The Chaoyang Trap

June 1, 2021 7:54 AM

A Newsletter about Everyday Life on the Chinese Internet. Their most recent article is on senior fashion and Wikipedia entries. [via mefi projects]
posted by aniola (11 comments total)

I don't have enough pop-cultural awareness of life in China to truly, deeply grok everything about these posts (that's okay, not everything has to be written at my level) but they offer a really in-depth, fascinating look at some things I don't have much pop-cultural awareness of.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:44 AM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've been enjoying this newsletter - it's got an entertaining style and full of information I'm not seeing in any of my usual reading circles.
posted by latkes at 9:52 AM on June 1, 2021

Pretty much what jacquilynne said. This like a cornucopia of cornucopias all the way down.

Episode 3 with For our first story, Simon Frank considers the strange, intense fandom in China around Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto.

immediately caught my eye because, first, Ryuichi Sakamoto. And, second but more lasting, because Chaoyang Trap.

Wow, the amount of what I don't know expands like the Big Bang. ...the mind reels, the intellect stands abashed.
posted by y2karl at 10:08 AM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

I read the fashion story today and forwarded the newsletter to a friend because it made me so happy. Was disappointed that I couldn't find anyone wearing Sponge Bob slippers.
posted by Bella Donna at 11:05 AM on June 1, 2021

spongebob is there (if hotlinks work...)
posted by maggieb at 11:25 AM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

also woohoo! lady in red
posted by maggieb at 11:29 AM on June 1, 2021

I look forward to the episode on masculinity!
posted by clew at 12:51 PM on June 1, 2021

Love Chaoyang Trap - easily the best newsletter on Chinese internet culture I’ve found, and always very enlightening about China in general. Each issue is so big, it’s more like a mini-magazine!
posted by adrianhon at 1:05 PM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

Fan from day one here. Krish created a great set of comics about living in China, the music scene, bullshit jobs.
posted by quartzcity at 7:23 PM on June 1, 2021 [4 favorites]

omg thank you for this newsletter. I'm reading the Ep 2 post and ha!!! my fandom observation (per works posted on AO3) wasn't just me imagining things -- earlier this year I was like, wait... is there a China-specific fandom for JUST Henry Cavill??

this is overall great. A lot of my understanding of China internet comes from SEAsian understanding of the country and our interactions with them, and this adds another layer to it.
posted by cendawanita at 10:17 AM on June 3, 2021

is there a China-specific fandom for JUST Henry Cavill??

By which i mean, and to tie it back to the subject of that particular post, there is A LOT of a/b/o fics with any number of Cavill characters written in Chinese, posted on AO3.
posted by cendawanita at 10:37 AM on June 3, 2021