Sooo… yeah! I don’t really have IRL friends to chat about this so I figured I’d make this post. Didn’t want this to be super consequential like hosting an AMA or anything since it’s just me going back to where I was born but yeah
A few funny observations and maybe conversation starters:
- Everything I read in the US seems to talk about how China is simultaneously a futuristic paradise and an authoritarian hellscape… both seem fairly overblown. There are a lot of public transit and the food is amazing though
- The rumors are true, in China they really use Wechat for everything. Wechat is used for payment (almost no one uses credit cards or cash), booking tickets, … and all of these are tied to your national ID and your face recognition. It’s a bit terrifying
- There are sooooo many ads everywhere! Heck my parents’ apartment building has an ad billboard right in the elevator, and this is apparently the norm. On the app store the Microsoft Edge browser literally got a 5-star rating and was praised for not running ads… it’s that bad.
- My god the internet is atrocious compared to the US, and having to do half of the stuff I need to with a VPN doesn’t really help. It’s so bad that I was missing my Gentoo days of compiling packages from source…
- I thought there would be a ton of anime stuff, especially since I had the impression that Mihoyo games (the company that developed Genshin Impact, Honkai series, etc) is a topic of national pride… I think I have made a mistake. I have met three cosplayers just walking on the street so far though, so the culture definitely is there
- I like rhythm games and I’m delighted to find out there are maimai DX cabs everywhere, this thing is impossible to find in the US. Haven’t found SDVX or IIDX cabs, or even CHUNITHM cabs though… Also China apparently has their own Pump It Up clone (not DDR, PIU) with four more outer arrows. Imagine the five PIU step keys and four more outside…
- Lemmy.world is somehow not blocked by the Chinese internet firewall. Not that I feel safe browsing Lemmy with the type of posts I make… On that topic, my own little web domain isn’t blocked lmao I can still use SearXNG as usual
Late reply but how harsh is the censorship? I was born in Mainland China and immigrated to the US when I was a kid; And I couldn’t imagine the life of not having Youtube. Like, I’m not even talking about the political content, there are so much Youtube Science and Educational content and some Youtubers are actually interesting to watch (Jacksepticeye, Markiplier). I’m a naturalized US Citizen, but I kinda feel like I’m in such an awkward place, being both a dissident in PRC, and also a dissident here in the US. Like, I used to like the US a lot, the cultural diversity, a lot of parks and I see a lot more trees and nature, the air and water is (I mean, before 2025) cleaner, now its really only just the still somewhat free access to the internet that I like, everything else seems to be falling apart with all the immigration raids happening, and the EPA and FDA being filled with yes-men, and I’m not sure my Citizenship will even hold, and China doesn’t have dual citizenship, meaning I could end up stateless if they go through with the authoritarian denaturalization efforts that they seem to be planning (I hope that doesn’t happen). Both are just terrible capitalist authoritarian regimes. 😓
When my grandparents got cremated, we watched them go in, and took pictures of them right before they went into the furnace.
When they came out, my cousin tried to take pictures, but the official stopped them. As in, she asked if that was the case, but didn’t ask why. I knew why, of course, because I’ve been outside for so long (skeletons).
One of the computers I brought back, my uncle was worried about the Windows 10 install, because it was “unsafe”.
When the censorship is super harsh, the population won’t even know it’s happening, it’s just a giant black hole of “this isn’t allowed”.
Oh boy… first of all sorry to hear that.
I guess by your metric the censorship is pretty harsh here as most of the popular “foreign sites” are not accessible without a VPN/Tor connection/etc. Not having YouTube is indeed quite annoying, I watch a lot of edutainment and silly videos for relaxation… and for the past two weeks I am mostly limited to my copy of modded Skyrim (which doesn’t require internet)… aaand maybe the two gacha games I’m playing if my VPN plays nice (I think I have to drop one of them now, the game server keeps refusing to log me in)
I haven’t been in China long enough to try things out yet, but I think the philosophy seems to be block all foreign sources and create Chinese versions of them. So for locals there are stuff like Bilibili and Youku which in theory would offer similar levels of entertainment/edutainment so… I’m still planning to stay in the EU as a next step, but if that doesn’t pan out then I will try to adapt to Chinese culture a bit more
On the topic of statelessness… I honestly don’t know. I am sure the PRC does not like ppl who openly speak against the government though, so I guess that is no longer an option… maybe, just maybe even Vietman and Thailand would be better places to live, they might also be authoritarian in naming but at least they are not this ridiculous
Btw, do you mind sharing, when you were in the US, what visa you were on or like did you have permanent residency? Did you leave because of the um… US politics recently? Or was it other reasons?