notes app; snakes!
and other takes around chinese new year 🔖
Ni hao.
Sav here.
If you fucked up your new year’s resolution, mei guan xi!
You’ve got Chinese New Year for a virtuous, second wind.
I haven’t messed up this writing resolution quite yet. I’m just very slightly behind my expected progress and backlog - which is okay - though I would be very happy to get just one weekend day to completely immerse myself in the written realm and not worry about literally anything else.
Need I mention that I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed recently?
In the spirit of the year of the snake, here are some unwarranted takes related to Asian culture, Asian food and the proverbial shedding of skin.
“American friends, you can’t love your country only when it’s strong”
Easily my favourite recent read is this article by Elizabeth Tai from Tai Tales, sharing the incredibly profound response from Chinese netizens to the very American/Western declaration of wanting to move to China (or pretty much any country with modern facilities but weak currency).
She compares it with her home country of Malaysia, the disgust she had at this modern-day colonisation and the foreigners who view it as ‘living in luxury for cheap’, while also addressing the wildly opposite phenomenon of Malaysians jumping ship because no hope already. As an Indonesian, I relate to a lot of what she has to say.
And loosely speaking, I’m doing the exact same thing she’s warning us about.
Ultimately, I love the article because it tells a story of ownership, responsibility and unitedness - how instead of running away from problems, there is a steadfast culture of perseverance that underpins Asian culture; an understanding that the solution is not in the outside world but channeled via within, an internal locus of control.
I love this comment in particular.
“Over a decade ago, many people would talk all day about how great foreign countries were, such as their various welfare benefits and product quality, etc. However after hearing this, the thought most of us had was, ‘This is so good! I also want to build our country like this’. It is this kind of thinking that has led to the China of today.”
The internet hasn’t quite been able to replicate xenophobia
Continuing off politics, and I promise I won’t talk much about it because politics bears little interest to me: I’ve noticed the internet becoming increasingly right-wing recently.
This doesn’t just manifest in the dramatic vocality of Trump supporters and the rising prevalence of Gary Vees and Andrew Tates of the world, but in the Internet’s increasingly harsher, power-hungry, kill-or-be-killed sentiment (see: body positivity is out by the weekly scrapbook) that is reminiscent of a early 2010s Call of Duty or lobby or teen drama on bullying.
However, the internet hasn’t seemed to be able to replicate xenophobia.
And as a friend of mine pointed out during our irregular meetup at the Krispy Kreme near Sydney Airport, it’s probably because you could literally just go there.
With the burst of vlogs about the technological marvels of Shenzhen and the cyberpunk utopia of Chongqing, sentiment towards China sits at a mysterious, mountainous high.
And honestly - say what you will about Shien and Temu and all these dodgy fast fashion sites which supposedly (well, certainly) contribute to the environmental death of the planet: they have a good price, even for the shitty product they sell. Yes, I do value my morals — but no, not as much as a good deal.
Asian Food Takes: One mild, one controversial, one hard read
Mild: Asian fusion is so overdone and seldom as good as the original, but at the same time, is probably some of the best fusion foods out there.
I’ve had excellent Asian fusion food, but if you’d ask me for the best Asian restaurants I don’t think I’d cite them. I’d pick out casual, family-style restaurants like Wewok Chinese Restaurant (which is a totally biased childhood classic) or that dumpling place which I can’t even name off the top of my head.
Additionally, there are certain Asian cultures that are more built for fancy Westernised dining than others. For example, the best Japanese food I’ve had is easily Kuro, an incredible culinary establishment reserved only for special events. The best Chinese food however is probably some random hole in the wall with a disrespectful waiter and a chef who can’t speak a lick of English (because they are actually made of twenty cockroaches in an apron).
And then there are some cuisines, Indonesian food comes to mind, where the shittier the restaurant, the better it is; as if the streetside filth, recycled newspaper and dirty ice multiplies its MSG-infused charm.
Ultimately, my matrix goes something like this:
Controversial: Hotpot at restaurants fucking suck and is nothing more than an unnecessary social signal
My brother in Xi. Why are we paying eight dollars for two bulbs of bokcoy? Why are we dissolving such pristine cuts of meat into a cannister of mouth-numbing spice? What makes the difference between this soup base, costing an arm and a second-born, versus getting the same exact soup base from the SAME EXACT PROVIDER at the Asian grocer and whipping up a similar setup at home?
I admit, there are three edges I can think. First, you don’t need to host nor clean up. Second, it’s pretty impractical to get small portions of certain items. Third, it’s honestly - and I thoroughly believe this, is a decidedly firm social signal.
No dish is more emblematic of connection than hotpot. You wouldn’t go to hotpot with people you’re not fond of. There is something about dipping saliva-slathered chopsticks into a communal pot of soup that shows incredible, familial commitment.
Hotpot at restaurants though, is a social signal. There is a royal, emperor-like, old money aesthetic (though Asian) that comes with dining at Haidilao on a random, uneventful weekend — to me personally, and maybe I’m just wicked and envious, it screams: I’m so much better than you.
Hard read: Matcha will fade into a haze of obscurity and in its place will rise earl grey, jasmine and oolong
I have a confession to make.
Matcha is mid.
It’s not terrible mind you, but if there are any other options, I would like the other ones (hojicha is miles better than matcha in all ways except colour).
I appreciate the niche that matcha fills, being an Asian-influenced drink option with excellent customisability (see: strawberry matcha, coconut milk matcha) and unparalleled usability (see: matcha tiramisu, matcha cheesecake, matcha ramen), but I’m of the view that this green bean had run its course and is a hype bubble ready to burst.
In its place will rise other tea flavours, namely earl grey, jasmine and oolong.
These teas already dominate the drinks market, though in the casual form of bubble teas as opposed to the sophisticate of matcha lattes, but my take is that over the course of this year, these demure flavours will find footing in solid-state dishes like pastries, desserts, alcoholic cocktails and perhaps some savoury ones too.
I for one welcome our new tea overlords. Their smooth, subtle flavours will be a necessary breakaway from the rash, powderiness of matcha.
On shedding skin
I’ve given it some thought, and by that, I mean for about fifteen minutes on the stairmaster where I forgot to bring my earphones at a gym that was so overwhelmingly packed because my usual spot was under renovation, that I want to realign my fitness targets for the year.
In the past, I was cardio-heavy because I was intimidated by the machines. Once I got more confidence on the machines, I focused half-half on cardio and weights, which is a particularly bad play because it just translated to minimal progression on each. After learning the incredible range of exercises you could do with dumbbells and the bench press, I focused a lot more on them barely did cardio at all - chest, arms, back and only returning to machines for legs.
However, I’ve gained quite a bit more weight recently. More muscle yes, and it’s not as obvious as it used to be on my face due to a better mass distribution — but I have found myself with a blobby one-packer of jelly around my tummy which I could certainly do without.
Alas, that’s where my fitness intentions will lie this year, where I’ll return to the realms of cardio and endurance training whether it’s the treadmill, stairmaster, elliptical, stationary bike, a morning walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge or a nighttime dash to McDonalds.
Archaic, I know, but many primary metrics will be calories eaten, steps taken, weight lost and of course - how positive I’m feeling.
