Liangshan, an autonomous region in Sichuan, with 50% of the people belonging to the Yi ethnicity, is (in)famous for its poverty. This video shows a wedding banquet of the locals. The video guy was not expecting to encounter a wedding, and he wanted to film the wedding of Yi people. The groom family invited him to join them. They even made a massive amount of food for him. Everyone was so hospitable and friendly.
The video went viral in China.
Then, the video guy got many phone calls from local governments, mostly the local police and propaganda departments. They were very displeased. He was invited to drink tea with them. And one propaganda officer explained to him that because of that video, many local officials will be punished. Why? The propaganda officer said that the family is not that poor, they have a good house and very high income. But there is a ban on wedding because of COVID. They broke the ban by going to do the wedding inside the mountain.
“I see, so many hidden rules in the government”. The video guy responded.
“So, you think you were just posting a video. The government officials that got punished were very unfortunate.” The propaganda officer scolded him in the chat.
The poverty of the people at the wedding is what got the video viral – people could not afford a table or any meat dishes. But what is so impressive is that the propaganda officer and the video guy both have to pretend it is about something else. COVID is used as a prop conveniently.
(BTW, our dear supreme leader has declared the success of war on poverty in China and was praised about it by a Brazilian former minister a year ago and there is no poverty in China currently. On top of that, this week our dear supreme leader is in Sichuan to look at things ).
TikTok is expanding its business outside China. The business model that got Viya and Li Jiaqi famous looks very promising: selling products through streaming video. So TikTok Shop launched in the UK. According to BBC, it is like this:
According to the FT, the launch of TikTok Shop - the firm’s livestream shopping feature - in the UK prompted a number of staff to leave and complaints about an aggressive culture that goes against typical working practices in Britain.
The newspaper also carried reports of long working hours, with members of the ecommerce team saying they are expected to regularly work more than 12 hours a day.
This is common in Chinese companies inside China (e.g. 996 ). But many UK employees quit the London office.
Earlier this year, Mr. Ma from ByteDance, who was overseeing the new UK adventure, came to visit the office. Over a dinner with the UK staff, he claimed that, as a capitalist, he does not believe in maternity leave. BBC: “the alleged remarks are being seen as a sign of a wider culture clash between TikTok’s Chinese owners, ByteDance, and a number of its London-based workers.”
Now Joshua Ma will “take some time off” and “step back” from his role leading the UK ecommerce team,
Too bad, the capitalist West does not want to learn from the socialist China how to beat poverty. Except for Elon Musk, of course!
Shanghai might have an non-existent-lockdown, but Tesla in Shanghai is doing phenomenally well:
“The facility, which is capable of making 2,100 cars a day in normal times, was shut for three weeks through mid April and staff were only recently able to resume double shifts, working around the clock in an elaborate so-called closed loop system.”
according to one report:
… “ local reports have noted that the facility was able to produce 2,600 cars in one day in late May.”
By this production schedule, it means workers have to work 12 hours a day. A closed loop system means: they all work and sleep in the factory. It was pioneered in Wuhan to work with COVID
No wonder Mr. Musk detested his American employees who want to work from home. Mr. Musk is a converted socialist with Chinese characteristics.
Xiao Jianhua was having a good life until 5 years ago. He managed assets for top Chinese families and in return he was running a powerful financial company and living a luxury life in Hong Kong. It all ended 5 years ago when he was abducted from his apartment in the Four Season Hotel and sent to Mainland and vanished from public view. That abduction shook the world.
According to WSJ, Xiao is finally getting a trial in Chinese court, soon.
The timing of it is very interesting, since the rumour of infighting that challenges the power of our dear supreme leader is getting louder by the day.
Last night, in a BBQ shop in Tangshan, a city of 7 million people, a man harassed a woman, she fought back and that started a fight. In the end the woman was severely beaten and sent to hospital. It became a national hot topic today because someone posted the security footage on Weibo. (No seven days CCTV deletion law in China yet, it seems) You can see the first part here and the fight outside the restaurant here, and the injured woman in the hospital here. Censor on Weibo are already hard at work, but outrage from young people, especially women is on the rise. People are shocked at the brutality, the indifference of the men around, and the slow reaction of the police. (Maybe they were trained in Uvalde!) Some people have found the social media accounts of the three men and posted them on Weibo. Under public pressure, the government announced that they are trying to catch them.
Many Chinese young people are fed up with Zongzi these days. So their mothers got creative: want Sushi instead?
Yeah! Sushi with chinese characteristics.
It is zongzi wrapped in seaweed.