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I came back to China after being in the US for 10 years and just want to chat about stuff
(lemmy.world)
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, just scrolling through the community.
From what I understand, its better than the US rural deep south, but its not as good as a US liberal city in a blue state.
Its better than, say, a decade or two ago.
People are very conservative and probably will gossip behind your back (I know my parents who were born in PRC will gossip a lot on WeChat with friends) but I doubt there will be any "lynch mobs".
Its like 10x better than how russia treats LBGT people, and its getting even worse in russia. The laws in russia are getting more draconian. Being gay/lesbian and changing gender were legal in russia since the 1990s, but then they criminalized it again in 2023, which was part of the autocratization since their invasion of Ukraine. Pro-LGBT organizations were deemed "extremist".
In contrast, in China, you just gotta keep a low profile and it should be fine. Homosexuality is legal (but marriage is not recognized), gender change is legal (after Sex Reassaignment Surgery).
Activism will get you in trouble tho. Censorship of LGBT does happen often. Activism for almost any topic will get you in trouble, so that's not unique to LGBT. Porn is illegal, so you can't write erotica like what happened to some LGBT authors.