Chinese slackers embrace "fat otaku happiness"

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/02/fat-happy-water.html

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Bite the wax tadpole!

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(pizza is “fat happy pancake” and Coke is “fat happy water”).

Truth in advertising.

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Bring your ancestors back from the dead!

Or not:

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coming to china soon “Fat Happy Type 2 Diabetes”

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Wow, it didn’t take China long to go down the same road the good ol’ US of A has been on for several decades now. Late stage capitalism already?

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budha

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It’s not clear how “fat happy” fits in with the resurgence in labor-oriented Communism among young Chinese people.

Perhaps it’s the idea that the Party always promised them a comfortable and secure lifestyle resulting from following the system’s rules (excel at school, be a workaholic, live clean and healthy, obey the authorities, etc.), but that “somehow” only the cronies and arse-lickers who break the rules end up getting that.

Some young people have responded to that situation by calling for reforms to this corrupt system that reflect the values the state only pays lip service to. Meanwhile others are saying “screw it, if the system is this broken I’m going to figure out a way to be happy and fulfilled without doing what it says.”

This is happening in a different way in the U.S., with its less authoritarian version of late-stage capitalism. Some young people are supporting progressive movements while some are rejecting the lifestyle model that worked well during the postwar economic prosperity but that doesn’t any more.

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Please God, tell me they call broccoli “happy little trees.”

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high-calorie snacks, which are given ironic nicknames (pizza is “fat happy pancake” and Coke is “fat happy water”).

Ironic in what sense?

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Next thing, they’ll be voting for Trump. Not because of politics, but for aesthetic reasons.

Strange… I always thought that ‘Coke Adds Life’ was the line (mis)translated as ‘Coke Brings Your Ancestors Back From The Dead’ :grin:

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Neat! This actually sounds like a reasonable reaction to unreasonable social pressure, if you bother to read past the first two paragraphs.

It’s interesting that the article translates “zhai” as “otaku” (Japanese for “nerd,” very roughly) instead of, say, “nerd.” I guess this subculture is directly influenced by Japanese otaku culture, but it’s still an interesting word choice for an English article.

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That’s like any day ending in “y” for me.

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