I instantly am on defence mode when a non-Chinese write about China and or her culture. Logically I understand most people are just awakening to something that I’ve lived with for most of my life: That Chinese culture and history is pretty deep and rich. So they’re just expressing it through essays, social media posts, videos … However, I’ve just been bitten too many times, have read too many terrible hot takes that are usually shades of “China is bad” or “why can’t they be like us?” Or worse, completely misunderstanding how Chinese society and culture works or is really like. Most of my life, being Chinese or China, in general, was ignored. We were not cool. Now every Tom, Dick and Harry want to either analyse us, adopt our ways or wag a finger at us. I kinda miss being ignored….at least we don’t have to deal with the daily orientalism dear lawd Substack is where I see a lot of these orientalist, sinophobic hot takes. Always, always, they have this desire to preach and lecture, "Why is China like this? Why can't they be like us? Since they're not like us, they've fallen short." Or worse, they interpret our cultural products in the most outlandish ways. I still remember how I ended up reading an essay about Mysterious Lotus Casebook and somehow they spun it off as a symptom of China looking down on the minorities. Dude, it's just a silly idol drama omg. They will take that cultural product, insert their message and use it to wag a finger at China. Augh #China #Substack