Feasting with friends on locally reared crab and lamb in the Zhejiang backwoods, washed down with delectable 虫草 moonshine. Nice. Very nice.

Did not anticipate that northern Thailand would be quite this metal.

Mystery solved! x.com/historic_pud...

I’ve seen just about every kind of fitness trend you can think of on my WeChat Moments. But I’ve never seen anyone do ice baths, cryotherapy or mention Wim Hof. That’s when we’ll know that Chinese society has truly crossed the Rubicon.

JWweixinwindow.bsky.socialSep 26, 2024 12:28pm

China overcapacity update: permanently empty gyms on almost every street. It feels like half my WeChat feed is friends and acquaintances (usually female) doing CrossFit. I guess they came first, and the gym glut followed unprofitably in their wake.

Just noticed that I have used all of my very favourite WeChat emojis recently. You can’t find them anywhere else. Regularly find myself frustrated that there’s nothing anywhere near as expressive as ‘Peeved Beardface’ and ‘Ironic Doge’ on WhatsApp.

If you’re one of the three people on Bluesky with an interest in Chinese football (I’m sure you’re out there somewhere) this is definitely the thread for you! More people need to make a stand, and start migrating over here from the Other Place to post threads like this.

The last of the typhoon debris gets carted away. As impressive as China’s shiny urban veneer may be, it’s the ready availability of guys with carts that keeps it all shipshape.

When I signed up for X recently I was prepared for it to be bad. But bloody hell…not 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 bad.

Would strongly advise @bsky.app to be on red alert against signs of X-ification like this. This kind of malarkey needs to be eradicated without mercy.

This feels instinctively correct to me. Casting my mind back over more than a decade in Shanghai, I can only recall meeting three people below 40 from a provincial, working class background who've come close to achieving a level of modest, middle class affluence. www.economist.com/china/2024/0...