laowhy86

The places you CAN'T go anymore...

Hey Laowinners!

I just had a fun chat with a buddy of mine up in Inner Mongolia, and he wanted to track down one of our old friends to relive some of the good old days. We all reconnected, and had a fun group chat. 

Some things have changed, however.

My local buddy, Liu, made quite a bit of money in the rare earth trade after he bought a bunch of construction equipment and got leases on some land for cultivation. Unfortunately, he's had to leave. The areas are all dug up n...

More Like Crazy Rich Westerners (Asians)

Hey Laowinners!

I was planning a video review on this movie, but I had a few misgivings. I will instead post here about it where I won't be feasted on by ravenous folk looking for conflict. 

I must preface this with the fact that I was really excited for this movie, and really, really wanted to like it. My wife had the carried the same hype when entering the movie theater.

This is not a plot review, but why I think this movie failed in what it tried to achieve. Here are my ...

Tofu Buildings and Labour Camps

Hey Laowinners!

I've been trying to post daily, but instead of spamming all of you every day, Winston and I have worked out a more structured Patreon schedule, so I will combine 3 days posts into a Tuesday post that is more well thought out. Also, I am working on something pretty cool that I will announce on Friday that will help bring us together even closer. 

ANYWAY!

Tofu buildings. Many of those buildings you see covering the landscape of China are starting to show their w...

Does Imperialism Make Better Breakfasts?

Hey Laowinners!

Now hear me out. 

Why in the hell is breakfast in Taiwan and Hong Kong so much better than Mainland China? They are both Chinese majority areas, who speak Chinese in some way shape or form, but have been influenced by other countries. Let's make a comparison. 

We will not include wholly western foods like bagels, waffles, cere...

Update

Hey Laowinners!

Hope all of you are doing well. For those of you messaging me about how to get more accurate DNA results, I have used 2 companies . (24genetics and www.lm-genetics.ovh) that work particularly well with European ancestry. They will take your raw data from 23andme, or Ancestry, and analyze and pin point areas where your ancestors hail from.

What I found interesting is that we tend to think in the terms of modern nation states, so when we are told, "our ancestors come from ...

China's Mental Health Crisis

Hey Laowinners,  

I mentioned earlier about Vivi's DNA result, and I will update you on that next week when I get more information, but the long and short of it is that a Patreon and subscriber found out that he is Vivi's cousin because of this result! It's confirmed that they have a fairly recent relative. Pretty amazing stuff.

As for the early access video, we talk about why there are so many people with mental illnesses wandering the streets, causing violence, and not having acce...

Genetics keep updating!

Hey Laowinners!

I am answering the inbox today, thank you for being patient. I have been really busy with some family stuff recently, but I will be back to daily posting.

I have entered some more specific DNA breakdown stuff with some projects that have an ever expanding and more and more accurate basis for regional and health comparisons. It is getting super interesting, and I am looking forward to seeing Vivi's data get more and more accurate.
This is my current map, and it's...

Pretty Fascinating Results

Hey Laowinners!

In my last video https://youtu.be/yCnnPf2OnHo we exposed Wu Maos, and how they change and operate. This is the first time I've seen Google really address this, and for the first time, I am proud to say that the majority of Wu Mao comments were actually placed in spam!

I think it's amazing how quickly it picked up on some of the trends, because Wu Mao that I would typically see in the comments secti...

Extra content from Wu Mao Video

Hey Laowinners!  

Watch this video first - https://youtu.be/yCnnPf2OnHo

I hope you enjoy this old school throwback format of Laowhy86 where we talk about Wu Maos, how they are changing, and how they influence us sometimes without us even knowing it.

On Raising Bi-Lingual Children

Picture Caption - "They always say "Hello Kitty", but never bother to ask, "How are you kitty?"

Hey Laowinners!

After experiencing Europe, and seeing multilingualism in daily life, I asked my parents, "why didn't you promote language learning in my early childhood?", thinking that they gave me some disadvantage in life.

Truth is, they never thought it would be an asset for my future. Growing up monolingual themselves, how, and why would th...

On Chinese Children

Hey Laowinners!

This Chinglish t-shirt brought me back to the times of being at my babysitter in California, and hiding under a table crying while being called "no eyebrow boy". I wasn't bullied after age 5, but it's funny that I can still remember those days.

It got me to thinking about children in the west vs. China.  I remember always having a close group of friends, and although I would interact with most people in the class in some way or another, it was very much "cliqu...

China and the Catholic Church

Hey Laowinners!

While China has recently been cracking down on Christianity, and much more so, Islam, there have been some recent developments with the Catholic church that point to some form of cooperation.

Interestingly enough, the Chinese constitution allows for freedom of religion, however, the party has always had the final say as to what degree. Churches were more common in the Hu Jin Tao days, but now, more and more unsanctioned churches are being destroyed, or repurposed. C...

The Most Caloric Food I've Ever Eaten

Hey Laowinners!

Mooncake season is abound, and we have been getting boxes of them sent to us from family members. I don't consume sweets or carbs unless I am traveling somewhere new, but I have had my fair share of mooncakes.

The traditional mooncake has a fruitcake like texture, and is full of sweet nutty filling, usually with pork. The thing that always made me gag was the salted preserved duck egg in the center. Salty duck eggs are one of the only foods that actually make me wan...

Switzerland is the Guilty Party!

Hey Laowinners!

Thought I'd share this funny update on the Sweden "human rights" abuses scandal.

It's now been elevated to the level of MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), which is not only laughable, but it gets better. The leader of China's MFA, Wang Yi, asked the Swiss to apologize. Oops! A dig through his past tweets delivers some delicious blunders as well. Click the picture to see all of them.

Thanks for your support, and I hope each and every one of you is doing aweso...

Chinese Tourists in Sweden

Hey Laowinners!

So this is all over the news. Chinese tourists in Sweden are "harassed" by the police, and human rights against Chinese people in Sweden have been violated. If you haven't read any articles about this, click the link above.

Basically, some Chinese tourists showed up much earlier than check in time, and refused to leave, the cops were called, they threw a hissy fit, and the police forcibly removed them from the hotel.

The controversy lies on both sides, wher...

1942 China Travel Guide

Hey Laowinners!

I found this pretty fascinating. This is a guide for American military in 1942 who would potentially be visiting China. This is pre-communist era stuff, but surprisingly a ton of it holds up today.

Really reminds me of my grandfathers stories of when he was stationed in Taiwan during WW2.

It was surprisingly progressive for the time, but the "playing into the hands of Hitler" part had me chuckling. Oh what a time it was.

Welcome all new Patreons, su...

Concerning Western China

Hey Laowinners!

Winston and I have received hundreds of requests to film Conquering Western China to round out the series as a final part of the Conquering trilogy. The first two series have met with fantastic reviews, and awesome feedback so far, but I wanted to address why, at this current point in time, Conquering Western China wouldn't be a possibility for us.

The first thing that some of the subscribers have said is that though they traveled to Xinjiang and Tibet and were ques...

Hope this helps food safety

Hey Laowinners!

A massive scandal has broken, where a pregnant women has found a dead rat in her hotpot. This isn't really that out of the ordinary, but the problem is that it was at a top level food safety rated establishment.

The worst part was (this has not proven to be true as of yet, but plausible) the women says that she expressed concern over the fact that she was pregnant, and that the rat would affect her unborn child. The restaurant added insult to injury when they offere...

What's going on with Fan Bing Bing?

Hey Laowinners!

For those of you who don't know who Fan Bing Bing is, she's pretty much the most famous actress in China. There is a very strange thread I was reading in Chinese (now removed on Weibo of course) that kind of predicted her disappearance, saying that the current leadership in China is going after influential people who could potentially sway public opinion and threaten the parties supremacy, with the guise of charges like tax evasion etc... They also predicted that Jack Ma, ...

Early Release - Top Health/Safety Concerns about China

Hey Laowinners!

Cheers for all of the suggestions, this is one of many Patreon requested videos. Will be released next week.

Enjoy the early release!

Keep those questions coming to the inbox, I answer Monday - Friday.

Thank you for your continued support!

Food Safety and Counterfeit Goods

Hey Laowinners!

I am releasing a video about the things you need to prepare health wise before moving or traveling to China (one of MANY Patreon requested videos I shot/am shooting!), and I am using a part of this clip to show some things to look out for, but I’m sure YouTube wouldn’t let me release it in it’s entirety, so I figured I would put it up here for you guys to see the food safety issues and counterfeit issues that are a major issue in China. 

As more stringent l...

About this video - More Details

Hey Laowinners,

The inbox has been full of people asking for more details about when I got arrested in China, but most of them are asking about Vivi's uncle haha.

So in case you didn't watch, a condensed form of the story is in order.
Taxi driver hits my wife. I punch taxi driver. Blood is drawn, some damage done to his face. Get arrested. Cops have to take his side because I am a foreigner. He asks for $15,000 USD. Vivi's uncle shows up. He says, "Ok, you can have $15,000 USD, ...

I FORGOT ABOUT THE COMMUNITY TAB!

Hey Laowinners!

In case you didn't know, I answer all inbox messages Monday through Friday on a daily basis.

One very silly mistake I made was that I often forget that there is a community tab where a TON of you have posted on asking for things. I am answering these today. I wanted to apologize, as I was not intentionally ignoring anyone. You guys pay to support the channel, but I also make it my goal to make this Patreon an added value service as well. If you want to get to me dir...

The China Internet Censorship Board has their own Anthem

Hey Laowinners!

First of all, thanks for you guys pointing out some typos in my video. Now I can fix them!

Second of all, the funniest thing I have seen all week is this video. I had no idea that the internet censorship board that controls the great firewall of China was so public. I have always been under the impression that the fact that things are blocked is more of a hush hush thing, in that they don't really want people talking about the fact that almost 70% of the internet i...

Do Chinese People Hate The USA?

Hey Laowinners,

I will be releasing this video tomorrow, so I figured I'd drop it a bit early here.

I am a bit behind on editing, as these edits are taking 2 or 3 days at the minimum now haha.

I found it fascinating to see global perception of countries like what China thinks of the USA, and vice versa.

Here was the poll of countries around the world and their opinion of the USA - 2018-09-04 15:06:51 +0000 UTC View Post

This meme explained

Hey Laowinners!

I posted this the other day on social media, and wanted to give some perspective on it.

There is a notion that asian countries tend to be more chauvinist than western countries. The idea is that the man goes to work, makes the money, and the woman is the house wife, who waits for her husbands return, and can expect him to get up to unsavory activities in the name of business trips, making connections, or to solidify friendships with other males.  

Of co...

Appreciating Taiwan as an Adult

Hey Laowinners!

Sorry, had to pull the video I posted last night, I have some things to fix first.

I wanted to address something that a few of you have asked me about, and that is, if you were to spend a year abroad, specifically in Asia, would you choose China, Taiwan, Japan, or South Korea.
I want to tell you my personal experience teaching in at least two of these places from an ESL teacher's perspective (Not talking about my University jobs in this post).

As for the 2 ES...

Foreign Spies in my City

Hey Laowinners!

This article may either tickle your fancy, or just make you sad. Oliver, a French dude was jogging while helping people pick up litter in Huidong, which is the beach town you always see in my videos.

When you incentivize the locals to report spies for monetary reward, you create a climate of absolute paranoia and insanity. The government knows that a spy is not going to be a caucasian male, and most likely going to be a Chinese person working for foreign government...

The Abolition of Freedom in Hong Kong

Hey Laowinners,

My newest video is currently uploading, and being released today, so look for it in your YouTube subscription feed or click here - https://youtu.be/jmI_3-YP0jc

I wanted to expand on the topic of the loss of freedom in Hong Kong. Now, whether or not you have an interest in Hong Kong or not, this is China's influence on a greater scale.

Though Hong Kong was handed over back to China in 1997, i...

How Did We Meet and What Happened to Churchill?

Hey Laowinners!

On the road in Taiwan! We decided to finally make a vid on how we actually met, and what happened to Churchill customs. Winston did an early release on his Patreon about how to do a trip like we do http://patreon.com/serpentza
with all the details on how to do what we did on this trip.
Enjoy! And thanks so much for your continued support. I've caught up on all Patreon messages, but in case I missed ...