#they were chinese immigrants and i think this had everything to do with it

[cleverstudentcheesecake]

Since I either consider Shen Yuan to be reincarnated Shen Jiu or Shen Jiu's brother/twin/son, I hate it when people describe him to be awkward, spineless, dumb, poor, broke or unattractive in the modern world. In the SVSSS world, in fannon he is often characterised to be too easy, trusting, damsel-in-distress who is easy to manipulate.

Let me tell you, a reincarnated Shen Jiu or Shen Jiu's close kin would never be any of the above. Even if we consider him to have absolutely no relation with Shen Jiu, he can never be any of the above.

Now let's be realistic why.

Poor, broke and unattractive?

Shen Yuan is clearly stated to be a 'Second-generation rich kid'.

This is the definition of 'Second-generation rich kid' given in the extra notes of book 1:

SECOND-GENERATION RICH KID: A child of a wealthy family who grows up with a large inheritance. “Second-generation” in this case refers to them being the younger generation (as opposed to their parents, who are the first generation) rather than immigrant status.

Have you ever seen rich Chinese kids or heard about the term 'Crazy Rich Asians'?

Do you know what their lifestyle, fashion senses, academic profiles and extracurriculars are like?

Iykyk...

According to me Shen Yuan in modern world used to be that absolutely breath taking, elegant, overachieving kid who grew up reading the hardest of litetary works and then proceeded to burn himself out in University.

He must have known how to play atleast 2 musical instruments and have been well versed in multiple languages. He was also a chess genius as well as a great networker with his silver tongue and natural knack for flattery. He had been privately tutored for everything above.

If you ever found Shen Yuan outside his house, you would find his spine to be pin straight, without a hair out of place and effortlessly dressed to kill.

I believe when he was reading PIDW he was taking a break after both his mental and physical conditions declined due to social, academic and familial pressures.

He was good at everything but never as good as his elder brothers. He used to be a prime example of 'Jack of all trade, Master of none'.

He had no ambition of his own after being overshadowed by his brothers who were also physically more fit than him, all his life. He was existing until one day it all came breaking in.

Why did the length of the break even matter when he would still have a huge trust fund even if he achieves nothing in life? He just had to make sure to not do anything shameful that could have possibly harmed his family's reputation. The trust funds were sufficient to sustain his introverted ass for a lifetime.

So, he became a shut in.

He was always a closet otaku but now he could completely indulge himself in his otaku tendencies.

He went and read every trashy web novel that ever existed until he found his 'The Read'.

From the comfort of his home and behind the screen he could be his true gremlin self (someone who could completely tear down your confidence down with his verbal attacks without a huff).

He no longer needed his silver tongue to appease people, he could laze around all day aimlessly and shit talk essays on the web novels' comment sections.

The rest is history...

Why do you think he was inherently adept to pretending in the SVSSS world? Why was it so effortless for him to pretend to be an extraordinary immortal scholar? — because all his life he had been pretending.

If he was awkward he wouldn't have been able to collect potential suitors like pokemons.

He is polite, endearing and a flatterer but never awkward.

Excuse me if he was easy to manipulate and too trusting, he would have never escaped Zhuzhi Lang.

Spineless you say?

Prove it that he won't castrate a person then and there if they even try to look the wrong way at his disciples?

Assure me that if had gone through the same circumstances as Shen Jiu, he wouldn't have turned out exactly like Shen Jiu?

Tell me that Shen Yuan isn't capable of pulling a Nie Huaisang if his Jiu-ge is skillfully murdered in front of him?

A damsel-in-distress, tell me he isn't capable of fighting and standing up for himself.

How can he ever be dumb?

His aimlessness and laziness doesn't account for his lack of intelligence. I agree that he may not be much emotionally adept but he is book smart and quick on his feet.

Sometimes, his obvious denial of affection makes me feel that they don't actually stem from being in a Villain's body or obliviousness, but rather from his own self-doubt and hatred.

He purposefully denies what is right in front of him which makes him biased and an unreliable narrator. He sees himself as an unkind person throughout the story but we all know the truth.

He also considers himself old and unlovable but we know he is a pretty bitch who everyone has a crush on.

Believe me Tsundere Shen Yuan needed a Yandere Binghe in his life so he could realise that there exists someone who loves, trusts and believes him unconditionally. All his life he had lived feeling useless, he needed someone who wants him desperately and also makes him feel wanted.

We say Shen Yuan helped Binghe, trust me Binghe did the same for Shen Yuan. Binghe fixed something in Shen Yuan that he never realised was broken. They are co-dependent freaks who absolutely deserve each other.

[rotzaprachim]

the fun game where I look for yiddn in 1899 for personal enjoyment

note that pretty much none of this will follow canon and I am doing it for my personal Jewish enjoyment. It’s a boat full of Europeans fleeing Europe in 1899 what can I even say

a) Olek - by far the most likely, considering the absolutely mass immigration of Jews from Galitzia (where the postcard Olek carries is addressed to) to New York, where he wants to move. Olek being a secret jew is something I’m 99% the writers didn’t intent but that lines up incredibly well with what’s suggested of his story, the actual history of 1899, and the consistent thematic resonance of people concealing or lying about their ethnic or national origin, including not only Ramiro but Ying Li, olek’s deepest parallel and love interest. (Seriously like… these two parallel each other so deeply in everything and the cantonese speaking prostitutes’ daughter pretending to be Japanese aboard the white western ship and the Eastern European Jew pretending to be a polish Christian aboard the western Christian ship are such a fascinating parallel in nation and region and power relational to the West, as well as a negotiation of the brutal anti-Chinese and anti-Jewish immigration sentiment in the U.S. at the time.) The scenario would place Olek as a polish and Yiddish speaking Jew who was attacked by an antisemitic coworker at the oil refinery where he worked or something, or who had survived a pogrom or displacement, and ended up stealing his attackers identity and postcard after he killed him in self defense. This would be a Ramiro and a ying li parallel, and show the repeated and clearly heavy postcard metaphor in a new light - this isn’t a hopeful golden lit coming to America metaphor, as it seems in the first couple scenes, but a physical realization of olek’s guilt at what he did to survive AND a heaviness that lurks around where he took the postcard from (the coworker on the oil field.)

verdict: both totally unwritten and completely contingent with what we know of canon. JEW

b) unlikely but funny as hell: Ramiro. Ángel thinks he has problems having to pretend to be straight and here we have Ramiriko struggling every fucking day with having to pretend to be STRAIGHT and SPANISH and also remember the order of the mass and not get the paternoster mixed up with shmah yisrael. Absolute comedy act. (He also seems consistently bewildered by Catholic canon or how to even do the priest act.) Adds fucked up flavour and nuance to whatever the fuck is going on with Ángel and Ramiro and the “you aren’t even Spanish” line, although does Ángel know Ramiro is a Jew? Probably not. Had he ever worked out he blows kosher dick? Story suggests Ángel doesn’t blow enough sick to really know, nor that that kind of thing would ever occur to him. This one is kind of unlikely, given there were very few Jews in Portugal in the 1800s and the portuense inquisition didn’t officially end till the 1820’s, but it is technically possible - Judaism began to be legal again in the 1800’s and Portuguese jewish communities began to form again. Furthermore, Ramiro being a jew, particularly a descendant of conversos or marranos, could be the context of the showdown where ángel says that he’s never pretended to be anything other than what he is (unlike Ramiro.) they’re both clealry so fruity that whatever he’s talking about isn’t sexuality. (Ramiro is symbolized by the cross, but the cross, along with he background outline of a church, also shows up as a significant element in his Trauma Room, so it might even be the identity he was forced to take on and then casts off). (The crucifix is also the symbol of the priest Ramiro killed it seems, although I think by drowning. A Jew killing a priest - who might have been ángels abuser - would launch such an incredible amount of antisemitic deicide let’s hunt the godkillers backlash they’d have to leave immediately) verdict: unlikely but not technically against canon. Both hysterically funny in light of being a catholic priest winging it for 8 episodes and absolutely heartbreaking

c) eyk. Oh boy. Unlike the other two nothing to suggest it but also nothing to not suggest it, right, although the concept of a German Jew whose family burned to death in a house he keeps seeing is. Oh boy. Assimilated yekke who turned to piloting as a way to work his way up in the world (and part of why his crew disrespects him.) His wife’s name is Sarah which could be pretty Jewish. Nína isn’t like, Jewish, but also isn’t NOT Jewish, and we don’t know the names of his other daughters, which could be like, Rochel and Shoshana. (Or not! Considering the assimilated yekke thing.) clearly lying about a million things. Is this one of them? Is he even real? verdict: the fire was his maybe-automaton wife knocking over the shabbes candles. Possible yid. Who even knows? Not eyk, for sure.

d) you could spare a thought for Daniel, who actually has a Hebrew name that directly parallels the figure of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible what with seeing visions and being trapped in the den and all that but he and his wife (maybe) buried his son with a cross and that cross keeps repeating with some of the most objectively Christian imagery in the show. Also they’ve buried their son beneath the cross. This could be playing the machine but unlike Ramiro it doesn’t seem so performative. verdict: goy

e) clémence

nothing to suggest it and nothing to not suggest it. Who even knows? Not us. Not clémence most of all

[milkteaarttime]

CoD Ghosts OC: Latte Info!

I made a little more lore for her character, I hope this allows everyone to get to know her better.

General

Name: Latte/ShuXin Wong

Age/Birthdate: 24, born in March, 2003 

Eye Colour: Dark brown

Hair Colour: Black

Hairstyle: whatever shaggy mess she cut for herself(short wolf cut?)

Height: 5’3 on a good day

Body/Build: Top heavy, slight muscle tone from doing Pilates and lifting heavy patients.

Blood type: O positive

Profession: Nurse

Childhood/Life 

Latte, born ShuXin, was born in a city hospital to an average Chinese couple. Her family immigrated to Canada when she was a baby due to her mother being pregnant again during the one-child policy. Her life in Canada wasn’t lavish but it was decent for her little family. She had a talent and love for singing. Her mother also loved singing, and upon realizing her talents, placed her in singing lessons. Latte was hoping to become a singer of sorts in adulthood. She grew up helping her parents in their restaurant. And she also cared for her little brother, Viktor. As the eldest, she was pinned down by a lot of expectations and unfortunately became parentified quite heavily by her parents and circumstances. 

ODIN

When Latte was 14, her entire family was caught in the unfortunate event of ODIN during a Vacation down to Seattle, Washington. They weren't in the direct area that was hit, but near enough that her parents died from the complications and Latte and her brother were moderately injured. She was later sent back to Canada with her brother to live with a family friend, but she had to stop her extracurriculars due to financial reasons. 

Professional Experience

Latte did an LPN program for nursing in Canada, She transferred to the States to be near her brother, Viktor, who is in the military. When she was transferred down to the States, the healthcare system was quite literally in shambles and there were a ton of employment opportunities. The healthcare system is low on nurses, doctors, and other essential staff alike, especially in the military. Many nurses and care aides also quit because they can’t handle the intense workload anymore, causing more shortages. She still dreams of singing but knows that it's unrealistic, you can find her singing quietly while she charts when there's a rare moment of downtime. 

Personality

Friendly and patient, she has a great professional front, but can occasionally seem anxious when deep in thought.

She rather knowledgeable and intelligent.

Tends to spiral and overthink when overwhelmed.

She's an extrovert. She loves meeting new people and has gotten a stern talking to by her manager because she would waste time interacting with the patients.

Yapper ™. Latte sometimes talks too much and accidentally lectures ppl

A saviour syndrome/mother hen. Latte’s upbringing causes her to feel like it is her life goal to make sure everyone else’s needs are met before hers. Her mother’s words “Make sure you are considerate to others.” Often echoes in her head. Making sure everyone around her is satisfied. Often mother or nag Viktor even in adulthood. Causing Viktor to be occasionally a little avoidant. She accidentally blurs the line between a sister and a mother a lot.

Apologizes for everything, but that's partially because she's Canadian. But it does give the impression that she doesn’t think highly of herself. 

Dynamic with Hesh

The first time they met, Latte thought he was adorable and had some butterflies in her belly but thought that was anxiety from Hesh holding her hand.  And the second time they met, the feelings came back, and she was stammering and struggling to concentrate. Especially when she saw his well-built body, all rationality out the window. Latte felt an indescribable connection with Hesh. A mutual understanding of struggles with expectations from parents, being the responsible one for the younger siblings, and carrying the will of the family. But never allowed to break down yourself. She's able to be vulnerable and open with Hesh. Confiding in each other about their struggles with finding themselves, and how they aren’t just someone's son/daughter or brother/sister. 

The only issue concern might be that Hesh is used to expressing his disapproval/demands since he is in the military. He is unaware of how intimidating he can come across. So he can be a little too direct and unconsciously make her anxious with his words and body language. On the other hand, Latte tends to hold back her complaints, but because Latte doesn’t express her needs or feelings, she tends to bottle up and then break down. 

Skills

She is a great singer, has a soothing and smooth voice and can put you to sleep with her singing. Also a great voice for emotional ballads or musical numbers. 

She is fast and efficient with her hands and is great at physical tasks with small or intricate details, due to her experience helping her parents in the restaurant. She is also a great cook because of this, but the downside is everything she cooks becomes Chinese or a Chinese fusion dish (not done on purpose).

Nursing skills since she is a nurse! Things like wound dressing, IV inserts, and medication admin. However, Her soft skills are where she shines. Her ability to de-escalate patients, comfort, and establish trust, and her bubbly personality make her the go-to person for unhappy patients and families. 

FUN FACTS

Tends to speak to herself in Chinese when alone. Often receiving weird looks.

Able to speak, sing, read, and write in her native tongue. Latte is very connected with her culture. Makes Chinese holiday foods for the team. 

Enjoys rock and upbeat music. She is an “any song as long as I vibe with it” type of music listener.

Had a weird edgy/emo phase from 13-15. Tried to teach herself how to metal scream. Ruined her voice for a week. 

Not great at math, and was banned from being a cashier at the restaurant. 

Very scary when actively angry. But the idea of her being openly angry is strange because no one in her professional life (Minus Lauren the manager and Viktor) has tasted her repressed and built-up wrath. 

She LOVES the fries and cheeseburger combo. A good cheeseburger with tomato, sweet pickled onion, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, regular pickles, and a side of nice crispy fries is all she wants sometimes

(Thanks for reading!! Any feedback is welcomed!! Thanks for all the love you guys showed me on my previous Fic and OC posts <3)

[jangillman]

Jan Gillman-Westgarth

I woke up and as I had my morning coffee, I realized that everything is about to change. No matter how I vote, no matter what I say, something evil has invaded our nation, and our lives are never going to be the same.

I have been confused by the hostility of family and friends. I look at people I have known all my life--so hate-filled that they agree with opinions they would never express as their own. I think that I may well have entered the Twilight Zone.

You can't justify this insanity. We have become a nation that has lost its collective mind!

• If a man pretends to be a woman, you are required to pretend with him.

• Somehow it’s un-American for the census to count how many Americans are in America.

• Russians influencing our elections are bad, but illegals voting in our elections are good.

• It was cool for Joe Biden to "blackmail" the President of Ukraine, but it’s an impeachable offense if Donald Trump inquires about it.

• Twenty is too young to drink a beer, but eighteen is old enough to vote.

• People who have never owned slaves should pay slavery reparations to people who have never been slaves.

• People who have never been to college should pay the debts of college students who took out huge loans for their degrees.

• Immigrants with tuberculosis and polio are welcome, but you’d better be able to prove your dog is vaccinated.

• Irish doctors and German engineers who want to immigrate to the US must go through a rigorous vetting process, but any illiterate gang-bangers who jump the southern fence are welcome.

• $5 billion for border security is too expensive, but $1.5 trillion for “free” health care is not.

• If you cheat to get into college you go to prison, but if you cheat to get into the country you go to college for free.

• People who say there is no such thing as gender are demanding a female President.

• We see other countries going Socialist and collapsing, but it seems like a great plan to us.

• Some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, and other people are not held responsible for what they are doing right now.

• Criminals are caught-and-released to hurt more people, but stopping them is bad because it's a violation of THEIR rights.

• And pointing out all this hypocrisy somehow makes us "racists"?!

Nothing makes sense anymore, no values, no morals, no civility and people are dying of a Chinese virus, but it’s racist to refer to it as Chinese even though it began in China. We are clearly living in an upside down world where right is wrong and wrong is right, where moral is immoral and immoral is moral, where good is evil and evil is good, where killing murderers is wrong, but killing innocent babies is right.

Wake up America, the great unsinkable ship Titanic America has hit an iceberg, is taking on water, and is sinking fast. The choice is yours to make. What will it be? Time is short, make your choice wisely!

(Not my words but very accurate and disturbing!)

Feel free to copy and paste. I did.

See 2 Timothy 4:3 and 2 Timothy 3:1-5

[laviejaguardia]

Is Latino not an ethnicity????

It isn't (and it isn't a race either). Latinidad is a political identity with some sociological, cultural and historical background. What it does not have -and I cannot stress this enough- is shared genetics/common ancestry which is how I see it most referred.

Here's the definition of ethnicity from Wikipedia:

And to use roughly the same source, here's the Wikipedia disaggregation of Latin America today (which ofc I have issues with lol I'm not missing the irony of telling you "Latin America is sooo diverse" while using the "Asian" category, but I need to make do:

See what I'm getting at?

Let's continue, you can say "well I didn't mean genetics, I meant everything else"

Okay language:

Latin America includes hundreds of native languages like Quechua, Mayan, Guaraní (oficial language of Paraguay!), Aymará or Nahuatl, and always has! Without counting the beautifully mixed and improved Spanish, Portuguese (which I called Brasilero for years as a kid lol) and French, or even later additions like Welsh, Japanese, Chinese or Arabic from immigrant clusters that still speak it or are currently arriving into the continent.

So language isn't it either.

I don't even need to get into traditions c'mon look at Carnaval in Brasil, día de los muertos in Ecuador, an 9 de julio in Argentina and tell me those are all the same. Look at empanadas, tacos, humitas, pizza brasilera, tequeños, asado, sudados, etc

Religion? Argentina alone has the second biggest Islamic and Jewish populations in America after the US. Sure Christianity is paramount given the invasion and imposition by Catholic monarchies by the Spanish and Portuguese, but to say it's the only religion is to spit in the face of again, hundreds of native people's whose religions have been systematically erased since 1492. It is also quite reductive to only take institutionalised religions as valid forms of worship, or to ignore the fact that most Catholicism here would give European orthodox Catholics a stroke.

Now, history and social treatment, here's where the good stuff is.

Independencias:

These all look super different but these are processes and most of them took place in the first 3 decades of the 1800s so they're not that far off. These were carried out with an idea of hermandad. They used to be virreynatos under the same rule, we (patriotas) were all getting independence from the same monarch power (realistas). There was a lot of collaboration between administrations and armies. This was a decision from the leaders of the time, to seek strength in numbers.

The fact that we had to gain independence is a point of contact as well. At that time "patria" was understood as the desire to be independent, there were no neat lines to separate the territories. At this point in history you'll find lots of key people like San Martín, Juana Azurduy and Bolivar talking about "pueblos americanos" as a way to claim independence from imperialist/colonial European rule. (Brasil had a different history with the Portuguese court moving there)

The term Latin America or Latinoamérica came by a little later, the earliest it's been found used is 1856 by a politician from Chile, as you can see, the context it is used in is purely political.

Historically, the term when used by Americans is heavily tied to a way to gather strength in solidarity for independence and rejection of foreign imperialist aspirations, from the United States, France, Spain, etc etc.

I think latinidad is in a way a self fulfilled prophecy, we were invaded and as such "unified" where before were hundreds of different peoples. We took that very same unification and made it ours, in part because the rest of the world insists on putting us all in the same bag (included with things like the School of the Americas in the 1960s-1980s where all of Latinamerica was deemed safer for the US to be ruled by genocidal military governments than democracies that smelled just a little communist. Spoiler! it wasn't safer for us who had to actually live under them)

I reject the idea of latinidad as an ethnicity because it stems from the idea of "la raza latina" which is very very racist ("latinos" were the white Europeans from Romance language countries aka Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, there was a clear hierarchy there usual to the era that still affects our social and economic framework). It's reductive and it pretends to obscure and muddle a very clear and deliberate political choice that is to identify as latinoamerican.

This also applies to the latin people who emigrate to the US and their descendants, both the ones fixing the lawns and the ones emigrating without need of a visa to work a stable 9-5. Even if it seems only the first ones get the name.

So what's latinidad? It's whatever we say it is, hope this helps ✌️

[seizethedeansofproduction]

Everything everywhere all at once winning best picture and all the other awards makes me very emotional. From a representational standpoint yes. But I guess also from a filmmaker standpoint.

(I KNOW THIS IS LONG BUT IF YOU COULD READ THIS, THAT WOULD MEAN THE WORLD)

I’ve been making films for 10 or so years and for many years never saw much outward success. I would put my all into a project, down to hand making the sets, costumes, editing it myself (etc), but when I would submit to festivals for kid filmmakers, I would be left heartbroken sitting in the theater knowing that my film wasn’t good enough. That is had been too weird, not shot on a good enough quality camera, and that it simply wasn’t the “type of film” that could win awards.

Then enter this film. It marched to the beat of its own drum, it told a story that was authentic and sincere, it told a story about a Chinese immigrant and her family (A STORY WHICH RARELY GETS TOLD TO A MASS AUDIENCE IN MAINSTREAM HOLLYWOOD), it told a story about a queer woman struggling with family issues and depression and suicide, it gave no fucks, it gave them all. It was goofy. It was chaotic. It was heart wrenching. It was everything.

I’m a filmmaker, but I’m also sometimes a cynic. At times I am worried about the future of creative fields I hope to enter given AI threatening real artists, the increasing difficulty to break into Hollywood with no connections, and of course a litany of reboots, sequels, and franchises (not to say that this is bad, but there’s a tiny part of me that fears that this is all it will end up being. At least in terms of studio funding). I worry that while I may make films now, there may not be a place for me one day.

Seeing this film changed that. EEAAO was so boldly itself that it relit my creative spark to make work that would do the same.

And of course the awards. 

If you had told me a couple years ago that a film about rocks and hotdog fingers would win best picture, I would have been confused then probably laughed. Even as the award season beast was beginning to awaken from it’s year long slumber, I remained skeptical that this film would get awards, much less hundreds of them. Yet it destroyed the competition and with every win and every speech, my heart got a bit more full and damn it, I believed that maybe there was a chance this film could take the title.

Last Sunday, I wasn’t able to watch the oscars. I had just gotten over being sick and needed the sleep. The next morning I woke up and by some stroke of fate the people on the radio were talking about the Oscars, I held my breath, and I heard it. Best Picture Winner Everything Everywhere All At Once. I later watched the acceptance speeches that day and wept. This meant the world to me now but also to the me years ago who sat in those theaters with a broken heart thinking that their movies weren't good enough.

Now of course you can still be a cynic (or a realist who knows?) and assume that this changes nothing. No needle was moved. And next year the films getting awarded and produced with tons of eyes on them will be the next Green Book or whatever. But if this movie’s taught me anything, its that feeling optimism is ok.

And yeah given all it's wins, people are probably now gonna rag about it and say it's overrated. They can have their opinions, but I don't care. Like what you want to like, life's too short.

I’m gonna keep on making movies, the kind of movies I want to make not what I try to make to win awards or impress other people. I’m gonna try to be a kinder person. I’m going try to keep on telling stories of queer people, of found families, of hope, of comedy, and of whatever else I can think of. I’m gonna hope that people continue to create just as they always do and that this time they get the attention, platform, and opportunities that they deserve instead of it going to those who don’t.

Thank you Michelle Yeoh. Thank you Stephanie Hsu. Thank you Ke Huy Quan. Thank you Jamie Lee Curtis. Thank you James Hong. Thank you Paul Rogers. Thank you Jonathan Wang. Thank You Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Thank You Everything Everywhere All At Once.

You changed my life and countless others. Thank you thank you thank you.

[the-daily-tizzy]

The wisdom of Ben Stein:

I never dreamed that I would have to face the prospect of not living in the United States of America, at least not the one I have known all my life. 

I have never wished to live anywhere else. 

This is my home and I was privileged to be born here. 

But today I woke up and as I had my morning coffee, I realized that everything is about to change. 

No matter how I vote, no matter what I say, something evil has invaded our nation, and our lives are never going to be the same. 

I have been confused by the hostility of family and friends. 

I look at people I have known all my life--so hate-filled that they agree with opinions they would never express as their own. 

I think that I may well have entered the Twilight Zone. 

We have become a nation that has lost its collective mind! 

You can't justify this insanity:

If a guy pretends to be a woman, you are required to pretend with him.

Somehow it’s un-American for the census to count how many Americans are in America.

Russians influencing our elections are bad, but illegals voting in our elections are good.

It was cool for Joe Biden to "blackmail" the President of Ukraine, but it’s an impeachable offense if Donald Trump inquires about it.

Twenty is too young to drink a beer, but eighteen is old enough to vote.

People who have never owned slaves should pay slavery reparations to people who have never been slaves.

People who have never been to college should pay the debts of college students who took out huge loans for their degrees.

Immigrants with tuberculosis and polio are welcome, but you’d better be able to prove your dog is vaccinated.

Irish doctors and German engineers who want to immigrate to the US must go through a rigorous vetting process, but any illiterate gang-bangers who jump the southern fence are welcome.

$5 billion for border security is too expensive, but $1.5 trillion for “free” health care is not.

If you cheat to get into college you go to prison, but if you cheat to get into the country you go to college for free.

People who say there is no such thing as gender are demanding a female President.

We see other countries going Socialist and collapsing, but it seems like a great plan to us.

Some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, and other people are not held responsible for what they are doing right now.

Criminals are caught-and-released to hurt more people, but stopping them is bad because it's a violation of THEIR rights.

And pointing out all this hypocrisy somehow makes us "racists"?!

Nothing makes sense anymore - no values, no morals, and no civility. 

People are dying of a Chinese virus, but it's racist to refer to it as Chinese even though it began in China. 

We are clearly living in an upside down world where right is wrong and wrong is right, where moral is immoral and immoral is moral, where good is evil and evil is good, where killing murderers is wrong but killing unborn babies is A-OK! 

Wake up America, the great unsinkable ship Titanic America has hit an iceberg, is taking on water, and is sinking fast. Speak up!

Even if this isn’t Ben Stein... it still makes sense...

[kendrixtermina]

Our Governments are not representative of us, nor of our cultures.

The Nation-State was probably the single worst idea in all of humanity, and both the current conflict & the discourse around it really shows why

Before they came up with that in the 19th century, people may have identified themselves with their language, religion, culture or attachment to the region, but not by a "nation" of people thought to have shared traits. At the time of the French revolution, most people in France didn't speak French, and in 1900 some ppl in sicily had no idea what "Italy" is.

A while ago ppl were surprised about a farmer on TV who said he doesn't particularly care if his town is in "Russia" or "Ukraine" he just wants to live there in peace. But until 200 years ago or so, that is how most people thought of home.

Certainly basic xenophobia, tribalism & fear of the other existed before, there were, after all, persecutions in the middle ages. But the construct of nation has nonetheless made conflicts massively worse & more deadly.

It's based on an Illusion

There is this idea that peoples have always existed as some unchanging, unmingling "pure" group on one piece of land that is tainted or adulterated by contact with others.

Even on the left some ppl just uncritically accept this notion (see much of the discourse about 'cultural appropriation')

That was just never true - people have always been copying each other, migrating, trading, interacting etc. often new cultures arose or peoples changed where they lived; Borders shifted over time. And of course, culture evolved over time.

When people think that a state that is an illusion is what naturally should be, and try to adjust reality to the fake model in their head, ugly things happen.

Homogenous groups on a fixed patch of land are not the reality of how cultures work, but if ppl think they are, they enact violence to artificially create those homogenous patches neatly delineated by lines. You get silly disputes about "who was there first", expulsion of minorities and conflicts when people try drawing lines in areas with mixed populations.

The Nazis, the Balkan wars & Israel represent the peak excesses of the madness that can lead to. (and note that 20 years or so after the Nazis fell, tons of immigrants moved into Germany & the artificial homogenity collapsed again, because it's just not natural. Israel will never suceed at their homogenous country either.)

It leads to generalization

There's a really shitty trope in european newspapers sometimes that has much been criticised.

If the article says "Guy robs bank" then people will think he's a bad guy.

If the article says "Turkish guy robs bank" it will get ppl frothing about how immigrants are bad guys. In case of the non-immigrant robber, they don't even bother to write "German guy robbs bank"

That's how you see these shitty responses that when there's a war, random ppl from the involved countries get attacked. China does shit & ppl bother random Chinese.

With the current war, jews & arabs around the world are being harassed.

What can some ordinary shopkeeper Yacob Shmitz in New York do about Netanyahu? What does Khalil Mansoor in Berlin got to do with October 7th? Nothing at all.

This leads ppl to completely overlook all context to look at some ppl as always being victims or perps or otherwise all the same, regardless of context. For example I once heard an Indian acquaintance raving about "the muslims" & how they "want everything" & making wild conflations. A Palestinian living in Al-Quds/Jerusalem wants it probably because he lives there & probably doesn't even know about the contentious site in India, and he was treating as the same people that are wildly different: Powerful elites in Saudi Arabia & persecuted minorities in India & Palestine, arabs in the ME and southeast asians in Pakistan.

Later he went to a Pakistan-themes party & was surprised to wind that culturally they got more in common wit him than arabs despite the different religions. They liked similar music, food & sports.

Or people today feeling guilty & ashamed now for what the Nazis did. Did you, personally, throw people in gas chambers? No? Then what shame is it of yours? Everyone who did it is dead & buried & being roasted in hell if it exists.

To me, this completely destroys the very system of morality. Morality only makes sense if a person can only be blamed or held responsible for what they can personally influence & change. If you're deemed "bad" based on things you can't control, what's the incentive of being good?

Or, you can't criticize some countries cause people take it personally - it's an insult to their identity, their whole culture... which brings me to the next & imho main point.

It conflates people, culture & government

A wise guy in Iran once said that "the difference between you & me is much smaller than you & your government, and our governments are much the same". I wish more ppl listened to him.

There have been greedy leaders looking to enrich themselves pretty much since they invented agriculture. but they spoke for themselves or their supporters.

With Nation-States, it gets assumed that the government speaks not only for the people, but that is somehow represents their values & culture.

All this political & war propaganda isn't really what culture is. Culture is conventions and books and food and little stories and sayings and values that give things meaning. But when someone says "fuck the Muslims/USA/jews/Germans" etc the other side feels like the actual culture, the small & beautiful & meaningful & enlightened things are what's being attacked. Because it's conflated.

Leaders will of course claim to justiy their actions by whatever values are popular with their subjects, but that doesn't mean they actually represent those values.

Look at your own leaders: How much do they support the values you believe in? How much do they do lip-service to that culture without really living up to it?

So you get ppl seeing governments do shit & thinking "fuck all those jews/americans/westerners, they must be demons" and Israelis killing all the ppl in Gaza because of "Hamas".

It's that same logical leap of not just leaders = people, but leaders = culture & values.

Now leaders of course have coalitions of supporters whether it's a bunch of oligarch or a popular movement - active supporters are 100% on the hook for what the government does. The mocking song singers are to blame for Netanyahu & the red hat guys for Trump, and Biden... I mean, it's probably the DNC & some political establishment ppl who wanted him cause no one else really did.

But political coalitions =/= all the people =/= all the "culture".

The evil acts of government are usually the products of greedy leaders and a coalition of supporters, not whole populations or cultures.

The difference between people & political establishment has never been more obvious than now

Case in point: Mainstream news outlets are struggling to explain away why there is 15 times more pro-palestine content being posted on the internet, some getting conspiratorial or frantically attributing it to "iran propaganda", but the true reason is that, as surveys also show, no one outside of Israel wants this fucking war but a few old men with imperialist ambitions & weapons companies.

much of it is ignorance, inertia, & propaganda calculated to work on influential because because theyre influential & fear looking bad.

our cultures may differ but very few cultures would last long if they condoned this kinda shit. Different cultures may give different reasons & many have their flaws of bothersome elements, but i dare say most would on average come down on rejecting this.

Let's not believe the lie that being for this is based on any kind of values, not western ones or any other. They might say it is to sell their bullshit but it's just liars & cowards adapting their lies to the audience.

[bleep-blop-lizard-hop]

Warrior Thought

Warrior Season 3 Finale

(Sorry person who sent me an anon message, I accidentally deleted it 😭 but here ya go)

AH TOY AND NELLIE KILLING DICKLAND TOGETHER!!! THE WIVES ARE SO BACK!!!

They had to fit in A LOT this episode, but I’m glad Ah Toy and Nellie had two very solid scenes. I fantasized so much about them getting revenge together, and it actually happened! Sorry Leary but the wives deserve this more! Dickland talking shit and playing stupid mind games with them. His arrogance was his downfall. No asshole YOU should be afraid because Ah Toy is not playing around! She didn’t get a single scratch while slicing and dicing him like a pig! It was so bloody and brutal and violent, I love it! Nellie being backup with her shotgun like “you’re doing great sweetie!”

Then Bill and Leary had to show up at the wrong time! Though I don’t think Bill can recognize her from that distance. Then Nellie began shooting at them and they ran away. So hopefully they’ll be off the hook next season. Burning Dickland’s body in the incinerator was pure poetic Justice! 

Back at the brothel, the adrenaline of revenge is replaced by crushing despair. Dickland’s death didn’t bring back Lai and their girls. He’s not the only greedy and evil man out there. Ah Toy’s been in survival mode for so long, she’s TIRED of all this shit! She never let herself show emotion like this, not even with Ah Sahm. Seeing her completely break down with Nellie is a huge deal for their relationship! After everything that happened, they still love each other and became even stronger. Nellie holding Ah Toy close and saying “I’m not going anywhere” 😭🥺💕 So similar to how they ended last season. I predict that Ah Toy will leave the brothel, and they’ll rebuild somewhere next season. 

Mai Ling confronting Eliza was so good! After the trauma she endured, Mai Ling can’t help relating to Eliza. What Eliza did was wrong, but her shitty husband is the real problem. Mai Ling giving Eliza a knife…I hope she use it well.

So here for Catherine Archer scamming Buckley for all his money! Rob his slimy racist ass, lady! 

The Tongs, Isaac’s crew, and police fighting over the money plates. The ice factory is a homage to Bruce Lee, according to the Internet. Nice. The finale definitely isn’t short on action, I counted 4 in this episode! Isaac almost took the plates but Ah Sahm handled him, and gave them to Lee. That means Yan Mi can be free.

Tbh I’m quite concerned with how they portrayed the black characters this season. Abigail is good, but most of them were antagonistic. I’m aware of how Asians are deemed “the model minority” and often pitted against African Americans. I just wish the show could’ve subverted that somehow. 

Back to Yan Mi, she’s released from jail and runs home to her father. It’s a very poignant scene that can resonate with children of immigrant parents. She respects him, but felt stifled by his expectations. Still, she did mess up by getting involved with a gang. I would’ve preferred Ah Sahm to not have romance this season, but it served it a purpose. I like Yan Mi as a character. Too bad she gets so much flack for getting between YJ and Ah Sahm. 

After getting disowned, she goes to the train station. Ah Sahm never made it, but Chao does. He convince her to go without him anyway, and she does but it’s hard. She got the money from Chao, but she’s also alone as a Chinese woman. We’ve seen other characters try to get out and it didn’t go well. Still, glad they didn’t kill her and hopefully she’ll be ok. Just a small town girl…living in a lonely world…she took the midnight train going anywhere…

After Kon Pak, Lai, and Father Jun…I draw the line at Chao getting stabbed multiple times! ZING is back and he wants revenge against everyone! Bill and Lee looked so happy, laughing on the porch 😬 They better not kill Chao if they get season 4! So many Asian characters died this season, they better replenish! Hello, Michelle Yeoh??? 🙏🏻 Don’t let the white characters outnumber them! 

Finally… the dreaded moment where Ah Sahm has to choose between his sister and the Hop Wei. I figured he would choose Mai Ling. His relationship with Young Jun has been going downhill this season. It’s hard to watch because I understand both of their perspectives. Ah Sahm vs YJ and Hong was equally epic and heartbreaking. None of them took pleasure in that fight, but it was necessary. Ah Sahm knocked both of them out before going to find Mai Ling. 

Meanwhile, Mai Ling is defending herself against the Hop Wei. She makes some progress with her gun, but gets overpowered by them. It looked like she might die by drowning, but I didn’t buy it. Ah Sahm and Mai Ling are reunited as they desperately cling to each other. No more Hop Wei and Long Zhii. Li Yong became the leader of his own tong, good for him! Exploring these new dynamics in season 4 will be very interesting. I’ve always understood Mai Ling while not agreeing with all her manipulative schemes. Hitting rock bottom could lead to some sort of redemption for her. Looking forward to it! 

Big political changes will definitely endanger Chinatown next season. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882, but it might be sooner in the show. Not good when everyone is still divided and fighting each other. Perhaps Ah Sahm, the embodiment of Bruce Lee, will unite them all in the end. 

Season 3 had its flaws, but overall it was amazing! I really hope it doesn’t end here, the story and characters have so much potential! Fucking Hollywood studios refusing to pay people fairly 😡😡😡 I saw on Twitter some of the Warrior cast joining the protest too, it’s great! Season 4 of Warrior or we riot!!!

[pearwaldorf]

Gaza, Israel, antisemitism, US politics in relation to, all that good shit

Up front: I'm an American gentile. I have Jewish friends.

Everything is fucked! I cannot believe the Biden administration is just going to go along with whatever the fuck the Israeli state is going to do in Gaza. You can't tell 2.5mm people to get out of a place without giving them a place to stay or even a humanitarian corridor!

This has been going on for decades, with the world turning a blind eye to immense suffering. No wonder Palestinians are pissed. And whatever you want to say about (Israeli) civilian casualties and resistance against colonialism and how people are "supposed" to ask for oppressors to take boots off their necks, you can't make these things pretty or acceptable.

(My therapist and I were talking about all this yesterday, and he was like "What purpose is there in Hamas harming civilians?" And I replied, "Why is there this implicit assumption that an Israeli life is more valuable than a Palestinian's?")

I hear the sorrow and pain of my Jewish friends when they say they feel alienated from their communities because it's not acceptable to think of Palestinians as people deserving of safety and dignity. And that's fucked.

I am 40 years old. I am aware of at least four genocides (Kosovo, Rwanda, Myanmar, the Uighurs) that have happened/are happening in my lifetime. And this is probably going to be the fifth. And I don't know how to process this. Can someone process this?

At the same time, I hear about a lot of antisemitism on the left. I figure if both the left and the right are stupid about a thing, it's really really bad.

Here is how I understand it, based upon my own ethnic origins. I'm of Chinese descent. I was born here. My parents immigrated here from China, and because China doesn't do dual citizenship, they lost their citizenship there when they became Americans. We have no political connections to the country itself. But somehow, I as an individual, am held morally culpable for the actions of a government I have absolutely nothing to do with. If I was physically or verbally assaulted by somebody who holds Sinophobic sentiment, that would be unacceptable. So why is it fine when it happens to Jews?

The notion of dual loyalty is inherently racist, and of course it's a double standard that has been applied to people of many ethnicities. But it is very strongly associated with Jewish people, and that is absolutely fucked.

A long time ago, somebody asked me why I reblog so much stuff about Judaism and antisemitism when I'm not Jewish. Would they have asked this about anti-Black racism or transphobia? I have had Jewish friends tell me my visible solidarity, however trivial it feels, is comforting to them. And that sucks, that in this day and age it's still considered strange to stick up for a group that experiences oppression.

I'm not a historian or even an interested amateur who's done research. I can't tell you much about the geopolitics of it all. But I can say that paying attention to who gets humanity ascribed to them, by whom, is always a good place to start.

[disgruntledexplainer]

the sudden and spectacular mask-dropping of all these supposed nazi-punching left-wing blogs here suddenly embracing violent antisemitism the moment it becomes socially acceptable, is predictable, disgusting, and... morbidly comedic, like a black comedy of the most egregious kind. you see, I always knew all of it was performative and hypocritical. a bunch of people who thinks the government should do everything, control everything, think they're anti-fascist? a bunch of people who will take any excuse to be violent against a population they don't like are anti-nazi? but to be honest, I had no idea how performative and hypocritical they actually were.

what israel is doing could be considered an actual genocide, certainly, just like the CCP's treatment of the uyghur muslims. but in much the same way as the actions of the CCP does not justify violence against chinese immigrants, so to does the actions of the israeli government not justify violence against jews. conflation of a people and a government is a form of racialism, pure and simple, and the willingness to act on that conflation? that, my friend, is racism. antisemitism, to be exact.

(that's not even bringing up the fact that i've seen people treating hamas as a freedom-fighter group even though they have actively sabotaged any attempts at peace that don't involve ethnic cleansing of israeli jews.)

y'all think you live in a saturday-morning cartoon where any violent action taken against "the enemy" is justified because "they're the bad guys". it's infantile and gross. that's how you become what you think you're fighting.

look at the right-wing fanatics like Alex Jones. He lives in a fantasy world, where the liberals are a bunch of actual demons and goblins out to suck the blood of children, rather than being people with different perspectives and interpretations of the world. his rhetoric dehumanizes people, and crunches them all together into a single nebulous "them" that "we" can fight. this is what you are doing right now. you are turning "the jews" into a boogeyman, and then conflating them with the nazis you already think you hate. and in doing so, you are adopting nazi thought as your own, effectively becoming them. a neo-nazi, if you will.

i fully expect within the next year or two for the left to start taking up right-wing talking points from 1930s america and run with them. brace yourselves.

[rafealsamuel]

Disruptive Change and Crisis

Setpember 2024: I have copied/pasted this off of a Facbook post: I woke up and as I had my morning coffee, I realized that everything is about to change. No matter how I vote, no matter what I say, something evil has invaded our nation, and our lives are never going to be the same.

I have been confused by the hostility of family and friends. I look at people I have known all my life--so hate-filled that they agree with opinions they would never express as their own. I think that I may well have entered the Twilight Zone.

You can't justify this insanity. We have become a nation that has lost its collective mind!

If a man pretends to be a woman, you are required to pretend with him.

Somehow it’s un-American for the census to count how many Americans are in America.

Russians influencing our elections are bad, but illegals voting in our elections are good.

It was cool for Joe Biden to "blackmail" the President of Ukraine, but it’s an impeachable offense if Donald Trump inquires about it.

Twenty is too young to drink a beer, but eighteen is old enough to vote.

People who have never owned slaves should pay slavery reparations to people who have never been slaves.

People who have never been to college should pay the debts of college students who took out huge loans for their degrees.

Immigrants with tuberculosis and polio are welcome, but you’d better be able to prove your dog is vaccinated.

Irish doctors and German engineers who want to immigrate to the US must go through a rigorous vetting process, but any illiterate gang-bangers who jump the southern fence are welcome.

$5 billion for border security is too expensive, but $1.5 trillion for “free” health care is not.

If you cheat to get into college you go to prison, but if you cheat to get into the country you go to college for free.

People who say there is no such thing as gender are demanding a female President.

We see other countries going Socialist and collapsing, but it seems like a great plan to us.

Some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, and other people are not held responsible for what they are doing right now.

Criminals are caught-and-released to hurt more people, but stopping them is bad because it's a violation of THEIR rights.

And pointing out all this hypocrisy somehow makes us "racists"?!

Nothing makes sense anymore, no values, no morals, no civility and people are dying of a Chinese virus, but it’s racist to refer to it as Chinese even though it began in China. We are clearly living in an upside down world where right is wrong and wrong is right, where moral is immoral and immoral is moral, where good is evil and evil is good, where killing murderers is wrong, but killing innocent babies is right.

Wake up America, the great unsinkable ship Titanic America has hit an iceberg, is taking on water, and is sinking fast. The choice is yours to make. What will it be? Time is short, make your choice wisely!

[astoldbyaja]

The Blossom surrounded by Fire - Ch. 14 (Warrior AU- HBO MAX)

“You could leave, but it could be a very painful journey if you don’t know where to go. You could end up back in slavery.” she said. I looked away with a wince.

“But you don’t belong in a tong either. You’d be looked down upon and they wouldn’t see a reason to respect you because you don’t look like them.” She said flatly. I nodded.

“My thoughts exactly.” I replied. She leaned back a bit.

“But that may be exactly what you need right now.” she replied. I looked up at her stunned.

“What?” I asked and she nodded standing up and moving up to me, half her face done with makeup.

“Everyone starts out as an onion in our journey through life, but even in a world of madness and hatred, even you can make a name for yourself.” she said. I tilted my head in confusion. How was that possible?

“You are thinking with the mind of a duck when viewing your world, you should be thinking just like the rest of us. You are a rare gem in Chinatown. In the duck world you would be seen as uppity because you’re smart. But here, you would have a chance to grow and change some people’s view to fit your survival needs. You are the only African here, and with ears like those, you could be seen as good luck or bad luck, and your willingness to help those around you could get you in the good graces of the tong leaders. You’d grow from an onion to a healer of worth.” she explained. I never thought of it like that.

“But to pledge my loyalty to one tong and turn others away-”

“Is the price you may have to pay in order to stay alive. You have to put yourself first. You think if there was a riot going on and the ducks came crashing through here, destroying everything in their sight, that any Chinese help you? No. You have to secure your own legacy before that of anyone else’s.” she said. I winced and looked down at my empty cup. She was right. I cared about everyone except the main important person, myself. Chao can’t protect me forever nor could he put his business and legacy on hold for me. I would have to find my own way eventually, so why not now.

I nodded.

“You are right. I cannot hide from Zing forever, he will never honor the freelance work I do.” I replied. She nodded moving back over to her vanity and continued with her make up.

“So what will you do? Will you choose a tong or take your chance out in the world?” she asked. I scoffed.

“The world has only offered me pain and captivity. I want to do whatever it takes to stay free.” I replied. She nodded painting her lips with red lipstick.

“Don’t we all.” she said. After I returned to Chao’s shop, I remained in my bed. I just wanted to relax and not think of anything right now. And the world gave me that. I slept hard and when I awoke, I forced myself to stay busy. I was visited by some people on behalf of their ill family members. Thank the lord they were getting better but were out of herbs to kick the illness. I was discreet with giving them what they needed as to not interfere with Chao’s business. Within three days, I had my life back. I didn’t want to continue seeing people at Chao’s store, but when I offered to go back out, he talked me into staying put for a bit just to ensure Zing and his gang weren’t in the shadows somewhere. So to keep myself busy when I wasn’t helping others, I helped Chao integrate immigrants who came off the boat and into Chinatown.

I guess seeing a pretty woman with “elf ears” made them a bit mesmerized. I sat quietly next to Chao in his carriage as he explained the new life to a young man who was scrapping pretty well with some bullies off the boat.

“Yes, I think the Hop Wei would be perfect for you… they have a real sense of brotherhood.” he explained. I remained quiet as I listened, and the young man looked at me and I just gave a warm smile. I noticed he was admiring my black dress. It wasn’t wealthy by any standard, but standing beside Chao, he thought it was time I updated my wardrobe to match his status when standing with him.

We were in Hop Wei territory now and the carriage stopped a few feet from the familiar Hop Wei playing their usual game. Now I felt a slight pit in my stomach. I hadn’t seen any Hop Wei members since Chao came for me. I could see the familiar slick back of Bolo’s hair, the red of his vest.

Chao stepped out first before leaning in to take my hand. I smiled and took it, stepping out and following him to the tong members. Young Jun was the first to look up.

“Holy shit, it’s been a while since I saw your pretty face around here, Amaka!” he exclaimed as he stood up. Bolo turned to look, and his eyes seemed to widen at the sight of me and he leaned up some as if he were at attention. I just smiled and bowed to Young Jun.

“It has been a while. I hope you are well.” I replied softly and Young Jun smirked.

“Still itching to see if I can handle you, as usual. Oh, and nice to see you too, Chao.” he said with less enthusiasm before looking back at me as if shocked. “You cut your hair; I like it. Really makes your ears pop!”

He made a move to touch my hair and I just leaned back.

“Still not an animal you can touch when you want.” I said with a watchful gaze, but my smirk led him to believe I was being playful. He chuckled.

“Spend one night with me and you’ll be begging me to touch you.” He said with a purr. I found his attempt at charm a bit amusing, and I leaned into him some.

“Something tells me that if I spend a night with you, you’ll be aching for me to touch you long after I leave your bed.” I said lowly. I could see the sheer excitement grow in his eyes, and the agony growing in Bolo’s so I leaned back.

“Whooo hooo, Chao, when are you gonna give the go ahead for this sticky here!” he asked looking at Chao who just smirked.

“When I know you can handle the addiction that comes with her… but I have someone for you to meet.” he said motioning toward the carriage. The man off the boat was still there, looking all around. He looked so out of place. Young Jun smirked.

“Don’t bother waving him over, I’ll walk to him. You and I have some business to talk about anyways.” he said. Chao nodded looking at me and motioning for me to stay here. One Hop Wei followed Yung Jun and Chao over to the carriage leaving me beside the rest. Bolo was standing there just looking down at me, and I just felt that knot inside me tighten.

“Hello, Bolo.” I replied. He cleared his throat and placed his smoke between his lips before now standing straight up and looking forward.

“Amaka.” he said trying to remain professional. I just nodded and kept my hands together as I watched Chao and Young Jun at the carriage. I could only make out some of what they were saying.

“That’s a pretty dress.” he said stoically. I gave the smallest of smiles.

“Thank you.” I replied and now it was quiet between us.

“Heard you got into some trouble with the Fung Hai.” he said.

I nodded.

“All a misunderstanding. Chao had some issues with Zing, and to keep the peace, I offered my services to his men with some wounds is all.” I replied.

“You were gone for a while…” he noted.

“The cost of doing business with a tong.” I said lowly and now we were quiet for a moment. I noticed he stepped a bit closer, his shoulder edging toward mine and I just looked down.

“Did he hurt you?” he asked lowly. I looked up slowly. He didn't have to say his name for me to know who he meant.

“It’s nothing I haven’t experienced before. I made it out in one piece and shorter hair and that’s what matters.” I replied just watching Chao and Young Jun talk and shake hands. He finally looked my way and waved me over. Time to go. I turned to face Bolo and he just looked down at me.

“Meet me at the brothel tonight?” he asked. I wasn’t expecting that.

“Is that that the only place you can stand to talk to me at?” I asked. He looked insulted by my words and looked around before leaning toward me.

“I came to Chao’s shop looking for you, but you were handling business with the Fung Hai.” he said. I winced and nodded.

“I will try to be there.” I replied and quickly turned to walk toward the carriage. Young Jun was walking past me, with the man off the boat behind him, when he smirked at me.

“Until we meet again, sweet Amaka.” he said. I smiled and bowed.

“Until next time, Young Jun.” I replied and moved over to the carriage. Chao helped me on and once settled the carriage took off.

“Well one thing’s for certain, and two things for sure, that hatchet man missed you.” he said looking out into the town. I didn’t say anything at first, just looked down smiling some.

“I missed him, and I missed you.” I replied. Chao looked at me with a smile patting the top of my leg.

“Have you thought about what we discussed, about you joining a tong?” he asked. I nodded.

“Yes, but it’s not like I should just go approach both leaders and ask to be their healers.” I replied.

“Well you may not have to. Young Jun has informed me that his father has taken a special interest in you with your healing abilities. He will be calling soon to speak with you to see if you are worthy enough to be his personal healer, and the healer to the tong.” he replied. I nodded slowly drinking in his words, then remembered he had spoken with Mai Ling about the same thing.

“And Long Zii?” I asked, and he nodded.

“I haven’t heard back yet, but Mai Ling liked the idea of having you in her home. I think she just needs more friends.” he said, and I held back my laughter now at his words. I didn’t know the woman and did not want to judge.

“So now I just need to decide between the Hop Wei or Long Zii.” I replied and he nodded before his smile fell some.

“You don’t need me to tell you what happens if you pledge loyalty to one tong. That means you cannot help any other tong members or their families. You may be able to get away with helping the citizens of the town, but even that may be playing it close. When you choose a tong, although you will have protection you will also have a target on your back from rival tongs.” He explained. I nodded.

“And with the Hop Wei constantly fighting with the Long Zii, I will definitely be busy. If I choose Hop Wei, I’ll be able to be closer to you?” I asked and he nodded.

“Yes. But Hop Wei is dealing in opium meaning the heat from the bulls will be on them and you will have to deal with them as well.” he said, and I nodded looking down with slight worry.

“And if I choose the Long Zii, I would be further from you…” my words trailed off and he nodded.

"And you would not be allowed to see Bolo ever again.” he said. I winced and ran my fingers through my hair unused to the shortness still.

“It’s a lot to think about. But I know I have to do what’s safest for me.” I replied and he nodded in agreement.

“You do.” he said. I nodded and looked ahead feeling dread fill me some.

“Can we go to the brothel tonight? I think I just want to get lost in the touches of a man tonight.” I replied looking at him seriously and Chao nodded.

“I think after what you went through, you deserve whatever you want.” he said, and I smiled and took his hand and he gave me a warm smile before we both looked ahead and enjoyed the ride.

[the-ocean-is-trans]

my review of dear wendy by ann zhao is under the cut. going to be upfront and say that i DNF the book, i got about 2/3rds of the way and had to stop.

i'm going to start with what i liked about the story. i enjoyed the depiction of jo's family, especially her two moms and jo's close relationship with them. i liked that the fact that jo would go to her moms for comfort, and the fact that she went to school close to where they live was never treated as a bad or immature thing for her to do. this feels pretty important for a lot of anxious young college students actually; it's okay to want your family close as you navigate being an adult. i also found the scene where her 12 year old brother comes out as straight very endearing, and a fun flip of expectations but one that felt quite real for the context of her queer family.

i've also seen some criticism of the book saying that it was childish and immature to write characters as romance and sex repulsed, which i actually think is completely fine. some aroace people are romance and sex repulsed. if this doesn't represent you that's fine, but it might represent someone else's experiences. what i found childish and immature was literally everything else about the narrative.

the central conflict of the story (if it can be called that, because it was so trite) was about the two characters having...differing opinions on how to give relationship advice on their respective advice column instagram accounts ("dear wendy "and "sincerely wanda", for sophie and jo respectively)? but we are never shown why sophie has the conviction that wanda's advice is bad, or why it's bad to jokingly respond to people's relationship queries, and from jo's pespective, we don't get why she is motivated to sometimes give real advice, sometimes answer with a joke, and overall why she engages in the online discourse with wendy. i could not tell you what these two main characters motivations are, and i think sometimes in the narrative they even forget why they are fighting. the online insults also came off like they were written by someone who has never once witnessed any type of interpersonal conflict and was just giving an approximation of what human behavior is like.

we are told (not shown) that offline sophie and jo are this bonded pair of best friends, but all we get from their relationship dynamic is one of them saying some bland queer truism (TERFs are bad, it's hard to find other aroace people) and the other agreeing. seriously, most of the book is either internal monologue or external dialogue that comes off as the author preaching her own opinions. there is no character development.

in addition to lacking any character development, the characters are shown acting in truly bizarre and wildly selfish ways, but we are told that this behavior is...idk meaningful? deep? there's no self awareness. for instance, we are told that sophie has "mommy issues" (the actual phrase that sophie uses in front of her college professor, which that was also a whole thing) but we aren't ever shown any conflict with her family, and the couple conversations we get with her and her parents are a little stilted but overall pretty loving? like i'm also aroace and chinese and i do think zhao captured the conversational tone of an immigrant parent quite well, but i was not left convinced that there was much estrangement there. sophie even complains that her parents are only paying her tuition so that she will cross-register in some MIT classes???? seriously, complaining about your family paying your tuition???? in this economy???? this isn't shown with any amount of criticality. i think it would have been compelling to have sophie share this opinion, and have someone else challenge her on it, you know, in a way that causes some growth and reflection, maybe even portray some nuance in that yes it can suck to have your parents force certain expectations onto you AND there is inherent privilege in their support. in a book striving so hard to share it's political opinions, the missing race/class politics felt very noticeable.

then there's jo, who tries to keep her one roommate and close friend from professing her romantic feelings to her other roommate and close friend. we know jo is doing this because we have been told time and time again that she is afraid of all her friends ending up in romantic relationships and leaving her behind. which is actually kind of an interesting fear/motivation to have, and pretty relatable as an aroace person! unfortunately it's not developed well. the roommate/friend accuses jo of being "selfish" when she finds out which yeah, actually that behavior is pretty selfish, but rather than having jo reflect on her behavior or experience any kind of growth at all, we are just shown her crying and breaking down and not going...anywhere after that. not even so far as to realize that the thing that is keeping her friends at arms length is her intense fear of losing them, which i thought would be the logical conclusion of that arc?

overall, the narrative came off as being appropriate for middle grade, but the fact that these were supposed to be college students really threw me. i actually think if the novel was adapted to be a middle grade novel it could have been a bit more successful, because the central conflict feels much more fitting for way younger characters. it would have been amazing to read about these aroace characters' experiences of loneliness, estrangement, and building platonic love (ostensibly what the novel is about/being marketed as) but instead we got a bunch of shallow platitudes, preachy comments about queer discourse, and jokes that fell so flat I would not have known they were jokes but for the characters being described as "bursting into laughter".

look, there's a lot of pressure on young queer authors of color to shoulder the burden of representing their very underrepresented communities, which i don't think is at all fair. i'm not trying to judge this book on it's "quality of ace rep". it's a book about aroace people, and just like there are bad books about straight people, we should also be allowed to have a bad book about aroace people and not have it's quality be used as a cudgel to beat down a marginalized author. i do sincerely hope that ann zhao continues to write, and further develops as an author, because the premise of the book was promising, and i think with some more maturity, could have been handled quite well.

[jasminebutintaiwansojiemin]

August 2nd, 2024 星期五 - Science Museum, Ballin’ at Din Tai Fung, High-End Shopping, Hakka Village + Museum

Today we started around 9:30am, so I woke up around 8:30am to hit up 7/11 for some snack it’s. I bought Korean strawberry milk, strawberry pocky, and some honey cake.

Our first stop for class was a science museum. It was one of the widest museums I’ve ever been in. During our time to explore, I hit pretty much every floor and section. My favorite section was the health section, as it was Alice in Wonderland themed. It was definitely one of the cutest museum displays I’ve ever seen. I took a lot of pictures there for that reason. The entire museum contained a lot of interactive games, some free and some requiring tickets that you could purchase separately. At one point I was gonna do a game similar to dance dance revolution, but when I found out it cost extra, I was like nope. After exploring for a bit, I went to the cafe on the second floor. It was a pretty cafe but the prices were ASTRONOMICAL so it was a no for me. Then I headed down to the gift shop to kill some time. I ended up buying a sushi cat print for my boyfriend, a whale shark pouch, and sumikko gurashi stickers.

After the museum we headed to Din Tai Fung for lunch. As usual, it was in a high-end shopping mall. We had to wait a bit before getting sat, so I went to the bathroom and bought a pumpkin tart from a nearby dessert stand. I knew the other students would be ordering chocolate xiaolongbao as dessert but I hate chocolate so I got the tart instead.

After a bit we got sat for lunch. We pre-order the most expensive set so we made sure to try to eat everything. Some of the dishes we got were regular xiaolongbao, stir fried spinach, shrimp shumai, fish dumplings, and cucumber salad. The food was really good as always. After lunch, we had some free time to walk around. I walked through a few stores and ended up buying a shirt from Zara (which is rare because I usually hate Zara’s clothing) and a special pandora charm that is only available to buy in Taiwan. Then I walked around for a bit more and then met back on the first floor to get on the bus.

Our next stop was a Hakka village in Meinong. We visited a handicraft shop where I bought a talisman type hanging decoration. Then we went to a nearby Hakka museum, where we got learn about Hakka culture and immigration to Taiwan. After the museum we drove back to Kaohsiung, where I did NOT go to a baseball game, and planned to lock in on homework/other tasks for the rest of the night.

UPDATE: I ended up going to a nearby Latin American restaurant for dinner. I got a lamb soup that was sooooooo good and reminded me of home :( I also had some empanadas that were the most Chinese tasting empanadas I’ve ever had—and that’s saying a lot because I’ve eaten many empanadas in my life.

Academic Reflection

Today we visited a Hakka village and a Hakka museum. Before today, I had heard the term Hakka before in reference to ethnic groups in Southeast Asia (that an Hmong), but I didn’t know they were also present in Taiwan. Our tour guide explained that the Hakka ethnic groups were the last large group of Chinese Mainlanders to make the voyage to Taiwan. They hailed from the northeastern part of China, moving to the mountainous inner lands of Taiwan. Our reading for today however, claims that the Hakka originated in Southern China. I distinctly remember thinking that it was interesting that the Hakka people came from northern China all the way down to Taiwan, especially since the Minnan people largely came from the Southeastern Chinese provinces—especially Fujian.

I didn’t know which to believe, so I googled it LOL. Wikipedia claims that the Hakka are a southern Han Chinese subgroup. However, the article does say that the Hakka groups in Southern China arrived later than many other Cantonese speaking Han ethnic groups, and that their genetics are generally somewhat more closely related to northern Han peoples.

[strawberriesbunni]

PRELUDE || Terra's intro ( !! lots of reading )

In 1542, Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, believed that we were not in the center of the universe. There are over 200 billion galaxies in our universe and we aren't in the largest one. The Milky Way, about two-thirds out from the center, living for 4.543 billion years, is Earth. Called by various names: Gaia, Dharā, Enten, Emesh, Tellus, and Terra (to name a few)

I was born in a rural part of China and lived there until I was three. As one of the first members of the family to travel to America with nothing, I remember how my grandparents were so against the idea. Three immigrants with some cash and a dream to start a new life. Despite being so against us moving, my grandparents, and other uncles and aunties, helped a lot. Spending some money to help my family start our own laundromat. That was my first real job. I'd join baba at the end of the day, walking down the rows of machines and collecting stacks of quarters in my plastic basket.

When I was four, I took an interest in reading. I started with the books in the bookcase; I'd reread them over and over until I memorized them by heart. Then, one afternoon, mama took me to the local library for more books. Until I came across a science book about the planets. Hence, where I got my English name from.

You see, with Chinese names, people always mispronounce it no matter how many times you correct them. Maybe it's ignorance, but eventually you get tried of it after the 684th time. Legally, my name is Li Mingyue [ 李明月 ] which means Bright Moon, but I usually tell people to call me Terra. One would think that my English name would have something to do with the moon. Sorry to disappoint.

Mama was very ambitious when it came to my eagerness to learn and set high expectations. I had to get top scores on every exam, essay, and extracurricular. I'm no piano-playing-violinist prodigy. I play the flute.

Up until now, I've always had baba's support. He gets in trouble with mama just to let me take a break, to let me be a child and have a little fun. He didn't want my youth to be wasted pursuing dreams that weren't even mine to begin with. He never wanted me to fix the mistakes that they made when they were younger. That I wasn't supposed to be the person they wish they could be now. But what he fought for would lead to more arguing and eventually the downfall of the marriage.

Baba's parents were divorced. It was the talk of the town on the elder's lips. Parents would influence their children not to associate themselves with baba just for that reason. He didn't want that for me, for his only daughter to be treated the same way he was. He hoped now it would be different as they were in a new environment.

I never noticed it...rather, I chose to ignore it. It's easier to live in a fantasy than face the truth. And at the time, my seven-year-old self was not ready for that. Maybe that's why I don't remember most of my childhood. Because I chose to lock them all away. One thing I do remember? Crystal Athenaeum Cafe. It always brought me solitude whenever I came over. The aura surrounding the place was like a ball of sunshine--a light that would never fade, even on the darkest of nights. When my parents would argue, I'd sneak out using the fire escape and go there. The worst part of keeping your feelings under lock and key? 1. Having to mask it under a facade and 2. Waiting for the moment when it gets too much to hold and everything comes pouring out. I hated when that happens.

The owners of Crystal were always welcoming and polite. For generations it has been the pride and joy of the neighborhood. A place for people to drink a nice beverage and read a good book. The sweet aroma of baked goods and drinks would fill the air whenever you walk past it. Like those cartoon characters, you’re drawn to it. Crystal was run by a sweet couple, Dakari and Aisha Thornton. They were always like a second family to me.

Crystal was tucked between two recreational studios. A pebbled path lead to the front door. Along the right side was a birdhouse and feeder, and next to that were bushes of flowers. Aisha usually uses them to decorate the interior of the cafe. It was like walking up to a cottage, if you ignore the buildings beside it. When you walk in, there are circular tables for people to sit and enjoy their meal, read, watch the little tv hanging on the wall, and even finish up some work on their devices. All the beverages come in cup sleeves with the wifi password written on the inside—a little detail Dakari suggested. He also made souvenir business cards as a token for people to remember the moments they made in Crystal. Right across from the display counter is a photo wall of the regular customers who come by every day.

To enter the library you need to head through the wooden double doors. Through it, you’re introduced to rows and rows of bookshelves. They’re organized by genre, then alphabetized by the author’s last name, and series (if there is such). Even if the book isn’t located on the shelves, it could be brought in from other locations. Dakari installed that system when I graduated from elementary school. Crystal has been in the Thornton family since Dakari’s second great-grandfather. And it was thanks to Crystal that Aisha and Dakari met.

I just never thought that in the summer of my 18th year I’d have my moment like that.