Imperialist Dog posted:

So I'm halfway through the book about the Great Leap Forward and I think it actually explains more about why China is the way it is more than the complete overt destruction that happened during the cultural Revolution

I think the best description of it is post-apocalyptic movies and films, perhaps taking Walking Dead as an example, except that instead of a complete breakdown of society because of zombies, you have it because of the Communist Party. The zombies are still running after you and trying to eat you, but it's because they are starving farmers.

The stories are absolutely horrendous. Grain production actually went down after the communists took over, but of course because they reported bumper harvest every year, more grain was actually taken from the already starving farmers. Farmers literally ate their houses because some of it was organic material. Food that you could get at the centralised canteen was redeemable with a ticket, which you had to stand in line for for hours. If you follow the rules and stayed in line, it would take you a whole day, and the time you got there there would be no food left. The only way that you could survive is if you pushed the small, like children, or the weak like the elderly out of the way and barge your way to the front.

Everything was fair game. Blind grandmothers were robbed of ration coupons in the street. One woman kept her coupons in a purse around her neck; at night a nephew snuck in, cut the string and took the coupons for himself. The woman died of starvation a few days later. Meanwhile, Party officials and cadres treated themselves to lavish banquets. Restaurants favoured by the Party had rice clogging their sewer system, such were the leftovers.

Due to idiot economic policies, the value of the yuan dropped. People spent money like crazy on ostentatious luxury items because your currency would lose half its value the next day and the State would freeze your bank account anyway. Material goods had a bonus because you could barter with it. Those gold earrings or that jade hairpin you found in the black market could be traded for a sack of grain next month so buy buy buy!

How about an office full of workers doing nothing? It started during this time. Factories and farms set up systems where one guy would watch for the boss/cadre so the workers would look productive when they walked by. Other workplaces didn't give a poo poo. Why? Because workers and farmers alike were literally starving. Doing work burned calories that were not going to be replaced. Sleeping on the job literally became essential to survival.

Does mainlanders throwing away stuff because it has a scratch instead of repairing it annoy you? Turns out you could only repair stuff at Authorised People's Service Centres. The centres were corrupt and inefficient but gently caress you, there's no way for you to fix it yourself because the party has literally confiscated everything. In one village people were mysteriously repairing their clothes because someone had hidden a sewing needle from marauding collection militias. A whole village, sharing one illegal needle.

I'm only halfway through the book but goddamn it explains so much.

LentThem posted:

poo poo

big time bisexual posted:

the talk about cheap coffee reminded me of the best part of the Chi Mak espionage case

Haier posted:

"Every country with an economy bigger than California"



Doing us proud, Xi. Doing us proud.

JaucheCharly posted:

Is China Outsmarting America in A.I.?




I'm missing "By 2020,..."

Atlas Hugged posted:

I'm absolutely not worried about hurt feelings,

Stringent posted:

google "hun skull"

Third World Reggin posted:

despite it being staged, this is a good skit for tv

Haier posted:

As someone who really enjoyed most of his last album, I am not sure what's so offensive about him or his lyrics compared to the local and Korean garbage they play endlessly, causing the government to try to fight back against standardizing boys fashion as waifish and effeminate.

FillInTheBlank posted:

He wasn't 'paying respects to war criminals' they came across a nice looking shrine and took some photos not knowing what it was for.

curufinor posted:

anyhow, chinese nationals, sure. lotsa people on green cards faffing about in ai poo poo there. will they move back? prolly nah. maybe if the avatar of cocaine makes them

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

"Or how about this one? Remember when it was the day after the election, and the president of Taiwan called Donald Trump to congratulate him? And Donald Trump, of course, took the call and talked to the president of Taiwan. The problem with that was… Taiwan doesn’t have a president. The United States functions on what they call “a one China policy,” and Taiwan is a renegade province of said China. And Donald Trump didn’t know that, and picked up the phone and started yammering away, and… the media ate his rear end up. And I’m not gonna lie, I was laughing, I was like, “Oh, poo poo. This dumb motherfucker is in trouble.” And then that night, I was in bed drifting off to sleep, and then, I had to admit it to myself. I was like… “I didn’t know that poo poo, either.” And then I realized the media got the story wrong. The story wasn’t that Donald Trump took the call. The biggest story is that nobody told Donald Trump not to take the call. That’s terrifying."

value-brand cereal posted:

From this month's National Geographic magazine article about bird fossils...


I want to give the benefit of the doubt, but the 2020 makes be believe in the worst. 2020 huh? Just churning out entire genomes, faster better stronger preciser drafts of bird genomes. Ok. ok.

Pro PRC Laowai posted:

That ship sailed a long time ago

I figured I’d be banned yesterday honestly, now that I’m still here I’m not sure what to do. I’ll let you all get back to it and go bother the rest of the forums until I trigger someone enough to finally get booted out

Fojar38 posted:

more face lost this week as 5000 years of Irish history is uncovered

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/science/newgrange-henge-ireland-drone-nyt.html

Mr. Fix It posted:

Help China thread: I need to come up for a three letter code for a new production environment in China. The current one is the unimaginative CHN, and TWN has been shot down. I was hoping to think of something secretly subversive, but all of my ideas are too on the nose.

Bajaj posted:

Had this amazing match on Tantan:

Me: "Hey, nice to meet you."
Her: "Nice to meet you too. Are you in China?"
Me: "Yes, you can read my profile."
Her: "Oh, are you in Shenzhen?"
Me: "That's in my profile too!"
Her: "What is your age?"
Me: "That's also in my profile."
Her: "Where are you from?"
Me: "It's in my profile."
Her: "I am sorry, but I don't believe people's profiles in this app."
Me: "Ok, but my profile will tell you everything you want to know."

Megillah Gorilla posted: