r/China

When discussing colonism and minority policies, the mental gymnastics used by some defenders of the China as I observed on China-related SNS are truly a work of art:

1. Demographic "Migration"

• Elsewhere: When a democratic free neighbor has normal, unorganized civilian migration across its sub-districts, they call it "settler colonialism" and "demographic replacement."
• In China: when the state deploys a massive, state-funded, paramilitary organization (for example, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps) to systematically resettle millions of the dominant ethnic group into a minority's home to alter regional demographics, they suddenly call it "free movement of citizens" and accuse critics of "supporting apartheid🤡."

2. Linguistic "Standardization"

• Elsewhere: When a democratic state standardizes a bunch of closely related regional dialects within the same language family, it is heavily criticized by those "progressives" as "cultural genocide" and "forced assimilation."
• In China: When the state bans entirely sino-unrelated language teaching in natives' schools (like Turkic or Tibeto-Burman) , forcing ethnic minority children into fully closed boarding schools, and forces them to learn only the Chinese, as well as sentencing local scholars to life or to death, and put QR codes ID check even on kitchen knives, they praise it as "promoting national unity," "poverty alleviation," "countering extremism."

It seems the definitions of "colonization" and "integration" are incredibly flexible. Why does state-orchestrated cultural homogenization only become "progressive education" when it happens under their own flag?

PS: The Ultimate Cop-out:
When these contradictions are pointed out and cannot be denied, the immediate reflex is to pivot: "How about what the western countries did in the 17~18th century?" as if the Chinese Empire was a human rights pioneer at the time.

I was just wondering, is penpaling a thing in China?

Is it possible to find someone from mainland China who could show and tell about the life there?

I heard they have 65k characters in their language so I wussed out before even trying to learn it.

If any Chinese person wants to be penpals with with me on reddit dm or email please reach out but I'm looking for people from mainland China.

I'm a 38 y/o male btw and incase you're wondering, yes I do have ADHD.

Regards,

Almost their inner desires and fantasies coming out. Using patriotism for fake internet points. I don't know what it is but they keep putting themselves in random scenarios especially where Indians misbehave or don't pay their shipments.

A must read.

It occurred to me I don’t know that much about Chinese music and if they had a rock scene. Are there any good 60s, 70s or 80s Chinese rock and roll albums that people know of or like? I’ve heard some Chinese pop , but curious about if there is some rock music. Anything that falls under the rock umbrella I’d love to know about especially from that period!

Hello, I'm planning a trip to China and I'll obviously take bullet trains.

I sadly suffer from eczema so I need to have my body moisturizer and shower oil with me. They are in big bottles. Moisturizer is 400ml and oil is 1L...

I'm very confused about volume limits of liquids on bullet trains.

1. Will I be allowed to bring those big bottles of liquids with me on the train?
2. Does it make any difference if I have them in my suitcase vs carry on? I don't need them in my hand luggage.

Most debate about Chinese AI regulation assumes heavy rules must slow deployment. The filing record points the other way. Since the Generative AI Interim Measures took effect in August 2023, 346 services have cleared mandatory pre-launch filings with the Cyberspace Administration of China. Baidu cleared in the first approved batch and launched Ernie Bot to the public 16 days after the rules went live.

Within the CAC pipeline at least, the rules sorted the field rather than freezing it. Firms that built filing and clearance capability shipped fast. Firms that could not keep pace never reached the market. Whether that pattern holds beyond the filing system is a fair question, and I would take counterexamples seriously.

Full disclosure: I wrote a book on this (From Lab to Life: How AI Works in China, out August 4), built from Chinese regulatory texts, company filings, and technical papers from both sides of the Pacific. Link: [book website]

Happy to get into the mechanics of how the filing process works, since much of the English coverage gets them wrong.

https://collinhoguespears.ai/

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to bring a Bosch 12V drill from Guangzhou to Hong Kong for personal use (just some maker/DIY projects at home). SF Express flat-out refused to ship it for me due to their typical strict policies on batteries and motors.

Since shipping is a no-go, my plan is to hand-carry it back myself on a cross-border bus (like Trans-Island or Eternal East) via Shenzhen Bay.
Here is how I plan to pack it to follow transport rules:
- Checked luggage (stowed under the bus): Drill body and metal bits.
- Carry-on backpack: The 12V battery (it’s tiny, well under the 100Wh limit).

Has anyone done this recently via the land border buses? Will mainland or HK customs at Shenzhen Bay give me any grief over a single household drill in the x-ray machine? Just looking for a quick sanity check before I buy my bus ticket. Thanks!

I visited China around 2022 and remember Hanfu was a not-so-niche trend among young people. My then girlfriend and I both bought some and enjoyed wearing them to a few social meetups. People seemed to like it, even with us being white. Perhaps half decent Chinese helped us 😅.

Anyway, I'm curious if it's still "trendy" so to speak, to wear Hanfu for certain events, going sightseeing, social media posts etc. I'm definitely still interested in having some to wear, not only for the aesthetic but for the historical aspect which I think is pretty cool as well. And of course the biggest reason, cultural appreciation. What are everyone's thoughts?

大家谢谢！

what does it mean to be the only girl to drink with older uncles?

in some aspects of western culture, you can be seen as a pick me, a tom-boy, a try-hard to be one of the guys to be the only girl drinking with her uncles.

so I wonder what it means for a relatively small gathering of a family and uncles, to have a niece (the youngest in said family) to drink with the uncles (bio and nonbiological). like do they see me as frisky, wild, promiscuous (can't find the right word but basically opposite of a good girl)

lol as you can tell purity culture influenced my teens a little.n