I think it's rather on brand for the publishers of the article (not to say its incorrect) to put the Chinese cultural focus in a consumerist lens, while I view it from a more historical viewpoint...
I think it's rather on brand for the publishers of the article (not to say its incorrect) to put the Chinese cultural focus in a consumerist lens, while I view it from a more historical viewpoint that I feel the author alludes to without directly acknowledging: The Century of Humiliation, the dissolution of a strong national identity derived from the status quo.
I think it's fair to say America's status as the steadying hand in global affairs is waning, and the actions it's taken in the past century to excite and incite destabilizing movements adjacent to its interests has solidified a critical mass of supporters to galvanize China to take up the reins as the deal broker, the industrial powerhouse, the purpose-driven collective that's able to do things now that it may not have been able to thirty years ago and that the collective action of the contemporary blocs around the world are having difficulty matching, much less improving upon, with the internal divisions that can complicate state agendas.
In my mind, many Americans see how China is becoming what America has tried to maintain the image of itself as, coupled with the turmoil, instability, and downright failures of American politics, both foreign and domestic, and have embraced the feelings of national dysphoria the Century of Humiliation embodied, using China's lived experience of ending that period within itself coupled with everything it has brought to Western markets and culture to strengthen their connection to the only other superpower worth treating as an equal in capacity.
There are too many points of contention I have with both countries sitting under the surface of this for me to mention or elaborate on, especially online, but it's an interesting thought process I've seen people around me describe that I felt was relevant to the topic at hand.
Even now that the Trump administration is doing its best to tear apart US alliances, Russia's alliances are nowhere near as good as US alliances. That's because it's hard to build alliances when...
Even now that the Trump administration is doing its best to tear apart US alliances, Russia's alliances are nowhere near as good as US alliances. That's because it's hard to build alliances when your neighbors are afraid you're going to invade. China's neighbors seem similarly wary?
[...] a critical mass of supporters to galvanize China to take up the reins as the deal broker, the industrial powerhouse, the purpose-driven collective that's able to do things now [...]
This seems like a luxury belief that can only be workable in countries far away from China.
But I think this article is more about people being interested in Chinese culture.
It is about Chinese cultural appreciation, but how did that happen? I’d argue that China is actively developing the kind of soft power that America is currently discarding, and this is a primarily...
It is about Chinese cultural appreciation, but how did that happen? I’d argue that China is actively developing the kind of soft power that America is currently discarding, and this is a primarily politically originated phenomenon.
I think cultural diffusion happens when people actually enjoy cultural products. It’s possible to do that deliberarely. For example, Pad Thai’s popularity was the result of a government project.
I think cultural diffusion happens when people actually enjoy cultural products. It’s possible to do that deliberarely. For example, Pad Thai’s popularity was the result of a government project.
To edit a Futurama quote: Americans do not yet know the meaning of humiliation. Everyday Americans have no idea what international cooperation can achieve when it's about carving out someone...
To edit a Futurama quote: Americans do not yet know the meaning of humiliation.
The shock to the Chinese worldview cannot be overestimated. Historically, China had sat comfortably at the center of a ring of tributary relationships with its neighboring countries. Its rulers had limited familiarity with any civilization outside of Asia, and in their few contacts with Westerners had made clear that they expected the same deference from far-away leaders as they did from those on their periphery. Now, in the space of a little over a century, China suffered a long list of political, military, and cultural indignities [...]
Everyday Americans have no idea what international cooperation can achieve when it's about carving out someone else's country. In today's case, we are only staring to see financial hedging, and still heavy outward appearances of appeasement. Remember that before the hudread years was some of the best international trading years the world has ever known: everyone was buying everything Chinese and China didn't buy nothing from nobody: gold and silver only. Then the Qing government decided to close up the ports and do its own thing. Then heavy mismanagement and squandered opportunities and being left behind technologically (poor education) and famines and rebellions. The gunboats, like scavengers only came after the prey couldn't keep up with the flock and lay down.
Edit: there's still a ton of time to turn some things around of course. But the days of quietly sitting in the centre of the world waiting for tributes to flow in is over.
"Why suddenly everyone is raising Digimon/dabbing on the haters/linking you to rick asterly/feeding their neo pet/talking about narwhals" is roughly how this reads to me. It's just...weird that we...
"Why suddenly everyone is raising Digimon/dabbing on the haters/linking you to rick asterly/feeding their neo pet/talking about narwhals" is roughly how this reads to me. It's just...weird that we treat these obvious flash in the pan trends reinforced by influencers and marketing as some larger and deep comment on society.
It feels engineered and I'd suspect it is honestly. We've made politics even more a part of these trends and it muddies everything.
In case you didn’t get the memo, everyone is feeling very Chinese these days. Across social media, people are proclaiming that “You met me at a very Chinese time of my life,” while performing stereotypically Chinese-coded activities like eating dim sum or wearing the viral Adidas Chinese jacket. The trend blew up so much in recent weeks that celebrities like comedian Jimmy O Yang and influencer Hasan Piker even got in on it. It has now evolved into variations like “Chinamaxxing” (acting increasingly more Chinese) and “u will turn Chinese tomorrow” (a kind of affirmation or blessing).
[...]
As is often the case with Western narratives about China, these memes are not really meant to paint an accurate picture of life in the country. Instead, they function as a projection of “all of the undesirable aspects of American life—or the decay of the American dream,” says Tianyu Fang, a PhD researcher at Harvard who studies science and technology in China.
For the most part, this is a fun and innocuous trend, often interpreted as a show of admiration for China and Chinese culture. That’s why some Chinese or Chinese diaspora creators have joined in on the meme, telling their followers yes, youareChinese if you enjoy hot pot. Chinese artists have also rode the viral wave by producing art that is “Orientalism chic,” a term coined by the culture writer Patrick Kho. By repackaging orientalist tropes with better taste and a light dose of identity politics, they can meet Western audiences where they are, without fully surrendering to familiar caricatures.
I had not seen this trend knowingly, but I have seen a single Chinese (American? Canadian?) creator explaining why "since you're Chinese now" we should drink warm, not cold water. Hadn't really...
I had not seen this trend knowingly, but I have seen a single Chinese (American? Canadian?) creator explaining why "since you're Chinese now" we should drink warm, not cold water. Hadn't really engaged or paid attention much past that though she'd popped up a few times. but it makes more sense in context.
Other than that one line it wasn't odd, as my feed is pretty diverse. I just assumed I'd missed a bit that she was doing not something widespread. I still prefer cold water though so I assumed I was disqualified.
It's my vague impression that Ice-cold beverages everywhere are a specifically American thing. Do other countries put ice in drinks by default? Perhaps it made more sense before air conditioning....
It's my vague impression that Ice-cold beverages everywhere are a specifically American thing. Do other countries put ice in drinks by default? Perhaps it made more sense before air conditioning.
I have no idea, I just prefer my water cold. But I (and the creator) wasn't referring to drinking room temperature water but warm to hot water. It's Traditional Chinese Medicine that warm/hot...
I have no idea, I just prefer my water cold.
But I (and the creator) wasn't referring to drinking room temperature water but warm to hot water. It's Traditional Chinese Medicine that warm/hot water aids digestion and balances your yang, expelling humidity from the body.
So the ice thing is unrelated other than it being my personal preference. Perhaps I have too much yin due to it.
Americans (and maybe Canadians too idk) do go way harder when it comes to adding ice to drinks, but chilled beverages are common throughout the world and a glass with ice will often accompany a...
Americans (and maybe Canadians too idk) do go way harder when it comes to adding ice to drinks, but chilled beverages are common throughout the world and a glass with ice will often accompany a soda at a restaurant here in Europe. Americans are ice-crazy compared to Europeans, but drinking hot water as is relatively common in China is not really a thing here.
Afaik the focus on hot drinks has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine, there's a bunch of important stuff relating to temperature there (both literal temperature as well as certain foods being assigned "hot" or "cold"). My ABC roommate wouldn't eat ice cream whle on her period, for instance, and the Chinese would be horrified to discover we give pregnant women ice chips while they're in labor. That said, when I was in Shanghai, there were still plenty of chilled and iced beverages available, so it's hardly a hard and fast thing. Bubble tea is not only usually served with ice but any decent place lets you specify how much you want, for instance!
Air-conditioning is much rarer in Europe than in either the US or China, fwiw, so I don't think a preference for not having ice in drinks can be attributed to that. It's strictly cultural imo -- I've seen plenty of Germans order a hot cappuccino on a sweltering summer's day when sitting outside at a cafe. Iced lattes have only recently begun catching on here in Berlin, though the more traditional Eiskaffee (filter coffee poured over ice cream like a coffee float) has been around for ages and is phenomenal when it's hot out. Unlike in the US though, you will get weird looks and judgement trying to order Eiskaffee or other iced coffee drinks during cold weather unless the area you're in is pretty cosmopolitan.
You could equally well argue that Americans are at a very European time in their lives, or a very Socialist, or a very Nationalist, or a very Fascist, or a very Christian, or a very...
You could equally well argue that Americans are at a very European time in their lives, or a very Socialist, or a very Nationalist, or a very Fascist, or a very Christian, or a very retro-Traditionalist time in their lives...
We're thrashing for alternatives to hypercapitalist hyperindividualism, destroyed state capacity, narrowing opportunities, social isolation fostered by algorithmic engagement plus the loss of public spaces/services, and the sense that every important aspect of our lives has been reduced to lies and extraction.
I think it's rather on brand for the publishers of the article (not to say its incorrect) to put the Chinese cultural focus in a consumerist lens, while I view it from a more historical viewpoint that I feel the author alludes to without directly acknowledging: The Century of Humiliation, the dissolution of a strong national identity derived from the status quo.
I think it's fair to say America's status as the steadying hand in global affairs is waning, and the actions it's taken in the past century to excite and incite destabilizing movements adjacent to its interests has solidified a critical mass of supporters to galvanize China to take up the reins as the deal broker, the industrial powerhouse, the purpose-driven collective that's able to do things now that it may not have been able to thirty years ago and that the collective action of the contemporary blocs around the world are having difficulty matching, much less improving upon, with the internal divisions that can complicate state agendas.
In my mind, many Americans see how China is becoming what America has tried to maintain the image of itself as, coupled with the turmoil, instability, and downright failures of American politics, both foreign and domestic, and have embraced the feelings of national dysphoria the Century of Humiliation embodied, using China's lived experience of ending that period within itself coupled with everything it has brought to Western markets and culture to strengthen their connection to the only other superpower worth treating as an equal in capacity.
There are too many points of contention I have with both countries sitting under the surface of this for me to mention or elaborate on, especially online, but it's an interesting thought process I've seen people around me describe that I felt was relevant to the topic at hand.
Even now that the Trump administration is doing its best to tear apart US alliances, Russia's alliances are nowhere near as good as US alliances. That's because it's hard to build alliances when your neighbors are afraid you're going to invade. China's neighbors seem similarly wary?
This seems like a luxury belief that can only be workable in countries far away from China.
But I think this article is more about people being interested in Chinese culture.
It is about Chinese cultural appreciation, but how did that happen? I’d argue that China is actively developing the kind of soft power that America is currently discarding, and this is a primarily politically originated phenomenon.
I think cultural diffusion happens when people actually enjoy cultural products. It’s possible to do that deliberarely. For example, Pad Thai’s popularity was the result of a government project.
To edit a Futurama quote: Americans do not yet know the meaning of humiliation.
Everyday Americans have no idea what international cooperation can achieve when it's about carving out someone else's country. In today's case, we are only staring to see financial hedging, and still heavy outward appearances of appeasement. Remember that before the hudread years was some of the best international trading years the world has ever known: everyone was buying everything Chinese and China didn't buy nothing from nobody: gold and silver only. Then the Qing government decided to close up the ports and do its own thing. Then heavy mismanagement and squandered opportunities and being left behind technologically (poor education) and famines and rebellions. The gunboats, like scavengers only came after the prey couldn't keep up with the flock and lay down.
Edit: there's still a ton of time to turn some things around of course. But the days of quietly sitting in the centre of the world waiting for tributes to flow in is over.
"Why suddenly everyone is raising Digimon/dabbing on the haters/linking you to rick asterly/feeding their neo pet/talking about narwhals" is roughly how this reads to me. It's just...weird that we treat these obvious flash in the pan trends reinforced by influencers and marketing as some larger and deep comment on society.
It feels engineered and I'd suspect it is honestly. We've made politics even more a part of these trends and it muddies everything.
I see it as more of a fun article. Nothing too deep, really.
https://archive.is/tDSQP
From the article:
[...]
[...]
[...]
I had not seen this trend knowingly, but I have seen a single Chinese (American? Canadian?) creator explaining why "since you're Chinese now" we should drink warm, not cold water. Hadn't really engaged or paid attention much past that though she'd popped up a few times. but it makes more sense in context.
Other than that one line it wasn't odd, as my feed is pretty diverse. I just assumed I'd missed a bit that she was doing not something widespread. I still prefer cold water though so I assumed I was disqualified.
It's my vague impression that Ice-cold beverages everywhere are a specifically American thing. Do other countries put ice in drinks by default? Perhaps it made more sense before air conditioning.
I usually ask for no ice.
I have no idea, I just prefer my water cold.
But I (and the creator) wasn't referring to drinking room temperature water but warm to hot water. It's Traditional Chinese Medicine that warm/hot water aids digestion and balances your yang, expelling humidity from the body.
So the ice thing is unrelated other than it being my personal preference. Perhaps I have too much yin due to it.
Americans (and maybe Canadians too idk) do go way harder when it comes to adding ice to drinks, but chilled beverages are common throughout the world and a glass with ice will often accompany a soda at a restaurant here in Europe. Americans are ice-crazy compared to Europeans, but drinking hot water as is relatively common in China is not really a thing here.
Afaik the focus on hot drinks has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine, there's a bunch of important stuff relating to temperature there (both literal temperature as well as certain foods being assigned "hot" or "cold"). My ABC roommate wouldn't eat ice cream whle on her period, for instance, and the Chinese would be horrified to discover we give pregnant women ice chips while they're in labor. That said, when I was in Shanghai, there were still plenty of chilled and iced beverages available, so it's hardly a hard and fast thing. Bubble tea is not only usually served with ice but any decent place lets you specify how much you want, for instance!
Air-conditioning is much rarer in Europe than in either the US or China, fwiw, so I don't think a preference for not having ice in drinks can be attributed to that. It's strictly cultural imo -- I've seen plenty of Germans order a hot cappuccino on a sweltering summer's day when sitting outside at a cafe. Iced lattes have only recently begun catching on here in Berlin, though the more traditional Eiskaffee (filter coffee poured over ice cream like a coffee float) has been around for ages and is phenomenal when it's hot out. Unlike in the US though, you will get weird looks and judgement trying to order Eiskaffee or other iced coffee drinks during cold weather unless the area you're in is pretty cosmopolitan.
Oh my god, this is my first time hearing about this, and now I must try it! Thank you!
You could equally well argue that Americans are at a very European time in their lives, or a very Socialist, or a very Nationalist, or a very Fascist, or a very Christian, or a very retro-Traditionalist time in their lives...
We're thrashing for alternatives to hypercapitalist hyperindividualism, destroyed state capacity, narrowing opportunities, social isolation fostered by algorithmic engagement plus the loss of public spaces/services, and the sense that every important aspect of our lives has been reduced to lies and extraction.