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Will Profile picture
Will
@willehelmwonka
Debunking BS from “China Watchers” one long thread at a time. Follow me for random rants about Chinese language, culture, and history.
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Jan 20, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
The Economist’s Chaguan interviewed Sai Lei, a popular content creator on Bilibili, and then completely distorted/ignored his responses in their recent article abt patriotism among CN youth. Turns out Sai Lei recorded the interview and made a vid about it b23.tv/NmEFUv9 The interview was conducted by no other than David Rennie @DSORennie lmao, who is about to become more (in)famous among average Chinese web users. I for one am glad that more Chinese ppl will become aware of David and his china takes, so fewer will be fooled or tricked by him.
Jan 18, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Seems like a lot of ppl in comments and QT aren’t familiar with ration systems. While it differs from country to country, but typically,

1) ppl still have to pay (albeit at a low, sometimes symbolic price to prevent wastage). The ration just limits how much one can purchase. 1/3 2) lots of items won’t be rationed (notice the image in OP didn’t include eggs, dairy, or any vegetables). Those you can usually buy without restrictions.

3) ppl often barter in a ration system (either trade coupons or actual items). E.g., trade vodka/cigs for more meat. 2/3
Dec 9, 2021 • 19 tweets • 8 min read
I’m no political scientist but I’ve always thought the most basic definition of democracy is, literally, demos kratos, i.e., people’s authority.

Greitens’ thread touches on a couple of things so let’s break it down in a bit more detail. 1/ In all commonly accepted definitions, democracy is defined simply as people holds the political power as a whole, either directly or through representatives. In no way does it require the ruling party to alternate, or all/certain gov officials to be directly elected. 2/
Jun 19, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
I found out something on Weibo today that I feel obligated to share with you all.

The three Chinese astronauts that just arrived at the Tianhe Space station, all of them are sons of ordinary farmers from small rural villages. 1/9 Before the launch of Shenzhou 12, a TV crew went to the home village of one of the astronauts Tang Hongbo, where his parents and younger brother still live. The TV crew watched the launch broadcast with them and other local residents, and interviewed Tang’s family. 2/9
Apr 29, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The follow up to this story is the official who went undercover, Wang Lin, led a meeting with Meituan management the next day and grilled them on the benefits and pay of delivery riders. /1 When Meituan management tried to deflect on the issue of insurance for riders, Wang Lin showed them his account and earnings from that day and called their BS.

Meituan is said to have committed to a series of internal reviews to correct these issues raised. 2/
Apr 26, 2021 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
I cannot begin to describe how much I loath the film Nomadland.

Isn’t it amazing that a film about nomadic lifestyle taking place in the western United States manages to not even acknowledge Native Americans once?

Modern nomads? Give me a fucking break. Small spoilers ahead 1/ This film is nothing more than a petite bourgeois romanticization from middle class artists, built upon selective memory of the bloody history.

Films like this love to present the beauty of the American West as untouched by human. They forget it used to be teeming with ppl. 2/
Mar 5, 2021 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
I once swore to myself that I will not read another piece of garbage Michael Schuman writes. But I wanna know what triggered him so hard. Now I’m furious. This steaming pile of shit is so teeming with arrogance, it deserves a thorough takedown. A thread. Foul language warning. As per faux CN watcher MO he starts by reminiscing the “good-old days” of empty alleyways in the Forbidden City. Fuck off, Michael, you fucking tourist. Our heritage isn’t a backdrop for ur mesmerization. I’m glad it’s now packed with CN ppl experiencing their country’s beauty 1/
Mar 5, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Interesting Chinese internet find of the day: WeChat has a built-in applet for translation between mandarin and minority languages. It works with voice input and image recognition in both directions. Saving this for the next time I travel in China. (1/4) What’s also interesting about it is, beyond supporting the Uyghur, Kazakh, and Mongolian languages, it supports 3 Tibetan dialects, Ü-Tsang, Amdo, and Kham. I mean how many ppl even knew there are 3 different Tibetan dialects? (2/4)
Mar 5, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
So... I got down this rabbit hole with this guy debating about immigrant parents teaching their kids the homeland’s language and culture. He insisted he can explain the concept of 孝 (filial piety) in EN without referencing any CN ancient text. So I asked him to lay it on me. 1/4 I was fully prepared for him to drop some wisdom on me. I mean, that’s a genuinely difficult concept to explain. Very contextually rich, touches almost every aspect of East Asian societal & family hierarchy. Whole manuscripts were written on it.

This is what he came up with. 2/4
Mar 3, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Malaysian Chinese food is best? Haha that’s cute.

To paraphrase Jon Stewart, Malaysian Chinese food is not the best Chinese food, it’s not Chinese food. You know why? Because you have to qualify it as “Malaysian”. Never said it’s not good though. You do you. And all those tweets name dropping what I assume are Malaysian food items? Reeks a bit of cultural insecurity. Plus, are we really gonna play the “who’s got better food” game with the homeland? It hardly seems fair to punch down like that.
Mar 2, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
If we can’t agree on what the Chinese identity is, can we all at least agree that Chinese diasporas’ identity dilemma is caused by the West’s prejudice against the Chinese culture, thus causing the diasporas to reject it in order to be accepted in the destination country? To assimilate in biology literally means to absorb & digest. The partial forfeiture of the native identity is a conscious choice forced upon immigrants by the host. It’s not an arbitrary rule of qualification that ppl fm homeland cooked up. We didn’t reject you, you gave us up.
Mar 2, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Xiangyu’s tweet got a lot of flack fm the diasporas so I want to clear some thing up for the culturally unaware. There are 4 terms that all translate into “Chinese”:
華人-ppl of Hua descent
中國人-ppl of China
華僑-Hua (Chinese) expat
華裔-ppl of Hua genealogy

1/ Notice the two different terms describing China: 華 (Huá) is the civilization of China; 中國 (zhōng guó) the nation of China, both PRC & RoC.

It’s clear that diasporas aren’t Chinese in the sense of citizens of PRC/RoC. So the question is if they are considered Hua ppl. 2/
Mar 2, 2021 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Being 100% Chinese and having grown up in China, I must admit I never thought about cultural authenticity. I also didn’t become a “minority” until I moved to the US. I think a culture should be more welcoming to its diasporas, but I reject ppl taking that for granted. 1/8 We are all the sums of the moments in our lives. The cultures influencing those moments don’t make us better or worse than each other but they do make us unique from 1 another. Different cultures inevitably clash, & it’s wonderful when we can reconcile that within ourselves. 2/8
Feb 28, 2021 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Another gem found in Weibo today: China’s plan to build a dual use (cars and trains) bridge across the Taiwan straights, linking Taipei to the rest of China by road. This of course depends on the geopolitical situation, but goes to show the vision and resolve. A thread: China’s national rail and highway network plan has included Taipei since early 2000’s (and rightly so since PRC recognizes Taiwan as one of its provinces). In this year’s new transportation planning it again appeared. Machine translated by WeChat and my corrections in red. 1/
Feb 28, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
A HK-born, 1/4-German 1/4-Swedish 1/2-Anglo-Irish lady cannot cope w/ being taught what a Chinese phrase means by a native CN person who’s studied the language his whole life, even with all the references cited. A glimpse into the mindset of foreigners in HK pre 1997 perhaps. Ms. Tatlow also claims that she has “first-hand experience in recent years” on the term 汉奸 (hàn jiān) being used. I seriously doubt any non-insane person would call her, clearly caucasian, a 汉奸. I wish she would’ve told us more about that totally real & traumatic experience.
Feb 28, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Um nice try. The term 汉奸 was first coined in Qing and popularized by the YongZheng Emperor who himself not Han. This is after Manchu and Han cultures began to merge, and the term is used to describe traitors to they empire. In recent history it is popularized by KMT, not CPC. In all the important dynastic history texts, the term 汉奸 only appears in the Manuscript of Qing History. It was first used during KangXi’s reign to describe Han Chinese who instigated Miao ppl against the Qing court in the border region provinces. Translation by Chrome.
Feb 28, 2021 • 17 tweets • 10 min read
In the past year there was a string of crimes and scandales in China that triggered online backlash/out-cry. In response, the Chinese gov amended the criminal code and these new laws go into effect on March 1, 2021. A thread. 2019-2020 there were several high profile cases where a child severely injured or killed another child. (Sibling jealousy gone insane, bullying, etc.) Preciously a person must be 14 to bare criminal responsibilities for crimes. It is now lowered for certain severe crimes. 1/
Feb 25, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
This is simply ridiculous... yes some words are censored in China but the youth are more than aware. On Zhihu (China’s Quora) if u search for “Tiananmen” & “Documentary” u will find threads discussing the documentary about 1989 by Carma Hinton and the event itself. This film, “The Gate of Heavenly Peace”, is recommended in many Zhihu threads about good documentaries to watch. Here are some screenshots of a rather nuanced discussion on it. Users of Zhihu typically are in the 18-30 demographic group. ImageImageImageImage
Dec 16, 2020 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
In this video some foreign youtubers visit a vegetable farm in Shaanxi that market their produce on tiktok.

To see these ordinary folks take advantage of the modern tech and to see how proud and cheerful they are, really makes me happy. 1/

I don’t care about those stupid headlines abt China having a food shortage, not even gonna dignify it with a debunking. I’m just filled with joy to see honest people doing honest work & being (rightfully) proud. Hear that crunch when they bit into cucumber, that is freshness. 2/
Dec 14, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Today’s dose of copium, brought to you by Reuters.

Sure, US still dropping bombs during covid and Aussie soldiers shooting civilians in Afghanistan, but China’s patrol flights are what to pay attention to.

If TW Air Force can’t keep up, maybe don’t escort PLA flights? PLA planes flying menacingly towards TW? The author should see recon flight paths the US does near China.

scmp.com/news/china/dip…
Dec 14, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Came across this in a Twitter rabbit hole. I don’t have much to say about the article, but one thing in it about transnational Asian caught my eye. It advocated for “sovereignty without nationalism; humans before the state.” A few thoughts. 1/ “sovereignty without nationalism; humans before the state” is a luxury. For most ppl from the global south, it is also contradictory to how their forebearers defended sovereignty & built nations.

Asian ppl defended against Japan in WW2 by putting the nation before themselves. 2/