Angela Lin 0:20
Today we’re getting hairy. And we are talking about China, all things China. Well not all things, a lot of things about China, which is sticky for many reasons. But as you know by now Jesse and I are both Taiwanese, which, you know, the back. Whoa, I mean, it’s a weird, it’s a weird topic, right? Because a lot of people from Taiwan speak about it, as you know, a whole separate thing and like a whole separate identity. But when we talked to Ryan recently, right, and also my dad previously, you have to just acknowledge also that like, culturally, most of our culture comes from China. Right, like, and we’re like, ethnically Chinese. So that’s part of us. But we continue to have this very sticky, like identity crisis between Chinese versus Taiwanese. And the government’s between the two, I guess, we can’t say countries that’s a debatable term, but the two entities?
Full Transcript (Note: Transcribed via AI, may contain errors)
Jesse Lin 1:34
Well, you know, we’re private citizens. So we’re not bound by the One China doctrine. You can call it a country if you want.
Angela Lin 1:40
I mean, I think it’s a country I have a passport, we’re talking about this, but like..
Jesse Lin 1:43
I’m getting one.
Angela Lin 1:45
And now you’re in the process. I’ve talked about this. And it’s like, so embarrassing, but I literally didn’t know that Taiwan wasn’t like, you know, formally recognized as a country by everyone until like, a few years ago. And it’s probably because of this passport. Like I knew I had those passport. I’m like, you don’t get passports for things that aren’t countries. I just like never knew about the like, technical situation behind it.
Jesse Lin 2:14
Well, honestly, I think that that’s like, a little bit purposeful, right? Like, that’s the point of the whole one China thing is so that people don’t realize that it isn’t its own thing.
Angela Lin 2:24
Yeah, super weird. Another thing that I felt stupid about. Not really getting is like, I always got really confused between Republic of China and People’s Republic of China, where I kind of was like, well, first of all, where are we still? Why do we start the word China in our name, if like, we’re trying to be Taiwan, you know, I mean, and so I would get confused of like, which one is China? Like, actual China, right? And for those who, who are embarrassing, like me, and like, didn’t really know either, until semi recently, Taiwan is called Republic of China, because it well, as we know, like people left China’s you form Taiwan. But it’s because they claim that Taiwan is the real China, which I didn’t really associate that with the name before. And then it’s kind of like I think of it like when you want a website domain, and someone stole your website domain, and then China’s like, fuck you took Republic of China, so I gotta like, add a different word into it to make it my own.
Jesse Lin 3:28
Yeah. That’s how I always remember that. I was like, oh, if you add like a people, somewhere in the name, it means they’re communists.
Angela Lin 3:36
Oh, that’s fair. I guess I don’t really know what people know about the history of China in terms of how it’s transformed over the last two to three decades. Because I didn’t know too much about it like..
Jesse Lin 4:39
I don’t know.
Angela Lin 4:40
It’s really fuzzy. So essentially, when Mao took over China and kicked out Taiwan, right, like that’s when the civil war happened and People’s Republic of China forms he made it a like totally communist society where you know, it has like very beautiful aims like everyone’s equal and like, there’s a social net for everyone, and like this is gonna be a perfectly planned out society and a bunch of his reforms just like failed and millions people died of like starvation. And after Mao, they had other leaders that started to figure out like, you know, this, like totally communist thing doesn’t work. So maybe we should try a little bit of this like capitalist thing, but make it still communist, which is like not a thing. So, essentially, in the 80s, they started opening up trade with, like, the global economy. So they started allowing foreign investors to invest in Chinese companies, and they had like tax incentives and stuff. So I actually read one of the major cities that they or like major areas that they were like, hey, foreign investors come invest was Shenzhen, which is where my dad opened his, his factory when he’s still in that. So that’s, it’s like, no surprise, but that’s where he ended up doing business. But essentially, they were like, hey, let’s like, let other people give us money. And like, open this shit up. And then they also started like Stock Exchange, basically, they were like, let’s borrow a bunch of things from capitalism. So that’s how they really started, like boosting everything. And the difference, because I had to look this up, because I was like, I don’t really get the difference between like a capitalist society and what China does, because they have huge companies, right? Like Alibaba, and like, all these huge fucking companies that make so much money. And like, how is that not capitalist? The difference is very fine. So they have essentially a capitalist market where there are a bunch of private companies that are, you know, operating, and they keep their profits and all that stuff. But they also have state owned businesses that like are supposed to make up a good portion of their market, but is in reality, not like a big portion. Yeah. And theoretically, the state owned companies are supposed to pay back some of what they make to the people like to the government, so that the government can use that money to help their people. But that hasn’t really been happening for the last few decades. So they’re all it was essentially just like capitalism until Xi Jinping was like, fuck that you owe us money. So. So it’s like kind of rolling back. But it’s just like a weird, I don’t know.
Jesse Lin 7:32
So I just want to say because a lot of people talk about Chinese people being able to copy something, but like, in the process of copying, make it better, either through like, more efficient and production methods, or blah, blah, blah. And I want to say this is like exactly their government. They were like, oh, look at the communists in Russia. Let’s copy some of that. Then they’re like, wait, no, they died. So now there’s like this thing from the west. Let’s copy a little bit of that. And then now we have what they have right now. Like this is fully anecdotal but that’s how I kind of feel like how it kind of rolled out. And it’s really interesting that you mentioned that they have many state sponsored companies, because so I made like a huge airplane geek because I really want to fly business class, like everywhere I go one day, or points and stuff. And almost every airline in China is subsidized by the government. I think there’s only one regional airline that is like fully private and is not subsidized by the government. So I think like China Southern China Eastern like, all those are all like fully government owned entities.
Angela Lin 8:40
I have you flown them? I think I flew at one like one of the regional airlines once and then I heard other people talk about they suck. Like they’re not because Asian airlines have like a different tier that they operate out, right, like Singapore Airlines. And like, yeah, China Airlines, you know, Eva airlines, all these Taiwanese ones are pretty good, too. But like, you know, the, the Asian ones in general are known for like, next level service. Yeah. And actually, I read something else that because you talked about, like, you know, China, copying things, and like, how it rolls into manufacturing, or whatever, but I guess recently, President Xi was like, China doesn’t want to be everyone’s factory anymore. Like we’re gonna invest heavily into like high tech, and like sciences and stuff. So that’s where that’s where I feel like a lot of the kind of like, threat feels like it’s coming from for the US and like other first world powers is like, China’s like, very quickly moving its way through this like, we were agriculture and then now we’re like, heavy manufacturing. And now we’re gonna move into like, you know, STEM and high tech. We’re gonna like, take you over that’s, that’s what it feels like. I think for a lot of people in these like powerful, traditional countries
Jesse Lin 10:01
It’s really interesting because I kind of feel like they could do it all. Because there’s so many people that live there, like you could literally have everything because there’s so many people. But I also remember reading a while ago that like, part of that is the case. But the other part of it is that as wages increase and standards of living increase, they also can’t manufacture stuff as cheaply as they could in the 90s. So actually, a lot of the stuff is actually being outsourced out of China, like stuff that China needs no longer is made in China because of cost reasons. Of course, what about cost reasons? Like, I don’t want to pay this guy a penny, because I can pay this guy half a penny and kind of you know, but I was reading that too. And like, because this, the labor pool, has better skilled people, like around this production, stuff like that, and their wages have improved. There are places like Shenzhen where I feel like the manufacturing has declined because the cost is no longer competitive versus manufacturing it in another Asian country like Thailand, or something like yeah, Vietnam. Exactly.
Angela Lin 11:13
That’s interesting. It’s kind of weird to me, though. I mean, I understand that, like their wages are growing across the board. So that makes sense. But China’s such a huge country. So like, if it’s not Shenzhen, why is it? Why can you just move to like a different, still rural part of China, because I think something that people don’t think about is how big China is. And when they think of China, they’re like others, Beijing, and there’s Shanghai. And like, these are all like super glamorous, like first world cities, and they are, but then there’s a shit ton of poor people in the countryside. And the people you see traveling abroad are the, you know, X percent, the top tier X percent that are rich and able to leave, but most people aren’t. And like, I know, it’s been a long time. But I always remember when I was younger, until college, my parents used to take me back to not just Taiwan, but also China, because my dad had that factory in China. So like, we’d spend most of the time in Taiwan, but then we’d spend, I don’t know, three weeks or so in Shenzhen. And I remember the first time I went to China, I was just like, appalled, because I was, I don’t know, nine years old or something. And I remember getting off the plane and we’re getting in the car to go to our apartment. There were just all these like, really poor, like, straight up dirty, like have dirt on their faces, kids with no shoes that were like, running up to us and like chasing our van begging us for money. And I was just like, what is this and like, that was the sentiment kind of everywhere when we weren’t in our kind of like bubbles of like, we’re meeting business associates or like family friends for lunch or whatever those were normal encounters. But when we’re just like, on the street, and like, in not our like, you know, safe bubbles, it was just poor people everywhere and like begging you and like, my dad used to get mugged all the time in China. And it was just like, there’s income disparity is very real. And like, no one talks about it in the West, because they’ve never been to like real China, if they’ve been to China at all, they’ve only been to like these really high class like first world cities that they want to put in front of you, but they’re hiding the reality of, you know, the rest of the nation.
Jesse Lin 13:38
I don’t know why they couldn’t shift it. Although I do feel like, you know, anecdotally from the various random pieces that I read interest pieces that I read is that I kind of feel like a lot of people who are poor ended up migrating to a larger city for for productive production jobs where like the factories, and like production stuff is clustered. And to the point that I was making earlier like it might have been economical at some point but past a specific wage point even though the wage is still low. You know, people love to screw other people out of their wages minimum wage here is still like nothing. So like of course the company’s just like, you know, why pay you this little bit when I can pay you even less somewhere else. But of course, there’s like, you know, a huge population population there so there’s no way that like, everything will become out source like it just it wouldn’t be possible to support that large of a population I don’t think.
Angela Lin 14:42
So I – I always have this like, fear of China. Because they they’re like the OG Big Brother, right like they are always listening and obviously not here. Well kind of here. They they’ve infiltrated yeah I was looking up like, do they censor everything? Or is it like certain things? Because, like, what is going to get me in trouble, which I mean, like, and because they have so many things that like people have gripes with regards to their human rights, like, mock there have and whatever. And so I was looking it up and I was basically like, you’re only going to get censored or arrested or whatever, if you go against these, like four principles, and I was like, what the fuck are the 4 principles? So I looked it up. And it was established during the Mao era. So like the OG, Communist Party era, okay. And it’s these four things. So the principle of upholding the socialist path, the principle of upholding the People’s Democratic dictatorship, whatever that means, okay. The principle of upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the principle of upholding Mao Zedong thought and Marxist Leninism. So it’s pretty stringent. It feels like to…
Jesse Lin 16:18
I mean, it’s just all in favor of the party and those who are in party.
Angela Lin 16:22
The one party. Yeah, it’s um, it’s kind of scary to me. And also what what the hell does People’s Democratic dictatorship mean? Because I feel like those are contradictory words.
Jesse Lin 16:36
It means that a dictator that the people put in power.
Angela Lin 16:38
Yes, that’s right. That’s right. And that you will be like, fully faithful towards that dictator.
Jesse Lin 16:47
You know, it’s quite interesting, because I do feel like that kind of mirrors the familial structure of Asian families where you have like patriarch…
Angela Lin 16:58
I didn’t nominate my patriarch or matriarch, they’re just there.
Jesse Lin 17:03
I think that’s the point. Right? Like, they’re just there. And you just defer to them.
Angela Lin 17:08
Yeah. Well, it’s interesting, because essentially, they’re like, you know, it’s kind of like this like cultish. Yeah, of this the Communist Party and like, sometimes there’s like a one figure that is kind of their like, cultish leader. And what’s interesting was when I dug into, like, the history to do all this research, um, obviously, Mao was that person, right? Like, I remember, when I was in China, when I was like a teenager, we went to a restaurant that is actually a chain of restaurants. And it’s like, Mao’s restaurant, like inside is just like shrines to Mao – Chairman Mao. Like, he’s like a god. And like, it’s just like portraits of him and everything everywhere. And I was like, what the fuck is this? And I started, like, talking a little bit of smack about it in English to my dad. And he’s like “shh!”, they’re always listening. I was like, I believe, so I’m gonna stop talking right now. But yeah, so Mao has always had like, you know, as far as like Chinese leaders in the recent era, he’s always been the kind of like, single cultish leader. But what I read that was interesting is that President Xi, the current one, he wants it, and he’s got it. So they actually, I forgot what the official term is. But like, they rolled him into their constitution, like his thoughts into the Constitution, because those four principles are their constitution. So that’s why they get to say like, oh, you’re you’re going against our Constitution, so we can arrest you. But they’ve rolled him in his thoughts into it. And as we I think talked about before he has the power to abolish the presidential term limits, which used to be like two terms, like most nations have presidents, right? And he’s like, nah, I’m staying him. And so there’s no, there’s no end in sight. And he could just be president for life, which goes well, I guess, with people’s dictatorship.
Jesse Lin 19:13
I mean, he probably saw Putin, he’s like, that’s where it’s that, I’m a cop that. Well, it’s really interesting that you you mentioned their constitution as well, because I kind of feel like that’s the case when we when we look at our own constitution. And we’re like, what does this mean? And our shit was written more than 50 years ago, it was like 200 years ago. So you’re like, what do these people who probably had like a colostomy bag made out of wood mean when they wrote this stuff. And obviously, there’s huge debates about the intention and like, how should it be interpreted and all that, but I guess they did away with that by enshrining the leadership into the constitution so they could basically just rewrite the constitution.
Angela Lin 20:01
Whatever you say one soul leader. Yeah, it’s kind of scary. I agree. I mean, constitutions were written in the past and their rule, no matter which country there’s like a lot of debate over their interpretation. But this is like, I don’t know, it’s just so extreme, because it’s like, oh, well, yeah. You censored at the light end, right, like, of punishment. Otherwise, you’re thrown in jail without trial? Because they don’t believe in the judiciary system. Yeah. So there’s no trial, and then you’re just held indefinitely, and we can do whatever we want with you. And, yeah.
Jesse Lin 20:41
On the flip side, devil’s advocate, I do think that it’s amazing that they’ve governed a country of a billion people without like, exploding. Like, certainly the lifespan of the country is pretty short. And, of course, I need to caveat the exploding piece with there are many problems in China. But I mean, like, it hasn’t disintegrated into a flaming pile of shit yet, which is what I would expect for 1 billion people. But I mean, to say like, the government has done enough to drag people up words that they’re satisfied enough without rocking the boat. Like they feel like it’s sufficient. It’s cool, like no real large population, like uprising or anything like that.
Angela Lin 21:22
I guess, it’s kind of like if you have a caged lion in a zoo, all they know is this little freedom, they have close space. And then when you let them out into the fucking Sahara, or whatever, then they’re like, oh, this is the world, you know? Because actually, what you’re saying brings up something else I found, which is like, so China’s relationship with international entities is really interesting. What I found in terms of like, how much China has power and stuff is super interesting, because essentially, what they’ve been doing for the last modern times is they show up to all these like global organizations so that they can start establishing their kind of global importance. But the as the United States has been, like, ripping funding, and like support of a lot of these organizations, they’re kind of like sliding into these DMS being like, Hey, y’all, like we’re here. And if – sorry -, if the US gave like $100 million, I forgot what the actual number was, let’s say it was like 100, whatever, China would only give like 20 or 30, which is not at all the same. But like, it’s optics of like, well, us is like abandoning us. And then China’s coming in here and like doing what they can, you know. And they’re doing that kind of like everywhere. And then they’re like helping other countries where they’re like, hey, let me help you build like a bridge here, like build like an aqueduct here. And they’re just like lending a little hand here and there – little favors nothing that’s going to like crush them, but is enough so that they’re planting little seeds everywhere. And what’s interesting is that then what they’re doing is like establishing power within these organizations slowly so like, I read something about some Council in the UN that like, isn’t that important. It was like, I don’t know, food and agriculture. It wasn’t like the most like prime thing to care about. But they wanted their candidate to win. So they like essentially strong arm the two other there was like one country that was like, gonna probably win. And they were like, hey, we’ll forgive all your debt to us if you back down. So they like bribe them there. And then everyone else who’s trying to oppose them, they’re like, we’re not going to export anything to your countries, if you don’t back down, and then they back down. And then China won the council. So like, they’re doing these little like sneaky ass things around all these little organizations to like, slowly take little pieces of power. So that’s a little scary to me that like, it’s like little things now, but I feel like over time, it’s gonna compound and they’re, you’re gonna look back and be like, what, how did this happen?
Jesse Lin 24:09
I mean, they’re also like, as to your point, like, they’re economically invested in many countries. Like I remember reading a while ago, an article about oil development in Africa. And they were saying like, it used to be all western US companies. Now. It’s all Chinese companies that are building the refineries, the factories, like investing in the local area. And that has a huge impact on how the local government may or may not make decisions in favor or not in favor of the country that happened employs most people in their region.
Angela Lin 24:45
Yeah. Well, it also gets scary for Taiwan. Because well Taiwan doesn’t get to be in the UN, right, that’s not a thing. And then they used to be in the WHO until Tsai Ing-wen became the president. Because the president before was part of Kuomintang, which is the like pro China government. And they were like, well, you’re chill, like, you can be here because China’s here, you’re pro China, like, that’s chill. And then as soon as they swapped to the like pro Taiwanese independence president, they’re like, nah, you’re out of here. So then they kick them out. And like it was pretty public. But during the COVID pandemic, because Taiwan did such a great job of like obliterating COVID from their country, immediately, they like started giving aid to all these different countries, right, like sending masks to different countries, including the US and like, money and all, you know, sharing knowledge and all that great stuff. And people were demanding, like, hey, global organizations, can you like recognize what they’re doing here? And like the accomplishments they’ve made, and there was a WHO representative who was like, asked on the spot about Taiwanese – how successful Taiwan was, with COVID. And she like, dodged it and was like, oh, yeah, various regions of China have been very successful. Because because China has their, you know, little tentacles everywhere, and the WHO, and they’re like, we can’t rock this boat. So we’re just gonna, like, pretend like I didn’t hear you. And like, pretend you said, China, it’s really frustrating to me to hear that kind of stuff.
Jesse Lin 26:23
Yeah, I think it is a major problem, especially, you know, we’ve talked about, I mean, we’ve seen a lot of news locally about how politics obstructs the best path forward, like that most correct path to take. And I think this is a really great example of that, because like, what I’m sure there’s some kind of gain that they’re getting out of doing this, but it’s all optics or politics. And, like, from the public health standpoint, it’s quite stupid, because you’re cutting out a partner that is doing very well in the suppression, who has knowledge of handling situations like this, like when the original SARS came around, and also you’re cutting off funding to a country that may need it, it means that they also don’t have access to WHO funding, research I think they don’t have access to and nor will they have access to vaccines when it comes out. So I think that yeah, it’s one of those things where the politics of it is definitely trumping the actual practical situation.
Angela Lin 27:29
Something that’s like, scary to me is President Xi his like lifelong mission is to take back Taiwan that you know, that’s like the main reason he said I’m terminating the term limits is like until I finish taking back Taiwan my terms not over. That’s the like most important mission to him. So I’m pretty scared for for Taiwan. I feel like there are so many ways that they could take back Taiwan, either through like literal military force, or like Savannah was saying when we talked to her like..
Jesse Lin 28:02
Just crush them economically.
Angela Lin 28:03
Yeah, choking them financially. Yeah. And has that’s just fucking crazy. And I don’t know when it’s gonna happen that they’re gonna attempt right. The Hong Kong thing is scary, because it made it very real, like, hey, all you like semi sovereign, Chinese or, you know, related countries, you better like, wake up. So that was very scary. And like, my parents are still in Taiwan right now. So it’s, it’s just scary to me. Like, could it happen while they’re there? And like, I don’t know, what’s gonna happen. And so it’s just like, it’s a weird thing.
Jesse Lin 28:34
It is pretty, it is pretty crazy. I do want to I want to say that I think like the fact that it’s not attached to Taiwan gives it some strategic advantage, at least, although, you know, but of course, I have very much the same concerns. I mean, like, it’s very close. There’s 1 billion people in China and there’s like, 20 million people, 35 million people in Taiwan. So it’s like, not a contest. And I think we’ve seen in the past few years, there’s definitely a global political policy of appeasement rather than confrontation at action. And we saw this for I I brought this up before, I think we saw this when Russia annexed part of Crimea, people were like, no, that’s bad. Did they do anything about it? No.
Angela Lin 29:21
Going back to like being scared of China. Even though we’ve been like very openly talking about this, I am going to confess that I’m like, v-scared of this episode. And well, to be fair, we already talked about China in other episodes, like the Mulan episode and whatever, but I talked to my dad before because he was like, hey, you guys should like you guys should distribute your podcast in China. I’m like, are you fucking crazy? Like we’re gonna get thrown in jail immediately if we distribute in Chin.? And he was like, Yeah, but it’s a big market with like, a lot of like, really young Chinese people really like the US and want to like know what life is like in the US. So that’s fair. But I was like, I’m pretty sure they won’t care. And they want to, like, throw us in jail. And my dad said something interesting that I don’t know if I believe him. But he was like, oh, they only they only care if you’re speaking in Chinese. It’s like they only censor Chinese things
Jesse Lin 30:22
Interesting. Oh, they’re probably like those, those WaiGuoRen – they don’t count. They don’t count.
Angela Lin 30:27
Yeah, maybe? I hope not. But also we self identify as Taiwanese-American, which is already problematic. Yes. There’s so much gray area that I’m just like, I don’t know, anything could get you in trouble.
Jesse Lin 30:41
Oh, sure. And there’s definitely no guarantee that you could get out of trouble. I mean, like, I know, you were talking about like rich people leaving doesn’t mean you can’t be affected somehow by the state. Like, remember how Jack Ma just disappeared for like three weeks, recently, and was just recently seen?
Angela Lin 30:58
Is he alive?
Jesse Lin 31:00
I mean, supposedly.
Angela Lin 31:02
I didn’t hear about his re-emergence only about his disappearance.
Jesse Lin 31:05
There was like a picture of him circulated at some event or something like that. Yeah. So, all right, well, I guess we should move to the fortune cookie close, I think we wanted to pull out our crystal balls, our respective crystal balls, and discuss what we think will be the future of China as a country and how it will influence the world moving forward. You have a lot of thoughts on this. So I will let you open the floor.
Angela Lin 31:36
I think China is gonna take over, I don’t think it’s that – I think it’s a matter of time. Um, I don’t think it’s gonna be like anytime soon, and like, the next 10 years, or whatever, but maybe during while we’re still alive, like, they could pretty easily surpass the US, I think, because it’s the pace that it’s been growing, compared to where it was, like 20 years ago, or whatever, versus where it is now with the economy and like, the advancements in science and all that shit, like, it’s a matter of time. And I’m scared. That’s all.
Jesse Lin 32:12
Yeah, I’m interested. I’m very curious to see what will happen. I mean, to what you were saying earlier, Xi and like, Putin – they’re cult of personality leaders, and they draw a lot of power from that. But that’s a disadvantage for the party overall. Because once that person disappears, you lose a lot of power that’s tied to this cult to this person. So I think they will do a lot of really big thing, like Xi will probably be able to accomplish a lot of big things before he passes. But the fate of the country after his reign is over when he dies, you know, assuming that he will die, and won’t live on forever?
Angela Lin 32:57
Like frozen, cryo, whatever.
Jesse Lin 32:59
Yeah, like in Futurama. He’s just one of those, like talking president heads. It’s in question for me. Yeah. I feel like, yeah, I feel like when you have a leader like that, and you lose a leader like that, the country is in a bit of a loss for a while, kind of like how Iraq was after we remove Saddam from power – as as horrible as he was it, he had it under control.
Angela Lin 33:23
Yeah, I guess you’re right. And to that, and maybe there’s maybe that’s hopeful, because the whole like hybrid capitalist society that they have is like, built on original Marxist socialism, where it was like, oh, you only need like markets, like a capitalist market, in the like, preliminary stages of socialism to like, get things moving. And then once you like, have production in place where like things are working well with the economy, then you like take it over. And then we get like a totally planned economy where you only produce things that like the people will use and like everything that the market creates is only like for the people. So like capitalist type markets are necessary in the beginning. So that was kind of how they like, justified it. But President Xi is like, nah, he apparently came out and was like, I’m not foreseeing a post, like socialist market era. So basically, he foresees like continuing on like this forever. And so when he’s gone, it’s probably pretty natural that it just like graduates into a fully capitalist. Yeah. And then once you have that, then people probably are like, hey, I want all my rights back. Like, maybe maybe in the future.
Jesse Lin 34:44
Yeah, I’m sure as as the world expands, as you’re saying as people are able to leave and travel and do different things and experience a different kind of life than where they are at. I’m sure that will change.
Angela Lin 34:56
I also want to plug one last caveat is just like you know, we’ve been shitting on a lot of stuff today, mostly me. But I do want to make a distinction because my dad said an interesting thing when we had him on, which was like, if if China was not communist Taiwanese, especially the young people, right? Because that’s mostly who’s opposing the unification, like young people wouldn’t care. They’d be like, okay, join China, you know, like, because if it’s a democracy, like I don’t care, yeah. And so I just want to make the distinction that like, the things that I’m shitting on, that we have collectively shat on is related to the way the government is run today, and not the history or the culture behind the country, because obviously, we are Chinese as well, right? In that respect, and like, we’ve talked about how much we love learning more about our culture and like embracing it more as we’re getting older. So we’re not condemning that part at all. It’s more just like the way shit is run right now is scary. And that’s all we’re saying.
Jesse Lin 36:06
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, there’s so many amazing things in China. It’s the same way that I really want to go to Venezuela, but I’m not gonna go there. I’m gonna go fucking body snatched or some shit like that. So no, there is a wonderful, beautiful history. And obviously, it’s a huge country, there’s so many awesome things to see. So for sure, we’re in celebration of that. Not in celebration of the shadiness of the government.
Angela Lin 36:32
Yes, that’s right. Well, this was quite a controversial topic reminder that we are still looking for listener stories, submissions, so write us in about your experience with either this topic or whatever you want at telluswhereyourefrom@gmail.com that you’re is Y-O-U-R-E. Yeah, tell us how we’re wrong. Tell us how we’re right. Tell us things you don’t know. I mean, it’s a very complex issue. So we’re open to learning more, so let us know.
Jesse Lin 37:02
And as always, come back and join us for another fresh new episode next Friday.