This deserves a post all its own.

Most people in Asia are wearing masks to prevent getting sick, not because they are sick. This is the lesson of the flu pandemics they’ve gone through, and air pollution. How effective it is I have no idea, but at least they’re proactive about it now. If it were socially acceptable to stay away from work, school, and…

I rather admire their steel resolve to improve themselves and lack of sentimentality. I’m Chinese and I wish we had more of that. Frankly I don’t see the big moral difference between surgery and painting your lips outside the bounds, say, or gluing on big fake lashes. It’s all just skin-deep anyway.

As I understand it, Japan tried to wipe out Korea as a distinct nation and came close to succeeding. Palaces were destroyed, cultural artifacts were looted, Koreans had to adopt Japanese names, use Japanese to communicate, etc. They nearly lost their entire identity, which you can’t compare to simple acts of war. But…

What you’re saying is, the U.S. gave a F-CK.

Too bad you’re so far down in the thread. Great yarn.

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

:)

Yeah - if you have thousands and thousands of skinny young girls to choose from in order to spend years training to sing and dance, why would you pick an ugly one whose face you’ll have to fix too? Yes I’m sure there are many talented people who still needed a little adjustment here and there - and do it - but the…

I have an E84 (1994 530i) in my family in cosmetically very nice condition, low miles, and a buttery-smooth V8 engine, with a ton of other minor and not-so-minor problems. How can I restore it in a way that makes reasonable economic sense so this 20-year veteran gets to stay out of the scrap heap? It needs:

China Airlines is the flag carrier of Taiwan. Its majority shareholder is the Taiwan government (hence the parlimentary debate).

DING DING DING! This is the answer, folks.

Why do people throw that word around when what they really mean is “somebody is doing something I don’t like, even though it’s a thing they are well within their rights to do.”

I read this whole thread and this might be the creepiest, most original story (alongside “Look at me” below, and by original I’m not suggesting it’s made up). I’ve driven those same roads so I can totally see it in my head - the snow-covered landscape, dead silent in the middle of the night. Wow.

I can see you, but I’m also in the grays.

You know what you have to do ...

A lot of the anti-China paranoia and jingoism would seem pretty stupid if more people realized how fragmented the government really is.

I wonder how the heck they get their cars over here without changing plates. I’m guessing they were imported on some kind of pretext which didn’t include being driven on the streets, but is it really that easy?

You got it all wrong. Tattoos are banned not to keep out delinquents, but to keep out stupid people. Because tattoos are stoopid.

Join us, the All-Party Committee to Combat Footling Social Misunderstandings.