Funeral Strippers

[USS Monitor]

Be a foreigner in a city that foreigners barely ever go to, and work at a public school.

State-endorsed foreigner. Such is fun, right?

It actually is pretty cool. The local paper ran a feel-good article about us coming to teach there, with a picture of a couple of us and our boss making dumplings together. We got invited to various things like that dinner with the local officials.

The downside is when they try to get you up on stage to do a performance or give a speech or something... I am way too shy and awkward for that stuff.

[Alvecia]

Surprised us decadent Westerners didn’t come up with this first. I’ll add it to my will.

[The Parkus Empire]

State-endorsed foreigner. Such is fun, right?

It actually is pretty cool. The local paper ran a feel-good article about us coming to teach there, with a picture of a couple of us and our boss making dumplings together. We got invited to various things like that dinner with the local officials.

The downside is when they try to get you up on stage to do a performance or give a speech or something... I am way too shy and awkward for that stuff.

But you were a teacher!

[Katganistan]

I'm not sure how funeral strippers are a symptom of contact with the west. None of the funerals I have been to had strippers.

I honestly thought this was going to be about the resale of flowers used in funerary arrangements and such.

[Pan-Asiatic States]

Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw.

[USS Monitor]

It actually is pretty cool. The local paper ran a feel-good article about us coming to teach there, with a picture of a couple of us and our boss making dumplings together. We got invited to various things like that dinner with the local officials.

The downside is when they try to get you up on stage to do a performance or give a speech or something... I am way too shy and awkward for that stuff.

But you were a teacher!

I was an Exotic White Person^tm.

When I lived there, Shijiazhuang had a population around 2 million, and I was one of about 200 people there that weren't Chinese. So any foreigner was kind of a curiosity, and I got a lot of attention that wasn't directly related to my work, just people wanting to satisfy their curiosity about foreigners. I think even the people who run the city have a little of that curiosity.

[The Parkus Empire]

But you were a teacher!

I was an Exotic White Person^tm.

When I lived there, Shijiazhuang had a population around 2 million, and I was one of about 200 people there that weren't Chinese. So any foreigner was kind of a curiosity, and I got a lot of attention that wasn't directly related to my work, just people wanting to satisfy their curiosity about foreigners. I think even the people who run the city have a little of that curiosity.

You make being white more mysterious and thrilling, Monitor. I will try to to tap into my everyday exotic

[Katganistan]

But you were a teacher!

I was an Exotic White Person^tm.

When I lived there, Shijiazhuang had a population around 2 million, and I was one of about 200 people there that weren't Chinese. So any foreigner was kind of a curiosity, and I got a lot of attention that wasn't directly related to my work, just people wanting to satisfy their curiosity about foreigners. I think even the people who run the city have a little of that curiosity.

Also, take us out of our natural habitat (the classroom) and some of us are quite shy. Can't speak for Monitor here, but being asked to get up in front of an audience and perform when it's NOT related to me teaching a lesson is something I dread.

[The Parkus Empire]

I was an Exotic White Person^tm.

When I lived there, Shijiazhuang had a population around 2 million, and I was one of about 200 people there that weren't Chinese. So any foreigner was kind of a curiosity, and I got a lot of attention that wasn't directly related to my work, just people wanting to satisfy their curiosity about foreigners. I think even the people who run the city have a little of that curiosity.

Also, take us out of our natural habitat (the classroom) and some of us are quite shy. Can't speak for Monitor here, but being asked to get up in front of an audience and perform when it's NOT related to me teaching a lesson is something I dread.

Yes, but you teach kids, right? When Monitor said she taught English I was thinking she had adult students

[USS Monitor]

I'm not sure how funeral strippers are a symptom of contact with the west. None of the funerals I have been to had strippers.

I honestly thought this was going to be about the resale of flowers used in funerary arrangements and such.

It's a symptom of capitalism giving people more money than they know what to do with, so they spend it on weird stuff.

[USS Monitor]

Also, take us out of our natural habitat (the classroom) and some of us are quite shy. Can't speak for Monitor here, but being asked to get up in front of an audience and perform when it's NOT related to me teaching a lesson is something I dread.

Yes, but you teach kids, right? When Monitor said she taught English I was thinking she had adult students

I taught at a middle school.

[The Parkus Empire]

I'm not sure how funeral strippers are a symptom of contact with the west. None of the funerals I have been to had strippers.

I honestly thought this was going to be about the resale of flowers used in funerary arrangements and such.

It's a symptom of capitalism giving people more money than they know what to do with, so they spend it on weird stuff.

I am also pretty sure professional striptease is a mostly Western thing even if has had non Western forms

[The Parkus Empire]

Yes, but you teach kids, right? When Monitor said she taught English I was thinking she had adult students

I taught at a middle school.

Ah. Well that's a bit different, can't expect you to be just as bold in front of adults

[Ethel mermania]

I've seen worst too. Example:

See
Let people do whatever

It's china, they do not do that there.

[Lost Memories]

I mean, they’ve been trying to crack down for over a decade. I have traditions younger than that.

But it's not idiosyncracy

So?

It's about creating new meanings for words.
Anything you come up during your life is an habit, or ritual at most, it becomes a tradition only when that habit/ritual survives past your death.

But yeah, this is a detour to the topic at hand.

[Ethel mermania]

Apparently this is big in Taiwan as well.

Clearly I need to learn cantonese.

[Risottia]

This is an awfully pedantic little detour we've taken.

It's not a pedantic detour at all. The Chinese government is cracking down on a fad which is really not traditional practice. But it's represented as the Chinese government attacking "Chinese tradition".

Traditions are nothing but fads that have grown old.

[The Parkus Empire]

It's not a pedantic detour at all. The Chinese government is cracking down on a fad which is really not traditional practice. But it's represented as the Chinese government attacking "Chinese tradition".

Traditions are nothing but fads that have grown old.

Marxist drivel. Tradition is required for language to function

[The Snazzylands]

That's interesting. I get why it would make people uncomfortable but I don't see the "obscene" part of it. Death is a part of life, and sexuality is how life spreads. Maybe the point is to remind people that although death and grief are inevitable, so is life and its joys, including sensual pleasures.

Traditions are nothing but fads that have grown old.

Marxist drivel. Tradition is required for language to function

To paraphrase Chomsky, every new generation reinvents their language, using the old language as the jumping-off point to form something unique to them. Traditions aren't mechanically passed on from generation to generation, but rather are reshaped and repurposed as the circumstances change.

[Thermodolia]

Good. This crack down is highly supported by me.

Booo you’re no fun

[The Parkus Empire]

That's interesting. I get why it would make people uncomfortable but I don't see the "obscene" part of it. Death is a part of life, and sexuality is how life spreads. Maybe the point is to remind people that although death and grief are inevitable, so is life and its joys, including sensual pleasures.

Marxist drivel. Tradition is required for language to function

To paraphrase Chomsky, every new generation reinvents their language, using the old language as the jumping-off point to form something unique to them. Traditions aren't mechanically passed on from generation to generation, but rather are reshaped and repurposed as the circumstances change.

No generation reinvent the language. They modify it, but Shakespeare's English and ours share ontological continuity

[Thermodolia]

Because...?

I thought you believed in small government?

Yes, small enough to fit into your bedroom

[The Parkus Empire]

I thought you believed in small government?

Yes, small enough to fit into your bedroom

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "sexual congress"

[Thermodolia]

Yes, small enough to fit into your bedroom

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "sexual congress"

And special sessions

[Galloism]

I mean, they’ve been trying to crack down for over a decade. I have traditions younger than that.

So?

It's about creating new meanings for words.
Anything you come up during your life is an habit, or ritual at most, it becomes a tradition only when that habit/ritual survives past your death.

But yeah, this is a detour to the topic at hand.

This tradition has survived past the deaths of the people who came up with it, most likely. It's around 40 years old.