Has anyone on here written about the ‘Three Theories’ on Chinese ‘keyboard politics’ social media that has been banned across all platforms for spreading ‘negative emotions’?

1. ‘Sexual repression theory’ boils down to the thesis: the problems that some young Chinese men face today are ultimately consequences of sustained repression of libido. The obsession with female virginity, the resentment of Chinese women dating foreign men, the desire to reproduce but denied the opportunity to do so due to socioeconomic pressures, etc. Inability to vent one’s frustrations of the workplace and social life translates into misogyny and public witch hunts of supposedly promiscuous women online.

2. ‘Manual labor mindset’ is the consequence of patriarchal disciplining of men into a life of hard work without care for one’s own emotions, mental health, or for that of others, in order to make money so they can get married and have kids. They are then confused when women reject this version of toxic masculinity and will tragically either be duped out of all the money they made by gold-diggers or end up lonely and sexually repressed (see above).

3. The ‘Apple-Android dichotomy’ analyzes life in terms of being ‘Apple’ - high-end, middle to upper class, or ‘Android’ - low-end, and symbolic of the lower class. Hence a city with international flights and Sam’s Clubs are ‘Apple cities’; a life of boba shop workers earning $400 a month is an ‘Android life’. It’s a humorous but sharp way of exposing the reality of class inequality in contemporary China. Once you are born to an ‘Android family’ your life has no hope.

If there’s interest I can write a fuller article on this. Remarkable how Chinese brainrot is so insulated from brainrot everywhere else…