Chinathread: Reinventing Licentiousness

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The Great Autismo!: Mar 3, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Beijing metro during rush hour this morning

# ? Jan 30, 2020 07:24

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 29, 2024 13:40

Kill All Cops: Apr 11, 2007; Pacheco de Chocobo; Hell Gem

Grand Fromage posted:

I never actually stayed in a proper hotel hotel in the mainland, but I was advised if I did the first thing I should do is unplug the phone, because otherwise there are just constant calls about prostitutes all night.

Never got any phone calls or cards slipped under my door when I was in Shanghai a couple years back, but about a dozen hookers hit up my wechat via the location feature. It's pretty hi tech now

# ? Jan 30, 2020 07:30

Power Khan: Aug 20, 2011; by Fritz the Horse

The White Dragon posted:

don quijote has "dont poo poo in the urinals" in various languages but chinese is the only large block font one

I was at one of the smaller natural wonders in Austria, and they specifically had ones like these up on the toilets. Smaller font in english, large one in mandarin. Also drawings of "don't squat on the toilet seats".

Btw, I was in Rome at the colloseum and the palatine a while ago, and without failure, all the toilet seats in a large radius were ripped off.

# ? Jan 30, 2020 08:49

barbecue at the folks: Jul 20, 2007

A parody account of the Finnish public broadcaster (YLE) just made Finland famous in China:

# ? Jan 30, 2020 09:37

Darkest Auer: Dec 30, 2006; They're silly; Ramrod XTreme

The Great Autismo! posted:

Beijing metro during rush hour this morning

Looks just like any other Chinese New Year day

# ? Jan 30, 2020 09:41

strange feelings re Daisy: Aug 2, 2000

barbecue at the folks posted:

A parody account of the Finnish public broadcaster (YLE) just made Finland famous in China:

Fixed for accuracy:

# ? Jan 30, 2020 09:49

yaffle: Sep 15, 2002; Flapdoodle

Sunglass Hut has a much harsher (and weirder) twitter game than I would have thought.

# ? Jan 30, 2020 09:58

The Great Autismo!: Mar 3, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Darkest Auer posted:

Looks just like any other Chinese New Year day

bit of a stretch there

# ? Jan 30, 2020 10:37

Power Khan: Aug 20, 2011; by Fritz the Horse

Quite fitting that it's the year of the plague rat

# ? Jan 30, 2020 10:42

oohhboy: Jun 8, 2013; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

The Chinese embassy is as usual professionally butt hurt. The Danish PM Response was "we have freedom of expression in Denmark - also to draw".

# ? Jan 30, 2020 10:54

Alan Smithee: Jan 4, 2005; A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...

Man can the racist Chuds and the wumao warriors fight it out

# ? Jan 30, 2020 11:13

Explosive Tampons: Jul 9, 2014; Your days are gone!!!

ayy wumao

# ? Jan 30, 2020 12:11

buildmorefarms: Aug 13, 2004; любоваться; Doctor Rope

Explosive Tampons posted:

ayy wumao

# ? Jan 30, 2020 12:35

Alan Smithee: Jan 4, 2005; A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...

Let�s get a :wumao: emote up in here

# ? Jan 30, 2020 12:45

CIGNX: May 7, 2006; You can trust me

This NYTimes article talks about the dysfunction between the Chinese central and local governments, and how it makes it difficult for the government to respond to national crises like the corona virus outbreak. The last part about how democracies vs authoritarian governments align with public good is not so great, but the rest of the article is a pretty good read.

https://www.nytimes.com./2020/01/25/world/asia/coronavirus-crisis-china-response.html

quote:

CORONAVIRUS EXPOSES CORE FLAWS, AND FEW STRENGTHS, IN CHINA'S GOVERNANCE

While China can mobilize a huge national response to the outbreak, its response to the crisis is also a lesson in how the country�s political weak points can carry grave consequences for world health.

By Max Fisher
Jan. 25, 2020

It was the initial news reports that first suggested China�s political system might be getting in the way of its ability to confront the coronavirus outbreak.

The outbreak seemed to already be a full-blown crisis, infecting dozens in China and even some abroad, by the time it became widely reported.

This seeming delay was of a familiar pattern in China, one suggesting that local officials may have played down early warning signs or simply did not coordinate enough to see the problem�s scope.

While outsiders might suspect an attempted cover-up as the cause, experts see something much more worrying: weaknesses at the very heart of the Chinese system.

Its rigidly hierarchical bureaucracy discourages local officials from raising bad news with central bosses whose help they might need. And it silos those officials off from one another, making it harder to see, much less manage, the full scope of spiraling crises.

�That�s why you never really hear about problems emerging on a local scale in China,� said John Yasuda, who studies China�s approach to health crises at Indiana University. �By the time that we hear about it, and that the problem reaches the central government, it�s because it�s become a huge problem.�

While much remains unknown about the outbreak, a common theme is emerging.

Any political system is better at solving some problems than others. But the coronavirus, like other health crises before it, is bringing out some of the deepest flaws and contradictions in a Chinese system that, for all its historic feats, remains a work in progress.

Those flaws, which have long frustrated Chinese leaders, appear to have played a role in everything from the pace at which officials responded to the coronavirus outbreak, to China�s years-long inability to address the health risks that experts have long warned could lead to an outbreak just like this one.

While the country is now mobilizing a nationwide response � one of the system�s strengths � the incident is already a lesson in the political weak points that can bring grave consequences for China and, as infections spread, the world.

A System at Odds With Itself

�When you look at the coronavirus, it looks a lot like what happened with SARS. It involves a very similar template,� Mr. Yasuda said.

The SARS epidemic, which killed hundreds of people in 2002 and 2003, initially spread unchecked when local Chinese officials minimized early reports.

Their fear was not public unrest, it later emerged, but getting in trouble with the party bosses who controlled their careers.

Guan Yi, a professor of infectious diseases in Hong Kong who helped identify SARS, has accused Chinese authorities of once more delaying action, including by obstructing his own efforts to investigate the outbreak.

�This is a continuous theme in central-local relations in China. You do not want to be the one to bring bad news,� said Vivienne Shue, a prominent China scholar at Oxford University.

That gulf between central leaders in Beijing and local officials who run the country day-to-day, Ms. Shue said, is �the core conundrum in how that system works.�

It leads officials on both sides of the center-local divide �to do many counterproductive, irrational things,� she said, in their efforts to manage and manipulate one another.

That has included holding back reports of potential crises, in the hopes of solving things without the bosses finding out.

At the same time, China�s quasi-imperial system leaves the top party bosses in Beijing with little direct power over what happens in the provinces � policy proclamations are sometimes ignored or defied � other than promoting or punishing subordinates.

The two ends of the system are engaged in a constant push-pull dynamic, putting them occasionally at odds � particularly in moments of crisis, when each is looking to blame the other.

This has been an issue throughout China�s modern history, Ms. Shue said, with power fluctuating between the center and the periphery. Xi Jinping, China�s current leader, has sought to centralize power, setting up Beijing-based working groups to exert more control outside the capital.

But the system�s underlying contradiction remains. Mr. Xi�s tightening grip may make local leaders all the more wary of releasing information that could invite his wrath.

As China modernizes, integrating its once-disparate provinces and cities, local mistakes can become national crises before Beijing is even aware that something has happened, as may have happened with the coronavirus outbreak.

�As logistics and the distribution systems have expanded, you really see how the local and national have been linked together,� Mr. Yasuda said, referring to the hastening rate at which health, environmental and economic crises can now spread.

That is not all downside. The central government has enormous capacity to mobilize in a crisis, as it is doing now, locking down several major cities to slow the disease�s spread.

�Once a clear problem has emerged, it�s very good at diverting resources,� Mr. Yasuda said of China�s political system. �But it�s not good at dealing with emerging problems. So it�s built to be reactive instead of proactive.�

When China�s Strengths Become a Source of Peril

In some ways, China�s system has been a source of strength.

Party bosses set priorities, then reward the institutions and officials who best carry them out.

And since the days of Mao Zedong, China has operated under a system known as fragmented authoritarianism, in which even the most local leaders have near-absolute authority over their remit.

That has led to a culture of what Elizabeth J. Perry, a Harvard University scholar, has called �guerrilla governance,� in which results take precedence over procedure or accountability, and in which it is all leaders for themselves.

This approach is seen as crucial in having enabled China to lift hundreds of millions of citizens out of poverty and turn itself from global backwater into world power.

But it can be disastrous when it comes to managing health and environmental issues.

Disease and pollution don�t respect provincial or municipal borders. And because of the way they spread, it often takes a unified, nationwide policy to prevent or stop them � something for which guerrilla governance is ill-suited.

�It�s very difficult to come together to create a clear actionable plan,� Mr. Yasuda said, adding that, for any health or environmental regulation to work, �you want it to be standardized, you want it to be transparent, you want it to be accountable.�

But China�s system de-emphasizes those concerns, sometimes to disastrous effect.

In the mid-2000s, Beijing demanded a drastic increase in milk production. When factory farms were unable to meet their targets, officials conscripted vast numbers of rural farmers. Some of the farmers, struggling to meet their quotas, watered down their milk, then added an industrial chemical known as melamine to fool quality sensors. The tainted milk poisoned thousands of infants.

Experts fear a similar regulatory failure may have enabled the coronavirus outbreak: the longstanding inability to clean up so-called wet markets, which are stuffed with livestock living and dead, domesticated and wild. Though the outbreak�s cause is still being studied, Wuhan�s wet market is considered a prime suspect.

The markets have long been considered a major threat to public health, particularly as a vector for transmitting diseases from animals to humans. And they are a lesson in the perils of patchwork, decentralized regulations like China�s: While some markets are more carefully policed than others, all it takes is one to cause an outbreak.

In another echo of the tainted milk scandal, top-down political priorities provide an incentive to look the other way. Taking down the markets, which are popular, would risk a public outcry. Local officials had every reason to fear that their bosses, who have not made the markets a priority, would punish them for causing trouble.

Aligning With Public Good, Or Not

A foundational mission of any political system is to align its leaders� incentives with the needs and desires of the wider public.

Democracies seek to do this through �the competition of interests,� Ms. Shue said, on the belief that inviting everyone to participate will naturally pull the system toward the common good. This system, like any, has flaws, for example by handing more power to those with more money.

Within China, Ms. Shue added, the common good �is seen as something that should be designed from above, like a watch being engineered to run perfectly.�

But sometimes the watch can be designed in ways that harm the public good.

In 2001, for instance, Beijing ordered provincial officials to reduce water pollution from factories. Many provinces simply moved the factories to their borders, ensuring pollutants would flow into the next district. Nationwide, water pollution worsened.

So far, the coronavirus outbreak seems to highlight both the strengths and perils of China�s model. Beijing, apparently having learned from the SARS epidemic, has pushed for faster and more drastic action.

But the same systemic problems, from gun-shy local officials to weak health regulations, appear to be recurring as well � a reminder that the system remains, Ms. Shue said, �a work in progress.�

# ? Jan 30, 2020 12:50

Kharnifex: Sep 11, 2001; The Banter is better in AusGBS

Hopefully Finnish bog medicine will stave off corona

# ? Jan 30, 2020 12:57

stephenthinkpad: Jan 2, 2020

Alan Smithee posted:

Let’s get a :wumao: emote up in here

What does :wumao: emoticon look like?

And of course we need a :shenyun:

# ? Jan 30, 2020 13:11

Shumagorath: Jun 6, 2001

CIGNX posted:

This NYTimes article talks about the dysfunction between the Chinese central and local governments, and how it makes it difficult for the government to respond to national crises like the corona virus outbreak. The last part about how democracies vs authoritarian governments align with public good is not so great, but the rest of the article is a pretty good read.

https://www.nytimes.com./2020/01/25/world/asia/coronavirus-crisis-china-response.html

你没有看到石墨。它不在那里

# ? Jan 30, 2020 13:14

CIGNX: May 7, 2006; You can trust me

Shumagorath posted:

你没有看到石墨。它不在那里

3.6伦琴？不太好，也不太差。

CIGNX fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Jan 30, 2020

# ? Jan 30, 2020 13:27

champagne posting: Apr 5, 2006; YOU ARE A BRAIN
IN A BUNKER

CIGNX posted:

This NYTimes article talks about the dysfunction between the Chinese central and local governments, and how it makes it difficult for the government to respond to national crises like the corona virus outbreak. The last part about how democracies vs authoritarian governments align with public good is not so great, but the rest of the article is a pretty good read.

https://www.nytimes.com./2020/01/25/world/asia/coronavirus-crisis-china-response.html

If only another state had fallen because of these kinds of issues.

Alas, China is different.

# ? Jan 30, 2020 14:05

fish and chips and dip: Feb 17, 2010

Lol i checked LinkedIn for some unrelated stuff and somebody shared a change.org petition to demand an official apology from Denmark and Australia.

Some of the pro China comments were precious. "Desecrating a flag is not freedom of speech!" " You wouldn't make jokes about the Australian bushfires" and "America is bombing the middle east!"

# ? Jan 30, 2020 14:07

stephenthinkpad: Jan 2, 2020

The Chinese just need to kickstart a newspaper ad to insult the Danes back. Are they the people who have blackface parade or I am thinking somebody else?

# ? Jan 30, 2020 14:28

Rent-A-Cop: Oct 15, 2004; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!

stephenthinkpad posted:

The Chinese just need to kickstart a newspaper ad to insult the Danes back. Are they the people who have blackface parade or I am thinking somebody else?

I think that's the Dutch, but all White people look alike.

# ? Jan 30, 2020 14:39

stephenthinkpad: Jan 2, 2020

Rent-A-Cop posted:

I think that's the Dutch, but all White people look alike.

It's perfect. Buy a full page ad to make fun of the Danes wearing black face, and basically piss off all the northern Europeans at the same time.

# ? Jan 30, 2020 14:47

Megillah Gorilla: Sep 22, 2003; If only all of life's problems could be solved by smoking a professor of ancient evil texts.; Bread Liar

Alan Smithee posted:

Let�s get a :wumao: emote up in here

Megillah Gorilla fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Jan 30, 2020

# ? Jan 30, 2020 15:00

Turrurrurrurrrrrrr: Dec 22, 2018; I hope this is "battle" enough for you, friend.

Kharnifex posted:

Hopefully Finnish bog medicine will stave off corona

There's no way a virus can withstand a bog for an extended period of time. Not with the bats and the mud, simply no way.

# ? Jan 30, 2020 15:32

Patrocclesiastes: Apr 30, 2009

Blistex posted:

This is correct. First night staying in a hotel I received three calls from hotel employees of increasingly better English skills.

9:00pm - "Herroror you wa. . . . amowouh . . . nigah. . ." <dial tone>
10:30pm - "Hello, alone. . . help . . . nigah . . . help?" <dial tone>
11:00pm - "Hello, you need massage from pretty girl?
Me: "No thanks, I am trying to sleep."
12:00pm - <phone rings>
<unplugs phone>

This got a chuckle out of me, that mustve been surreal

# ? Jan 30, 2020 15:53

Sonderval: Sep 10, 2011

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-51318246

quote:

Coronavirus has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.

"The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The concern is that it could spread to countries with weaker health systems.

The death toll is now at 170 in China.

The WHO said there had been 98 cases in 18 countries outside of China, but no deaths.

There have been eight cases of human-to-human infection - in Germany, Japan, Vietnam and the United States.

Dr Ghebreyesus, speaking at the press conference in Geneva, described coronavirus as an "unprecedented outbreak" that has been met with an "unprecedented response".

He praised China's "extraordinary measures" taken to prevent it from spreading.

As opposed to the country that regularly pumps out new disease thanks to poo poo hygiene and eating anything they find, then trying to cure it with TCM.

# ? Jan 30, 2020 21:21

Arsenic Lupin: Apr 12, 2012; This particularly rapid💨 unintelligible 😖patter💁 isn't generally heard🧏‍♂️, and if it is🤔, it doesn't matter💁.

Official WHO announcement: "Okay, fine, NOW you can panic."

# ? Jan 30, 2020 21:28

Alan Smithee: Jan 4, 2005; A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...

�The Who?�

�The name of the disease group�

�The Who

# ? Jan 30, 2020 22:06

Power Khan: Aug 20, 2011; by Fritz the Horse

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Official WHO announcement: "Okay, fine, NOW you can panic."

Starbucks has closed more than half of its coffee shops in mainland China. Ikea closed all it's mainland stores (no more napping on the beds there). Lufthansa ceased all flights to chinar. Etc.

Guess everything is peachy!

# ? Jan 30, 2020 22:09

Alan Smithee: Jan 4, 2005; A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...

Power Khan posted:

Starbucks has closed more than half of its coffee shops in mainland China. Ikea closed all it's mainland stores (no more napping on the beds there). Lufthansa ceased all flights to chinar. Etc.

Guess everything is peachy!

Nationalize all Chinese ikeas and turn them into hospitals

# ? Jan 30, 2020 22:12

strange feelings re Daisy: Aug 2, 2000

Alan Smithee posted:

Nationalize all Chinese ikeas and turn them into hospitals

Telling my boss I won't be coming in to work for two weeks because I'm quarantined in the Swedish meatball ward.

# ? Jan 30, 2020 22:17

CIGNX: May 7, 2006; You can trust me

https://shanghai.ist/2020/01/29/jorge-guajardo-mexico-h1n1/

quote:

Jorge Guajardo, Mexico�s ambassador to China from 2007 to 2013, has recalled China�s response in the H1N1 flu outbreak, which originated in a herd of pigs in Mexico in 2009 before spreading to all four corners of the globe.

Now no longer a diplomat, Guajardo says Chinese officials were arbitrarily detaining just about anyone with a Mexican passport, regardless of where they had or hadn�t been in recent days. Unless he wore a hazmat suit, he would not be allowed to see any of them.

The officials only �pretend[ed] to do something� so as to be �seen in control�, having no regard for actual health protocols, he charged.

�They did what they do best, stonewalled,� he said. �They would literally hang up when they knew it was us calling.�

The incident caused a diplomatic spat between Mexico and China, with then Mexican president Felipe Calderon expressing dismay that �some countries or places are taking discriminatory measures because of ignorance and misinformation.�

He posted his experience in this tweet thread, so make sure to click it to read everything
https://twitter.com/jorge_guajardo/status/1221803120201814017

edit:
Just discovered threadreader. Here's the rest of his tweets

quote:

I was summoned to MOFCOM for a meeting with a vice minister, no idea what it was about. He opened by asking what M�xico needed to help contain the outbreak. I had no idea. I was not prepared for that question. He volunteered that they�d be sending the two planes.

This caught us so by surprise that, in gratitude, M�xico�s president went to the airport, at midnight, to welcome the planes with the aid. We thought China was going to be an ally in this fight. We were wrong.

Immediately thereafter we started getting reports that �authorities� were knocking in the hotel rooms of Mexicans in China at night, asking them to come with them for a quick hospital check. Entire families, with children, were taken from their hotels to hospitals, and detained.

The criteria for rounding up Mexicans was the passport, not where they had been in the past days. They were detaining Mexicans who hadn�t been in Mexico for months, just because of their passport. We called the foreign ministry to find out what was going on, no one would answer.

We went to hospitals to try to assist Mexicans detained (Chinese called it a quarantine, it was detention), I was not allowed in unless I wore a hazmat suit, scaring the children. Inside the hospital were municipal authorities, with no protection whatsoever.

The big lesson is that this was all about pretending to do something about the potential pandemic, to be seen in control. It was never about actual health protocols. None of it made sense, but it made them look tough, and in control.

I went to see Mexicans detained at a hospital, after the Chinese realized that the detention of of our citizens had become a huge issue in Mexico, they did what they do best, stonewalled. They didn�t allow me in to see them (none of them were sick).

I remember the calls from my foreign ministry wanting to know about the Mexicans detained in China and they just wouldn�t believe me when I told them no one at the Chinese foreign ministry was picking up our calls. They would literally hang up when they knew it was us calling.

One of my experiences during H1N1 is that, even when WHO know that what China is doing is wrong or ill-advised, they�re reluctant to call them on it. They work on cooperation, not signaling or criticizing (or they fear China).

CIGNX fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Jan 30, 2020

# ? Jan 30, 2020 22:24

Ichabod Tane: Oct 30, 2005; A most notable
coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.

https://youtu.be/_Ojd0BdtMBY?t=4

Blistex posted:

This is correct. First night staying in a hotel I received three calls from hotel employees of increasingly better English skills.

9:00pm - "Herroror you wa. . . . amowouh . . . nigah. . ." <dial tone>
10:30pm - "Hello, alone. . . help . . . nigah . . . help?" <dial tone>
11:00pm - "Hello, you need massage from pretty girl?
Me: "No thanks, I am trying to sleep."
12:00pm - <phone rings>
<unplugs phone>

Lmao this is a tremendous post that the unnamed (something) could only salivate about

# ? Jan 30, 2020 22:26

Power Khan: Aug 20, 2011; by Fritz the Horse

Begs the question "What would Haier have done"

# ? Jan 30, 2020 22:29

Ichabod Tane: Oct 30, 2005; A most notable
coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.

https://youtu.be/_Ojd0BdtMBY?t=4

He would've taken her up on the first "wa...nigah" but only if he didn't eat and get distended ache stomach

# ? Jan 30, 2020 22:35

McGavin: Sep 18, 2012

Glenn Quebec posted:

He would've taken her up on the first "wa...nigah" but only if he didn't ~~eat~~ chug a gallon of half and half and get distended ache stomach

Ftfy.

# ? Jan 30, 2020 23:17

Blistex: Oct 30, 2003; Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler

Patrocclesiastes posted:

This got a chuckle out of me, that mustve been surreal

I was expecting it because my wife (then girlfriend) told me what was going to happen when I checked in alone. She also passed alone the "scam story", and also told me not to follow anyone who wanted to show me around, to a tea house or restaurant, etc. (basically all the scams you hear about).

What was surreal, was the next evening when I was trying to find the Sauna room. I asked the front desk which floor it was on and they said "down". I got off at the basement level and the laundry lady waved her hands and told me to go up. I went back to the front desk, asked again and they told me the 4th floor. I got off, walked around, and it was just another floor or rooms. I went back to the front desk, grabbed one of their brochures and pointed to the picture of the sauna. The desk lady took me to the elevator, pushed the 6th floor, and said "thank you". I got off and could tell it was a "different floor". One end of the hall had a bunch of KTV rooms. Another hall was full of conference rooms, and the last room I checked out was a hooker buffet room. Basically you go to this room, and there are like a dozen or more girls who do a show on a stage with lights and music, then you pick the one you want and she takes you to a room. When I walked in everyone snapped to attention and they turned on the music (the lights were already going). I stood there stunned for a few seconds then left.

Turns out that hotel didn't even have a sauna room. I asked a room maid, and she pointed to the hotel across the street, then held up 2 fingers and then pointed "up". I went to that hotel's sauna room on the second floor then went back to my room for a nap.

# ? Jan 30, 2020 23:42

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 29, 2024 13:40

School Nickname: Apr 23, 2010; *fffffff-fffaaaaaaarrrtt*

Blistex posted:

hooker buffet room

The hotel was run by triads out to blackmail you right? The absolute gently caress? :wtc:

# ? Jan 31, 2020 00:24

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > Chinathread: Reinventing Licentiousness

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