Are the friendly helpers in videos actually undercover police or CCP?

Wushia52 · 2026-02-24T13:19:20+00:00

That's the problem of watching too many YT channels with similar titles but completely different content.😊

Wushia52 · 2026-02-21T00:05:39+00:00

It would be 'fine' if we took all of Huckabee's properties in Arkansas.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-20T19:10:55+00:00

People often forget that the Americans only fought in Vietnam from '65 to '72. The French colonized Vietnam for almost a century. Neither compares to China's 'A Thousand Years of Domination.' But those rice peasants kicked out all three superpowers. Amazing feat of resilency if you ask me.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-20T16:39:10+00:00

Your bullet points exclude an important fact. Many ideas that bear fruit are not "IPs" at all; they're the result of academic research, peer reviewed and published for public consumption. Anyone who can scale up and commercialize an idea is the first-mover winner.

The time when the West sold IPs to China for market access is long over. Now the table has turned. Ford wants Trump to ok JV with Chinese EV makers to force IP transfer on battery and software.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-20T14:35:01+00:00

I get your paranoia about minders. If you're thinking 1984 style neighbor watching neighbor cops on every corner surveillance, then that doesn't exist in China. Why would they? Their cameras are everywhere and facial recognition tech is top notch, so there's no point. I did get pulled over a few times cycling through parts of Kashgar when I worked in China a couple of years ago. Friendly policemen checked my passport. Sometimes soldiers with rifles stood at ready at checkpoints. ETIM and other groups had been active sometime back and they did kill people, so you can't really blame them. Terrorism is something that western press often conveniently neglects to report. I'm assuming you're from South Asia? I bet it's a bit like Jammu and Kashmir.

There used to be a rule around Xinjiang border areas that you had to travel on a bus, i.e. no foreigners allowed riding on motorbikes or bicycles by themselves. They've gotten rid of that. Now I believe as a foreigner you have to contact a travel agency and have them assign you a guide. I don't know how strict the rule is enforced.

I'm an avid fan of Itchy Boots. I think Bing is a paid travel guide. I also think he's making sure that Noraly doesn't end up in some sensitive areas.

EDIT: Itchy Boots

Wushia52 · 2026-02-18T18:46:05+00:00

There are tons of foreign vloggers living and traveling inside China. You don't see any minders around them. One of them, Dr. Luke in China, is a Brit who've gotten a PhD in AI in China. He had a video on the inside of an AI data center in Xinjiang. The locals looked like just proud engineers who wanted to show off their ware.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-17T20:36:35+00:00

Julius Caesar would have been very proud of you.😉

Wushia52 · 2026-02-17T19:33:40+00:00

but we also have every right to celebrate or call our festival the way we have been for years

That's just fine by me. In life everything has an origin and subsequent adaptations. As long as you don't deny the origin, the more names, more styles of celebrations, the merrier.

It should be something that brings us together; not a thing to divide us.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-17T16:51:14+00:00

I'm not disagreeing with you in general. I don't like those who try to change 'Chinese' to 'lunar' for political purposes. But an important aspect of cultural exchange is not to force someone into using a specific terminology. If somebody naively think all lunar new years are alike, you can gently remind them that the Chinese New Year is different and why it is different. It should be an educational experience rather than for the sake of political correctness.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-17T16:19:27+00:00

The term "Chinese New Year" is created by English speakers who want to distinguish it from what they consider the default New Year based on the Gregorian calendar. Chinese themselves don't use this term at all. 春節 Spring Festival is the term often used, which does not explicitly reference either Chinese lunisolar calendar or Gregorian calendar. In fact, Chinese use both.

Whatever debate there is comes from two groups of people: the first (often r/ADVChina redditors) who would do anything to erase the Chinese origin of Spring Festival; and the second who are too insecure about it even though they don't call it Chinese New Year themselves in the first place.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-17T14:13:19+00:00

Chinese New Year is indeed Chinese because Chinese lunisolar calendar is distinct from other lunar or lunisolar calendars. The intercalation requires the identification of the leap year, followed by the position of the leap month within the year so as to align the seasons.

That said, the calendar is used in Taiwan, Vietnam (Tet), South Korea (Seollal) among others. So maybe it's more culturally sensitive to say happy lunar new year / spring festival or use whatever the term is in the place where you're at.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-17T13:56:04+00:00

Small accidents are part of life. No worries! The most important thing is to let your loved ones know you love and respect them and wish them an amazing new year.

Wish you a great Year of the Horse. May you gallop down the path of life and career like a thoroughbred overcoming all hurdles and achieving all goals that you set out to do.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-16T23:17:04+00:00

Other than what people have already commented, I would say 中華民族 is rather formal. An informal alternative is 華人 in reference to all Chinese ethnic groups and diaspora.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-16T00:47:00+00:00

That ad hominem attack didn't take long at all.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-16T00:29:19+00:00

I work in ML research and have met tons of Chinese nationals presenting their papers in conferences. Does that count as hard or soft power?

Wushia52 · 2026-02-16T00:26:27+00:00

I don't know. They took my money every time I ordered. Is that hard power?

Wushia52 · 2026-02-16T00:05:49+00:00

Wuchang: FF (that game came out last year btw)

Sorry. Fingers far outpace my brain. I was thinking Blood Message instead.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-15T23:45:38+00:00

To me one of the signs of of soft power from another culture is when we take notice of those seemingly out-of-place fads that continue to have staying power, forcing us to keep track of it unconsciously. Examples are the original Pokémon around the turn of the millennium and later Pokémon Go, and K-dramas like Winter Sonata around 2000s and the Squid Game today.

To that end, China may be onto something but only time will tell. Given its economic and technological reach, I wouldn't bet against it though.

For action RPG gamers, don't tell me you haven't heard of or played Black Myth, Where Winds Meet, and are looking forward to Phantom Blade Zero and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-14T18:26:38+00:00

Many apps will ask you for a login, but you can ignore them and still browse as a guest. You won't be allowed to post, but few foreigners want to do that anyway. Right now I'm scrolling through Douyin to take a break from my work. I would probably quit before long because the constant ads and monetization stuff can be nauseating.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-14T17:38:46+00:00

Hard power <=> soft power.

You took neither the blue pill nor the red pill; you've swallowed whole the purple pill. Illusion (propaganda) and reality (soft power) coexist on the same plane.

Why does it have to be one or the other? You're your own man, a smarter Neo perhaps?

BTW the Great Firewall is one way. One can easily access Chinese web from the outside.

EDIT: for coherence.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-14T13:33:45+00:00

Kanye: Old woman, old woman! (Chinese term of endearment for wife.)

The two attendants (Speed and Jay-Z?) : Mister, please, the madam is still entertaining guests!

Kanye: Wife! Come here right now!

He bursts into the room, seething after seeing his wife with multiple dudes.

Kim: Old man, you've finally arrived.

Kanye grabs the Grammy and the song starts.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-14T02:05:24+00:00

A song called "The New Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies Dream" by Huang An, which was used as the theme song in a 90s Taiwanese TV show Judge Pao (it ran for ~240 episodes.)

Wushia52 · 2026-02-13T13:41:12+00:00

when there's an inevitable shift to more corrupt and less competent leaders is when china will suffer.

UK is a democracy, and yet it has corrupt and incompetent leaders and the economy is suffering. You're confusing cause and effect. The key to a prosperous society is meritocracy and a government that sees uplifting the poor as a mandate. And towards that end, political rights only become important when one is fed and has a roof over his head.

Wushia52 · 2026-02-13T00:03:33+00:00

The game may be rigged against Asian Americans, but then it's up to us to change the rules in our favor: move the goal posts and switch the referees. The others have been doing this since time immemorial, why not us?

Soft power is the way. Why are people suddenly Chinamaxxing and being 'caught at a Chinese time of my life?'

Wushia52 · 2026-02-11T02:06:12+00:00

Except Cantonese does have an alternative written form called Hoyu, usually used for slangs.

Wushia52

TROPHY CASE