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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>17 October, 2022</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Donald Trump, January 6th, and the Elusive Search for Accountability</strong> - Susan B. Glasser writes about the final hearing of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, and asks whether all of the panel’s work will result in Donald Trump facing any accountability. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/donald-trump-january-6th-and-the-elusive-search-for-accountability">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Is High Inflation Proving So Persistent?</strong> - The final Consumer Price Index before the midterms came in higher than expected, but price rises are likely to moderate in the months ahead. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-is-high-inflation-proving-so-persistent">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>North Carolina’s Overlooked Senate Race</strong> - Democrats have a chance to flip a Republican seat. Meanwhile, the state legislature is fighting to reduce judicial oversight in federal elections. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/north-carolinas-overlooked-senate-race">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Marisa Silver Reads “Tiny, Meaningless Things”</strong> - The author reads her story from the October 24, 2022, issue of the magazine. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-writers-voice/marisa-silver-reads-tiny-meaningless-things">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Extreme Economic Pain of Running a Restaurant in the U.K.</strong> - In a country where eating out is seen as more of a luxury than a necessity, it is one of the first expenses that people forgo in hard times. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-extreme-economic-pain-of-running-a-restaurant-in-the-uk">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>You can make more money if you know how much your job is worth</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="Pattern made of pink piggy banks on a blue background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lmZGLiooInQzgjaUcOvOYRCoXCs=/320x0:5440x3840/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71505400/GettyImages_1366450105.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Coming soon to a job posting near you: Knowing how much it pays. | Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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New pay transparency laws will help, but they still aren’t enough to eliminate the pay gap.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zwSO2Z">
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You wouldn’t rent an apartment or even buy a pair of jeans online without knowing the price. Soon, many Americans won’t search for a job without knowing what it pays, either.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bk2jlO">
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A series of local and state laws, both newly adopted and soon to be in effect, will force companies to divulge what a job pays when posting an open position. Besides being common sense, the intent of these laws is to shrink the persistent wage gap that divides white men from women and people of color. Lowering the pay gap would be an important step forward for equality in the US, affecting everything from Americans’ quality of life to how they see themselves. But while pay transparency is a much-needed improvement, a lot more is needed to truly create balance for all Americans.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8uZ4MT">
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In the US, women and people of color get paid less than white men, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/4/2/18290482/gender-wage-tech-economy-hired">regardless of job or experience</a>. Pay gaps often begin at the <a href="https://www.naceweb.org/job-market/compensation/nace-research-pay-inequity-based-on-gender-begins-at-the-start-of-career/">start of careers</a>, then compound over a lifetime as women and people of color are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-05/white-people-are-more-likely-to-get-the-raises-they-ask-for">less likely to get</a> raises. A variety of other factors contribute to the gap as well, like the motherhood penalty, wherein women who take time off paid work to care for kids are <a href="https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/C474_IWPR-Still-a-Mans-Labor-Market-update-2018-2.pdf">paid nearly 40 percent less</a> than those who don’t. There’s occupational segregation, in which jobs that are filled predominantly by women or people of color, like home health aides or food service workers, are paid less. (The pay and prestige of computer science, for example, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/what-programmings-past-reveals-about-todays-gender-pay-gap/498797/">rose only as more men entered the field</a>.) Women and people of color are also seriously <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace">underrepresented in leadership positions</a>, which are paid the most. In sum, that means the median hourly wage for women <a href="https://www.epi.org/data/#/?subject=wage-avg&g=*&r=*">is 86 cents per hour for every dollar</a> a man makes. Black women make 68 cents. There’s been <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/equal-pay-day-there-has-been-little-progress-in-closing-the-gender-wage-gap">little progress</a> on closing the pay gap in the last three decades.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VtC22r">
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Enter this new spate of pay transparency laws.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q2eRQp">
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“Transparency is one of the leading tools we’ve identified for closing the wage gap,” Andrea Johnson, director of state policy at the National Women’s Law Center, told Recode. “It is absolutely crucial for both increasing worker power and employer accountability.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MH1lLa">
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While some of the new pay transparency laws protect workers’ rights to discuss pay without retaliation, others go further. Laws that prevent employers from asking candidates about their salary histories, which have been <a href="https://www.hrdive.com/news/salary-history-ban-states-list/516662/">cropping up</a> from Connecticut to Hawaii in recent years, keep past pay inequality from informing how much a person makes at their next job. Most promising are laws that require employers to post the pay range for a job when they first start recruiting. One such law went into effect in Colorado in 2021. One in New York City goes into effect in November, while California’s and Washington’s go into effect in January. New York’s governor is expected to soon sign a state-wide law of this nature that would go into effect next year.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x65wYN">
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Disclosing a pay range lessens the likelihood implicit bias will creep into new salaries because it changes the need for negotiating salary, which typically works out unfavorably for women and people of color. When women ask for raises (<a href="https://hbr.org/2018/06/research-women-ask-for-raises-as-often-as-men-but-are-less-likely-to-get-them">which they do as much as men</a>), for example, they’re simply less likely to get them.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yBwtsL">
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“Whenever we take negotiation out or reduce the role of individual negotiation, pay-setting tends to get more equal,” Ariane Hegewisch, senior research fellow at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, told Recode.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5jHbN2">
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The very act of establishing a pay range for a position forces companies to evaluate their compensation practices and potentially fix disparities between existing employees. Finally, pay transparency for new roles would allow already-employed people to negotiate for better pay if they’re making less than others in similar positions. Relying on workers to identify and negotiate the difference is obviously imperfect, but it will certainly help.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z0aFgT">
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“It’s very simple: The more data that’s out there, the better positioned talent can be to know how much they’re worth,” said Josh Brenner, CEO of Hired, a hiring platform that releases an annual study on the <a href="https://hired.com/state-of-tech-salaries/2022/?utm_source=pr&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=(a-all)(l-all)(r-all)(2022-sots-prs-rls)">wage gap in tech</a>. The company’s software also notifies employers when it detects bias in their salary offers (Hired said the nudge results in updated salary offers about 5 percent of the time, and those offers are on average 11 percent higher).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ekm5HY">
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While <a href="https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Salary-Transparency-FS-2021-9.20.22.pdf">research on the effects of pay range laws</a> is new and therefore limited, experts point to the much smaller pay gaps in the <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/governance/five-facts-about-gender-equality-public-sector">public sector</a> and at <a href="https://blog.dol.gov/2022/02/15/want-equal-pay-get-a-union">union jobs</a>, where salaries are more transparent and regimented.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eqktKB">
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For transparency efforts to be successful, the ranges can’t be too large and companies have to be actively penalized for not following pay transparency rules. <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4186234">Research on Colorado’s new pay transparency law</a> showed that the fraction of job postings with salary information has so far grown 30 percentage points since the law went into effect in 2021, but more compliance is expected over time. Data shared by compensation software company PayScale showed that employees working at companies with pay transparency make 7 percent more than employees with the same job and qualifications at companies without that transparency.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IsmixD">
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And although these laws are being set at the city and state level for now, it’s possible their effects will reverberate outside of those municipalities, influencing companies to voluntarily share pay information, whether it’s to simplify job posting or to attract talent in a tight hiring market.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b2A1MZ">
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“I would say about half of our customers came to us without any requirements on the legal end that they have to post,” said PayScale senior corporate attorney Lulu Seikaly, referring to company inquiries about setting pay ranges. “They know with states like California, Washington, New York, and Colorado being forced to post their salary ranges, they’re going to be also forced to post their salary ranges just to get the talent in the door.”
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</p>
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<h3 id="pL8F5u">
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Other strategies to close the pay gap
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SV51xO">
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Extending these pay transparency laws to existing positions — rather than just new job postings — and to more companies in more states would be even more effective. But pay transparency alone won’t completely close the pay gap.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aNoQzY">
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“There is no silver bullet,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said. “But I think pay transparency moves us in the right direction.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JPQeHW">
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While the experts Recode interviewed for this story expect that pay transparency laws will certainly lessen the pay gap, they don’t think that will mean women and people of color will all of a sudden have truly equal pay. As we know, the pay gap is caused by a number of issues, so it will likely take a variety of tactics to solve it. Here are some that experts told us would help.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="navM3U">
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<strong>Require companies to report pay gap data and make it public</strong>: In 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) — the government body that investigates employer discrimination and which typically collects workforce demographic information — tested out collecting private sector pay data for 2017 and 2018. The data shows not only which types of positions women hold but how much they’re paid for those positions. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in an independent review of the data collection, recently <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-announces-independent-study-confirming-pay-data-collection-key-tool-fight">found</a>, unsurprisingly, that doing so is a key tool to combat pay discrimination, and recommended that the EEOC broaden and strengthen its data collection (the Trump administration stopped the practice but it’s <a href="https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/watch-out-it-s-coming-eeoc-announces-1772703/">expected to return</a> under Biden).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IWNduU">
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Going a step further and making that data publicly available could do more to compel companies to rectify their wage gaps, rather than waiting for discrimination charges to make them do so. Additionally, better funding for the EEOC would make the organization better able to address the pay discrimination complaints they handle.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BOLg7H">
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<strong>Raise the minimum wage</strong>: Part of the reason for the pay gap is that women and people of color are <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/occupational-segregation-in-america">overrepresented in the lowest-paid industries</a>. Therefore, raising the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009, would disproportionately help women and people of color and would go a long way toward lessening their pay gap.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qmn2n3">
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<strong>Affordable, high-quality child care</strong>: There’s a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/9/27/23356278/the-pandemic-child-care-inflation-crisis">child care crisis in America</a>, and it deeply hurts the career prospects of women, who <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/hgnfs/">shoulder more child care duties</a>. Without adequate child care, women will continue to be pushed out of the workforce and their wages will continue to suffer. The sector needs more government investment, which will in turn improve the personal and working lives of women.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wuGO41">
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<strong>Make it easier to unionize</strong>: Unions help rationalize pay bands and <a href="https://blog.dol.gov/2022/02/15/want-equal-pay-get-a-union#:~:text=Being%20represented%20by%20a%20union,union%20advantage%20is%20even%20greater.">lower the wage gap</a>, but it is incredibly difficult to unionize in the US. Passing the PRO Act, which is <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-shift/2022/08/15/unions-post-reconciliation-pro-act-push-00051726">stalled in the Senate</a> after passing the House, would make the unionization process easier, and more unions means more pay equality.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="izS9IE">
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Of course, all of this is easier said than done, and it will take a long time for the wage gap to disappear. But the new transparency laws show that progress is possible, and so are more changes on the horizon.
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>The Chinese government’s unlikeliest standoff is with … fandom</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A game of whack-a-mole where a mallet with the Chinese flag on it smacks down images of men with earrings and boys kissing." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_qRk3OllG3B5oZFqWhjey-P9OYI=/225x0:1576x1013/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71505299/ChinaFandom_Final_alt2__1_.0.png"/>
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<figcaption>
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China has tried to crack down on bad fan behavior, but fandom keeps slipping through the cracks. | Matt Dunne for Vox
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Xi Jinping versus the stans.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ebr2MU">
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Celebrity, in any country, comes with its fair share of hardship. In exchange for fame and stardom, stars give up normal levels of privacy; endure invasive scrutiny from fans, paparazzi, and the media; and mold themselves to inhuman standards of beauty and perfection in order to climb the ladder of success.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1m2p5f">
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In China, however, those stressors pale beside the unique pressure of being a star in a hyper-consumerist culture that’s also tightly controlled by a state autocracy. Stars are expected to be poster children for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — to be wholesome, promote good values, avoid vice, and never, ever, get involved in a major scandal. At the same time, celebrities are virtually required to monetize their brands through sponsorships with huge corporations: The more products they can sell, the more they earn their spot on the A-list.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zlzc6n">
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That incessant need to compete in the entertainment marketplace extends beyond the celebrities to their fans — and this is where things get thorny. While content can be controlled and celebrities can be taught to mold themselves into model citizens, human behavior remains wildly unpredictable. And in China, fans who’ve been trained by corporate interests to see fandom as a competition can be the most wildly unpredictable creatures of all.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
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<aside id="j979j8">
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<q>While content can be controlled and celebrities can be taught to mold themselves into model citizens, human behavior remains wildly unpredictable</q>
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</aside>
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To ensure their favorite is the best and biggest star of all, Chinese fans have built an entire industry-adjacent system of competition. Most have learned to gamify rankings and competitions, with many regularly buying hundreds of items they don’t intend to use, just to boost their idol. Some fans empty their bank accounts for the cause of proving their idol can sell the most products. An entire online cottage industry exists to bolster competing fandom rumors, with gossip-mongers and superfans getting paid by shady sources to smear their idol’s rivals — and such rumors can develop into real, reputation-ruining scandals.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I3dL3i">
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In recent years, China’s online fandom and the chaotic lengths fans go to in order to promote their celebrities have increasingly drawn the attention of the Chinese government. The CCP has heightened restrictions on fans, from banning crowds to eliminating celebrity rankings, restructuring fan clubs, and censoring queer fan-friendly media.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yumRbK">
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But fandom is never easy to negotiate, and fandom in China is especially complex. Fan communities are known as “rice circles” — a name conjuring an image of a group eating from one another’s dinner plates, hinting at the complicated codependency between fan groups and celebrities. The CCP’s efforts to regulate online fandoms — known as its Qinglang, or clean and clear, initiative — are really part of its larger efforts to wrangle a complex online ecosystem of celebrity culture, social media influence, queer media, and what it perceives as pernicious foreign corruption. Individually, these things might seem trivial, but collectively they’ve presented persistent complications to President Xi Jinping and undermined his vision for an idealized China — even as he <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58579831">consolidates his power </a>and secures an <a href="https://time.com/6220661/xi-jinping-third-term-china-ccp/">unprecedented third term</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V4h3mD">
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To understand why the CCP wants to control all these things is to understand the fascinating paradox of China’s growing cultural currency and why zealous fan bases might be one of the peskiest thorns in the government’s side.
|
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</p>
|
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<h3 id="m5Cq1a">
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Nationalism, masculinity, and the ultimate enemy: K-pop
|
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GWd6T7">
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To understand how we got here, we have to jump back a few years — specifically, to 2016, when the Chinese government first cracked down against a baffling enemy: <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21258262/k-pop-essential-playlist-guide-for-beginners">K-pop</a>. The Chinese government has utilized <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/1/21159275/china-ao3-archive-of-our-own-banned-censorship">media censorship</a> as a cultural tool for decades. In recent years, however, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/16/16915672/what-is-kpop-history-explained">the rise of K-pop</a> has proven to be a cultural wild card for the state.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sBY5Ks">
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The <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22532102/bts-kpop-blackpink-south-korea-psy">growth of Korea’s idol culture</a> has been closely intertwined with China’s own. In idol culture, pop stars, whose personas are created with the help and reach of studios, cultivate intense dynamics with their fans, who in turn consume the idols’ content and their sponsored products in staggering numbers. Think Disney using its networks to cultivate a long string of stars from Justin Timberlake to Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato, developing their fandoms from childhood. Now magnify that by an entire country’s entertainment industry, and you have the model for studio star systems across East Asia. Many studios have cultivated dual-language idol groups and sent would-be Chinese K-pop stars to train in Seoul. In 2016, however, <a href="https://variety.com/2016/biz/asia/china-confirms-ban-on-korean-content-talent-1201830391/">China formally banned K-pop</a>, abruptly cleaving these relationships. The ban, ironically, turned many former K-pop stars back into Chinese celebrities whose K-pop influence is still being felt.
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</p>
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<div class="c-wide-block">
|
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="2020 iQiyi All-star Carnival In Beijing" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/G3Hl0Ks0A9bY236oRg-K_WmnpvU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24110219/1192288094.jpg"/> <cite>VCG/VCG via Getty Images</cite>
|
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<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
The group TFBoys (Wang Yuan, Wang Junkai, and Yi Yangqiangxi) was created in 2013 as a wholesome alternative to K-pop boy bands.
|
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</figcaption>
|
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</figure>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ym7VkX">
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The K-pop ban <a href="https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2021/09/14/entertainment/kpop/china-kpop-ban-Rectification-Movement-Operation-Qinglang/20210914150300686.html">both is and isn’t</a> about Korea. It <a href="https://www.vox.com/latest-news/2017/3/3/14795636/china-south-korea-pop-culture-kpop-attacks-thaad">began as a response to a US-Korea missile deal</a>, but really embodied disapproval of three things the Chinese government perceived as tied to K-pop culture: the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/27/business/china-war-on-fun-earrings-tattoos.html">encroaching influence</a> of US individualism, over-zealous fanbases, and effeminate men.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LeBThL">
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That last one is a major part of the K-pop ban, which forbids men from wearing earrings and excessive makeup on live TV. “Little fresh meat,” the derogatory Chinese nickname for androgynous pop idols, came under <a href="https://jingdaily.com/little-fresh-meat-male-idols-luxury/">increased scrutiny</a> through the ban, alongside <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/mar/04/china-bans-gay-people-television-clampdown-xi-jinping-censorship">censorship of queer content</a> on television. Simultaneously, the government has begun <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/09/china/china-pride-month-lgbt-weibo-intl-mic-hnk/index.html">steadily encroaching</a> on gay rights, especially <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/lgbtq-students-targeted-face-crackdown-in-china-416777">scrutinizing and targeting</a> <a href="https://www.them.us/story/social-media-platform-we-chat-cracks-down-lgbtq-students-china">openly gay college students</a>. Surprisingly, the bans coincide with a <a href="https://www.chinafile.com/library/reports/precarious-progress">period</a> of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-11-11/china-s-first-clinic-for-transgender-kids-opens-in-shanghai">evolving</a> <a href="https://www.economist.com/china/2020/08/01/a-chinese-trans-woman-wins-a-surprising-legal-victory">transgender rights</a> in China, which offers legal gender recognition to trans people who’ve had gender reassignment surgery. This contradiction underscores that the CCP’s focus on keeping men masculine is less about suppressing trans identity and more about reinforcing its broad military and political agendas.
|
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
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<aside id="p195bi">
|
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<q>The CCP’s fixation on masculinity is a recent byproduct of Xi’s growing nationalism — because “nationalism is a very masculine ideology”</q>
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</aside>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0RslGH">
|
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|
<a href="https://polisci.richmond.edu/faculty/dchen/">Dan Chen</a> researches authoritarian politics at the University of Richmond. She told Vox that the CCP’s fixation on masculinity is a recent byproduct of Xi’s growing nationalism — because “nationalism is a very masculine ideology.” Framing foreign influences like K-pop as anti-masculine plays right into Xi’s narrative of an idealized China that’s strong physically as well as economically and politically. Toward this end, the government has worked to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/05/world/asia/china-masculinity-schoolboys.html">eradicate effeminacy in schoolchildren</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/china-masculinity-intl-hnk/index.html">promoted images</a> of strong, muscular soldiers as the masculine ideal.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EMUW1V">
|
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|
Xi has consistently echoed Mao Zedong’s <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4447-mao-on-the-relationship-between-politics-and-art-in-the-context-of-revolution">declaration</a> that the creative arts should serve to advance Chinese socialism; in 2014, he <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/xi-jinping-calls-for-artists-to-spread-chinese-values/">described China’s artistic industries</a> as a form of cultural competition with other countries, which ideally should “disseminate contemporary Chinese values, embody traditional Chinese culture and reflect Chinese people’s aesthetic pursuit.” A widely distributed pseudonymous 2018 <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2018-09/06/c_1123391309.htm">opinion</a> in the state media outlet Xinhua explicitly connected this policy to masculinity, and masculinity to nationalism: “Whether a country embraces or rejects (effeminate men),” the author wrote, using a slur that equates to “sissy,” “is … a grave matter that affects the nation’s future.” The subtext underlying all of this emphasis on manliness is that China needs strong men to defend the nation.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ASsyWb">
|
|||
|
|
For male former K-pop stars who found themselves shunted back to China following the K-pop ban, one of the best ways to continue growing their celebrity was to align themselves fully with the goals of the CCP and present themselves as a bastion of physicality, masculinity, and party loyalty. But banning K-pop didn’t solve Xi’s issues with fandom and (what he considers) subversive culture.<strong> </strong>
|
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</p>
|
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7vRYee">
|
|||
|
|
Xi’s fixation on masculinity is offset by a growing public interest in queer-coded Chinese pop stars and media. This has coincided with growing global interest in <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2016-03/16/content_23887534_2.htm">Chinese celebrities</a> and <a href="https://supchina.com/2022/02/24/danmei-a-genre-of-chinese-erotic-fiction-goes-global/">danmei</a>, the Chinese literary contribution to the <a href="https://thedailyfandom.org/the-explosion-of-the-boys-love-genre/">boys’ love, or BL</a>, medium (which is, as you might imagine, stories about boys in love). Danmei has helped fuel a wave of <a href="https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1009203/a-chinese-tv-drama-cautiously-brings-lgbt-characters-to-screen-">sensitive, careful queer subtext onscreen</a>. But as these stories’ popularity has increased, so has the CCP’s anxiety about restricting their influence. In succession, the three biggest of these series, 2018’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_(web_series)"><em>Guardian</em></a>, 2019’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/27/21192718/the-untamed-netflix-review-rec-mdzs-cql"><em>The Untamed</em></a>, and 2021’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_Honor_(TV_series)"><em>Word of Honor</em></a>, all drew significant international attention and made stars of their lead actors, several of whom had begun their careers as Korean-influenced idols. They represented everything the CCP railed against.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UVuyVH">
|
|||
|
|
In 2021, all of this growth led to an inevitable convergence: The CCP sought to curb the growth of foreign idol culture and its emasculating influence, as well as to rein in extreme fandom culture and its accompanying extreme social media activity.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="DYe9fc">
|
|||
|
|
Spilled milk and hyper-commercialization
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5h2csf">
|
|||
|
|
In the mainland Chinese entertainment industry, a star’s level of success is only partly measured by the typical metrics — say, how much money their films make at the box office or how many people tune in to their TV show. That’s all well and good, but what really matters in advancing a career is gaining high-profile corporate sponsorships and getting millions of zealous fans to buy whatever the entertainer is selling. Fans flaunt the number of sponsorships their idols have; the biggest stars have lucrative corporate partnerships, with some holding over 30 or 40 brand contracts at once.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WgurOj">
|
|||
|
|
These corporations fully market the star as much as their own product. Many brands organize livestreams and fan events for their idols; companies also often release teaser trailers for the big reveal of their new brand spokesperson, ensuring that the reveal itself is an event. The sponsors also frequently design elaborate ad campaigns around the celebrity: The coffee company Tasogare, for example, recently produced a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O35JjPxyfk8">three-minute film</a> pairing actor Xiao Zhan with legendary auteur Wong Kar-Wai.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BFWZdN">
|
|||
|
|
In exchange for this attention, the star’s fans maximize their purchasing power, doing whatever they can to give their celebrity the edge. Much as K-pop fans <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22337317/k-pop-us-radio-play-statistics-bts-dynamite-butter-loona-star">systematically gamify streams and sales</a> to make sure their idols outsell everyone else, Chinese fans engage in endless competition. They have to prove their idol can top every magazine poll and online ranking, outsell every other idol, and get the highest ratings, no matter what.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x5LfTz">
|
|||
|
|
In May 2021, popular idol show <em>Youth With You</em> ran a campaign where fans could vote for their favorite contestant by purchasing a carton of milk. Shortly after, a video surfaced showing adult fans buying huge supplies of milk— then dumping it out without consuming it. The video went viral in China, drawing attention to the enormous amounts of money fans spend on voting competitions — a textbook scenario of suspiciously fey idols influencing wasteful fan behavior. It led to <em>Youth With You</em>’s <a href="https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1007386/chinese-idol-show-shut-down-over-spilled-milk">immediate indefinite suspension</a>, just days before its season finale.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Four young Chinese men in matching blazers." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PFbiuAd_Ei_Ex3FCdFGzVPOXf7U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24109489/GettyImages_1316549218.jpg"/> <cite>VCG via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
<em>Youth with You</em> contestants Tang Jiuzhou, Luo Yizhou, Yu Jingtian, and Lian Huaiwei in May 2021, shortly before the show was suspended.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QFO1Rk">
|
|||
|
|
The milk scandal epitomized the kind of fandom behavior the government wanted to rein in. Just days after the <em>Youth With You</em> scandal, the government introduced the Qinglang initiative focused on policing problematic celebrities and toxic fan behavior. The rules targeted <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1255187.shtml">a broad range of sins</a> including fans who make fake accounts, vote too often in online celebrity polls, buy too much merchandise, harass and gang up on other fans, and spread toxic rumors.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KQc4wZ">
|
|||
|
|
In August, following a string of new scandals, the CCP announced even <a href="http://www.cac.gov.cn/2021-08/26/c_1631563902354584.htm">more</a> fandom and celebrity <a href="http://www.nrta.gov.cn/art/2021/9/2/art_113_57756.html">restrictions</a>, banning things like celebrity ranking contests, fan group fundraising, and anything deemed vulgar, lowbrow, or politically deviant. “Artists with incorrect political views who have discord with the Party and the country will be resolutely banned,” the regulations stated. The rules tasked social media sites like Weibo with implementing the changes, promising heavy fines for any website that failed to carry them out quickly.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c5uRZM">
|
|||
|
|
Overall, the restrictions significantly altered the dynamics of fandom, holding idols directly responsible for their fanbases’ behavior and inversely making fans directly responsible for not making their idols look bad. Crucially, as Chen noted, it also co-opted celebrities “to be agents of the state.”
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="29Mdpz">
|
|||
|
|
This all might seem to be much ado about nothing; after all, we’re used to thinking of fandom in the US as a subculture rather than a booming part of the mainstream, and China is no different. “Despite all the attention, fandom is still a niche thing,” one fan based in Beijing told me. “Sure, the average person watches dramas and shows, but the vast majority of Chinese people aren’t in fandom and don’t care or really know about Qinglang.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3EGs9E">
|
|||
|
|
It’s difficult to write fandom off as minor, however, when you factor in scale. In China, a “niche” community can still be huge. For example, on Weibo, China’s largest social media platform, fan forums for fandoms considered small may still have millions of members. That’s a mighty social and economic force: One <a href="http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2019/1202/c1003-31483854.html">2019 estimate</a> found China’s “fan economy,” in which fans support their idols by buying their advertising products and consuming their media, could be worth up to 90 billion RMB ($13 billion). Fans flock to online ranking systems in order to vote for their idols. Celebrity endorsement rankings — how much product sales an idol can push — have become contests of consumerism for fans to gamify. Fans also push TV shows and web dramas to enormous popularity through rewatches and <a href="https://twitter.com/melonconsumer/status/1513888839026290692">repeated</a> streaming, which further generates traffic and profit for producers and advertisers.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DBGEZc">
|
|||
|
|
Or at least they did all this until the government stepped in.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="hS2CFU">
|
|||
|
|
An online forest full of wolves
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wP2HGD">
|
|||
|
|
The CCP’s attempts to control fandom feel, to some degree, like Wile E. Coyote trying to outwit 100 million Road Runners — many of whom are also trying to outwit each other. Chinese social media is a dense forest of industry gossip, manipulation, and misinformation, all weighted in favor of whichever celebrity can afford to buy the best rumor mills and cultivate the most loyal fanbases. To some degree, being a celebrity in China also seems to require being able to buy your way out of any scandal you might be embroiled in, by weaponizing the Chinese internet’s vast misinformation resources to work for you and against your enemies.
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
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<aside id="D5HtTG">
|
|||
|
|
<q>“It’s become unofficial wisdom that before you say anything online, just wait — things will unfold several times”</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ERavAc">
|
|||
|
|
“Only government agencies have the authority to correct rumors,” Chen told me. “So that creates an environment where anyone who says anything, regardless if it’s true or not, will attract attention.” Among her friends in China, she says, “It’s become unofficial wisdom that before you say anything online, just wait — things will unfold several times.”
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="40U8D3">
|
|||
|
|
Take, for example, the case of Kris Wu, a former member of the hugely popular K-pop band EXO. In 2021, Wu’s former girlfriend came forward to accuse him of rape, sex trafficking, and abuse. She was <a href="https://hype.my/2021/238782/police-findings-kris-wu-du-meizhu/">widely discredited as a fame-seeker, including by police</a>. After she gathered more than 30 allegations from other women, however, a proper criminal investigation finally took place. In July 2021, Wu was <a href="https://variety.com/2021/film/news/kris-wu-date-rape-allegations-criticism-1235024177/amp/">arrested</a> on dozens of charges of sexual abuse and sex trafficking; he was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/06/kris-wu-arrest-raises-hopes-for-chinas-metoo-movement">held in detention</a> for nearly a year and <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/kris-wu-to-be-sentenced-on-rape-charges-following-secret-trial-in-beijing-3244901">tried secretly</a> in June. The court <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3181326/chinese-canadian-rapper-kris-wu-tried-rape-beijing-court">reportedly held</a> the trial in secret to protect the privacy of victims and did not publicize the verdict.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Sa9Zs">
|
|||
|
|
Ironically, it’s partly a result of the CCP’s own authoritarianism that it has such a huge online misinformation problem. An independent free press could clarify which rumors are true and which are false. The dearth of independently verifiable knowledge also means the facts of this system are derived, like everything else, from hearsay and collective assumptions.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xc4sH6">
|
|||
|
|
Most communities, like Weibo fan forums and fandom websites, are benign, but tabloid bloggers known as yingxiaohao (营销号), or YXH, frequently create chaos. YXH get paid by unknown third parties to spread malicious rumors about celebrities. The third parties are generally assumed to be the agencies of <em>other</em> celebrities who are trying to ruin their rivals’ careers. The negative gossip created by YXH typically gets amplified by brigades of anti-fan accounts called “water armies,” often containing bots and other fake accounts run by troll farms. These all work together to manipulate trending searches on Weibo, create and dispel scandals, and ruin or elevate careers.
|
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|
</p>
|
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="glkVYv">
|
|||
|
|
There’s a third arm of this system: Weibo itself. If you’re a celebrity targeted by any of these rumor mills, your best option is to privately pay off Weibo — which functions much like Twitter — to bury the gossip. Sources say Weibo rakes in profits from this kind of backchanneling, which gives it little encouragement to police misinformation on its own. The lack of independent journalists to sort out the truth from the lies plays havoc with fandoms, which frequently fight over rumors and create competing narratives that often resemble <a href="https://www.vox.com/21558524/conspiracy-theories-2020-qanon-covid-conspiracies-why">conspiracy theories</a>.
|
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</p>
|
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<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
|
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<aside id="j1nfrK">
|
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<q>The rules are both wide-ranging and highly specific, targeting everything from badly designed mobile apps to social media users who flaunt their wealth</q>
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</aside>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mAY4Dh">
|
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|
Such a rumor-based online economy might begin with the entertainment industry and fandom, but it obviously applies to everything else happening on social media as well — which might explain why the 2022 Qinglang regulations have focused on expanding the restrictions that began with fandom and applying them to broader social media. The <a href="https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404748025179275617">rules</a> are both wide-ranging and highly specific, targeting everything from badly designed mobile apps to social media users who flaunt their wealth or post “superstition.” The regulations attempt to curb platform extremification, fake news, rumors, and disinformation campaigns on social media platforms like Weibo. In most cases, citizens who spread misinformation or practice defamation face harsh fines; in worst-case scenarios, they can spend months or even <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/east-asia-pacific_voa-news-china_chinese-authorities-punish-citizens-using-foreign-social-media/6198214.html">years in jail</a>. Celebrities who get caught in the crossfire could face a temporary or permanent <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202109/1233750.shtml">social media ban</a>, and at worst <a href="https://www.glimpsefromtheglobe.com/regions/asia-and-the-pacific/china-cracks-down-on-digital-fandoms-behind-the-qinglang-operation/">lose their entire careers</a>.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gh8E8B">
|
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|
Most of the Qinglang regulations aimed at social media design and user extremism are <a href="https://digichina.stanford.edu/work/experts-examine-chinas-pioneering-draft-algorithm-regulations/">useful and beneficial</a> — similar to but much more effective than what platforms like Twitter and Facebook have done to curb disinformation. However, those benefits are impossible to uncouple from Qinglang’s byproducts of homophobia and censorship. Nearly all the sources Vox spoke with for this article — including Chinese journalists, fans, and academics — requested anonymity, with several citing fear of government retaliation. As the restrictions increased, their chilling effects played out in real time. Now, over a year into the Qinglang restrictions, those chilling effects may be the policy’s lasting legacy.
|
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</p>
|
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<h3 id="IVtrGR">
|
|||
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Has anything changed?
|
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</h3>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BamjnD">
|
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|
|
While the CCP’s fandom regulations have <a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3170153/chinas-internet-watchdog-pushes-deeper-engagement-internet-platforms">been billed as a success</a> a year after the most intense Qinglang regulations dropped, things largely seem to have gone back to normal. Fandom communities are once again at each other’s throats, and fans are once again <a href="https://38jiejie.com/2021/03/13/simon-gong-jun-mobbed-by-huge-crowd-at-the-airport/">mobbing their idols</a> despite crackdowns on gathering in public. Weibo recently brought back a version of its celebrity supertopic rankings — a sign some of the Qinglang rules may be relaxing.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5OQD0a">
|
|||
|
|
“The policies have made certain toxic behavior worse,” one fan told Vox. “Having higher [behavioral] standards for artists just means it’s easier for people to show that they don’t reach the standards, whether it be by exposing small scandals or spreading rumors and slander.” Instead of curbing the behavior, she argued, bad actors can now use the new regulations “to bring down artists they don’t like,” often by “purposely encouraging other fans to participate in toxic behavior.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ubhCdn">
|
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|
|
She added that WeChat recently added an option to report someone for “irrational fandom behavior,” which toxic fans now frequently abuse. When news of this reached Twitter, she noted, many foreign fans reacted with glee, hoping fans of artists they didn’t like would be punished — “which is honestly very fucked up.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o8qVEs">
|
|||
|
|
The most lasting consequences seem to have fallen on the celebrities themselves. Idols still have to be on their <a href="https://radii.co/article/jackson-yee-national-theater-job">best behavior</a>, and recent trends in celebrities being <a href="https://jingdaily.com/yuan-bingyan-tax-evasion-celebrity-china-luxury/">censured for tax evasion</a>, for example, show no sign of slowing. And celebrities whose major scandals coincided with the height of Qinglang so far seem unlikely to make a comeback.
|
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|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yYwH1O">
|
|||
|
|
Then there’s the ongoing oppressive impact of Qinglang’s gender politics. Amid the new wave of regulations targeting “effeminacy,” entertainment organizations <a href="https://www.guancha.cn/politics/2021_09_17_607493.shtml">urged</a> the industry to stop producing danmei adaptations. At the time, around 60 such series were <a href="https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1008539/china-takes-aim-at-growing-tv-adaptations-of-boys-love-novels">reportedly</a> either in production or wrapped and about to air. One year later, all of them appear to be dead.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kt2lbT">
|
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|
|
Nevertheless, danmei and their adaptations are becoming more mainstream internationally despite the government’s best efforts. <em>The Untamed</em> and <em>Word of Honor</em> are both on Netflix. The pseudonymous author of <em>The Untamed</em>’s source novel recently hit the New York Times <a href="https://twitter.com/gomanga/status/1473812057590059008">bestseller list</a> thrice over. Jinjiang, the main danmei publishing platform, is <a href="https://bbs.jjwxc.net/showmsg.php?board=17&boardpagemsg=1&id=1725670">launching</a> an English-language platform with translations for international fans.
|
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</p>
|
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<div class="c-wide-block">
|
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<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3g_QDDChdZaMe332ei3IB22NX7o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24109504/GettyImages_1233142531.jpg"/> <cite>AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Fans of <em>Word of Honor</em> gather in Suzhou outside of a concert themed after the show in May 2021.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
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</div>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xHgLfs">
|
|||
|
|
Chinese stars are also going global. Former K-pop star <a href="https://variety.com/2022/music/news/jackson-wang-coachella-88-rising-k-pop-mental-health-interview-1235233715/">Jackson Wang recently played Coachella</a>. Rakuten Viki, which streams Korean and Chinese dramas for global audiences, recently shared with Vox that its subscriptions increased by 41 percent in 2021, fueled in part by hit Chinese series like <em>Oath of Love</em> and <em>You Are My Glory</em>. This growth suggests no matter how much the CCP might restrict access to Chinese cultural exports, fans will be fans, seeking and finding access to media across all borders.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3yqKMo">
|
|||
|
|
Fans, locally and abroad, are motivated by deeply personal, often byzantine motivations that no amount of outside interference — even from the Chinese government — can moderate. If anything, its attempts to do so only remind us how universal the problem of controlling uncontrollable social media has become. In a way, it’s as though the Chinese government has engaged in a game of whack-a-mole: The more it attempts to crack down on extreme fandom behavior, the more creative fans get at dodging its regulations and the more extreme that behavior becomes.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KYmW2w">
|
|||
|
|
In a strange twist, the very fandom communities the CCP is most concerned about may also be the ones that are unexpectedly helping to spread its political agenda. A <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448221113923">recently published study</a> from researchers at Toronto’s York University, conducted between January 2020 and October 2021, looked at the way danmei fans online interacted with the CCP’s restrictions. They found that in the absence of clarity around many of the restrictions, the fans themselves, through a mix of speculation and “accusatory reporting” — that is, reporting or threatening to report each other to authorities for perceived transgressions — were doing a more efficient job policing themselves than the government ever could. In essence, the fans who tried to conduct their subversive fandoms within the parameters of the regime “strengthened the political authority’s practice and narrative.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eoNKS9">
|
|||
|
|
Ultimately, the biggest irony of the Qinglang campaign is that it may have ensured the communities the government wanted to “clean and clear” are messier than ever. “In my friend circle, we often say the only people ‘cleaned’ are the normal fans,” one fan told me. “The toxics are completely unaffected.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yjg5YD">
|
|||
|
|
<em>Channing Huang contributed reporting and translation to the article.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Welcome to Europe’s energy crisis. Find your own firewood.</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5Ue66_lQq6H1yqSDWPcKbZy6DP4=/0x0:3551x2663/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71505265/GettyImages_1425561463a.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A resident carries firewood he ordered up to his apartment in Berlin, Germany, on September 20. Firewood has become a scarce commodity in many parts of Germany and its price has skyrocketed as many people have stocked up due to concerns over possible energy shortfalls, particularly natural gas, this coming winter. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
War, inflation, and the energy crunch mean everyone is seeking a safety net.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4QrHhk">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>PUTZBRUNN, Germany — Konrad Kötterl lights another cigarette,</strong> which seems risky in a barn full of firewood. This is not cheap wood, either. The price of the pallets Kötterl sells has doubled since last year. “It’s not even cheaper to heat with wood,” Kötterl says during our conversation. “But people are very anxious that there will be no gas in general.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ytdRDa">
|
|||
|
|
They are anxious because Germany is on the edge of winter, during an unprecedented European energy crisis. Russia’s war with Ukraine, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22968949/russia-sanctions-swift-economy-mcdonalds">Western sanctions</a> against Moscow, the Kremlin’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60131520">cutoff of pipeline gas</a>, and a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/world/europe/drought-heat-energy.html">cascade</a> of other <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-14/france-expects-to-issue-alerts-to-curb-power-demand-this-winter">calamities</a>, has made the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-24/european-industry-buckles-under-weight-of-soaring-energy-prices">cost of natural gas</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-16/german-power-prices-hit-fresh-record-as-gas-continues-to-surge">other energy sources</a> soar.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QNoe76">
|
|||
|
|
Germany, in particular, relied on Russian gas. The country got more than half of its imports <a href="https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/german-gas-policy/">from Russia in 2021</a>; by this September, it got none. Germany responded by <a href="https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/EN/Areas/Energy/Companies/SecurityOfSupply/GasSupply/start.html">filling up its gas storage</a> and seeking <a href="https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/norway-agrees-sustain-maximum-gas-deliveries-germany#:~:text=Norway's%20share%20in%20German%20gas,article%20carried%20by%20n%2Dtv.">supply elsewhere</a>, often at <a href="https://www.bne.eu/bnegreen-europe-pays-spiralling-lng-prices-to-fill-storages-253929/?source=turkey">a premium</a>. High prices <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/24/german-industry-cuts-production-due-to-high-energy-prices-dihk-survey.html">have forced industry cutbacks and closures</a> and municipalities are <a href="https://www.thelocal.de/20220914/german-cities-look-to-cut-back-on-christmas-lights-amid-energy-crisis/">cutting back</a> — lower temperatures <a href="https://berlinspectator.com/2022/08/30/berlin-public-indoor-swimming-pools-to-open-water-to-be-colder/">in swimming pools</a>, street lights <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/energy-crisis-german-cities-turn-out-the-lights/a-63068829">turned off</a>. Households are <a href="https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/germans-urged-cut-energy-use-lessen-dependence-russia">urged to use less energy</a>, but many will nevertheless <a href="https://www.thelocal.de/20220928/germany-sees-record-increases-in-the-price-of-heating-and-energy/">face huge jumps in their utility bills</a>, even as the German government <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-presents-new-200-billion-relief-plan-in-response-to-soaring-energy-prices/a-63279609">tries to offset</a> the price surge for consumers and companies.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sKPCUd">
|
|||
|
|
These measures, some painful, will help Germany withstand this winter, but the margin is narrow. In a country where <a href="https://www.bdew.de/service/daten-und-grafiken/beheizungsstruktur-wohnungsbestand/">around half of homes</a> use gas for some portion of their energy, a very cold winter, or an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germany-must-protect-gas-infrastructure-after-nord-stream-leaks-regulator-says-2022-09-29/">unexpected disruption</a> to gas supply or infrastructure, make the contours of this crisis unpredictable.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vcw0sp">
|
|||
|
|
Firewood is one back-up plan in case the worst case happens. It is not the only <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/24/business/germany-solar-power-russia-gas-crisis-intl-hnk/index.html">alternative energy source people</a> are seeking out, but it is illustrative of a broader dynamic: Europe is worried about shortages and extraordinarily high costs for this winter.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O6KIjq">
|
|||
|
|
The age of cheaper gas is over in Europe, and the transition away from that is <a href="https://twitter.com/LionHirth/status/1580652129634566144?s=20&t=tZEgEoXiWsMdktsXo6UXCQ">painful</a> and unpredictable. This is a crisis without a close precedent, one that is unlikely to be contained to just this winter. The rush for firewood is bound up in this anxiety; less a solution to the energy disruptions than a symbol of it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="UKYSev"/>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xu4XPI">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8y2O8A">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>Kötterl has owned his one-man business, </strong><a href="https://www.brennholz-muenchen-palette.de/">Brennholz München Palette</a>, for about 10 years, and has never seen anything like this rush for firewood.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uM546gYfoFNwDMtv2qeaHyRSO8Y=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24109266/Konrad_Ko_tterl.jpg"/> <cite>Jen Kirby/Vox</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Konrad Kötterl loads a firewood pallet onto his truck for a local delivery.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F8OlUg">
|
|||
|
|
He started to see firewood demand tick up during the pandemic, when people were anxious and had to stay at home. Suppliers also can’t keep up: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-france-forests-idUSKCN1UE20S">beetle infestations</a> and other environmental damage have cut into wood supplies. Then came the war in Ukraine and disruptions to the supply chains, especially from Eastern Europe.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b9iYyb">
|
|||
|
|
The impending energy crisis has strained supply even more intensely, and dramatically increased prices for the firewood — Brennholz, in German — that is available. People want more of it, and the high costs of energy and other products mean it is more expensive to cut it, dry it, package it, and transport it. Gerd Müller, of Germany’s Federal Association of Firewood Trade and Production, said the average price increase is about 30 to 40 percent at most dealers, or about 150 euros per bulk cubic meter. According to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, in August 2022 the price of firewood and wood pellets <a href="https://www.destatis.de/EN/Press/2022/09/PE22_N059_61.html">rose 86 percent</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A chart showing the price of firewood far outpacing the overall consumer price index increases in Germany in 2022." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HkqT0Gx3t5bnQ8r-DRJyRgvz0Mo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24105987/Screen_Shot_2022_10_13_at_3.30.57_PM.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.destatis.de/EN/Press/2022/09/PE22_N059_61.html" target="_blank">Federal Statistical Office of Germany</a></cite>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="scMv9b">
|
|||
|
|
The cost of Kötterl’s large pallets of firewood — about 360 pieces of beech wood — has doubled this year, from about 200 to 400 euros, including delivery, to his customers in the Munich area. Demand is so high Kötterl stopped taking orders in July for the rest of 2022. Some are trying to line up deliveries for next winter, but Kötterl, who depends on a supplier from Croatia, can’t make those kinds of guarantees a year out. “Now they are simply afraid,” Kötterl says. “Very, very afraid.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sQ5Wmn">
|
|||
|
|
Kötterl is not the only seller experiencing this. Other farmers and wood suppliers near Munich have <a href="https://brennholz-tristl.de/">disclaimers</a> splashed across their websites, some version of: <a href="https://www.marklhof.de/">please don’t call us, we’re sold out</a>. Simon Tristl, a wood farmer in Ingelsberg, Bavaria, outside Munich, said his prices have gone up about 40 percent for one stere — about one cubic meter — of firewood. “Nein,” he says, without elaborating, when asked if he can keep up with demand.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XLLJ9Sk8lA0_uiEzBXtmTlrQT9o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24109485/Simon_Tristl_v.jpg"/> <cite>Jen Kirby/Vox</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Simon Tristl, a firewood supplier in Bavaria, Germany, has more customer demand than he can meet.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ups4Pk">
|
|||
|
|
Wood made up 9.9 percent of the total energy consumption for private households in 2020, based on data from Umweltbundesamt, the German Environment Agency, which includes households that may use wood to supplement other energy sources. Again, it’s an option that the energy crisis has made more necessary, to those who have it — or can find it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oSRWGd">
|
|||
|
|
When I visited Kötterl’s warehouse in early September, his phone kept ringing. In between answering calls, and lights of his cigarette, he described this very strange moment, using the German word “spannend” — exciting, he says, but a negative kind of exciting.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TgZRLJ">
|
|||
|
|
“Now it’s the first time that really something is dramatically changing, not in a good direction,” he says. “But at least it is changing, so we see what will happen.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="GC6XW8"/>
|
|||
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<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fSh3Gw">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>Pallets of firewood are lined up in Kötterl’s barn,</strong> neat rectangular piles held together by plywood. Kötterl gets his firewood delivered from a wood supplier operating about 600 kilometers away in Croatia. Once he gets these shipments, he delivers these pallets to customers in the Munich area, just a few at a time, all his small truck can handle.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I1snoA">
|
|||
|
|
He is, he joked at one point, the “sandwich man” — the middle man between the wood supplier and the customers now paying a premium for firewood. As the sandwich man, he sees the entire scope of the business, and how the<strong> </strong>inflation and<strong> </strong>energy crises are making everything more and more costly.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yEHu0C">
|
|||
|
|
He is struggling to match the price changes from his manufacturer, which he says have gone up eight times this year. The wood is more expensive to process and package. His manufacturer puts firewood through drying chambers, the pallets placed inside and heated to a high temperature. That requires electricity, and the cost per kilowatt-hour has gone up. Big metal staples hold the pallets together. Those used to come from Ukraine, and cost about a penny for 10 to 15 pieces, he says. Now it’s about 50 cents for 10 pieces, because the staples are made locally. “It’s a mess,” Kötterl says. “It’s a mess.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gIFdk6">
|
|||
|
|
Jürgen Gaulke, of AGDW — Die Waldeigentümer, the German Forest Owners Association, says the average private owner in Germany only owns about 2.9 hectares of forest (about 7 acres), small operations that already have thin profit margins. These owners are now paying a lot more for gas and electricity, or struggling to get machinery to manage their farms and collect the wood.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DjwxyoM25yTbyH7jLa7rbcHJc7M=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24109558/wood.jpg"/> <cite>Jen Kirby/Vox</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Firewood pallets in Kötterl’s warehouse.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aaQc9u">
|
|||
|
|
Tristl, the wood farmer just outside of Munich, owns a small 12-hectare wood farm, but also purchases wood from government forests. That costs 10 to 20 percent more, he says — though he is lucky to have a permit for it, because those would be impossible to get now. His own labor is more expensive; he has to pay himself more, just to pay his own bills. It costs more for Tristl and Kötterl to buy fuel for their trucks so they can deliver the wood to their customers. “And the end users [are] paying everything,” Kötterl says.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iGmBNq">
|
|||
|
|
This is the challenge of Germany’s energy crisis: it is crisis layered on top of crisis.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GJSYFi">
|
|||
|
|
The pandemic, and then the war in Ukraine, scrambled labor and supply chains, forcing manufacturers to pay even more for replacements, or to cut back on the products they make, increasing costs globally. In Europe, and Germany especially, the Russian natural gas that powered industry is no longer flowing, so everything costs more to make and manufacture and sell. In Germany, <a href="https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economy/Prices/Consumer-Price-Index/_node.html">the overall inflation rate is about 10 percent</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WEDnFW">
|
|||
|
|
But energy, of course, looms largest. <a href="https://www.destatis.de/EN/Press/2022/09/PE22_413_611.html;jsessionid=74D5278DF7B24EBF2DCF8697FE77459D.live732">Energy prices in September rose more than 40 percent from the previous year.</a> Business owners and residents I spoke to said they and their neighbors expect <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/4/germany-agrees-on-65bn-plan-to-combat-rising-energy-prices#:~:text=However%2C%20German%20households%20will%20have,will%20run%20until%20April%202024.">their energy bills</a> to increase by hundreds of euros. A lot depends on the home, and how big or insulated it is. A lot depends on how people heat their homes, who their suppliers are, and how much those suppliers might increase their prices — but maybe as high as five times the usual price, experts said. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/26/german-ministers-under-pressure-to-scrap-gas-levy-after-anger-over-profits">government recently scrapped</a> a gas levy that would have added to the energy costs, and <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/10/04/germany-faces-scrutiny-from-eu-peers-over-massive-200-billion-aid-scheme-to-cushion-high-g">will instead introduce more programs to subsidize energy prices</a>, but the contours of that initiative are still taking shape and it <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/short_news/germany-under-fire-for-canibalistic-e200-billion-investment/">has frustrated other European countries</a> who see Germany as acting along when the entire continent faces energy constraints.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N4qs6O">
|
|||
|
|
Still, even with potential offsets, and cutbacks in consumption, this energy will be costly. And so, people search for alternatives, like firewood, or wood pellets, or <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/08/17/gas-crisis-germans-rush-to-stock-up-on-coal-for-winter-warmth">even coal</a>. Though prices for these sources have increased, if you can get it, Tristl says, firewood may still be cheaper compared to something like heating oil. And as costs rise, so does the anxiety.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="MH4Y9t"/>
|
|||
|
|
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CGNkyd">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>Households and businesses in Germany are anxious that the cost of energy will exceed their financial reach,</strong> or that an unforeseen disruption could lead to rationing or blackouts. The German government <a href="https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/scholz-halt-blackout-bei-stromversorgung-im-winter-fur-unwahrscheinlich-8605741.html">has tried to ease these kinds of fears</a>, but as Tristl said, people are still nervous they could go through the winter without gas or oil at times. “That’s why many customers have bought double the amount [of firewood] they usually buy, or reactivated their fireplaces in their homes,” Tristl said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FcVc1I">
|
|||
|
|
Müller, of the firewood association, said this panic is, in some ways, self-perpetuating. “They are trying to defuse the situation with wood-burning stoves,” he said. “Because the dealers can only just supply their regular customers, there is not enough wood to be found on the market.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5Zi75C">
|
|||
|
|
There is no easy way to bring that wood to market, either. Some countries, <a href="https://www.hercegovina.info/vijesti/vijesti-na-engleskom/the-government-of-rs-requests-a-ban-on-the-export-of-logs-and-energy-products-from-bosnia-and-herzegovina/204765/">like Bosnia and Herzegovina</a> and <a href="https://sofiaglobe.com/2022/08/17/bulgaria-to-ban-export-of-wood-to-non-eu-countries/">Bulgaria</a>, have put versions of export bans on wood to make sure domestic processors and supplies have raw materials. As Gaulke said, forest owners and wood farmers cannot expand production because wood farming is a “long-term business, not a short-term business” — once a tree goes down, even a replanted one will not replace it quickly. That scarcity has made farmers nervous, Gaulke added. Reports of wood theft in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/17/europe-russian-natural-gas-prices-firewood/">some forests have increased</a>, and some of his farmers are installing GPS devices in their wood pallets, just in case. Kötterl installed security cameras in his warehouse.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A woman with blond hair wearing hiking shorts and a belt pack, follows two dogs along a trail past a stack of large cut logs in a forest." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZQhN8KYxPbX5ENUCcVWGP-ig7vo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24109513/GettyImages_1242719314a.jpg"/> <cite>Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A hiker passes a pile of wood in a forest near Zinnowitz, Germany, in August. Wood theft in some German forests has increased.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xMa3iY">
|
|||
|
|
And at this late stage in the season, it is increasingly difficult to find any wood to buy. Wolfgang Thölken, a 66-year-old from Bremen, in northern Germany, used to heat with wood a few times during the winter, but stopped because of <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2314156-health-impacts-of-wood-burning-cost-eu-and-uk-e13-billion-a-year/">environmental concerns. </a>Now he wants to use it again — at least, to have a week or two’s wood supply, just in case. Sometimes, when he’s cycling, he sees wood farmers and asks if they have any to sell. Most people say they don’t. Once, he offered someone a bottle of wine if they could get him wood, but, so far, no success.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gtp1XA">
|
|||
|
|
Ralf Weber, who runs Ketori Coffee in the Neukölln neighborhood of Berlin, heats exclusively with a wood-burning stove that uses Holzbriketts<em>, </em>blocks of wood particles that burn. To get through a season, he usually has to order 20 packs — about 200 kilos worth every two weeks. In late September, he said he needed to call soon for his delivery for the season; he only had about three days worth of supply. He knew when he called, the prices will have gone way up.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ECqQft">
|
|||
|
|
Because war, and inflation, and the energy crunch mean everyone is seeking a safety net.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UUegNm">
|
|||
|
|
Kötterl says all he gets are calls of people asking where is their wood. He can only do about 10 to 12 deliveries a day, just a few pallets at a time. On the day I visit his warehouse, he went out on a delivery, to a regular customer, who wanted three pallets.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BE6KFk">
|
|||
|
|
Christoph Kaesbohrer meets Kötterl’s truck at his home in Trudering. He shows the firewood he already has carefully stacked above our heads in his backyard, that he will use, along with oil and solar panels, to heat the hot water that heats his home.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j8TKzE">
|
|||
|
|
“What can I do?” he asks, when I ask if he is nervous about the energy crisis. “Nothing. And if you cannot do something, you must not be nervous.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jmy7Dy">
|
|||
|
|
<em>Translation and additional reporting by Jasper Riemann.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ICC Twenty20 World Cup | Zimbabwe stuns Ireland by 31 runs</strong> - Zimbabwe lost three early wickets after being invited to bat first in Hobart, but Raza put on key partnerships to guide the team to 174-7 in Hobart</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>National schools, under-23 and women’s leagues coming soon</strong> - Good news for the sport as Indian under-17 boys finish runner-up in 3x3 Asia Cup</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘I never asked to leave PSG’: Kylian Mbappé</strong> - Several media reports suggested last week that striker Kylian Mbappe was fed up with unfulfilled promises by PSG and wanted to leave as soon as possible</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mamata bats for Sourav Ganguly, asks PM Modi to allow him contest ICC polls</strong> - “Why was Sourav left out of the BCCI. Why is he being deprived. I am really shocked,” Ms Banerjee said.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ICC Twenty20 World Cup | Scotland thrashes two-time champion West Indies</strong> - Chasing a target of 161, the two-time champion West Indies were bundled out for 118.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Boating extended at Triveni Sangam for next 10 days</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>10 Indian diplomats call on M.K. Stalin in Chennai</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Theft in the name of sorcery: Kasaragod native held in Kozhikode</strong> - The 32-year-old was hiding in a lodge in Kozhikode with stolen ornaments and cash, say police sources</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Endosulfan issue: Daya Bai to continue stir in capital</strong> - The agreements reached at Sunday's meeting with Ministers do not reflect in the formal minutes of the meeting, protesters say</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Srinivas Prasad to retire from politics after his term as MP ends</strong> - He attributed his decision to ill health</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Kyiv attacked by ‘kamikaze drones’, say officials</strong> - At least seven people were killed in attacks across the country, including in the capital.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Eurovision: Montenegro and North Macedonia pull out of Liverpool contest</strong> - Some countries faced increased participation fees following Russia’s ban in the song contest.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Ukraine is winning the social media war</strong> - Despite civilian and military bloodshed, Ukraine’s online information war keeps a sense of humour.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>UN condemns ‘deeply distressing’ discovery of 92 naked migrants at Greece-Turkey border</strong> - The men were found alive on the Greek-Turkish border, but exactly what happened is not clear.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Russian’s exhausting ordeal to escape conscription</strong> - This young man calls the Ukraine invasion a ‘war against our own people’.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“The hell with it”—Elon Musk to keep funding Ukrainian Starlink service [Updated]</strong> - “we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1890216">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New, transparent AI tool may help detect blood poisoning</strong> - The algorithm scans electronic records and may reduce sepsis deaths. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1889636">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Removing notes from Mendelssohn overture shows plight of humpback whales</strong> - <em>Hebrides Redacted</em> is meant to show “how human activities have silenced nature.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1890094">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Since Crew Dragon’s debut, SpaceX has flown more astronauts than anyone</strong> - “Thank you for an incredible ride up to orbit and an incredible ride home.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1890316">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple’s AR/VR headset will scan your iris when you put it on</strong> - Apple’s headset will also scan users’ legs for inclusion in virtual space. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1890235">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Interviewer: How much amount of milk does your cow produce?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Farmer: which one, black one or white one?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Interviewer: Black one
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Farmer: 2 litres per day.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Interviewer: And the white one?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Farmer: 2 litres per day.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Interviewer : Where do they sleep?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Farmer: The Black one or the. White one?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Interviewer: The black one
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Farmer : In the Barn
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Interviewer: And the White one?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Farmer: In the Barn
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Interviewer: Your cows look healthy… What do
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
you feed them?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Farmer: which one..black one or white one?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Interviewer: Black one
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Farmer: Grass
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Interviewer: And the white one?
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Farmer: Grass
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Interviewer: (Annoyed😤) but why do you keep on asking if the black one or the white one when your answers are just the same??
|
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|
|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Farmer: Because the black one is mine.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Interviewer: And the white one?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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Farmer: Its also mine.
|
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|
</p>
|
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</div>
|
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|
<!-- SC_ON -->
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|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TheMadGraveWoman"> /u/TheMadGraveWoman </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y5w8s8/interviewer_how_much_amount_of_milk_does_your_cow/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y5w8s8/interviewer_how_much_amount_of_milk_does_your_cow/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>My grandfather swore by adding a spoonful of gunpowder to his tea every morning.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He said it was a very old remedy to help him live longer, and it worked: he lived to the ripe old age of ninety-seven.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He left a widow, two children, fourteen grandchildren and a fifty-foot crater where the crematorium used to be.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/vect77"> /u/vect77 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y5kl3e/my_grandfather_swore_by_adding_a_spoonful_of/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y5kl3e/my_grandfather_swore_by_adding_a_spoonful_of/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>From my niece, who doesn’t know why grownups are laughing at her joke…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
All of Snow White’s seven dwarfs were in a hot tub, feeling happy.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
So Happy got out.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She’s six. Don’t know where she heard this.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/gumpfanatic"> /u/gumpfanatic </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y5zcq7/from_my_niece_who_doesnt_know_why_grownups_are/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y5zcq7/from_my_niece_who_doesnt_know_why_grownups_are/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A blonde boards a plane, flying economy…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Once the plane has taken off, and the seatbelt signs have turned off, she gets up, takes her stuff, and moves a few rows forward to an unoccupied first class seat.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
One of the cabin crew approaches her, and politely says “excuse me madame, but you can’t sit here. This is a first class seat, and you’ve only paid for an economy seat. I must kindly ask you to return to the seat you paid for.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She looks up at the attendant, and quite pompously announces “I’m young, I’m beautiful, I’m flying to Los Angeles, and I want to fly first class, so I’m not moving.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The attendant retreats, somewhat flustered. He speaks to the cabin chief, who approaches the woman and tells her the same thing: “madame, please return to the seat you bought.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The same response… “I’m young, I’m beautiful, I’m flying to Los Angeles, and I want to fly first class. I’m not moving.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The cabin chief speaks to the cockpit crew. The copilot smiles and says, “don’t worry - I’m married to a blonde, I know how to speak to them.” He calmly gets up and approaches the woman, asking her to move. Same response. Then he bends down and whispers something to her, whereupon she promptly gets up, takes her belongings, and returns to her original seat.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The cabin crew are stunned. The chief approaches the copilot and asks, “what the hell did you say to her?!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“It’s quite simple really. When she said she was flying to Los Angeles, I said: yes madame, but you see, first class isn’t <em>going</em> to Los Angeles, only economy is.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Schwibby29"> /u/Schwibby29 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y67nuc/a_blonde_boards_a_plane_flying_economy/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y67nuc/a_blonde_boards_a_plane_flying_economy/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Walked in on my wife having sex with her personal trainer.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
I said “ok, this isn’t working out”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Individual_Meet1623"> /u/Individual_Meet1623 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y5lry6/walked_in_on_my_wife_having_sex_with_her_personal/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y5lry6/walked_in_on_my_wife_having_sex_with_her_personal/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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