The Material Kinship Reader Muyang Notes: Difference between revisions
| Line 58: | Line 58: | ||
My grandparents are from rural China. Many of the women in that village were trafficked from ethnic minorities. According to my father (which I don't agree with): these women came from poor places and got a good life because of marriage; there was no second choice in life in those days without marriage. | |||
My father didn't force me to get married. When he thought it was the changing times that led to me being able to have more choices in life. | |||
My cousin was helped by his family to find a girlfriend after college. They got married and had a child. It all happened very quickly and there didn't seem to be a good reason for it. This couple had little to no ability to do housework and their parents helped them with everthing, including cooking. This child has become a big burden and both parents take turns caring for it. | |||
My brother was an average male who wasn't successful in his academic/job climb, and he was voted the most handsome boy in the school in middle school. But most Chinese males start to get ugly after college (hairline, body not in shape, becoming "cheesy", there are complex reasons for this). Marriage seems to be the only way out for such men. | |||
In China, any move to become beautiful seems to be a crime. Not only is it monogamous, but most women are virgins until they meet their only husband. You don't need to be beautiful to attract the opposite sex because you can definitely get a wife through career success. Being beautiful means you are a "social person", a term that in China is the opposite of a "devoted family man". Being a "social person" means doing illegal things/not having a stable job/having sex with a lot of people. | |||
=== Kinship with Plastic === | === Kinship with Plastic === | ||
Revision as of 16:36, 20 September 2023
The Material Kinship Reader
Accessories to this Love Elegies for Some of the Things I Have Worn and Loved
https://www.adampatterson.co.uk/
How to think about the material of an object's (jewelry) Material? Source? Pattern? Style?
Cheap? Common? Widely-Used?
Who sells? Who produces it?
What's behind the pattern? Mythological stories?
Colonial Histories?
Who wears? Queers? Teens?
Why wears? Charm? Protection?
What will happen? Your sweat? Your body smell? Become Rusty? Oxidized？
Who produces it? Low-income? Race? Women?
How feel? Cute? Gentle? Soft?
Say Thank You to it. Survival. Care.
Worn out? Experiences? Death? Soul?
Pronoun？
Memories? Real?
Self? Scream?
Magic? Deep Inner? Nameless? Intimacy?
My sexuality? Porosity? Toxicity?
Insist? We?
With-Women: Grieving in Capitalist Time
Making Love and Relations Beyond Settler Sex and Family
reflection:
CCP has also implemented a series of policies in certain places
forced intermarriage with Han Chinese and the sterilization of local women.
Obviously, CCP's leadership has been extremely upsetting to the Chinese.
For example, during the covid there was a popular quote, "we are the last generation."
In China, parents who break the law will influence the next generations of children to take the test to become "civil servants/public servants".
Serving the government has always been seen as an "iron rice bowl", meaning you don't have to worry about losing your job for the rest of your life, and you have a good income.
My grandparents are from rural China. Many of the women in that village were trafficked from ethnic minorities. According to my father (which I don't agree with): these women came from poor places and got a good life because of marriage; there was no second choice in life in those days without marriage.
My father didn't force me to get married. When he thought it was the changing times that led to me being able to have more choices in life.
My cousin was helped by his family to find a girlfriend after college. They got married and had a child. It all happened very quickly and there didn't seem to be a good reason for it. This couple had little to no ability to do housework and their parents helped them with everthing, including cooking. This child has become a big burden and both parents take turns caring for it.
My brother was an average male who wasn't successful in his academic/job climb, and he was voted the most handsome boy in the school in middle school. But most Chinese males start to get ugly after college (hairline, body not in shape, becoming "cheesy", there are complex reasons for this). Marriage seems to be the only way out for such men.
In China, any move to become beautiful seems to be a crime. Not only is it monogamous, but most women are virgins until they meet their only husband. You don't need to be beautiful to attract the opposite sex because you can definitely get a wife through career success. Being beautiful means you are a "social person", a term that in China is the opposite of a "devoted family man". Being a "social person" means doing illegal things/not having a stable job/having sex with a lot of people.