Since joining RedNote I have connected with a Mongolian rancher, a knitter in Shanghai, a bunch of musicians who are playing traditional Chinese songs on guitars and harps and other musicians playing rock and roll on pipas and zithers. I have had my brain rocked by what some people can do with water colors, and I have met a woman who, though she is on the opposite side of the world from me, has chosen to plant the same flowers in her garden as I have.
I have engaged in discussions on what foods we want to try from each other’s cultures, and even seen very respectful conversations on what foods make each side wary to try even though they believe the other side when they say it is good.
But most of all I have seen English speakers go out of their way to include Mandarin translations with their English comments, and I have seen Chinese people be so touched by that.
THIS IS WHAT THE INTERNET IS FOR YOU GUYS!
We had a glimpse of this very briefly in the earliest days of the internet (I’m talking mid 90s), but we did not have translation software back then, so the exchange wasn’t nearly on this level.
I am having so much fun. The world may be awful but also it is beautiful.
Let me correct that. Our governments may be making the world fucking awful, but when is commoners get together and hang out we find we are more alike than we are different and the world is fucking beautiful actually.