#WeChat Read

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

Cnetizens: Send this to a friend who doesn't reply my messages

OP: Sorry, I actually replied by teleportation

[ryin-silverfish]

Hello ryin! I saw in a recent post of yours that you dislike the "class warfare" reading of the Havoc in Heaven arc in JTTW and would honestly love to hear more about your thoughts on that! Your takes have been really interesting.

Thank you!

My biggest problem with the "class warfare" reading is, first and foremost, what it has been historically used for.

Like, after the Havoc in Heaven opera and movie came out, the propagandists absolutely ate it up; SWK was associated with Mao Zedong and used to promote Mao's personality cult, and soon after, the White Bone Spirit story would be interpreted as this fable for the Sino-Soviet split.

Whereas Havoc in Heaven was intended and viewed as a metaphor and love letter to the victory of Chinese revolution, the White Bone Spirit story was interpreted in the context of the horrific fuck-up that is the Great Leap Forward, where the party were starting to doubt its leadership, and the path to the future seemed an uncertain and arduous one——much like the pilgrimage.

So, in the new twist on the "class warfare" narrative, Tripitaka and Pigsy became the poster-boy for "party members who were easily captivated by revisionist ideas" and needed to see how wrong they were, the WBS became the personification of Khruschev, imperialism, capitalism, revisionism...you name it, and SWK the Mao expy who could do no wrong yet was unfairly blamed by everyone.

Came the Cultural Revolution era, SWK would then become a sort of hero and role model for the Red Guards, smashing down all that was considered archaic and backwards, tearing down older authority figures and perceived "class enemies" alike, all the while emboldened by Mao's saying that "To rebel is justified" (造反有理).

Yeah, no, fuck that shit.

Terrible historical baggages aside, it is also a reading that reeks of presentism, and Lin Geng, a renowned professor of literature, had done a thorough takedown of the "SWK as peasant rebel" idea in his 西游记漫话.

Namely, it neither fits the circumstances of Havoc in Heaven, nor SWK's backstory and motivation. He's not rebelling because his monkeys are oppressed by the Celestial Realm, he's doing it because he feels personally slighted.

His mindset is also not that of a traditional peasant; compare and contrast that with Zhu Bajie, whom the author argues is very much peasant-coded in terms of his obsession with going back to Gao Laozhuang, his rake, and his comedic ignorance that stems from urban stereotypes of rural farmers.

To paraphrase Lin Geng, "Not all rebellions and rebel narratives in Chinese history are peasant ones, and we shouldn't just cry 'peasant rebellion metaphor!' the moment we saw a rebellion in fiction."

Lastly and more personally? This reading also tends to remove SWK's depth as a character. The representation of the Mind can be both heroic and flawed, capable of great feats and fuck-ups alike, but the representation of The Revolution has to be heroic and his opponents, whether celestial or demonic, must be evil oppressors and political boogeymen.

Like, the demons in the novel are representations of the mental obstacles a person will face on the path to Enlightenment, but they are also capable of being funny and very human characters, and not all of them wanted to eat Tripitaka.

The Celestial Realm is a satire of the imperial bureaucracy, sure, but the novel is also a product of its time and cannot magically promote 20th century ideas of revolutions and political reforms 500 years before they were a thing. Besides, SWK can still get help from them on the Journey and their relationship is more complicated than "oppressed rebel and oppressors".

And that's exactly why I dislike the "class warfare" reading: it creates a simplistic opposition of good and evil, and tries to squeeze the work into a narrow political framework that is neither nuanced nor accurate.

[evadingreallife]

We're fast approaching new paradoxical heights of the dangers of digital world: my friend asking for a crochet item from a chinese tutorial. Now i gotta decode 1.5 hrs of chinese crochet tutorial WITHOUT SUBTITLES cause bilibili hates me T_T

[xinyuehui]

S4 x 6 ※ S5 x 3

Regarding the pun, they haven't revealed the name of the baozi shop, but I can take a few wild guesses:

Open all year round is 全年无休 Quan Nian Wu Xiu

权莲无休 Quan Lian Wu Xiu - Ah Quan and Huilian never end. This one combines their name together.

权莲无休 Kyun Lin Mou Yau - The same one as above, but if read in Cantonese, Wu Xiu becomes Mou4 Yau1 which is the same as 无忧 Mou4 Yau1 and it means free from worries. It'll become Ah Quan and Huilian free from worries.

权莲误消 Quan Lian Wu Xiao - The misunderstanding between Ah Quan and Huilian's disappears.

权恋无休 Quan Lian Wu Xiu - Never stop loving Ah Quan.

These are my guesses. If anyone has any other ideas, feel free to let me know, and I'll add them to the post. Or, if they reveal the actual name next week, I'll edit it with the new explanation.

Edit: They haven't revealed it in the show, but AHA Entertainment posted a video on their Wechat with '权莲无休' 'Quan Lian Wu Xiu' in the caption.

[nyerus]

🎧A Guide to the TGCF Audio Drama🎭

With the release of the new season of the fabulous TGCF audio drama, I wanted to make an updated guide on how to make an account, purchase, and listen (with English subs) to it! Hopefully, this will help more people enjoy it and join in on the fun!

As a quick reminder, the audio drama is based on the revised version of the novel! It's a very faithful adaptation, but if you're a new fan, that might throw you for a loop! If you need an overview of the different versions of TGCF, check out this post first!

Part One: Making an Account & Purchasing

The process is a lot easier than you may expect! The site where the audio drama is hosted is "missevan.com," also known as "MaoerFM." They are one and the same!

Check out these infographics to create an account and buy the audio drama. (Due to tumblr compression, they may be difficult to read. If this is the case, please view these images in full-screen and preferably on a web browser for best quality!)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

General Info:

It costs 319 diamonds for the first season, and 359 diamonds for the second season of the TGCF audio drama. This was less than $5 USD, for each season. Future seasons will likely be similarly priced.

Episodes typically release weekly. Mini-episodes/bonus content releases intermittently, and often continues after the main season "ends."

This guide will work for any other audio dramas you want to purchase and support (such as MDZS)! They obviously have different costs, but the process of buying is pretty much the same.

Account/Registration Info:

If you do not see your country/region code listed when making an account, it is unfortunately unavailable there. I do not know any workarounds at the moment, apart from asking a friend/relative in a different country to help you out! If anyone does know other options, please let me know!

Step One of the guide is technically optional, as logging in on the app for the first time will automatically create a new account, if there’s not already one associated with your mobile phone number. I recommend doing that step anyway, as it will ensure that you have a password linked to your account. Several people in the past have reported that they sometimes cannot receive the verification code to log in. (Especially from South America and SEA for some reason.) Having a password bypasses this, if it happens to you.

Unfortunately, it seems that you MUST register with a mobile number to begin with.

Otherwise, you can use an existing Bilibili/QQ/WeChat/Weibo account if you have it. They all require a number for registration too, as far as I know, so you may run into the same problem. They may still be worth trying if you have no other options! Once again, if anyone is aware of other workarounds, do let me know.

Additionally, it’s possible to link your account to an email AFTER you register with a mobile number. (There’s no escaping that, from what I can tell.) You can then use that to log in.

It seems useful to have your email and a password associated with your account, especially in case your country code gets nixed from availability -- which has been known to happen without warning in the past.

The mobile browser seems to prefer you log in with a number/email and a password, rather than a verification code.

LINKING AN E-MAIL TO YOUR ACCOUNT (Optional)

This must be done via web browser, or with your mobile browser set to desktop mode. It’s VERY easy if you use a browser with an auto-translate feature like Google Chrome:

(These images are the MTL translated versions!)

Unfortunately yes, you will need to receive a verification code via mobile number to enable this. The second verification code gets sent to your email, though! (Try not to lose your password, because I'm pretty sure you'll still have to use your phone to verify and change it.) Don't forget to check your spam folder if you don't see it. It will be from "猫耳FM."

Once again, this is optional! I just wanted to include it as an extra avenue for people who may struggle with the verification codes, as they can be finicky. And it happened to me while I was making this section, so I knew I had to....

Part Two: How to Enable English Subtitles

First things first: there are no official English subs for the TGCF Audio Drama. Though I'm fairly sure this applies to all dramas on MaoerFM.

However, there are Chinese (Simplified) subs for each episode.

OPTION ONE: MTL

The main method that non-Chinese speakers have been using to understand the Audio Drama is via MTL (machine translation) on those subs! Browsers like Google Chrome not only have auto-translate, but it works in real time as you watch/listen to the episode.

Make sure that it's turned on and that you've selected English -- or your preferred output language!

Be aware there are TWO types of subtitles on MaoerFM. There are the official subs, and the temporary subs.

At the bottom of the audio player, there is a button labelled "字幕," which is circled in purple in the image below. If it is there, it means that episode has official subs available, and you can toggle them on/off. Meanwhile, the "弹" that the green arrow is pointing to is known as the "barrage." That's the scrolling text that you will see filling the screen. It's other fans screaming and crying in chat. You can turn it off if it feels overwhelming!

New episodes may take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two to be officially subtitled. (The bonus episodes don't have official subs for whatever reason.) In the meantime, there will be subtitlers working on adding temporary subs! I'd advise waiting a little while before listening to a new episode so they have more time to work, and you'll have better coverage!

While official subs are entirely separate, the temporary subs are part of the barrage. So you will have to keep the barrage turned on. (Notice how there is no "字幕" button next to it yet!) Unlike the rest of the barrage, the subs will be stationary, color-coded, and at the very bottom of the window -- so they're easy to differentiate.

However, since the barrage can be a lot if you aren't used to it, there is a way around it.

Hit the settings menu (blue circle) and block the scrolling comments. You can also turn off the top ones, but just make sure not to turn off the bottom ones -- because those are the subs!

DO NOTE that this all works best on desktop! If everything's gone correctly, you should have something like these:

Right -- regular view, temporary subs Left -- full-screen, official subs

It's possible to get this to work on mobile if you enable desktop mode in your Chrome app. You will probably need to refresh a few times after that, or open the page in a new tab to have it work properly. Then it's the same steps as above!

You should have something like these:

Right -- landscape mode Left -- portrait mode

The scaling on mobile can be troublesome, and I have noticed that the auto-translate is slower than on desktop. It seems to take an extra second or two to work on each line -- whereas on desktop it's pretty instant -- and that can get annoying, especially in fast-paced scenes.

Additional Info:

This does not work for the mobile app! It is for the website ONLY!

If the translation stops working, refreshing usually fixes it.

There are potentially other options to using Chrome. Any browser that has an auto-translate will work, assuming it's as quick as Chrome's. If anyone has tried other browsers and seen success, please leave a reply!

OPTION TWO: FANSUBS

TreasureChestSubs here on tumblr have been doing high-quality fansubs for several audio dramas, including TGCF as of recently! However, at the time of making this guide, their TGCF translations currently only cover the first few episodes of season one. You will need to request an invite to their Discord server via the form in their posts. Please do check them out if you're interested.

I don't personally know of any other fansubbers who are actively working on the audio drama right now. But I do want to mention that Xyra_Rei on twitter has a Discord server where they share some translated snippets from various episodes. There are other great resources by fellow fans, too. Links and more info about the server can be found in the pinned post on their profile!

Part Three: Enjoy!!!

I hope this updated guide helps more people experience the wonder that is the TGCF audio drama (or really, any audio drama)! I cannot overstate how good it is in every aspect, and I think every TGCF fan deserves to be able to hear it for themselves! 💖

[uovoc]

hi upvoc!!! so you're pretty much one of maybe 3 people I follow here who are reblogging nezha stuff, and I've pretty much exhausted what I can find in the tags. do you know if there's a more active fandom anywhere else? I mean, I can't read Chinese (yet, seriously going to try learning so I can read all the fanfic), but even being able to find more fanart would be amazing. thank you!!

Happy to point you towards the vast ocean of fan content that's out there!

Some Chinese sites:

Lofter: like Tumblr. More "fannish" userbase.

Weibo/微博: like Twitter. The official movie account can be found here.

Xiaohongshu/小红书/Rednote: like Instagram.

As a casual meme enjoyer, I haven't bothered with joining QQ groups or native fanfic hosting sites. But they're out there.

I believe other people have written guides online about how to sign up for these sites... but @ me with screenshots if you've got issues or questions that don't appear to have been answered.

Logistics that might be useful:

You might be able to use Weibo and Xiaohongshu without an account. Weibo restricts how far you can scroll if not signed in.

You do need an account to use Lofter. People sometimes have trouble making accounts with non-Chinese phone numbers. I did, and ended up first making a Weixin/Wechat account, then using my Weixin account to sign into Lofter, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.

If you can't find a certain app in your app store, you can download a Chinese app store as an APK file, install it, and get the native/Chinese-language version of apps from there. I use Huawei AppGallery.

Some fandom tags for copy-pasting into the search bar:

哪吒 (Nezha)

哪吒之魔童降世 (Nezha Birth of the Demon Child)

哪吒之魔童闹海 (Nezha 2)

藕饼 (Oubing ship tag)

饼渣 (Bingzha ship tag)

罗小黑 (Luoxiaohei) and 罗小黑战记 (Legend of Hei) - in case you want to see those too

[yibo-best]

TianTian: Who is Wang Yibo's WeChat pinned? Yibo: I didn't pin it.

TianTian: You like extreme sports, but you also like to just sit and do nothing. Do you consider yourself "extreme"? Yibo: Yeah~ not bad

TianTian: Dancer, actor, singer - pick one of these three identities. If I asked you this question, how would you answer? Yibo: Read but don't answer

TianTian: Why don't you like carrots? Yibo: It's just… not tasty.

TianTian: How to become a chat terminator Yibo: No need to practice.

{Preliminary version of the interview with Wang Yibo for the May 25 issue of "VOGUE" magazine} Cr: FlowerField_博肖拾光机

[rigelmejo]

Some language learning apps:

Notifyword - free, closest I cpuld find to a free alternative to Glossika with the feature to upload your own sentences/decks/spreadsheets, and it makes audio using TTS and plays them. However I did not test it enough to see if it schedules new/reviews so you don't need to manage figuring all that out yourself. It has potential, I will check into the app again in a year.

Smart Book by KursX - free, used to be my favorite app to read novels as it could do parallel sentence translation, then something broke on my version and it crashed whenever I opened a novel. Now any chinese book I add epub or txt shows me a black screen, no text, making the app unusable. Its easier to read in the web browser now. Which makes me sad because this app was so good back when I got it. Then something broke and I haven't been able to fix it. I paid for premium for this app I liked it so much, I'm really sad I can't see text in books in it anymore. If anyone knows how to fix this problem please let me know? Maybe it's a txt file setting? But then why do the epubs also not load text? Anyway great app... if it works for you. Sadly its broken for me.

Live Transcribe - I don't use this enough. It transcribes what people say (or audio), then you can click to translate the text.

LingoTube - only free app I know where I can put in a youtube video link, and it will make dual subtitles/let me replay the video line by line (including repeating a loop on one line), click translate individual words. Excellent for intensive listening. I'm usually lazy so I just watch youtube and look up an occasional word in Google Translate or Pleco. But this tool is excellent for intensively looking a lot up in a video/relistening to particular lines.

Duoreader - basic collection of parallel texts. No options to upload files, but super nice for what it is. Totally free.

Chinese:

Hanly - a new free app for learning hanzi. Looks great, has great mnemonics and sound information and you can tell it was made with love/a goal in mind. It's still new though so only the first 1000 hanzi have full information filled out, making it more useful for beginners. As the app is worked on more, I'm hoping it will become more useful for intermediate learners.

Readibu - free, great for reading webnovels just get it if you want to read chinese webnovels. You can import almost ANY webpage into Readibu to read, just paste the url into the search. So if you have a particular novel in mind you may want to do that instead of searching the app's built in genres.

Pleco - free, great for everything just get it if you're learning chinese. Great dictionary, great (one time purchase) paid features like handwriting, additional dictionaries, graded readers. Great SRS flashcard system, great Reader tool (and free Clipboard Reader which is 80% of what I use the app for - especially Dictate Audio feature which Readibu can't do).

Bilibili.com app - look up a tutorial, it is fairly easy to make an account in the US (and I imagine other countries) using your email. The algorithm is quite good at suggesting things similar to what you search. So once I searched a couple danmei, I got way more recommended. Once I searched one manhua video, more popped up. Once I searched one dubbed cartoon, more popped up. You can easily spend as much time on this as you'd like.

Weibo - you can browse tags/search without an account. I could not make an account with a US phone and no wechat account. Nice for browsing tags/looking up particular topics.

Japanese:

Tae Kims Grammar Guide - has an app version that's formatted to read easier on phones.

Yomiwa - this is the dictionary app I use for japanese on android.

Satori Reader - amazing graded reader app for japanese with full audiobooks for each reader (which you can listen to individual sentences of on repeat if desired), individual grammar explanations for each part, human translations for each word and sentence. When I start reading more this is what I want to use. Too expensive right now unless I'm reading a bunch, as only the first chapter (or first few) of each graded reader is free. I would suggest checking out the free Tadoku Graded Readers first online, then coming to this app later.

[accio-victuuri]

wang yibo - vogue

This is the first work of this new employee.

translation of the Q&A

Q: Who is Wang Yibo’s pinned WeChat account?

WYB: I didn't pin it

Q: You like extreme sports again, Do you consider yourself extreme?

WYB: Yeah

Q: Dancer, Actor, Singer, Choose one of these three identities. This question is thrown to you, How did you respond?

WYB: Read but not replied

Q: Why don’t you like carrots?

WYB: Not delicious

Q: How did you become a chat terminator

WYB: No need to practice

[ultimateshixiongfuckertournament]

GRAND FINAL - Fei Du vs Quan Yizhen

The final match to determine the Ultimate Shixiongfucker is between Fei Du (shixiong: Luo Wenzhou) from Mo Du vs Quan Yizhen (shixiong: Yin Yu) from Heaven Official's Blessing

Propaganda under the cut

Fei Du:

Fei Du: evidence? The entirety of Mo Du. His shixiong is is Luo Wenzhou, a dude with an eight-pack and parents who love him and love fei du as well, and a dude whom fei du is willing to not die/consider the future with, and consider himself not a monster to be with. Fei Du says shixiong to Luo Wenzhou so flirtatiously that they both stop and stare. Luo Wenzhou gets him birthday cake, a video game when he was small and a promise. (Also, they are cat parents)

If, like me, you go feral over ships where one of them is like this, then vote Fei Du!

#vote for fei du#the man who actually did fuck his shixiong despite all his best efforts to push him away

#vote fei du!!#who actually did fuck his shixiong#fei du died saving lwz

#anyway yeah vote fei du. for the suffering luo wenzhou had to go through when a slutty rich twink began to call him 'shixiong~'

How could I see these tags and not post a greatest hits compilation of Fei Du's "shixiong~~" moments!

Fei Du paused; then some mood caused him to add, “Shixiong.”  Luo Wenzhou: “…”  How could he use such an ordinary tone of voice to speak such an ordinary form of address and yet make it sound so sexual? It was really incomprehensible. 

In this small place, where every breath and bowel movement could be heard, Mr. Fei, who was so close to him, didn’t open his mouth when he had something to say; he had to use the office’s WiFi to send him a WeChat message: “Shixiong, can I take you out tonight?”  Luo Wenzhou looked up at him. Fei Du seemed to be focused on the screen of his laptop; if not for the suspicious trace of a smile at the corners of his lips, he would have looked absolutely upright and proper.  The “upright and proper” Mr. Fei moved his fingers, and another WeChat message appeared in front of Luo Wenzhou’s eyes.  He said: “I like your abs.” 

Fei Du sighed gently. “Shixiong, I’m going to love you until you can’t escape.”

Seeing that, after going inside with the box of cured meat in one hand and the clanking bicycle under the other arm, Luo Wenzhou still showed no signs of ceasing hostilities, Fei Du, without any warning, suddenly hugged him, kissing him like a surprise attack, this time saying the proper lines. “Shixiong, I was wrong.”  “…” Luo Wenzhou kept his face as stern as possible, but his voice relaxed uncontrollably. “Don’t give me that.”  Fei Du lowered his head slightly, burying his face against his neck. He thought about it, then said, “Can I make it up to you with my body?” 

Fei Du laughed quietly, pecking at the most sensitive place at the base of his ear, his other hand untucking Luo Wenzhou’s shirt. “I just got a scare. Shouldn’t you make it up to me, shixiong? My technique really is very good. Just try it, I guarantee…”

He was so angry he was incoherent, forgetting how to speak.  Fei Du, stunned, blinked his eyes, then took Luo Wenzhou’s hand with the veins standing out on it in both of his hands, brought his palms together, and curved his peach blossom eyes in a roguish manner. “Shixiong, I love you.”  Luo Wenzhou: “…” 

additional fei du propaganda: (almost) every time he calls luo wenzhou shixiong

Quan Yizhen:

Obsessed with his shixiong, much to said shixiong's chagrin. Someone who's a proper quanyin shipper can write better propaganda, but I just know he belongs here

Someone who's a proper quanyin shipper can write better propaganda

Well, okay. So Quan Yizhen was originally a street kid that was taken in as a disciple by the sect master at Yin Yu's (the shixiong in question) request because he was impressed by Yizhen's potential. But all the other disciples hated Quan Yizhen's guts due to a mix of his utter inability to read social cues and envy towards his raw talent, only Yin Yu was nice to him which is why Quan Yizhen's obsession with his shixiong took off. Yin Yu is the only person Quan Yizhen cares for.

Eventually his cultivation led Yin Yu to ascend to godhood and he took Quan Yizhen to heaven with him as a deputy god because he knew he couldn't leave him alone. Quan Yizhen doesn't care about prestige, he only cares about martial arts and shixiong, so he asks Yin Yu if they can't go back and if ascension is really that great to which Yin Yu replies to give it a try: Quan Yizhen does and actually ascends as a proper god.

However because Quan Yizhen is so naturally talented he quickly came to eclipse Yin Yu, which he didn't even realize because, again, he has zero social skills. This festered resentment in Yin Yu who eventually exploded and told Quan Yizhen to go kill himself... while Yizhen was wearing a robe that made him follow all fo Yin Yu's commands, so he almost does kill himself. He was stopped and Yin Yu was thrown out of heaven.

But!!! Quan Yizhen doesn't care about any of that! He still wants to meet his shixiong and is sure it was all a misunderstanding. Quan Yizhen actually beats up his own devotees if they trash talk his shixiong, nevermind that as a god his existance is dependant on said devotees. But he doesn't care about that! He only became a god because of shixiong.

When he finally meets his shixiong again, he recognizes him by Yin Yu's mannerism despite Yin Yu wearing a mask. Yin Yu hits him on the head with a shovel and he still doesn't care!! Quan Yizhen still follows his shixiong like a loyal puppy. When later Yin Yu dies trying to protect him Quan Yizhen cries and apologizes for not being able to protect him despite only being good for fighting. Quan Yizhen carries his shixiong's corpse all the way while heaven if falling apart. The last chapter implies Quan Yizhen is trying to nurture Yin Yu's soul to get him back and in the post-canon extras Yin Yu makes a cameo. So Quan Yizhen was succesful!! Death can't take him from his shixiong!

give it to quan yizhen!!!! his whole THING is unconditional love for his shixiong. No matter what Yin Yu does, qyz will love him forever!!

#i will not have my boy who literally calls out SHIXIONG any time he sees yin yu#and desperately chases after him even after everything#lose like this

#yall better give this to quan yizhen#if there's ever a shixiong fucker IT'S HIM

#yes!!!!!!!!#quanyin#he loves him so much!! it’s unconditional!!#vote qyz#tgcf#svsss

#quan yizhen is a real deal shixiongfucker#admit that every time you see his name you're screaming “shixiong!!!!!” reflexively in your head#polls

#qyz propaganda: wdym this guy was ready to kill and be killed for his shixiong#qyz is the most precious#he fights his worshippers if they talk shit about his shixiong#never minds the fact that said shixiong nearly got him killed#THE SUN AND MOON PAIRING#he's the epitome of head empty only shixiong

64.media.tumblr.com

you don’t understand, i need this win with every part of my soul

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

cnetizens post funny screenshots of group chat including class group chat, owners group chat or just chat between two people on chinese chat apps like WeChat or QQ

(fyi, in China, students, parents and teachers in different classes will have a chat group respectively where teachers will send out notices of events or information about tests and homework and such to make it easier for parents to keep track of their children in school. Parents usually change their note name in the group chat to their child's name plus mom or dad. Owners' groups are set up by the property management company of a neighborhood, where all the residents are in the group and can communicate with each other, and the property manager also posts notices in the group (if you are a foreigner living in China, make sure that you are in the owners group chat of your neighborhood so that you can keep up with the news and notices, and you can ask them questions in the chat usually everyone would like to help) Sometimes you witness dramas, like when someone is too noisy and his neighbor curses directly at them in the chat and starts a big fight, or when a homeowner's parking space is taken by another car and that homeowner posts that car's license plate number in the chat and starts bashing

OP's teacher add his QQ and asked him why he didn't come to class

Teacher confirms parents received notice(Parents often copy and paste the previous parent's response without reading it to save time

these are group chats from homeowners

(don't worry they are kidding no one spank kids who behave. Chinese parents usually only spank their children when they make serious mistakes, such as stealing, swearing at teachers, bullying and fighting with classmates.)

this one is during pandemic period

[mariacallous]

On ThursdaY, Reuters published a photo depicting then-United States national security adviser Mike Waltz checking his phone during a cabinet meeting held by President Trump in the White House. If you enlarge the portion of the image that captures Waltz’s screen, it seems to show him using the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal. But if you look more closely, a notification on the screen refers to the app as “TM SGNL.” During a White House cabinet meeting on Wednesday, then, Waltz was apparently using an Israeli-made app called TeleMessage Signal to message with people who appear to be top US officials, including JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and Tulsi Gabbard.

After senior Trump administration cabinet members used vanishing Signal messages to coordinate March military strikes in Yemen—and accidentally included the editor in chief of The Atlantic in the group chat—the “SignalGate” scandal highlighted concerning breaches of traditional government “operational security” protocol as well as compliance issues with federal records-retention laws. At the center of the debacle was Waltz, who was ousted by Trump as US national security adviser on Thursday. Waltz created the “Houthi PC Small Group” chat and was the member who added top Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg. "I take full responsibility. I built the group," Waltz told Fox News in late March. "We've got the best technical minds looking at how this happened," he added at the time.

SignalGate had nothing to do with Signal. The app was functioning normally and was simply being used at an inappropriate time for an incredibly sensitive discussion that should have been carried out on special-purpose, hardened federal devices and software platforms. If you're going to flout the protocols, though, Signal is (relatively speaking) a good place to do it, because the app is designed so only the senders and receivers of messages in a group chat can read them. And the app is built to collect as little information as possible about its users and their associates. This means that if US government officials were chatting on the app, spies or malicious hackers could only access their communications by directly compromising participants' devices—a challenge that is potentially surmountable but at least limits possible access points. Using an app like TeleMessage Signal, though, presumably in an attempt to comply with data retention requirements, opens up numerous other paths for adversaries to access messages.

"I don't even know where to start with this," says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and vice president of research and development at Hunter Strategy. “It's mind-blowing that the federal government is using Israeli tech to route extremely sensitive data for archival purposes. You just know that someone is grabbing a copy of that data. Even if TeleMessage isn't willingly giving it up, they have just become one of the biggest nation-state targets out there.”

TeleMessage was founded in Israel in 1999 by former Israel Defense Forces technologists and run out of the country until it was acquired last year by the US-based digital communications archiving company Smarsh. The service creates duplicates of communication apps that are outfitted with a “mobile archiver” tool to record and store messages sent through the app.

“Capture, archive and monitor mobile communication: SMS, MMS, Voice Calls, WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram & Signal,” TeleMessage says on its website. For Signal it adds, “Record and capture Signal calls, texts, multimedia and files on corporate-issued and employee BYOD phones.” (BYOD stands for bring your own device.) In other words, there are TeleMessage versions of Signal for essentially any mainstream consumer device. The company says that using TeleMessage Signal, users can “Maintain all Signal app features and functionality as well as the Signal encryption,” adding that the app provides “End-to-End encryption from the mobile phone through to the corporate archive.” The existence of “the corporate archive,” though, undermines the privacy and security of the end-to-end encryption scheme.

TeleMessage apps are not approved for use under the US government's Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program or FedRAMP. TeleMessage and Smarsh did not immediately return requests for comment about whether their products are used by the US federal government and in what capacity.

"As we have said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is loaded on government phones,” White House press secretary Anna Kelly tells WIRED. She did not answer questions about whether the White House approves of federal officials using TeleMessage Signal—which is a different app from Signal—or whether other officials aside from Waltz have used the app or currently use it.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency does not create policy around federal technology use but does release public guidance. When asked about Waltz’s apparent use of TeleMessage Signal, CISA simply referred WIRED to its best-practices guide for mobile communications. The document specifically advises, “When selecting an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, evaluate the extent to which the app and associated services collect and store metadata.”

It is not clear when Waltz started using TeleMessage Signal and whether he was already using it during SignalGate or started using it afterward in response to criticisms that turning on Signal's disappearing messages feature is in conflict with federal data-retention laws.

“I have no doubt the leadership of the US national security apparatus ran this software through a full information-assurance process to ensure there was no information leakage to foreign nations,” says Johns Hopkins cryptographer Matt Green. “Because if they didn’t, we are screwed.”

[ilovealonelystar]

Random thought of the day:

*CPN*

About the Devil's Timeline... I switch back and forth between believing in it or not hahahaha

At the same time I think it's odd that GGDD both say several times they are shy and slow starters around strangers but they seemed to be at ease with e/o pretty fast, when I watch the early early (like first days) behind-the-scenes footage, you can clearly see they are indeed awkward/shy, DD speaks soft and low, they don't hit and laugh at each other maniacally like they would come to do (A LOT) later, and I think you can see GG trying to break the ice. I made this little compilation to exemplify some of the early days of filming:

Source

So, what are the options in my opinion?

They really (like they officially claim) talked for the first time only at the script reading in early April before the filming started and hit it off super duper fast;

WYB added XZ on WeChat after he went on DDU (mid-2017), they talked for some time (because they have mutual interests like K-pop, music in general, animes, etc) but it died down the following months, so they were basically strangers when they met again to shoot CQL;

WYB added XZ on WeChat after he went on DDU (mid-2017), they talked, flirted, had some kind of long-distance online relationship, maybe never clearly crossing the line between friendship/love because they were so busy they probably wouldn't have the time to develop it so much, so it died down after some time - that's why they were awkward at the beginning of filming but then the flame reignited;

WYB added XZ on WeChat after he went on DDU (mid-2017), they talked, after some time started a half-long-distance relationship seeing each other casually, had some good times, ended it for some reason (being busy following their dreams and careers, etc) - that's why they were awkward at the beginning of filming but then the flame reignited. Maybe they still kept some kind of contact, talking to each other about the CQL casting (because XZ was chosen first as WWX, WYB was the last one to be chosen like the producer said in an interview);

Actually, they are masters of acting and they were already in a love relationship before CQL, just pretending they were awkward and shy around each other so nobody would suspect it.

I know that it's kind of peculiar that they seemed really comfortable with e/o at the script reading, but it's not improbable to think that GG was just being professional and friendly (like he usually is, right?) because there's that epic cut of him crying a lot during the reading, so he was already getting into WWX mind. Also, GG said in some interviews that the director told him (I imagine because of him being older and his friendly personality) to approach DD - that is 'cold'/'shy', because, after all, they would need to have good chemistry on screen.

Hmm... I think I covered all the ideas I have in mind right now hahaha bottom line: I DON'T KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE but I love pondering about it. If anybody has any other theories, I'd love to know!!! This Devil's Timeline thing is really something that tickles my imagination...

[thegreymoon]

Lighter and Princess

Speechless.

HE DIDN'T DO IT FOR YOU!!

Li Xun's and Zhu Yun's faces are priceless, though 😂😂

***

LMAO, oh, to have her problems 😂😂

Girl, he is head over heels in love with you and for all his posturing, you are the one with all the power in this relationship!

***

LMAO

Kill her with your scissors!!

***

LMFAO, she put on the shit-ugly dress he got her to go confess to him before the other girl does 😂😂

Watch it all be Li Xun's scheme to make her jealous.

***

And she got stuck in traffic, all with her new hairstyle and fancy dress 😂😂

***

And she is now running to get there before the other girl 😂😂

***

I somehow doubt that very much.

***

OH THANK FUCKING GOD

IT TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!

***

Also, such a nice place 🧡

***

HE HAS ALREADY CHOSEN YOU!

NOW, LET'S GO TO THE PRESENT TIMELINE SO THAT YOU CAN SHOW HIM JUST HOW RIDE-OR-DIE YOU REALLY ARE FOR HIM!

***

And, of course, we must take a selfie, to commemorate the romance.

She better post it on WeChat or wherever now, to mark her territory.

***

This flashback is so ridiculous, it has its own flashbacks and flashforwards.

This is not a flashback, it is an entire season of a show.

***

I love Shanghai 🖤

***

MURDER!! FINALLY!!

***

So much for the murder 😒😒

This drama remains a disappointment.

***

Adorable when sleepy 🖤

***

Good for you!

Fuck graduate school.

***

Cute or not, if I were her, I would have dumped your ass long ago.

Three years later and you still expect people around you to read minds.

***

You have got to love a supportive boyfriend 🖤

***

I approve 👌

***

LMAO, is it Li Xun's stupid buddy who got him expelled from high school??

I AM SO GLAD WE ARE GETTING MORE OF HIS GAY ASS!!

[meichenxi]

languages, travel, identity, grief

Maybe some of you have heard of Xu Zhimo's Second Farewell to Cambridge (徐志摩 再別康橋 Translation: Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again, by Xu Zhimo | East Asia Student). It's an achingly lovely poem about a Chinese scholar who studied in the UK, and how he left so gently, taking nothing with him as he went. It brought me solace over the last year.

I thought for a very long time about how I felt about having to leave China, and what it felt like to mourn for a future that was never going to mine. I cried. How am I supposed to explain why? I'm not Chinese. I've got no family there, or a childhood to look back on. I couldn't explain it even to myself.

That pain was coupled with a type of uncertainty, a discomfort at myself for feeling so strongly. This feeling was not allowed. It meant - what? Something awful, probably. I was a racist, probably. I should hate myself, probably. Fetishization is the word that gets thrown around for white people and their time spent in East Asia at one end of the spectrum - at the other end it's just seen as embarrassing and deeply, you know, cringe. It's a self-interrogation - why do I feel so sad? Why do I feel this pull so strongly anyway, to a country that's not even mine? Why should it matter so much when I leave? I didn't feel like this grief has any sort of legitimacy. But it has taken from September - eight months after leaving - for me to pick up Chinese again.

I felt, for months, hollow and unsettled and drifting from place to place. I opened my textbook, and closed it again. The memories there were too painful. I'm not going to write about why I had to leave, but it wasn't by choice. I had loved the people in the school, even if it was for a short time. When you have no internet and are training eight hours a day, the days are coloured more sharply: bright and hurtful and wonderful all at once. We had no running water. It was in an abandoned hotel. I miss the monk at the temple door opposite the school, always on time at 6am to open it for our classes. I miss the folk at the local shop who invited me to watch films on their projector; once they killed a chicken for us. I miss the woman in the woods who gave me the chestnuts she had picked. I gave the chestnuts to the cook, and we steamed them and ate them by the lake. He wanted me to marry his son; he wanted it so strongly that he brought me pork, and desserts, and gave me paper, and promised me I could have a jade bracelet, that he would buy me a house. I miss the oldest martial arts teacher, who spoke in such strong dialect I could barely understand him. When I was sad and missing home one night, he told me that I should stay after dinner. In the silence and against the cicadas, he started to play the erhu for me. Later, my friend told me that he hadn't know what to say, how to comfort me; I was a foreigner and a young woman, after all. We had very little in common. But nobody has ever played a piece of music for me like that before.

And I miss X, my best friend there and partner in snack-smuggling crime. She is 19 years old, and a janitor's daughter, and one of the wisest people I have ever met. (She also rides an excellent motorbike, and lent me her hanfu, and we sped through the city giddy with our own daring and trying not to be caught.) We got matching haircuts; she had always wanted to cut her hair like a boy, and was too scared to do it alone. When I left, I told her to stay in touch: she shook her head. She said that some people were meant to know each other for some time, and no more. I think the death of friendship by attrition, by - as Elrond said! - the slow decay of time, is one of the saddest things of all. I deleted Wechat. I don't want to read over the old messages. By having this place - her, and the chestnuts, and the cicadas - as a memory, I can tuck it away it. I can keep it close.

I wrote a poem myself on the plane. That was the last I thought about China, the last thought I let myself have, in eight months. I kept myself away from it. It felt like a wound. And against that hollowness, there was constantly the question: Why should I have any right to miss this place? Who I am there? Why does it matter? We are all different people, wherever we go, and whoever we are with; we wear different skins, large or small. In China I was [...]. She was who I was. That name, that I introduced myself to people with - she was bright and friendly and tried to translate things just so. Everybody who goes as the only foreigner to a place - or the only foreigner that speaks the language - is a little bit self-obsessed. It happens. It's unfortunate, and something to guard against. But it also gives you its own kind of identity in a way: your identity is Foreigner. Your identity is a cultural bridge. Everyone you meet, in a country as friendly and curious as China, has questions about you. You stand with your feet in both worlds, and are not really part of either of them. That identity is easy to slip into, like cool water, like trying on new clothes. It's easier that thinking: who am I outside of that? Where am I going? I don't really know. I don't think anyone really does.

And then the second thing happens. I speak Chinese well, by this point. My accent is there, but it's slight. I am short, and have dark hair, and a generally similar build to many East Asians - so the questions I have got in the last few years have changed. Sometimes people think I have been raised here. Sometimes they think I am ethnically Russian, and nationally Chinese. Sometimes I get asked if I am half Chinese. Usually they know I am a Foreigner, 100% white - but not always. There is a peculiar rush that comes from that acceptance; from feeling the relief, just for fifteen minutes, that you belong. It's not about 'passing', or race-bending, or anything twisted - it's nothing so unnerving as that. It's just the human need to belong. Everyone gets tired of being stared at, after a while. And after a while, you start to think - I wish I understood. I wish they understood. I wish this were easy.

But then the conversation keeps going. You don't know a local word, or you misunderstand. You say something in a strange way, or you make a strange gesture, and the glass shatters, and - there you are again, naked again, exhausted again, explaining yourself again. That's the other half of it. There's solace in the Foreigner identity, because that means that's all you are. You don't have to think about your parents, or whether they worry about you so far from home; of course they do. The Foreigner is good and filial and a wonderful daughter. You can craft her into any shape you like. But it also marks you out again and again, endlessly and again, as Other.

There was a paper published a while ago that showed measures of acceptance of non-natives in native-speaking communities. It highlights a strange, but familiar experience to those who have lived abroad - the people who spoke the language to a medium level felt more accepted and less lonely than those that spoke the language to a high degree. It makes sense, and mirrors what I have found with both Chinese and German. When you speak a little Chinese, you are a wonder - a curiousity! Look at the Western girl go! People are kind, and curious, and will slow down to include you in conversations. You are thrilled with what you can access - all this knowledge, that other people don't have! Look how special you are!

And then you get better. And then you realise, cut by cut, that you will never be one of them. You don't want to be Chinese, per se; but you do want to be accepted. You are happy to be British; but you miss China like a wound, an old one, festering, even when it was never yours. How do you tell your family that you are not grieving a lost romance, a beautiful girl, but a language and a life? That there are words of majesty, of playfulness, that will never be yours? You speak well enough that people no longer bother to dumb things down, or explain them; you sit with your discomfort, smile painted on, because - you know. It's not bad. You understand most of it. And on the edge of that circle, smiling uncertainly, following the vast majority of what is being said, you are not clever enough and not witty enough to keep up with the chengyu, the cultural references, the slang, and the raucous laughter around you erupts, and you don't know what you've missed, and everybody says - she's quiet, that one. Maybe all the foreigners are? And all you are doing is sitting and feeling the distance between You and Them as heavy and as stifled in your chest as an ocean of dark.

So you go back. Back to your people. But when you sit with the other foreigners, you are apart. They laugh; what are these nutters doing? The Chinese don't make any sense. The Chinese do this - they do that. You sit there, and then there is a pressure building in your chest too, a discomfort, the desire to stand up and say - well, actually.

You are responsible for everything the Chinese teachers do, and have to explain things in a way that the students understand - Confucian thought, and Buddhist philosophy, translated in pithy bite-size adages for the West. You have no qualifications for this; everything you assert, you feel unsure. Uncertain. Someone else could explain it better, more nuanced, and you need to do more reading anyway - but here you are, and here they are, and you're the only one. And you do know. Not enough, but enough that their jokes, their pains, make you uncomfortable. You feel the need to defend both parties; to be a diplomat, every second of every day. In turn, when the students come to the teachers with problems, you have to translate their grievances in a way that the Chinese teachers will be sympathetic towards. Once I got asked: why do you never join us after class? Why are you always so quiet when you're not working? As a translator, you are always working. Every time you speak, you are working; what you choose to say, and what you choose to not say, and where you choose to intervene. You are building relationships, and disappearing, and you are becoming invisible, and you're a nothing, and you're everyone and you're nobody and nobody realises you are doing anything more than translating at all.

I wanted to stay. I couldn't have stayed. I wanted to be accepted as one of them. I wanted to be accepted for who I was. That means a foreigner. I wanted to be true to myself, which means that I would always be the Foreigner, which means I would always be apart from them. It is that contrast and juxtaposition which causes the grief. And there was never an ending to it, a resolution, a chance to reconcile myself (in China) with myself (in the UK), because all at once I had to leave. The grief comes most from the second arrow - not the pain of leaving, but the bewilderment of not knowing why I was in pain at all.

It's been eight months. Slowly, as spring comes, I feel like I am on surer ground. I can look at my old books, those painstaking notes, and I could look at new ones too and I'm starting to think, because this is what I tell my students, and maybe there's some truth in it - it's okay if you're not perfect. It's okay if you didn't achieve what you wanted to, and that the language - in its wholeness, and who can ever know that? - will never, not quite, be yours. It's the struggle and the process that means that I will know and understand Chinese in a different way, in my own way, in a slanted-to-reality sort of way, that is a treasure in and of itself. There is beauty in its brokenness too.

And there is sorrow, too. The sorrow that comes with easing yourself into a different life, and it holding you gently for a while. I sat there - I spoke to them. It's not only missing a place; it's missing a person you were, a stage of your life, for a time. It's knowing that a place has reached inside your ribs and taken root there - even if you don't return, you can never fully get rid of that again. You are two people now, with feet straddling two oceans. There are parts of you that loved and suffered and hated and grew in Chinese, not English. You can't explain that. You can't even begin. Sometimes - not often - you are a stranger in your own land. The poets spoke of that. In the age of fast travel, of the weekend break, we have forgotten the ways a place can burrow itself inside you, and find its own home.

It's not the same as the grief that someone Chinese will face. But it's still grief. I have put my life into Chinese. Maybe that is all it takes to grow love.

Now, I turn back to Chinese - as a foreigner, as Melissa, as myself. It's a bittersweet thing. I know that I cannot hold all of it. It will spill out, like the sun, and there is no way I can be that without losing myself and my history and my own green woods. But I think I am ready now. I am surer, and a little steadier on my feet.

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

Life in China: Observations

I've been living here for a while and decided to share some things that I thought were pretty interesting!

Cheese is not really a thing here Unless you go to an international store like Aldi or Walmart (which are pretty much non-existent in smaller cities ), trying to find cheese is pretty difficult.

Class attendance Attendance is really strict. It doesn't matter how ill you are, you still need to go to hospital or a clinic to get a doctors note. Even then you get only half a day excused rather than the entire day.

Studying Maybe you could have gotten away with not doing your reading back at home, but the studying stereotype is true. In my home uni we'd learn around 20 characters per week plus the usual grammar and homework. Here? Try 70-90 characters plus the usual self-studying and quizzes, and I'm not even in the advanced or intensive class!

Classroom vs Real life chinese Obviously the language spoken in real life is different than the one in the textbook, but it can be drastically different, especially the dialects which are pretty interesting, but at times diffult to understand.

Pacing yourself with the food Not to say that you shouldn't enjoy yourself, but the food will take some adjusting to for many people. Not even in terms of spice, just the type of meals and the commonly used ingredients require time to get used to them, especially if you don't have these types of meals regularly.

English isn't widely spoken (duh) Despite the whole "big cities are very international, you'll have no problems" shtick, outside of international communities English isn't that widely used so knowing some basic Chinese is necessary.

Phone is my new appendage From paying at the grocery store to sending your teacher your homework and paying your phone bill, wechat is the multi-functional daily necessity that you can't go without. In short, you will probably be superglued to your phone whether you like it or not as it turns out.

Public transport is the way In the larger cities at least, the metro is really well-developed and air-conditioned! A life-saver during the summer, as crowds of people crammed together like sardines during the hot and humid months of summer and early autumn would be unbearable with the a/c.