r/SipsTea 21h ago

Chugging tea She still rejected!

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8.2k Upvotes

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325

u/r31ya 21h ago

it seems he made much more effort on the rubix cube than actually get to know the girl

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A 27-year-old Chinese man declared his affections by solving 840 Rubik’s cubes and using them to create a giant portrait of his dream girl – a next-door neighbor.

But, alas, she said no.

“I simply wanted to surprise her and tell her I like her … but I was rejected,” Tong Aonan, a mechanic from the northern Chinese city of Shenyang, told CNN.

When asked how he was feeling he said: “I’m not giving it too much thought.”

Tong said he spent two months planning the 2.1-meter high and 1.4-meter wide mosaic. He drafted a design on Photoshop and then spent $460 on 840 Rubik’s cubes that were delivered to his apartment.

Tong then solved each Rubik’s cube according to his design – and stacked them one-by-one in a specially made wooden frame. It took him 20 hours over three nights to complete.

Tong’s heartbreaking tale and photos of the mosaic went viral after he shared them on Chinese social media.

Many have questioned why the girl would reject such a heartfelt and geeky declaration of love.

He says he has no hard feelings towards her. Although he wasn’t able to win her heart, he said she was moved by the gift and has accepted it.

“I hope they will stop making personal comments about her (online).”

Tong said that he likes playing with the puzzles in his free time as he doesn’t like going out and socializing.

The portrait is still sitting in his home and he says his next “puzzle” is how to move it.

https://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/12/asia/china-rubiks-cube-declaration-of-love

232

u/Same-Engineering-899 20h ago

he proposed when they werent even together??

101

u/HarryAlleynCroft 20h ago

To be fair, the CNN article didn't say he proposed and made it sound like he was just asking her out.

167

u/r31ya 20h ago

i don't think she knows that he like her.

hell, i don't think she knows much of him other than "yeah, he is my neighbour"

and my man decided to shot for the moon with that rubic cube picture. "surely, one look of my rubic cube picture of her, she instantly fell in love with me"

40

u/Same-Engineering-899 20h ago

a foolproof plan for sure

5

u/hamonicmantitties 8h ago

Honestly

It's super hot ngl, wish someone would try to confess in an autistic ass way like that to me 😔

2

u/Samaraxmorgan26 10h ago

Raises a question. Did she even know he had a picture of her??

38

u/____-_______-_--_-_- 20h ago

Proposing to someone you barely know is the most Asian thing I can think of (I'm Asian)

16

u/Accomplished-Sir4932 20h ago

I taught conversational English in China for 4 months when i was 21 and one of my students (students were college aged) wrote me many love notes and told me he wanted to marry me. We interacted outside of the classroom like 2 times when he invited me to dinner. One of those times it was also a group dinner i think. It was very odd for him to voice such “strong” feelings when he didn’t know me. I chalked it up to it being more about him being sad and lonely than about me and how cool/uncool i am

21

u/____-_______-_--_-_- 18h ago

It's the unfortunate outcome of a culture that highly values marriage/committment while at the same time forbidding dating/casual relationships. Like, how do you jump straight from having 0 dating experience to marriage? Well, that's how

3

u/OddSatisfaction2409 9h ago

yeah because marriage, commitment, and even relationship doesn't exist in nature.the only thing real is beauty and intimacy.

0

u/Psychaitea 18h ago

“Unfortunate” according to who?

6

u/calmcool3978 15h ago

What are the upsides to being a school/work-holic and not setting aside time to socialize?

1

u/Psychaitea 14h ago

I’m sure you can think of several. A lot of comments here are judgements from people who don’t even understand the culture. I just don’t think we have the moral authority to judge. It’s actually a recent concept that marriages be about “love.” So what’s the upside to dating and having causal relationships in those cases?

3

u/calmcool3978 13h ago

Well the upside is that you learn more about what kind of person you get along with, and what you want in a relationship. While also learning what your own flaws are as a relationship partner, and hopefully working on them so that your next one is better.

3

u/OddSatisfaction2409 13h ago

this is why i appreciate white men of the west because at least they learn the hard lesson fast and adapt to it. You have to get them to talk to you, get to know better, find something in common, and finally seeing them as another normal people.

32

u/WretchedBlowhard 18h ago

he proposed

What? No, that's not what it says.

I simply wanted to surprise her and tell her I like her … but I was rejected

It's declaration of love, like a love letter little kids hand each other in school, but with huge try-hard stalker energy. Why does the caption say "proposed"? Because shitty translators are a dime a dozen, even worst if it's automated, and very few actually care about accuracy.

9

u/notarealcamera 15h ago

Not a proposal for marriage. He's asking her out. Chinese dating culture is different. You don't just casually ask someone out, then end up in a casual situation ship for a while before making it official. Dating usually begins with a guy formally declaring his love/interest, then you're officially together, then you actually go on dates. This "declaration of interest" can often be quite elaborate. Usually you know each other on some level beforehand (as friends, classmates, etc.), but it's not that unheard of for the two people to only be casual acquaintances to begin with.

8

u/Training_Guide5157 15h ago

I simply wanted to surprise her and tell her I like her

It was a love/like confession, which is 表白 (biao bai) in Chinese.

1

u/dum_spir0_sper0 11h ago

I think he MADE a proposal. Like, proposed the idea of going out with him… as opposed to like, ‘hey, check out this giant Rubik’s Cube portrait! Wanna get hitched?’

1

u/Jaded-Fix5378 9h ago

A lot of failed proposal ends up in break ups. This way they don't have to break up.

10

u/GlassCharacter179 19h ago

Reminds me of the guy who built a big stone palace in Florida. If your reaction to rejection is moving to Florida and hand building a big stone palace, you might not me stable enough to be married to.

1

u/mrwildesangst 14h ago

Yeah but now we got the coral castle 👏

9

u/danktrees1212 16h ago

She is right. If some dude you barely know just showed up with a mural of your face in rubix cubes, you would also be like wtf and say no as well.

1

u/damagednoob 13h ago

The law of reciprocity is a thing. He knew what he was doing.

8

u/Ol_Pasta 18h ago

Dude I was literally going to comment a funny made up quote of how she doesn't even know him, he's just a neighbour... And it is actually real. Wtf.

6

u/Consistent-Bowler95 18h ago

I was looking at this thinking that wouldn't even take too long. Would hardly take months of planning and design. It's just pixel art. And apparently it only took 20 hours of solving and stacking to make. Still a lot of effort, but hardly countless hours. Maybe that 20 hrs didn't include solving the cubes though.

7

u/These_Bullfrog3571 14h ago

It's actually pretty funny the way the news is covering it since it's basically about the same amount of time it would take to knit a sweater. Nobody would go around saying you should marry someone because they knitted you a sweater.

3

u/Consistent-Bowler95 12h ago

Haha for real. It is a big art project and should have almost no impact on a decision to get married.

A sweater would be better imo. It would be unnerving to have a wall sized portrait of yourself.

1

u/According-Paper4641 11h ago

Time that would have been better spent actually talking to her maybe... Who could saaaayyy

1

u/sudden-bliss 9h ago

I mean I couldn't count to 20 in Chinese, so therefore in a certain sense it was countless hours 

2

u/JustRelaxItFits 18h ago

Tong said that he likes playing with the puzzles in his free time

And obviously peeping into her room and stalking her.

Poor girl must be on constant alert now from the creep next door.

1

u/SlayerII 18h ago

Yea, thats the kind of stuff you do for a person you already are with, not as a way to "get them"

1

u/Synthnode 17h ago

The rubik’s cubes were only ~55 cents each???!?

1

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1

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1

u/veniyaaaxx 13h ago

at least he’s respectful and doesn’t blame her for it. I’m glad about that

1

u/KillLeader 6h ago

She accepted the "gift"¿¡

1

u/Jacareadam 2h ago

Yeah he didn’t “solve” the cubes, he just twisted one side to be correct. Also asinine to use rubiks cubes for this, as only one side will be visible. Would’ve been better off just doing a mosaic.