I mean as a 2nd child born in violation of the policy… 👀

(I heard some stories about kids being kidnapped by state-sponsored people and trafficked to get them forcibly “adopted” to prospective parents somewhere else, and also the whole international adoption thingy, cuz they targed families that had more than one child… allegedly… who even knows for sure…)

Edit: But nowadays, ironically, they have population crisis… 👀

China is a big place. Saturation with security cameras is an urban thing.

Yea that incident was in Guangzhou, I assume nowadays its probably filled with surveillance cameras.

Also, something I’ve learned in America is that people make a lot of noise about keeping kids safe, but that’s all just smoke. I can’t speak for China

China might not have guns and mass shootings, but domestic abuse is an issue that the law doesn’t really touch on, especially is its more covert like verbal abuse or even physical violence if it didn’t cause serious harm…

Especially if its not a spouse-on-spouse thing but its a parent against a child…

Like there are things that would trigger a CPS investigation in the US that in China they wouldn’t do much about, cuz its just treated as “discipline” and its “family matters” and legal system isn’t touching this.

I think my parents fear of CPS is why once we arrived in the US, they stopped with their um… ahem “disciplinary actions” against me.

(Also maybe cuz I got older and can sort of fight back??? Maybe 🤷‍♂️)

(I actually cant even remember a specific instance of my mom hitting me anymore… must been a repressed memeory by now, but I’m pretty sure it happened)

Also teachers have meter sticks to hit kida with…

Okay its not a beating, but I remember like you had to put your hands out and then the teacher slapped your hands with the ruler…

Dont remember what for… maybe “behavior problems”?

Or perhaps poor grade is also one of the things… idk, memory in 1st and 2nd grade isn’t exactly flawless…

But corporal punishment seems very acceptable in China…

Saw a movie recently about Taiwan’s education system (not the main story, but the backdrop of the plot, main movie was about Taiwanese Americans moving back to Taiwan), and in the plot, the parents encouraged the teacher to use the ruler thing as a form of discipline… wtf… that was actually the thing that jogged my memories…

(The point being, same culture, even being politically divided and with a different government, the culture is same… adults just get to do whatever as “discipline”)

?

the Planet*

(US is not the only country is the world where people are suffering, less US-Centralism pls)

You can vote overseas…

Its actually ironic that people in Puerto Rico don’t even get representation but if you last lived in the 50 states and then go abroad, you can mail your vote.

Just use an app that force your screen to flip upside down (Android allows this)

Every time I hear the word “import” when referring to Human Beings, its always some far right xenophobic white dude complaining about “oMg tHeSe dIrTy iNdIaNs aRe tAkInG oVeR!”

it’s trading one capitalist place for another.

Funny enough, my family also did this, but reversed.

I was born in China and we moved to the US when I was 8 years old… my parents found more success here… I mean, not at the very beginning, but eventually… now they have more income and more time off vs back in China…

I can’t speak for everyone, but in my specific case, my mom had to work long hours and did not have the 1.5 overtime bonus she has now and have less breaks vs now, and then dad… well… he didn’t really have a stable job, spend a lot of the time looking for jobs…

social programs, healthcare, and such.

Not according to my parents. My parents were kinda shocked how much welfare American Citizens have, and at one point, my parents claimed that “Americans are lazy and just wanna not go to work and live on welfare”.

And in terms of housing, okay when we were in Brooklyn, NYC, that place was so expensive it was impossible buy a house, so they bount a house in Philly moved our family here… where we’ve been living ever since…

Okay it was like approximately $100k around 2014 but this place has very shitty schools :/

But both the Brooklyn place we rented and this house in this ghetto place called Philly, both looked nicer than the neighborhood where used to live in Guangzhou, a CITY btw… (okay to be fair there are a bunch of problems in this current Philly house but like that’s just parents being frugal lol)

As for the healthcare part… eh… my mom really don’t trust doctors in China (well she also doesn’t really trust healthcare people overall, but especially those in China). Mom told me about a lot of situations that she felt like she got scammed, I can’t remember all the anecdotes she told me, but at one point, she told me how she thought the doctors are trying to get her to do a C-Section just to make more money (cuz surgery = more expensive bill), she thought it was unnecessary and wanted to give a natural birth, but she doesn’t wanna risk it being that, in fact, the doctors told the truth and then us dying, so she just gave in and went along with the C-Section. And she told me they want to overprescribe medicine so they get a kickback from the pharma companies. Bascially, my parents say US quality of healthcare is better for those who can afford it. But even then, because of their experiences living in China for so long, they just became so skeptical of the medical industry which is why mom really don’t want me seeking help for depression, cuz: “yOu dOn’t hAvE dEpReSsIoN, tHe dOctOrs aRe jUsT lYinG tO yOu!” cuz she thinks they are just trying to get paid fot overdiagnosing people… so because of their experience in China, they now kinda grew skeptical of medical professionals overall…

Cuz there’s just so much sketchy stuff and scams in China, and on top of their own experiences, warnings about scams are always circulating throughout their WeChat.

So it can look cheaper… but you risk running into corrupt doctors because corruption is a very big thing there, I mean they could easily bribe their way into having a medical license when they shouldn’t be qualified…

Do you live in a very white area?

Because it seems like the Black people here in Philly are just chillin’. I mean like… I feel like they “fit in” more than Asian Americans “fit in”…

There are Black people all over Philly, but in contrast, in some areas, I felt like I was the only person with an East Asian face…

“To to teach English”

Which is only possible because he happened to be born into the language

And English is only in demand because of British + American dominance in the world throught the past few hundred years

Most Chinese Citizens cannot enjoy the same lifestyle as him, WHICH IS WHY they want to learn English in the first place… so that they can find more opportunities in life

Like… this is not really “China good”, this is more like “English-Speaking white dude, who was lucky enough to grow up with the language, benefiting from Anglosphere dominance throught history”

Title: A Lemmy user ate a rotisserie chicken at a gas station, this is what happened to his stomach.

A Lemmy user, presented to the Emergency Room ☝️with severe abdominal pain…

Hey, you wanna visit my old neighborhood?

I mean I’m not gonna give the exact address, but you can take a look at 广州大道北 梅花园 麦地西街

The latest Baidu street view I found was in like 2014… so yea idk how it looks now…

My mom and older brother is in China right now… they got their US Passports and the 10 year “visiting relatives” visa and they just left like on sunday (last sunday, that is)

Apparanly my mom is pressuring my older brother to get married… lol (he’s like 28 or 29)…

Mom and her friend network thing got bro and some girl added eacher other on Wechat and I think they’ve been chatting for a while… and now I guess they are about to meet or something… or perhaps if not a good match, then mom’s gonma pressure him to meet with other “marriage candidates”… lol

As for me… I didn’t feel like visiting… Mom asked if I wanna come and I just was like “nah fam”

Also why did she even ask lmfao, this trip is for my older brother to go pursue marriage plans… why the fuck would I tag along? lmfao, that is sooo fucking weird to do… even my older brother was like “wtf, dont let this annoying shit come” (paraphrased)

(I mean I didn’t even have a valid passport lol, I just submitted the application for it yesterday at a post office)

I have a bunch of stuff not backed up and am too internet addicted to chance VPNs not working and then youtube or other stuff blocked… I’d have withdrawl from that lol… too much stress for me…

(And also a bit of the politcs thing, just feel kinda resentful towards the government)

Mom and brother are staying with one of my aunts (aka: her sister) in Taishan…

I asked them to check the internet thing but brother completely ignores me (not really on speaking terms right now) and mom is digitally illiterate to check for what websites work or not… or maybe she just doesn’t care since she’s so obsessed with trying to get my older brother to get into a marriage… cuz mom says if you wait, you will “never find anyone and die alone”… lmfao

So… roaming… T-Mobile charges $0.25 for each minute of calling… but mom got the international pass for like $50 so its now unlimited… so I don’t have to install WeChat and make an account just to talk to her…

So I just randomly call all the time and be like “MOOOMMM” 😅 (I mean if you don’t use the unlimited minutes, its going to waste lol)

So yea, that’s my story, how’s everything going for you?

I sometimes looked myself in the mirror… like I got so used to seeing my reflection in glasses, that if I ever like go without glasses… say if I get lasik, then I’d look so weird…

I literally had this thought earlier today… like… do people who get lasik still wear fake glasses so they look good aesthetically speaking? Or as you said, “to look smart”?

I was born Chinese and my family immigrated to the US when I was 8

I post about this topic a lot here, so forgive me for being so repetative for those who might’ve already read this before, this is sort of just my platform for cartharisis…

Then the USA…

Okay I don’t need to explain this one much…

American-Born Chinese bullied me for being a weird kid that didn’t speak much English at first… then for non-Asians that I encounter… its racism, not everyone of course, but common enough to have this feeling of “rejection”

I do have US Citizenship… so I should be feeling very “fitting in” here… I can speak English very close to a native speaker…

But then we got a new sheriff in town… a second time… 🤦‍♂️ (y’all know who…)

So yeah…

Haven’t actually encountered ICE yet… but this is causing a lot of anxiety…

The US is beautiful, but politics is so corrupted… ugh…

Idk if it’s paranoia… but I feel kinda like very hyper vigilant if I’m in a predominantly white neighborhood…

Haven’t seen a lynch mob yet… but the thought of it is kinda scary…

In the US, you go to a post office, and you have to hand over the physical, original copy of your proof of citizenship when apply for the first time so the postal worker can attach to the packet of stuff they send to the US Department of State… and they only give it back after they finished processing your passport application…

So while waiting… (takes a few weeks to process) you have:

-No Passport -No Certificate of Citizenship/Naturalization or Birth Certificate…

Meaning no proof of Citizenship…

Which means its kinda awkward if you get approached by government agents during this time… and have no proof of your claim to be a US Citizen…

Apparantly for people with birthright citizens, they can just get a birth certificate for like $10-$30, which I didn’t know before… TIL

But since I’m foreign-born and naturalized (or technically speaking, it’s Citizenship via Derivation under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, but its too complicated and I don’t wanna write a paragraph on that), I would need to file a N-565 to get a replacement copy of my proof of citizenship…

And it’s $500 for the filing fee…

Yea I don’t think people are gonna really wanna spend $500 just for an extra “backup copy” they statiscally don’t need, unless it actually gets lost in the system and then they’d have no choice but to pay $500…

And that also takes time to process…

(And before you ask: Yes it is night time here, but I don’t really feel like sleeping right now lol)

If this was asked in China, I bet nobody would seriously say “I wanna live in the past”

(at least not in the context of traveling back to the 1950s or something like that…)

idk Gen Z slang has infected my brain…

(send help… I’m Gen Z 👀)

Behold, its the other angle of the famous “AAAAAAAAAAAAH Cat”

This plot actually has continuity!

Oh… I just googled it… didn’t even know birth certificated are that cheap…

Cuz people who do not have birthright citizenship have to pay $500 to file for a replacement Certificate of Naturalization or Certificate of Citizenship…

kinda expensive ngl

Lets be honest, most humans do not view pets as equals to a human. Valuing our own species over others is just part of our biology. (not saying that I agree with this view)

If people had the legal responsibility to keep paying thousands or tens of thousands (or potentially more) to keep a pet alive at its senior years, then like… I bet like 50% of pet owners will either become bankrupt or go to jail for animal cruelty.

Laws are just written with humans prioritized… I mean… humans have healthcare¹, pets do not.

A human in an emergency situation arriving in a hospital, and they are legally required to give treatment even if the person cannot pay at the time¹, a vet can legally refuse to treat a pet in an emergency until the owner pays (not saying that would refuse, but they could).

(¹restrictions apply, varies by country)

One could argue that if euthanasia is legal, then there would be situations of: “Hey, granny is kinda taking too much resouces… maybe we should just pull the life support?” or “Okay my child has cancer and takes up too much of my money, and all this money would be wasted if the treatment fails, I’m gonna talk to the doctor and end this parasite once and for all”