Just came across this incredibly wholesome story on Chinese TikTok (Douyin) and thought Reddit would love it. Note: Not my original content, all credit goes to the creator YUCC. I just grabbed some screenshots.

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After the Gaokao finally wrapped up, an art student from Guiyang No.1 High School spent a lot of time thinking about what to give his teachers. He ended up doing something amazing: he painted custom portraits of his teachers, but stylized them so the background perfectly matches the covers of the respective textbooks they teach.

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Here is how he reimagined them:

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- He turned his History teacher into a traditional ancient Chinese scholar-official.

- He drew his Chinese Literature teacher as a beautiful lady in a classic Qipao.

- He reimagined his Politics teacher as a stern judge. (The author only showed these three in the video).

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For a bit of background on how the Chinese school system works:

The Gaokao is the final university entrance exam after 12 years of school (elementary, middle, and high school). It is widely considered the most important—and most fair—exam in a Chinese student's life. There is no "holistic review" or extracurricular padding. Your score is everything. If you score high enough, the country's elite universities open their doors to you.

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The system varies by province, but most places use a "3+1+2" or similar matrix model (I've attached a chart to explain how it works).

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This specific student went through the "Art Gaokao" track (which also includes music, dance, calligraphy, etc.). For art students, the competition in their specialized art exams is absolutely cutthroat, even though the academic test score requirements are slightly lower.

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I also dug up pics of the Provincial Joint Art Exam. It’s absolutely wild—Extreme competition.

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After surviving such an intense exam, spending his free time creating these personalized textbook-themed portraits for his teachers is just so heartwarming. What do you guys think?

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Is it a decorative piece? If so, how would I display it? Hang it on my wall? Thank you in advance for your help

My Chinese friend is staying with me and his parents are very grateful for that. After they giving a few small gifts, I’d now like to give them something else. My friend is flying to China to visit his family for eight weeks and wanted to take a small German gift with him. Perhaps something funny. Would the ‘eggshell predetermined fracture point maker’ ("Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher") be okay? I’m a bit nervous about giving the wrong gift.

Context:

• Back in November Xi gave Lee a Xiaomi phone as part of a state gift.
• At the time Lee asked Xi if the phone was secure. Xi coyly said that he could check if there were any backdoors installed in the phone.
• In a recent state visit to China, Lee has used the same phone to take a selfie.

A dear friend has gifted this for my newborn. I'm worried that they've gifted me something more expensive than I'm comfortable with. Please helpe in letting me know the amount of money they spent so I can reciprocate in future.

I don’t have to get them anything—they’re just friends I met at uni in the UK—but I’d like to show a bit of appreciation. Maybe even treat them to a meal? What do you think?

I'm an American college student (20 years old) living with 3 roommates, 2 of whom are Chinese international students. I'm putting together goodie bags for all of them for Halloween, with some candy, self-care items, Halloween-themed pencils, etc.

Today I found out it's considered unlucky/inappropriate to give gifts wrapped in black in Chinese culture, but the bags I selected before discovering this are primarily black with an orange spiderweb design on them (picture attached). I'm planning to leave a note with the bags explaining that they are Halloween treats, but would it still be risky? Should I find plain orange bags instead?

I learned about other Chinese gifting taboos and everything else I'm including will not be a problem, but I don't want to accidentally offend my roommates. We are not very close but we live together and are courteous with each other, and I want to give them something so they can experience the holiday.

Hi everyone,

My friend gifted me this sweet from China. I was hoping someone could tell me if this is strictly vegetarian and avoids alcohol or not.

I did try google translate and seems the ingredients are not listed, so if anyone with understanding of the brand, or has a list of the ingredients could guide me it would me appreciated.

I am looking to avoid any animal lard or anything similar in the product. Thank you!

Hi everyone!

I'm Chinese American from Hawaii, and I'll be visiting my boyfriend's family in Germany for the first time!

My boyfriend is also ethnically Chinese, but his family lives in Germany. Since this will be my first time meeting his parents in person, I really want to make a good first impression and bring them something thoughtful.

I know gift-giving is an important part of Chinese culture, especially when meeting your partner's parents for the first time. I was thinking of bringing something from Hawaii since that's where I grew up, but I'm not sure what would be appropriate or appreciated.

For those of you who have met your Chinese partner's parents, or are Chinese parents yourselves, what gifts would you recommend?

Would you suggest something traditional, something unique from Hawaii, or a combination of both?

I'd love to hear your experiences and suggestions! Thank you!!

They said it was made in Beijing! I think it’s so pretty ❤️ They were visiting and they don’t speak English super well so I was curious what exactly it said! They said it means good luck :)

Hi friends,

Indian 28F marrying Chinese-American 29M looking for a gift to present during our wedding to his parents (as per my customs). We're struggling to find an appropriate gift and fiance isn't very helpful unfortunately as he says his parents don't expect anything and aren't that interested in material things.

I would love ANY suggestions you have - just throw them out there. What do old parents in their 60's like and enjoy from their home country (they don't live in the US). The only exceptions for us is that we don't give any meat/fish/animal products or alcohol or anything related to gambling.

And they're not very interested in Indian things (i.e sarees, bangles, spices...etc).

Some ideas I was considering:

• Chinese tea set
• High-end Chinese tea
• Cashmere shawl
• high-end wallet/scarf
• Indian sweet assortment (unsure how it will land)

Also, if you have any suggestions on where I could get these things reliabily online and shipped to the states, I'd appreciate it!

Thank you in advance!!!

Friendly guy at work gave me this after returning from China. What does this mean? What do these symbols say? I’m curious if he’s pulling a joke on me or if this is a genuine gift haha.

Hello! Today, I was having lunch with a friend at a Chinese restaurant we frequent very often, and our favorite waiter gifted us two of these chopsticks.

If I remember correctly he said they were hand made? And from his home (whether that meant China or his actual town I'm unsure) I'll attach some photos to see if anyone is familiar with these, I can't seem to find them anywhere online.

Any information at all is greatly appreciated, I am so ecstatic about this and my friend and I are already scheming on what we should get him in return!

Thank you!

English is not my native language. I originally wrote this in Chinese and translated it using Gemini, so please excuse any awkward phrasing. Hope you enjoy the read!

This Qixi (a traditional Chinese festival similar to Valentine’s Day), China’s budget coffee brand Luckin Coffee, famous as a crossover collaboration junkie, launched coffee products in collaboration with the couple animation “Wang Huanjun and Zhang Binzhi.” Unlike its past collaborations that received overwhelming praise, this partnership generated significant controversy. Many netizens questioned the low brand recognition of this IP, calling it an amateur couple animation, and felt they were essentially paying cash gifts to total strangers.

Looking back at Luckin’s past collaborations, they were mostly strong-meets-strong partnerships. Luckin itself is a well-known brand in the coffee industry, and its crossover partners, such as Moutai, Line Friends (Line Dogs), and Tom & Jerry, were top-tier entities in their respective fields.

In this way, users could experience top-tier, otherwise out-of-reach IPs — such as Moutai or Disney cartoon characters — cross-industry at a low cost of a dozen or twenty-some yuan. This was precisely why Luckin’s past collaborations repeatedly went viral on social media.

However, for this Qixi collaboration, the couple animation IP chosen by Luckin, “Wang Huanjun and Zhang Binzhi,” operated on a completely different scale of visibility compared to previous partners. The animation was merely influencer content on Douyin (a famous short-video platform in China). The comic of the same name was published only this year. It represents purely influencer content created by ordinary people, not a well-known IP that has stood the test of time.

Therefore, it is hardly surprising that netizens questioned this crossover as “paying cash gifts to an amateur couple.”

Of course, Luckin’s marketing department had its own dilemma. On one hand, top-tier IPs are limited in quantity. With Luckin releasing crossovers so frequently, top-tier IPs are bound to run out eventually. Crossovers require novelty, making it impossible to constantly rehash old ideas by reusing big IPs from before. Furthermore, licensing fees for certain top-tier IPs are extremely high, likely far exceeding Luckin’s budget.

On the other hand, as Luckin has developed to where it is today, markets in first- and second-tier cities are largely saturated, prompting Luckin to expand into lower-tier markets, such as fourth- and fifth-tier smaller cities and counties. Douyin covers a vast user base within these lower-tier markets, making the Douyin couple animation “Wang Huanjun and Zhang Binzhi” a strong entry point.

This explains why, despite facing widespread criticism after its launch, Luckin continued with the collaboration as planned.

After all, any commercial promotion inevitably faces opposition. As long as the issues are not fundamental — such as substandard product quality or the collaborated IP being banned due to a scandal — a portion of negative feedback has very limited impact on Luckin. Meanwhile, the growth in lower-tier market user acquisition brought by this collaboration is very real.

“The summit between President Trump and President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week could be the most significant encounter between American and Chinese leaders since Richard Nixon met Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1972,” Times Opinion columnist Thomas Friedman writes.

A major reason why has to do with globalization, Thomas continues:

The Nixon-Mao summit began the process of taking the world from disconnected to much more connected and then interconnected. When Nixon and Mao began easing China out of its isolation from the global economy — which Deng Xiaoping then vastly accelerated by shifting China to state-led capitalism — they unleashed a cascade of economic and technological forces.

By the time the early 21st century rolled around, the combination of China joining the World Trade Organization and the world being wired with the internet meant that more people in more places could compete, connect and collaborate in more ways for less money on more things than at any other time in human history. It is why I wrote a book in 2005 titled “The World Is Flat.”

It is in the nature of technological change, though, that each major step forward comes faster than the previous one, because it builds on the tools that the previous era unleashed. So, years after I argued that the world is flat, technology, and other forces, marched on and took us, as Dov Seidman, the founder of The HOW Institute for Society, argued, from interconnected to interdependent, or as he puts it, from flat to “fused.”

You could unplug from the flat world. There is no escaping the fused world. We are all going to rise and fall together now.

Read the full piece here, for free, even without a Times subscription.

Hello,

I have a Chinese elder couple as my neighbors. They have always been very friendly with us, we wave to eachother every morning as we do not speak eachothers language. The elder woman loves to garden, and her backyard is always full of fruits and veggies and it looks like she is running out of planters for her garden.

I have a set of 3 tiered black fabric planters that have been sitting in my garage for years and I would love to give them to her.

I looked up on google if it is something I could gift to her, and google search said not to gift black objects as it symbolizes death.

How accurate is this? Should I not give them to her?

Hello everyone, needing help finding a gift for my Chinese girlfriend's grandmother whom I am meeting for the first time in Shanghai.

For context, I am a white Canadian (26M) and have been dating my girlfriend for 7 years, and she is finally taking me to meet her maternal grandmother for the first time. We are from Canada, so it's a long trip to go meet her. During our stay, the grandmother is funding the entire trip (accommodation, activities, food), basically being an amazing host. I want to bring something (ideally from home) that she would appreciate. Anyone have gift ideas or things I should bring to show appreciation that would help get accepted by her asian family?

Thanks in advance!

TLDR: White Boyfriend of 7 years meeting GF chinese grandmother for the first time in Shanghai. Need gift ideas for grandma