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That’s a great question. In the early days, physical travel permits were indeed the norm. But the most effective 'security precaution' was psychological. We ha
by Vincent_Yan404 10mo ago
That’s a great question. In the early days, physical travel permits were indeed the norm. But the most effective 'security precaution' was psychological.
We had secrecy education (保密教育) starting as early as primary school. We were taught from a very young age that our city didn't exist to the outside world, and we simply didn't talk about it. But when I was a kid ,I didn't know anything about 404.
- sophrosyne42 10mo agoGiven those precautions and your training, was it hard to share about it? Aren't you worried about the Chinese government punishing you for sharing?
- saltwatercowboy 10mo agoHe sells a storytelling course... perhaps this is meant to be a 'gotcha' where he reveals the con after the fact? My guess is there are people reading this who know something isn't quite right.
- Vincent_Yan404 10mo agoI can personally guarantee that this piece is 100% non-fiction.My course also focuses on narrative writing techniques.Does 'Storytelling' have to imply fiction?In Chinese "story(故事）" just things happened, it can be real or fiction .
- schoen 10mo agoThere are a lot of subtleties about connotation here. I would say that "storytelling" traditionally primarily meant fiction, but some modern uses also include narrative technique generally, including nonfiction and also marketing. There may also be older traditions of nonfiction storytelling, but that has some connotation of a ritualized or formalized activity (e.g. children sitting in a circle listening to a recitation). The term that has no connotations of fiction is probably "narrative". I think many languages have closely related words for fictional narratives and nonfictional narratives.
- onraglanroad 10mo agoI don't think that's true. Perhaps in your dialect of English, but if I was down the pub and someone started with, "Did I ever tell you the story of when I...", I certainly wouldn't assume it was fictional.
- schoen 10mo agoI think "tell you the story of" has a different connotation from "storytelling"! E.g. if you said someone was good at "storytelling" as a skill, then I would expect it to be most likely fictional. I agree that "tell you the story of..." could easily be nonfictional.
- anadem 10mo agoTo me "storytelling" certainly includes true stories, and isn't limited to fiction at all; "narrative" isn't a word I'd use in describing events.
- jibal 10mo agohttps://themoth.org/ https://themoth.org/
- johanyc 10mo agoHere's a chinese article about 404 published back in 2020. https://chaiwanbenpost.net/article/%25E4%25B8%25AD%25E5%259C%258B%25E6%259C%2580%25E7%25A5%259E%25E7%25A7%2598%25E7%259A%2584%25E5%259F%258E%25E5%25B8%2582%25EF%25BC%258C%25E6%25B2%2592%25E6%259C%2589%25E5%2590%258D%25E7%25A8%25B1%25EF%25BC%258C%25E5%258F%25AA%25E6%259C%2589%25E4%25B8%2580%25E5%2580%258B%25E4%25BB%25A3%25E8%2599%259F%25EF%25BC%258C%25E5%258F%25AB404/1670 https://chaiwanbenpost.net/article/%25E4%25B8%25AD%25E5%259C...
- Vincent_Yan404 10mo agoI ate dinner with this author, our parents know each other.
- the_af 10mo agoHis story recounts some of your paragraphs word for word, e.g. the execution of the murderer who hacked another man with an axe, right down to the judge uttering the exact same phrase, the same anecdote about using sorghum liquor for the smell, that "the whole Gobi desert smelled of liquor", etc. It's too much coincidence for the two of you to write the exact same things, word for word, all from memory, after so many years. Did you write the exact same paragraphs by chance, were the two blog posts a collaborative effort, did you get together and pooled your recollections, or what?
- Vincent_Yan404 10mo agoIt is no coincidence. In a secluded and tightly-knit community like Plant 404, an extreme event like this would immediately spread throughout the entire area. The author you mentioned is Li Yang. We know each other, and our parents know each other as well. He published his piece before I did. Since the person involved was his classmate, he was able to provide more first-hand details, such as the part about riding a bicycle to see that boy. When we had safety education at school, the teachers would still use examples from twenty years ago—like someone getting hit by a car. This is how it was in the plant: once something happened, people would keep talking about it for twenty years.
- Vincent_Yan404 10mo agoAnd how did you know I sold storytelling course before, did I mention it somewhere?
- saltwatercowboy 10mo agoYou mention it on your Wordpress.
- Vincent_Yan404 10mo agoI did write and publish this story in Chinese first.So I hope it's fine.