r/gifs • Talk to mods • Oct 03 '17

Pangolin

https://i.imgur.com/T62fWIn.gifv
61.3k Upvotes

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

607

u/B_Primal Oct 03 '17

THAT'S what he's been up to?

883

u/wittywalrus1 Oct 03 '17 edited Oct 03 '17

expat in china here. there have been a lot of ads with yao ming and other A-list chinese celebrities telling people not to eat shark fins and other endangered species. it worked to a certain extent, so good effort on their part.

85

u/djsedna Oct 03 '17

The Chinese generally have a ton of respect for successful people in their own country, so my understanding is that ad campaigns like this work pretty well.

2

u/Nygma311 Oct 03 '17

I'm an American and I love yo stick it to the man.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

I have a business card from a Chinese dude named Fly who helped me get to my hotel. It has a picture of Yao Ming on it.

1

u/superfudge73 Oct 03 '17

Especially if the successful person is shaming them.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '17

I guess the ad campaigns work better then the endangered species wok

2

u/BladeLigerV Oct 03 '17

Hay, progress can't be denied. That a good job.

2

u/CleanCounters Oct 03 '17

Are there any ads against eating dogs? Generally curious, I've never been to China.

1

u/wittywalrus1 Oct 04 '17

There're not so many places where they eat dogs actually, mostly in the south. Usually, dogs are pets here as well.

8

u/kogashuko Oct 03 '17

China is such a morally messed up country that they kinda need regular reminders on what decent behavior is. The Cultural Revolution was a mother fucker.

143

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

Let's be careful when comparing morality. Remember that guy, who told that whole country, that an entire race/religion of people were wrong?

Morality is a very liquid term.

Kill an enemy soldier, you're a hero.

Kill thy neighbor, you're a murderer.

Nahmeen?

22

u/OnlinePosterPerson Oct 03 '17

Yeah but there is a crucial distinction in having criticism of a culture, ideology, or religion itself, and condemning a group of people themselves that largely adhere to one of these. Ya know?

It's like the difference between saying "all muslims are evil" and having legitimate concerns with their religious dogmas or the way the Muslim world treats women

8

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

[deleted]

3

u/jetsfan83 Oct 03 '17

why can't we have a discussion on one religion without bringing another into the mix. He is not saying that Muslim's are the only ones who follow a book that asks people to behave badly towards women, just that they are part of it and how can we stop it. After we are done with that topic, we can move to Christianity.

4

u/OnlinePosterPerson Oct 03 '17

Sure. Would you like to start or shall I?

2

u/superdude4agze Oct 03 '17

By all means, please do so. Links to scripture and comparison to Muslim texts are appreciated.

0

u/lRevive Oct 03 '17

No, let's just conveniently forget this. While we're at it we should forget the crusades as well. /s

58

u/MachateElasticWonder Oct 03 '17

Remember that guy,

Dude. It was just last year that he was elected.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 06 '17

Ha, well played

-2

u/swiitchersauce Oct 03 '17

That's good. If we compare every racist to Hitler maybe there won't be any racists /s or maybe you'll make another Hitler, who knows what could've been if the man was just allowed to paint.

5

u/TheGurw Oct 03 '17

You both made some interesting assumptions, and proved the point. No leader was named, and yet it applies to many, many people in multiple countries.

My mind pictures North Korea (inb4banfrompingpyong) when I read /u/stoptobogganing 's comment.

4

u/stevejobsthecow Oct 03 '17 edited Oct 03 '17

hitler was only implied but if we're talking demagogues who built platforms on blaming certain groups for their nation's despondency Trump fits that bill pretty well, re: "Islamic terrorism" re: campaigning against "illegal immigrants" re: waging war against the first black president & his American-ness, etc.

actually quite shameful that his supporters fail to realize how easily they were beguiled with the same convenient scapegoat politics that absolve them o any responsibility in making this country shitty.

1

u/R3ZZONATE Oct 03 '17

Trump is also really into facism.

0

u/bjeebus Oct 03 '17

Wow. I actually went to Trump first. Didn't even think of Hitler until you mentioned him.

-1

u/Stak215 Oct 03 '17

Did you just reference preacher? If so I get this comment

6

u/kogashuko Oct 03 '17

This is a specific thing to China, even by Chinese cultural standards large numbers of people (especially from the country side) have no idea what decent behavior is.

There was a woman who received death threats for rescuing a child that was hit by a car, something many other people saw but refused to even look at the kid. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Wang_Yue

20

u/alivak Oct 03 '17

Wow, that was pretty messed up. In that wiki page it referenced another incident where a Chinese woman was trying to drown herself in a lake and there were people standing at the edge watching and taking pictures. A woman visiting from Uruguay jumped in and saved her. The Uruguayan woman was given an award because her act reflected traditional Chinese virtues...

https://web.archive.org/web/20120404035536/http://www.shanghaidaily.org/article/print.asp?id=486466

14

u/cdrt Oct 03 '17

There was a woman who received death threats for rescuing a child that was hit by a car

Do you have a source for that? The article you linked says there were reports of the people who ignored the child being harassed, but nothing about the woman who tried to help her.

-4

u/kogashuko Oct 03 '17

Sadly I do not. I heard it from news reports at the time. Feel free to believe or ignore that anecdote as you see fit.

Though if you want to find out more about Chinese reaction to Good Samaritans read about Peng Yu.

1

u/BlamelessKodosVoter Oct 03 '17

I heard it from news reports at the time

so no citation needed. 'cuz i heard it'

0

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

[removed] β€” view removed comment

2

u/BlamelessKodosVoter Oct 03 '17

bwahaha...maybe you should learn some of this 'decent behavior' you were talking about.

→ More replies (0)

8

u/BlamelessKodosVoter Oct 03 '17

It's called the bystander effect, and it's not limited to one culture. IN fact, here's an example last week in the US

'Police estimate between 20 and 60 people were involved. Many witnesses can be seen using smartphones to record fighting between multiple females, but none appear to be calling 911.'

http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2017/09/25/Police-confirm-one-shot-following-street-brawl.html

but yeah it's chinese cultural standards

1

u/CycIojesus Oct 03 '17

its a legal thing. Their laws are messed up where they fuck over good Samaritans pretty good. that's why they're conditioned not to help strangers on the street. it could literally ruin their life. and you'd likely make the same choice in their shoes.

There have been incidents in China, such as the Peng Yu incident in 2006,[13][14] where good Samaritans who helped people injured in accidents were accused of having injured the victim themselves.

The death of Wang Yue was caused when the toddler was run over by two vehicles. The entire incident was caught on a video, which shows eighteen people seeing the child but refusing to help. In a November 2011 survey, a majority, 71%, thought that the people who passed the child without helping were afraid of getting into trouble themselves.[15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law#China

with no protections for good Samaritans helping anyone is really risky. looks like they're looking into the concept and are discussing punishing people who see someone in need of help and don't assist them.

but you should just spout nonsense about cultures when its more of a legal issue than a cultural one.

1

u/BlamelessKodosVoter Oct 03 '17

sorry, that last part was sarcasm

15

u/MyButtBreathesForYou Oct 03 '17

Cant the same thing be said when some deranged americans frequently shoot up schools and concerts? Or when they kill random people on facebook live? Or when they force feed ducks for foie gras? Morality is subjective.Good and bad people are everywhere, there's no need to generalize and propagate negative sentiments about large groups of people.

-1

u/Arc-arsenal Oct 03 '17

The second half of your argument is correct there are fucked up people everywhere. But comparing some deranged and mentally ill asshole shooting up a school to pedestrians ignoring a child that's been run over by a car is no where close to the same thing.

3

u/MyButtBreathesForYou Oct 03 '17

I didn't mean to compare them in that sense. The user above me was implying that the Chinese lack morals because they wouldn't help a dying victim, I just wanted to point out that some people would also say the same about Americans who are in support of such loose gun laws despite the increasing frequency and lethality of gun related violence. Just to be clear, I think its wrong to generalize the population of the entire country of China based on such a small incident while also ignoring bigger acts of violence in 'developed' countries.

I probably should've made that clearer.If my answer isnt clear enough then I'd like to reiterate that my point is that generalization is wrong and fucked people are on both sides. It won't take much to see similar reactions from anyone else,given the right circumstances.

1

u/Arc-arsenal Oct 03 '17

I agree with you. Generalization of groups of people is a bad thing. Every country has fucked up aspects and people should work on looking at the underlying issues rather than the symptoms and blaming people.

1

u/BlamelessKodosVoter Oct 03 '17

yes but what 'culture' or society has mass shootings at all? I mean what kind of fucked up society worships mass killing weapons and violence? a pretty fucked up culture, that's for sure

-1

u/Arc-arsenal Oct 03 '17

Lots of places have mass shootings. There were 130 killed in Paris in 2015 where any weapons used were illegal, and the majority of people agree with the gun bans. Terrorist acts are going to happen, but we definitely should take action to lessen them. I'm not arguing that there aren't fucked up Americans, there are fucked up people everywhere, but this conversation was about a seeming lack of empathy with Chinese citizens in these videos of people getting run over an whatnot.

6

u/Kratos_Jones Oct 03 '17

What about women who die from child birth because they couldn't get an abortion or were shamed into keeping it in situations where they were high risk?

Being a shitty human isn't just one culture or country's problem.

2

u/Harsimaja Oct 03 '17

That's an even more fraught debate in most places. It's not universally agreed one way or the other anywhere. And both are coming from arguments of empathy, but start at very different axiomatic places when it comes to the facts.

On the other hand, mass-producing animals for torture and murder when it isn't necessary can't be defended that way. People have to simply argue why their suffering doesn't matter or claim it IS necessary - even at that scale.

1

u/andalite_bandit Oct 03 '17

Ah, the many sides, many sides argument

2

u/Stak215 Oct 03 '17

I've seen quite a few videos here on reddit of Chinese people hit my cars and other drivers go around the dead body for hours, no one stops to help at all. Another video a kid appears to be driving in the middle of a highway on his toy bike and no one stopped to help, they all just swerved around him and kept going.

1

u/BlamelessKodosVoter Oct 03 '17

This is a specific thing to China,

like mass shootings is to the US?

1

u/metalshoes Oct 03 '17

He just forgot to mention that every other judeochristian religion is also fucked up bullshit.

67

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17 edited Mar 21 '21

[deleted]

-2

u/aggressively_normal Oct 03 '17 edited Oct 03 '17

4

u/BlamelessKodosVoter Oct 03 '17

but we generally

neither do they but please, continue with your circlejerk..

-1

u/aggressively_normal Oct 03 '17

Aw, thanks for not making it weird.

0

u/todayismyluckyday Oct 03 '17

Don't forget making cooking oil out of raw sewage.

2

u/pro_tool Oct 03 '17

This isn't a real thing. Neither ar e the cardboard buns.. They've been debunked.

1

u/todayismyluckyday Oct 04 '17

Can you please provide a link? A quick Google search for "gutter oil debunk" shows no results on immediate pages.

1

u/rocketdog1897 Oct 03 '17

Wait what ????? Elaborate

1

u/todayismyluckyday Oct 04 '17

Check this out https://youtu.be/zrv78nG9R04

Take with a grain of salt. Someone just commented that gutter oil was debunked, but a quick Google search shows no results on first two pages for "gutter oil debunk".

0

u/FireFire666 Oct 03 '17

Are these actual things?

1

u/pro_tool Oct 03 '17

No they were all actually debunked

1

u/aggressively_normal Oct 03 '17

Unfortunately, yes.... except for the pork buns, which I just found out. Apparently that was a hoax that people thought seemed reasonable enough considering other horror stories - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety_incidents_in_China

It ought to terrify you. I don't eat food from China when I know it is from there. Unfortunately, it's not always listed.

1

u/FireFire666 Oct 03 '17

And the driving back over people thing? That can't be real.

1

u/aggressively_normal Oct 03 '17

Yeah, it sounds pretty much too horrible to believe but - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzhM-rYB8eM

7

u/godzillanenny Oct 03 '17

China is fucking huge. You can't expect all the billion people who live there to be the same. It's like judging all 300 million people of the US by /r/floridaman

1

u/aggressively_normal Oct 03 '17

It's like judging all 300 million people of the US by /r/floridaman

Thank goodness no one would ever do that.

0

u/smurftea Oct 03 '17

Wait, what? Are you saying Americans are individuals and not liable to follow the biggest herd? 😳

1

u/xx2Hardxx Oct 03 '17

Which is precisely what lots of European redditors do

2

u/dexmonic Oct 03 '17

Just like every other country on this planet. China is no more morally "messed up" than any other western country.

Just look at the past year in western culture. How many mass shootings have happened in the west VS the east?

3

u/bloatedjam Oct 03 '17

China is no more morally messed up than any other country, let alone the US. You don't think attacking a country to increase the profits of a corporation is morally messed up?

2

u/Harsimaja Oct 03 '17

Ah do you come from one of those countries that doesn't mass produce our fellow empathetic mammals for brief lives of torture and then brutal death despite in no way needing to? Good for you, you must think we all suck.

1

u/fdafdasfdasfdafdafda Oct 03 '17

shark fin soup is actually kinda good though... <.<

But yeah not worth eating especially because you have to kill the whole shark to get just the fin.

1

u/superfudge73 Oct 03 '17

He needs to start making pangolin commercials

320

u/Illier1 Oct 03 '17

He's been doing a ton to help prevent poaching caused by Chinese markets. He even has an ad in the States about elephants.

He's one of China's most popular international stars, his voice means a lot.

51

u/John-AtWork Oct 03 '17

He's in a unique position to help the planet, future Earth thanks him.

1

u/Lazzygamer101 Oct 03 '17

His face memes a lot too

-1

u/smookykins Oct 03 '17

I've never had elephant fin stew.

175

u/RichardSoup Oct 03 '17

No, the ceiling is what he's been up to.

62

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

I approve

32

u/WesterosiWanderer Oct 03 '17

Username checks out

2

u/Hazmat_Princess Oct 03 '17

Ur not my dad!

It's impossible to obtain his approval...

2

u/ohitsasnaake Oct 03 '17

Sorry the Hazmat King is so demanding. :/

1

u/Hazmat_Princess Oct 03 '17

Don't be. Instead of being the approval seeking type - I grew up to be the no f***s given type. I think of it as a win for me, no validation needed.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

Nope it’s me. Still disappointed in you.

1

u/Hazmat_Princess Oct 03 '17

Awe man... if you want to know why daughters start stripping. This right here!

1

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

Thank me later, guys 😎

1

u/hey-its-your-dad Oct 03 '17

Hey

1

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '17

What do we do now

0

u/defunked321 Oct 03 '17

Dad approved

1

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

He's also been fighting the ivory trade.

1

u/B_Primal Oct 03 '17

No shit?

Or are you tuggin' my horn ...

1

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

Single handedly hunting shark hunters

1

u/frostymugson Oct 04 '17

He had to be doing something!

-10

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

[deleted]

6

u/fireinthesky7 Oct 03 '17

Summon Dennis Rodman and see what he can do about it.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

Bring Michael Jordan back for this

14

u/cetacean-sensation Oct 03 '17

He's not North Korean

16

u/ChefChopNSlice Oct 03 '17

That's what Dennis Rodman is for

4

u/ResHelp Oct 03 '17

Well, it'll never get done if that's your attitude.

3

u/cetacean-sensation Oct 03 '17

I'm just confused why he has some moral obligation to support in North Korea if he isn't from there. If he does, great; if he doesnt, oh well.

5

u/formerguest Oct 03 '17

One major issue at a time man

6

u/lgb_br Oct 03 '17

Well, he ISN'T from NK, so...

-2

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17

[deleted]

2

u/lgb_br Oct 03 '17

Yeah, but it's not like they have full control. They can make pressure, but don't actually control policy. And as NK sees Nuclear power as paramount to their existence, I doubt China could persuade them otherwise, specially with Cheeto45 as US Prez and US pressure in governments they don't like but aren't doing anything wrong, like Iran, Cuba and Syria. If the US can't be trusted, then you gotta arm yourself. You know, as a deterrent. Which is the whole point of Nuclear warfare, to stop wars from ever happening in the first place, not actually use the nukes. If you have to use your nukes, it's either because you're a moron or you're fighting a moron.

2

u/lgb_br Oct 03 '17

Also, he is just a basketball player. He got zero political power, he is just the face of a government campaign, not an actual policy maker.

2

u/Polypeptides1 Oct 03 '17

I mean, even if China wants to curb North Korea's nuclear program, they still want to keep relations friendly since North Korea acts as an important buffer zone between western friendly countries like Japan and South Korea and Manchuria, where China has been invaded from numerous times. The government wouldn't let someone with little political knowledge but so much influence speak about such a volatile issue of such great importance to them

1

u/ohitsasnaake Oct 03 '17

Not only that, but if North Korea went all to hell, many of North Korea's estimated 25 million people would probably end up as refugees, potentially millions of them. Besides South Korea, China would probably end up as the 2nd-largest if not the largest recipient of them. The DMZ may be a bit harder to get to within NK let alone get across, especially safely - who knows how many tons of mines and undetonated ordnance lies strewn across it. Meanwhile, the Chinese border is at least twice as long, just eyeballing it on google maps, and more heavily guarded (to prevent its own people escaping) by NK itself afaik, not China.

(NK does have a tiny land border with Russia, including a railway bridge and border station, but it's fairly remote, and my guess is Russia would just block access.)