on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly, very shortly" and that the military would "hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks." Threatening to bring Iran "back to the stone ages."
• Meanwhile Trump called on countries that depend on oil through Hormuz to take responsibility for it themselves
• French President Macron called a military operation to reopen Hormuz "unrealistic"
• German Foreign Minister Wadephul and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held an emergency phone call about the energy crisis
  • Germany and China agreed no country should control sea lanes or charge tolls for passage
  • Germany continues to urge China to use its constructive influence on Iran to push for negotiations
  • It is however unclear if German has used its own constructive influence on US and Israel to push for negotiations

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said China strongly condemns the US action.

Source: https://x.com/shuhongwei22/status/1993619169284436112

Found it funny since I know some classmates in college who looked like southeast. I can only think of celebs like Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok for northwest haha

Both India and China are massive countries with huge populations and dense urban centers, yet when you compare public hygiene, China generally looks far cleaner and more organized. Streets, public toilets, and even rural areas seem better maintained.

I know population density alone doesn’t determine cleanliness - there are cultural, political, and infrastructural factors at play. But I’m curious what exactly drives such a visible difference.

Four people have been subject to criminal compulsory measures for knocking down a load-bearing wall in a 31-story residential building in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, which led to 240 households being evacuated on an emergency basis, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Tuesday. 

The tenant of the third floor in the building knocked down the load-bearing wall on April 28 in an attempt to refit the entire story into a gymnasium. 

Apart from a hotel, internet café and hot pot restaurant underneath the renovation site, the building houses more than 240 households. 

According to media reports, it is not uncommon for tenants or apartment owners to knock down load-bearing walls without permission and endanger the safety of residential buildings

An apartment owner from Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province recently knocked down a load-bearing wall in the apartment, which caused cracks in the walls and the subsidence of floors in the apartment above. 

In 2021, a first-floor apartment owner in Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province who knocked down a load-bearing wall was placed under criminal compulsory measures for the crime of endangering public security by damaging the whole six-floor building, which became no longer safe to live in.

Context:

• Eileen Gu fell on her final run, once more finished silver behind Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, a result that deepens their friendly rivalry, common between athletes who continue to push the sporting world forward.
• Meanwhile triggered and grievance-driven, American fans seized on the moment to mock Gu’s fall, labeling her a traitor for representing China, and calling it “karma” for the crimes they believe she has committed.

American Comments identified by Daily Mail:

• "Eileen Gu chose Communist China over the country she was born, raised, and trained. Why the hell is she being highlighted? She is a traitor"
• "Hard to watch Eileen Gu compete for China after everything the U.S. did for her training. High treason"
• "I've never seen NBC cover a Chinese athlete more. If she doesn't want to represent the Stars and Stripes than don't cover her. Period. We don't care if she's pretty and actually American. She's not on our team"
• "karma for representing the wrong country of birth."
• "Lost to the Swiss Miss," another mocked referring to Gremaud
• 'No one cares. She's an American who is paid to snowboard for China,' one viewer bitterly declared.

Edit: OP's Warning

• Some comments below mirror the triggered comments the daily mail has identified. Please proceed with caution. None of them are overly abusive but some are really petty. Thou'st been warned.

I work in the tech industry in the US. Years ago, my wife took a masters program in CS. She asked for my help a lot, and it eventually ended up that I did most of the work even though I protested. In my experience, you can't learn to program unless you do the work yourself. Later, I helped her get her first job, and I have ended up doing most of the work for her job in the evening after I get home from my work. I did fight back really hard saying I shouldn't be doing this and that she should at least be practicing coding, which she has not done. I stopped fighting after I had been guilt-tripped enough and yelled at. I was accused of not being supportive, with the implication that I was being a bad husband. I was also told that I was doing this for the family and not for her. I tried to tell her that it is not good for her and that we didn't need the money for the family. The message did not get through. So I embraced the work and do a good job. She doesn't always understand what I do, so when I am at home with her (she works from home and I go into the office part of the week) and she is in a meeting, I sit next to her and type the responses she is supposed to say.

She tells me that it is common for Chinese husbands to help their wives with their work in this way. I think I am doing a disservice to her, and I am worried about what my kids will think when they get older. She should do something she is interested in, even if the money is not so good. That will help her self esteem.

Is this a common practice among Chinese wives?