Imperialist Dog posted:

The book is Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikötter. It's very readable and well researched.

Feisty-Cadaver posted:

oh sweet HKPL has a couple copies and I have a 5-hour flight tomorrow

oohhboy posted:

mental health issues are often hereditary

ladron posted:

oohhboy posted:

Thanks for being a dick.

oohhboy posted:

Tale of two Siblings

During one of my visits with Popo she decided it was a good time to blow off some steam regarding family issues, namely my Sister's situation.

My Sister had been living in Hong Kong for about 1.5 years by the time I made my visit. Mom had bait and switched/pressured Sister into staying in Hong Kong when there was no plan of any kind causing everybody to scramble to get her situated. Sister had declined accommodation from Popo or any of the family friends initially, couch surfing from one new friend to another from her earlier visits

Eventually she did stay with family friends and was even offered a pretty cushy job teaching a pair of primary school kids English that paid quite well. Popo blamed Sister's tongue stud, but Sister lost the job. She has been hopping from job to job since.

Even from NZ I had heard some of the troubles Sister went through, so when Mom turned to me and ask me to go to Hong Kong for a visit I said no. She even gave me the whole "You will find better jobs and opportunities there and the economy is great!" and offered airfare. I would tell her that is not a plan and it is all very backward pointing to Sister's situation and that I was functionally illiterate there. This went on for 6 months. You might have noticed both Mom and Aunt are very persistent once they latch on an idea regardless of how stupid it is.

Popo told me that she was worried sick the entire time and was extremely happy I came to visit as Sister didn't. When you go visit Popo you get Dim Sum which is a pretty good reason to go and it is a very easy way to pay filial respect with some easy phrases. Sister was likely driven off by Popo's rightly but excessive worrying.

Had she played along and accepted family's hospitality she would have had a much easier time. She is now almost completely dependant on BIL having burned her savings, student loans are calling and worryingly detached from family in HK.

As a finisher she didn't teach BIL any Cantonese greetings when he first arrived which is an inexplicable move.

TL;DR Don't move/go to another country without a plan or goal beyond not dying.

Sheep-Goats posted:

It was at least possible to have a discussion about that kind of stuff in 1800.

Imperialist Dog posted:

During the Great Leap Forward all citizens were divided into city workers (jumin 居民) and farmers (nongmin 农民). Also registration got changed to matrilineal so if you were a poor woman farmer who married someone with city registration, you and your children were still condemned by the state

To be


Nongs

Feisty-Cadaver posted:

oh sweet HKPL has a couple copies and I have a 5-hour flight tomorrow

Son of Rodney posted:

This is actually readable, concise and interest for once. So good on you.

---

So just for kicks I looked at rent prices in Hong Kong, as I always heard they're one of the highest world-wide. And holy moly are they high! It looks like 1500-2000€ for 50m² is pretty much the norm, that is pretty much what I earn a month after taxes. How do people afford to live there? Do jobs pay ridiculously well or something?

oohhboy posted:

Tale of two Siblings

During one of my visits with Popo she decided it was a good time to blow off some steam regarding family issues, namely my Sister's situation.

My Sister had been living in Hong Kong for about 1.5 years by the time I made my visit. Mom had bait and switched/pressured Sister into staying in Hong Kong when there was no plan of any kind causing everybody to scramble to get her situated. Sister had declined accommodation from Popo or any of the family friends initially, couch surfing from one new friend to another from her earlier visits

Eventually she did stay with family friends and was even offered a pretty cushy job teaching a pair of primary school kids English that paid quite well. Popo blamed Sister's tongue stud, but Sister lost the job. She has been hopping from job to job since.

Even from NZ I had heard some of the troubles Sister went through, so when Mom turned to me and ask me to go to Hong Kong for a visit I said no. She even gave me the whole "You will find better jobs and opportunities there and the economy is great!" and offered airfare. I would tell her that is not a plan and it is all very backward pointing to Sister's situation and that I was functionally illiterate there. This went on for 6 months. You might have noticed both Mom and Aunt are very persistent once they latch on an idea regardless of how stupid it is.

Popo told me that she was worried sick the entire time and was extremely happy I came to visit as Sister didn't. When you go visit Popo you get Dim Sum which is a pretty good reason to go and it is a very easy way to pay filial respect with some easy phrases. Sister was likely driven off by Popo's rightly but excessive worrying.

Had she played along and accepted family's hospitality she would have had a much easier time. She is now almost completely dependant on BIL having burned her savings, student loans are calling and worryingly detached from family in HK.

As a finisher she didn't teach BIL any Cantonese greetings when he first arrived which is an inexplicable move.

TL;DR Don't move/go to another country without a plan or goal beyond not dying.

Nucken Futz posted:

TBF, I never got Banned for typing Nong

So far

oohhboy posted:

Public housing is quite good if you can get it, a BIG if. The place I stayed at has about 3 - 4 time the area for 3 people and the living room is a massively under utilised. My room was more than 3 times the size of the coffin rooms which was plenty for me.

simplefish posted:

I think it depends. My wife's uncle lives in public housing, it's less than 400sqft for him and his wife. Also the corridor is outdoors and is bare concrete. But the rent is certainly way lower than on the private market. Still, you can lose your right to public housing on a 3 strikes and you're out policy. Neighbour saw you drop a cigarette butt in the courtyard and reported it? That's a strike. I mean littering is bad but I don't think it should be 1/3 of the way to losing your home.

Son of Rodney posted:

How do people afford to live there?

SCMP posted:

Some public toilets in Beijing are using facial recognition technology to stop toilet paper theft, the Legal Evening News reports.

At the Temple of Heaven, one of the capital’s busiest tourist sites and a former hotbed of toilet paper kleptomania, a user in need of tissue paper must stand in front of a wall-mounted machine with a high definition camera.

The device’s software remembers recent faces, and if the same a person reappears within a certain period, it refuses to activate the automatic roller.

The current setting per person is 60cm of paper within nine minutes.

For years many residents have been taking reams of paper from public toilets for use at home. Recently, mainland media outlets investigated the phenomenon and found most of the tissue bandits were senior citizens.

Such behaviour has placed a considerable financial burden on public toilet management. Sometimes a newly replenished roll can disappear within a minute, leaving other users an empty holder.

The Temple of Heaven management said they also provided old-school rollers because not all visitors were accepting the new technology.

The facial camera required a user to remove their hat and sunglasses. It prompted concerns about infringement of privacy, and the face recognition processing time, which is only meant to be three seconds, sometimes takes more than a minute, which is an added frustration for someone who is in a hurry to use the loo.

The smart toilet paper machine has prompted quite a discussion on mainland social media. Most people agree that the behaviour should be stopped.

But a few said the public shouldn’t get too wound up over the issue.

“The cheap paper in public toilet contains lots of toxic materials such as fluorescent agents. Excessive use will only damage their health,” said a user on WeChat.


http://m.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2080272/elderly-chinese-toilet-paper-thieves-face-their-crimes

Imperialist Dog posted:

No. My salary is OK by Canadian standards, I make double the median income, and the only reason we have a livable flat is because we borrowed a poo poo ton of money during a lull in the market many years back.

Most people live with their parents, or in flats like this:

https://youtu.be/qKf08vWTkKA

And that's still better than cage homes.

Hong Kong's government is literally controlled by property developers. Sky-high prices are in their interest, not ours.

His Divine Shadow posted:

God life outside of scandinavia sucks balls

His Divine Shadow posted:

God life outside of scandinavia sucks balls

oohhboy posted:

Tale of two Siblings

During one of my visits with Popo she decided it was a good time to blow off some steam regarding family issues, namely my Sister's situation.

My Sister had been living in Hong Kong for about 1.5 years by the time I made my visit. Mom had bait and switched/pressured Sister into staying in Hong Kong when there was no plan of any kind causing everybody to scramble to get her situated. Sister had declined accommodation from Popo or any of the family friends initially, couch surfing from one new friend to another from her earlier visits

Eventually she did stay with family friends and was even offered a pretty cushy job teaching a pair of primary school kids English that paid quite well. Popo blamed Sister's tongue stud, but Sister lost the job. She has been hopping from job to job since.

Even from NZ I had heard some of the troubles Sister went through, so when Mom turned to me and ask me to go to Hong Kong for a visit I said no. She even gave me the whole "You will find better jobs and opportunities there and the economy is great!" and offered airfare. I would tell her that is not a plan and it is all very backward pointing to Sister's situation and that I was functionally illiterate there. This went on for 6 months. You might have noticed both Mom and Aunt are very persistent once they latch on an idea regardless of how stupid it is.

Popo told me that she was worried sick the entire time and was extremely happy I came to visit as Sister didn't. When you go visit Popo you get Dim Sum which is a pretty good reason to go and it is a very easy way to pay filial respect with some easy phrases. Sister was likely driven off by Popo's rightly but excessive worrying.

Had she played along and accepted family's hospitality she would have had a much easier time. She is now almost completely dependant on BIL having burned her savings, student loans are calling and worryingly detached from family in HK.

As a finisher she didn't teach BIL any Cantonese greetings when he first arrived which is an inexplicable move.

TL;DR Don't move/go to another country without a plan or goal beyond not dying.

Dr.Radical posted:

In Japan I used to live in a 10ish sqm dorm style room with a communal kitchen, baths, and toilets. For one person it really wasn't bad at all. There were some people who lived two to a room, though, and there were some (loud) Chinese university students who lived 3 to a room. There were three Chinese guys and three Chinese girls. I lived on the first floor. Almost every night I could hear the Chinese girls in a second floor apartment a few rooms down yelling about something. Not like arguing yelling, excited yelling like if you were at a sleepover with friends as a kid. I always thought "What the gently caress are they yelling about? Goddamn." After a few months the semester was over and they moved out. Later I saw signs in the common area that said something like "Please do not host late night mahjong games in your rooms." It all clicked. "Ooooh. I see."

Edit: Also shut up about spam. Goya champuru is goddamned delicious.

oohhboy posted:

I am the stir fried instant noodles with fine strips of Spam.

Grevling posted:

If it was anything like that Japanese anime where world leaders play mahjong I can understand why they were so excited.

quote:

"Senkaku Islands Bloody Battle" arc

A challenge is issued to Japan to send five mahjong greats to the disputed Senkaku Islands, where a mysterious "red box" is threatening the safety of nearby fishermen. The ruling DPJ does not want to get involved in the controversy for fear of angering their Chinese masters, to the point of sending ninja assassins to try to kill Sanada, who desires to sail to the islands to investigate. Eventually, in the face of falling public support, the DPJ strikes a deal with the LDP to call an election early, which the LDP wins and promptly sends the MJ-13 to the Senkaku Islands. There they discover an abandoned Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier being overtaken by Red Guards, and a preserved Mao Zedong inside the dreaded "red box". Mao challenges Japan to five mahjong matches, with each of the 5 main islands of the Senkaku Islands being the wager.

Accretionist posted:

HONG KONG:

https://zippy.gfycat.com/DevotedFrighteningAmericanblackvulture.webm