6 ms·

> being stuck in my apartment, nowhere to eat, drink, or even walk without an appropriate face mask As someone who never been there (or in China for that matte

> being stuck in my apartment, nowhere to eat, drink, or even walk without an appropriate face mask As someone who never been there (or in China for that matter), is "face mask" a synonym for something or you mean literally a face mask? Don't think it's mandatory to wear face masks, just that a lot of people do it, right? If someone knows better, please correct me

tlrobinson 7y ago
I don't know if it's mandatory, but I suspect "a lot of people" means "pretty much everyone" right now.
- capableweb 7y ago
  I see. So you wouldn't literally "stuck" right? You can still go out, it's not like martial law or something like that.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    Some cities it is required right now (eg Guangzhou). I’m not sure about Beijing, but I could imagine them doing that. The problem is that in those same places face masks are sold out, and you’d have to go out and buy one even if they weren’t. Not only that, but given their scarcity people aren’t probably replacing their face masks as much as they should be, making them actually more unsanitary. No one will shoot you if you go out without a face mask. However, people will think you are being rude, you might get a lot of stink eye.
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    I would not be surprised how quickly things might turn from "mandatory home quarantine strongly recommended" to "mandatory home quarantine enforced by military force". This is China after all. If you decide to stay, be prepared.
    - krageon 7y ago
      At this point this is just vacuous propaganda being repeated while adding very little of value. Give us some examples, why do you think this? While you are reconsidering your message, perhaps you can recognise why repeating the ideological messages of your own government overseas might not be the right move for humanity as a whole.
      - toomuchtodo 7y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/China-up-close/Martial-law-lite-Hong-Kong-has-echoes-of-pre-Tiananmen-days https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/China-up-close/Martia...
prewett 7y ago
No, literally a face mask, so that people know that you aren't going to give them the virus. I don't know if it's mandatory to wear a face mask. But it doesn't seem like it would be too different from what always happens in Chinese New Year in Beijing. All the shopkeepers aren't from Beijing originally, so they close shop for two weeks and go back to their hometown. There's pretty much no restaurants open, except maybe chains. And people are shooting off fireworks all day, so the air is just as polluted as always (generally well above the level of an airport smoking lounge in the winter), so you want to be wearing an N95 mask anyway. (Generally if you can't see the mountains around Beijing, you should consider wearing an N95 mask)
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  There is usually something open, and the main closures are just for a couple of days during the thick of it, and then afterwards there are lots of CNY sales going on. But that isn’t the point: we usually get out for a few days anyways during CNY, but we are more than a week after CNY-eve, so things should be returning to normal.
- BurningFrog 7y ago
  > All the shopkeepers aren't from Beijing originally Why is that? Are the native Beijingers to rich and fancy to run a shop?
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    In general Beijingers have a higher income while running a shop pays low income, so migrant workers are the ones that mainly fill demand for such labor (including shop keepers, waitresses, cooks, etc...). Consider that Beijing has 21 million residents but less than 14 million hukou holders, there is a lot of migrant labor to go around.
    - edoceo 7y ago
      Hukou, new word for me, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou - short answer is like a household registration, social, caste like thing.
a_c 7y ago
Beijing is notorious for its air pollution. It is a literal mask AFAICT, to block off pollutants
- whoevercares 7y ago
  Since 2017 the air quality has been greatly improved for Beijing. I just spent about three weeks there and the sky is surprisingly blue
  - teknologist 7y ago
    Factories are closed at the moment. The skies tend to clear up when that happens. The same thing also happens in other cities when there's a big central government visit (e.g. Xi Jinping) planned.
  - derivagral 7y ago
    I was there for a week in November (from NE USA) and our group had respiratory issues with the air there. Shanghai later in the trip was much better. I know it used to be worse, but it still isn't what I'd call good.
bananabreakfast 7y ago
Synonym is the wrong word here. A synonym means another word that means exactly the same thing. So the synonym of a face mask would, by definition, also have to be a literal face mask. You mean to ask if this is slang for something else. Which, in this case, it is not. It's a mask over your face which is extremely common in China.
- alexpetralia 7y ago
  Not only did your response fail to capture the actual definition of synonym, but you also ignored any nuances. It is most certainly _not_ used linguistically for words with _exactly_ identical meanings. Here's the definition from Merriam Webster: "one of two or more words or expressions of the same language that have the same or nearly the same meaning in some or all senses." But, even more importantly, words can have nuances! Here's a nuance: "a word or phrase that by association is held to embody something (such as a concept or quality)." In both cases, the notion of identical meaning is absent. It would also completely vitiate its common usage. Synonym is best thought as simply a similarity in meaning.
Thorrez 7y ago
If you don't wear a face mask, drones will follow you around telling you to put one on. https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/status/1223218977570078721 https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/status/12232189775700787...
- jhvkjhk 7y ago
  This is just another tiktok video.
  - Thorrez 7y ago
    Is it fake? I don't think being posted to tiktok tells me whether it's real or fake. Even if it is fake, @globaltimesnews is run by the Communist party, so either they actually are sending drones out to tell you to put on a mask, or they want you to think they're sending drones out to tell you to put on a mask.

tlrobinson 7y ago

I don't know if it's mandatory, but I suspect "a lot of people" means "pretty much everyone" right now.

capableweb 7y ago
I see. So you wouldn't literally "stuck" right? You can still go out, it's not like martial law or something like that.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  Some cities it is required right now (eg Guangzhou). I’m not sure about Beijing, but I could imagine them doing that. The problem is that in those same places face masks are sold out, and you’d have to go out and buy one even if they weren’t. Not only that, but given their scarcity people aren’t probably replacing their face masks as much as they should be, making them actually more unsanitary. No one will shoot you if you go out without a face mask. However, people will think you are being rude, you might get a lot of stink eye.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  I would not be surprised how quickly things might turn from "mandatory home quarantine strongly recommended" to "mandatory home quarantine enforced by military force". This is China after all. If you decide to stay, be prepared.
  - krageon 7y ago
    At this point this is just vacuous propaganda being repeated while adding very little of value. Give us some examples, why do you think this? While you are reconsidering your message, perhaps you can recognise why repeating the ideological messages of your own government overseas might not be the right move for humanity as a whole.
    - toomuchtodo 7y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/China-up-close/Martial-law-lite-Hong-Kong-has-echoes-of-pre-Tiananmen-days https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/China-up-close/Martia...

prewett 7y ago

No, literally a face mask, so that people know that you aren't going to give them the virus. I don't know if it's mandatory to wear a face mask. But it doesn't seem like it would be too different from what always happens in Chinese New Year in Beijing. All the shopkeepers aren't from Beijing originally, so they close shop for two weeks and go back to their hometown. There's pretty much no restaurants open, except maybe chains. And people are shooting off fireworks all day, so the air is just as polluted as always (generally well above the level of an airport smoking lounge in the winter), so you want to be wearing an N95 mask anyway. (Generally if you can't see the mountains around Beijing, you should consider wearing an N95 mask)

seanmcdirmid 7y ago
There is usually something open, and the main closures are just for a couple of days during the thick of it, and then afterwards there are lots of CNY sales going on. But that isn’t the point: we usually get out for a few days anyways during CNY, but we are more than a week after CNY-eve, so things should be returning to normal.
BurningFrog 7y ago
> All the shopkeepers aren't from Beijing originally Why is that? Are the native Beijingers to rich and fancy to run a shop?
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  In general Beijingers have a higher income while running a shop pays low income, so migrant workers are the ones that mainly fill demand for such labor (including shop keepers, waitresses, cooks, etc...). Consider that Beijing has 21 million residents but less than 14 million hukou holders, there is a lot of migrant labor to go around.
  - edoceo 7y ago
    Hukou, new word for me, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou - short answer is like a household registration, social, caste like thing.

a_c 7y ago

Beijing is notorious for its air pollution. It is a literal mask AFAICT, to block off pollutants

whoevercares 7y ago
Since 2017 the air quality has been greatly improved for Beijing. I just spent about three weeks there and the sky is surprisingly blue
- teknologist 7y ago
  Factories are closed at the moment. The skies tend to clear up when that happens. The same thing also happens in other cities when there's a big central government visit (e.g. Xi Jinping) planned.
- derivagral 7y ago
  I was there for a week in November (from NE USA) and our group had respiratory issues with the air there. Shanghai later in the trip was much better. I know it used to be worse, but it still isn't what I'd call good.

bananabreakfast 7y ago

Synonym is the wrong word here. A synonym means another word that means exactly the same thing. So the synonym of a face mask would, by definition, also have to be a literal face mask. You mean to ask if this is slang for something else. Which, in this case, it is not. It's a mask over your face which is extremely common in China.

alexpetralia 7y ago
Not only did your response fail to capture the actual definition of synonym, but you also ignored any nuances. It is most certainly _not_ used linguistically for words with _exactly_ identical meanings. Here's the definition from Merriam Webster: "one of two or more words or expressions of the same language that have the same or nearly the same meaning in some or all senses." But, even more importantly, words can have nuances! Here's a nuance: "a word or phrase that by association is held to embody something (such as a concept or quality)." In both cases, the notion of identical meaning is absent. It would also completely vitiate its common usage. Synonym is best thought as simply a similarity in meaning.

Thorrez 7y ago

If you don't wear a face mask, drones will follow you around telling you to put one on. https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/status/1223218977570078721 https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/status/12232189775700787...

jhvkjhk 7y ago
This is just another tiktok video.
- Thorrez 7y ago
  Is it fake? I don't think being posted to tiktok tells me whether it's real or fake. Even if it is fake, @globaltimesnews is run by the Communist party, so either they actually are sending drones out to tell you to put on a mask, or they want you to think they're sending drones out to tell you to put on a mask.