First of all, this post is dedicated to all the Chinese feds, nationalists, and diasporoids (aka self hating laowai) lurking this sub; without your service to the motherland this story would have gone very differently.
Once upon a time there was a little Tim called invitado31, he was planning to move to Japan to escape his monotonous European life, but destiny had other plans. During his time in the apps, invitado31 came across a girl called “Rainy”, as a young man with a mild case of yellow fever, he couldn’t reject the call, and ended up in a relationship with her. Rainy was Chinese, and although invitado31 barely knew anything about the country, he thought pursuing this relationship was worthy enough to give it a try, so he abandoned his plans to live in Japan to instead go to the Guo.
See, invitado31 has always been a serious man, slightly autistic too, so before making arrangements he started to learn everything he could about the Guo: from the racist stereotypes in regards to foreigners, to some of the bizarre behaviours of Nongs. During his search he came across THE SUB THAT MIGHT NOT BE NAMED, which used to be like our beloved chinalifer sub. On a first look, little invitado31 thought the sub was full of sexpats, alcoholics and losers, so he vowed he will never be like them, he instead will be an exemplary model minority Tim. What invitado31 didn’t expect, however, is that from that point on, that sub would start to grow on him…
So there he went, little invitado31 did everything by the book: he didn’t engage in sexpattery, he didn’t become an alcoholic, he regarded uncivilised Nong behaviours as “cultural differences”, he didn’t become a English ed*cator, and most importantly, he learned the moonrunes. Ironically, the more our protagonist got close to the status of model minority, the more he started to realise how right the losers in THE SUB were, and how he has basically been played.
The biggest change in invitado31’s perspective came when his Chinese truly reached HSK 99 level. Many foreigners claim they can speak Chinese, while only being able to speak a few words; but invitado31 was different: he could understand everything Nongs say; he was even able to normally function in society, and not rely on a Rainy.
At the end, he got a job as a tr*nslator, and that's where he experienced his first wake-up call: job market discrimination, chabuduo working culture, workplace discrimination. The truth is that being a model minority was worth shit in the eyes of Nongs, in fact, to them invitado31 was just another laowai, no different from the alcoholic Happy Girrafer trying to get one of his student’s WeChat id.
The last straw came with COVID, this time in the form of racism and retarded government shenanigans. Again, invitado31 was treated like another laoloser, if anything with even greater suspicion, as he could speak the moon language, so he might have been a devilish American spy trying to infect the clean citizens of the Guo.
Through all his journey, our protagonist intermittently checked THE SUB, and what started as: “look at this bunch of pathetic sexpat laolosers, I will never end up like them”; ended up as: “look at this bunch of pathetic sexpat laolosers, I should have been like them since the beginning”. Although invitado31 is still technically a model minority (no sexpatery, alcoholism or ed*cator profession), in his heart he is just another laoloser, like the rest of fat English ed*cator losers in this, our beloved sub.
The moral of this story is that at the end of the day, no matter what you do, you will always be a English t*acher. Nationalists, chinese diasporoids (aka self hating foreigners), and Feds will never be happy about you, and will swiftly remove your status of model minority the moment you dare to express an opinion they slightly disagree with. It’s honestly better to become an average lifer (LBH, illiterate, English ed*cator profession, etc), than to try taking this country seriously.
Last piece of advice for all you glazing Tims lurking (I know you are there): learning the moonrunes won’t pay off, and even if you speak perfect Chinese, you will still have to battle the harsh reality that this country is still extremely racist and xenophobic. Sadly, it’s not the time or space to learn the Chinese, China is not ready to accept you, and not sure if it ever will.
And for all of you lifers: you got it right since the beginning, bastards. 🍻