• AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    21 days ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Today, Chinese media opine on the “myth of American democracy” and extensively cover U.S. mass shootings, police violence, political polarization and public security problems.

    By the mid-2000s, a generation of young Chinese had learned English from pirated copies of the U.S. show “Friends.” Rights activists like Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo looked up to the United States as a beacon of democracy.

    The final nail was hammered in by the Trump administration,” said David Shambaugh, director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University, referring to the 2009 financial crisis.

    Last year, Chinese film industry analysts declared the “era of Hollywood over” in China after domestic productions accounted for more than 80 percent of box office revenue.

    Encapsulating this paradigm shift: The Central Perk coffee shop — an exact replica of the cafe in the U.S. television show “Friends,” down to its fuzzy orange couch and a barista named Gunther — on the sixth floor of a mall in Beijing closed in 2020.

    One of the most popular shows in the country for years, “Friends” offered a glimpse of an American way of life that seemed to Du Xin, 45, who quit his job as an engineer to start the cafe, refreshingly open and full of possibility.


    The original article contains 1,599 words, the summary contains 207 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • Bartsbigbugbag
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      18 days ago

      My wife learned English from Friends lmao, this article isn’t wrong.

  • livus@kbin.social
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    20 days ago

    Part of a wider pattern. The US is losing soft power in many places, I think.

    • LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml
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      21 days ago

      This is a perfect example of how fucked up and brainwashed Americans are that even far right conspiracy theorists who could write this ignorant shit hate Trump too. It’s a chimp’s tea party of the damned.

      Normal people the world over here the USA. It’s not just the Chinese, any remnants of respect are gone for good.