I wanted a blue hat. Then I wanted to put something on it. Then I wanted to make a somewhat subversive political satire hat. Then I noodled some ideas, did some translating, and ordered this.

Then…I realized that the people who could actually read this hat may not find it as amusing as I do.

I’m American, and definitely not Chinese looking, nor do I read or write or write any other language than English (also supposed to be part of the joke of the hat). What was was not supposed to be part of the joke is any negative connotations for the Chinese people (or frankly even the Chinese government as a whole. ) it’s supposed to be funny political satire, expressing my views on infrastructure, surveillance.

What say you?

I've been seeing these kinds of videos pop up on my feed lately.

"40 year ols delivery driver with nothing"

"How I spend my days as a day labourer in Shenzen"

Yet, they are speaking English (not fluent, but still good) through out the whole video.

When I lived in Thailand, pretty much everyone that could speak decent English was making around $1000 (30,000 THB) per month. Which is pretty good there.

Why would someone who can speak English clealry, be a delivery driver or a day labourer unless they just wanted to for views or something like that?

I've never really heard modern Chinese songs outside of actively looking for them, nor have I seen much discussion about them online. But I'm really curious to know more.

What are some Chinese singers/songwriters right now that young people often enjoy or at least know about?

Good day all, I am 20 years old so this is my first time renewing my passport on my own.

I searched on Google but I can't seem to find the '中国领事' app on the play store.

I'm currently based in Singapore.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Planning to travel to CN. But someone we know started to share with us about rumors on Weixin about plague cases in BJ and SH. I have tried to do my due dilligence and check all reputable sources about it. So far: Contained case, health checks instituted at RU/CN border. But can anyone in Shanghai, Beijiing, Anhui province (specifically, Ma Anshan), or Nanjing provide some insight?

TY TY TY

Hello Everyone,

I'm 31 and would like to move to China for 1 year from Canada.

I've done some research on my own, but I need some help from people with recent experience.

I have a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science, and I've been working as a soccer coach for a few years now at the university varsity level, but also for development ages from 6-16 years old.

I've also been working as a substitute teacher in public schools for about a year now.

I've started my UEFA coaching licenses, and I'm a native English speaker; however, I don’t speak any Chinese.

I also have a 35kg Belgian Malinois, which I see is banned in most Chinese cities. I have the option to leave my dog with a family member (worst-case scenario)

I want to move because I see competitive salaries, and I've always wanted to live in China for a bit.

I plan to work as a gym teacher in an international school and, in the afternoons, find a job as a coach at a local soccer club.

I'm currently looking for jobs at eChinacities.com. Are there any alternatives to this website?

The pay I'm seeing for teachers ranges from 2.5k-5k USD per month. I'm looking for something closer to 4k USD and above.

Is this realistic? Any recommendations or advice from people in China or people who have done something similar are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

One of the interesting things about learning Chinese is that some characters look almost identical but have completely different meanings. Sometimes, the only difference is a single stroke, a small dot, or the direction of a line.

Here are some examples, along with their English meanings. How many of them can you tell apart at a glance?

1. 人 vs. 入

人rén — person

入rù — enter

The first means a human being, while the second means to go in. Their shapes are very similar, but the strokes lean in different directions.

1. 土 vs. 士

土 tǔ— earth; soil

士 shì— scholar; warrior

The difference is the relative length of the horizontal strokes.

1. 未 vs. 末

未 wèi— not yet

末 mò— end; tip

The upper horizontal stroke is shorter in 未 and longer in 末.

1. 己 vs. 已 vs. 巳

己jǐ — oneself

已yǐ — already

巳sì— the sixth Earthly Branch

These three characters are particularly easy to mix up because their shapes differ only slightly.

1. 日 vs. 曰

日rì — sun; day

曰yuē— say; speak (mainly in classical Chinese)

The second character is usually flatter and wider.

1. 拔 vs. 拨

拔bá— pull out

拨bō— dial; allocate

A small change in the component on the right produces a different character and meaning.

1. 晴 vs. 睛 vs. 情 vs. 清

晴qíng— sunny

睛jīng— eyeball

情qíng— feeling

清qīng— clear

The right-hand component is the same, but changing the left-hand component changes the meaning.

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to study Chinese in China for around 5 months in Spring 2027, and I’m deciding between Tsinghua in Beijing and Fudan in Shanghai.

I’m mainly wondering which city would be better in terms of student life, socializing, meeting new people, and the overall experience.

I’d also love to travel around China and visit nearby Asian countries.

If you’ve lived or studied in either city, which would you choose and why?

Im looking for anyone who can connect me with suppliers in china for cooking gas accessories. This is specifically for African market. I have other things i buy from china so i understand the logistics involved. Anyone who can help? Thanks!!!

hi. i want to receive 15% Shanghai state subsidy discount for macbook air m5 on Taobao. How i can do that? or maybe you know some applications which provide such services?

Hi everyone! I learned English from zero just by watching anime with subtitles for 4 years...so over the last few months I made an Android app that tries the same for Chinese: LanLan (懒懒, a very lazy panda). You scroll real Chinese videos with hanzi, pinyin and English under every line, and you can tap any word to save it as a flashcard.

But I'm not Chinese, so I'm picking the videos as an outsider comedy skits, variety and rap shows, street food, 赶海 and explainers like 小Lin说. is this what people actually watch in China? What would you add as a local to make the feed feel real?

also funny thing: textbooks skip 离谱 but it keeps popping up everywhere in real videos. What words do you say all the time that textbooks never teach?

Android -> LanLan: Learn Chinese Lazily

If you're interested just DM me! I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the link here.

Feel free to roast it, there's still a lot to fix, but most importantly have fun doomscrolling!

I understand it's somewhat of a cultural thing, but coming from America, it drives me insane. Not to say America has the best manners in the world, but it makes me wonder if others get exhausted by it?

Some manners for example:

1. Table manners. Eating food with mouth wide open. Talking as loudly as possible, to where the whole restaurant needs to hear your conversation. Smoking, even with infants around.

2. Driving manners. The process to get a driver's license is quite tedious and strict but in real world driving it seems like so many rules aren't followed unless there's a speed camera.

3. Personal space/shoving. Especially if you're waiting in a line or just walking around. The odds of being shoved are almost guaranteed to happen every time, and if there's a line to get into somewhere, people will shove from behind like their life depends on it.

4. Queues. Majority of people do line up, but some will just cut through the line as if they're the most important person in the world...

Maybe it's something I will never understand coming from the west, but definitely interesting.

Hello everyone 😊

I was wondering if someone could please tell me what this bracelet says?

It was gifted from my Opa to my Oma, and then to me when she passed away. I have worn it every day for the last 15 years without actually knowing what it says...

Thanks very much!

UM SORRY THESE ARE UPSIDE DOWN 😭

Cheers to everyone for taking the time to translate for me. I'm actually super happy with how wholesome this bracelet is & I love it even more now!

Hey guys, I have been living in Hangzhou for two years and I still haven't found a reliable VPN for CS2. What do you guys recommend for playing CS2 from mainland china with good ping and no packet loss on Hong Kong and Japanese servers. Thanks alot

hi everyone. im a international student and this is my first year in Shanghai. i want to find chinese friends who knows english (i also know russian, if u know it will be perfect) and have fun, walk and explore Shanghai. if u want, feel free reach me on dm. thank you!

Bit of a niche one, but I’m in Xian for a few more days, then off to Chengdu and Chongqing, leaving on 29th.

I would love to get my nieces Chinese names engraved onto a pendant, keychain or have some form of personalisation whilst I’m here as their gift.

Does anybody know anywhere I can get something like this done in any of the above? Google hasn’t been much help obviously.

Thanks

As an english speaker, to me, regional accents differ by pronunciation of certain sounds, but I understand that mandarin, being tonal, is very sensitive to pronunciation. A slight difference in intonation completely changes the meaning of a word. That would lead me to think that different regional dialects/accents of mandarin would be mutually unintelligible. Are the differences in dialects just much more subtle? Or am I missing/misunderstanding something about the language?

I'm looking forward to connecting with some Chinese folks I have started learning Mandarin on duo and now I have to make some Chinese friends whom I can talk to is anyone up?

How can I improve my technique here? Going to China next year, and want to get better.

Thanks!!

The Chinese car market is the biggest in the world but I know very little about what it's like to actually own a car in China. In particular, I'm interested in knowing parking habits.

Here in Spain, most people live in apartments and many apartment buildings have underground parking, but there are also many people who don't own a parking slot and park their car on the street. Sometimes people use their parking slot to store more things besides their car, like spare tires, roof boxes or even construction material like spare tiles in case they need to repair a bathroom or something, although this is usually not allowed due to fire risks but it's rarely enforced. You can park on the street unless otherwise stated, but most cities have introduced parking meters and a 2-tier paying scheme: blue slots are pay-as-you-go and green slots have a time limit and only authorized residents can park there overnight. You can sometimes find free parking on the outskirts of some towns; usually in unused empty plots. In bigger cities there are also dedicated parking buildings, both underground and overground, usually near commercial areas or in places with older residential buildings which weren't built with underground parking; these buildings may offer both public parking for visitors and rent/sell slots for people who want their own fixed slot. Bigger establishments like malls or places like Ikea have their own parking, as well as some businesses like hotels or some office buildings.

Is China similar to Spain in this regard? Do residential buildings have parking lots, or are there dedicated parking buildings? Is parking on the street allowed? Are people required to prove that they have available parking in order to buy a car like they do in Japan? Do people use their parking slots to store things other than their car? Any other thing in particular that you'd like to add?