serpentza thoughts

[woodland]

Someone mentioned "Just look up the serpentza and laowhy86 YouTube channels"

I'm interested in what the guys here think of them. To me they're no better than the wumao guys.
They're kind of a few tiers below Johnny Harris. And I think Harris is pretty shallow.
When they first started off doing the motorbike trips, the videos were somewhat interesting - especially for people who haven't been to china, but these days its very one dimensional propaganda.
The content has gone somewhat stale.

Daniel Dumbrill (also on youtube) has an interesting video debunking them. It's worth a watch.

let's keep it civil.

[xapoya]

https://ufo.ngo/daniel-dumbrill-from...o-aristocracy/

This one is interesting. According to a bio written by Daniel Dumbrill himself on his old blog:

"Hi, my name is Daniel and I'm an alcoholic... Oops, wrong website . My name is Daniel and I am a high school drop out. I am 26 years old and live in Toronto."

There's a few videos discussed by both serpentza and laowhy86 on how Westerners ended up becoming so-called "white monkeys". Usually it starts out as these people not doing that great in life and saw a second chance in life when approached by Chinese state agents. I've been watching them both for many years and it's interesting.

Then again I'm jealous of serpentza, his Chinese wife is damn cute (and she's a doctor as well). Seeing how the both of them have great Chinese wives from mainland China and is pretty successful, I do think of them much highly compared to the likes of Daniel Dumbrill.

[xapoya]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xR0aUHPDWsA

If I'm not mistaken, serpentza's wife Sasha Hu is from Shenzhen.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bYi2pu6gNY0

The Chinese girl in the language comparison video about looks a bit like her as well but wayyy cuter. That sexy legs tho

[woodland]

Interesting article from an interesting source. I’ll leave it at that.

Both wives are nice. The videos with the wives are pretty benign. Their older videos are interesting- at some point there’s a drastic turn and now it’s unwatchable. It’s similar in content to that white guy (or white monkey as you say above) from China uncensored.


They seem to have found a niche. There’s a certain demand among people who want to validate their beliefs or assumptions. Being somewhat educated they feel a degree of unsavouriness with regards to their beliefs and are looking for “evidence” to validate them. They come in and provide that degree of legitimacy. It’s not a bad business model. Would be keen to see if there was a step change in their YouTube revenues.

[Whyme]

2 people who found that repeating Falun Gong propaganda points bring in great revenue from gullible people who are fearful of China's rise. They are not the only ones. In fact, there used to be a whole industry in Japan centered around predicting the collapse of China because as the books sold very well to the public.

[Minathy8724]

I agree with most of your statements @woodland.

I used to follow and watch serpentza and Laowhy86 when they both had less than 20K subscribers. They were battlers having fun, they were both teaching English in China and documenting their experiences in China. Both were pretty much losers in their home countries and looked to start their lives again in China. China gave them so much and kickstarted their success, yet they continue to spread lies and misinformation.

Things took a dark turn not long after their first motorcycle journey documentary. The negative narrative towards China was relentless just before they were banned from China. Most of their content is about berating China. You could literally replace China with USA. I stopped watching them for a while. I am not even sure if they are still married, but from the comments here, it appears they are still married.

Both should have been demonetized from the platform years ago, but unfortunately, there are lots of people believing their false narrative and single-dimensional propaganda.

[schloong]

Thanks OP Woodland for your post.

I have been to China more than a few times but not in the last 5 years or so. While I haven't heard of David Dumbrill previously, I had been following Serpentza & laowhy86 on & off for a while now. I particularly liked their YouTube clips when motorcycling all around China & have been to some of the places they have shown.

I think they are a bit OTT at times, but I do understand their way of thinking, expecially given the extreme measures the CCP take to show just how wonderful their country is and to hastily cover up anything that goes wrong, and all the while heaping shit on every western nation that does not submit to their whims / demands.

Just my 2 cents worth, cheers.

[charmingninjaman]

I agree with most of your statements @woodland.

I used to follow and watch serpentza and Laowhy86 when they both had less than 20K subscribers. They were battlers having fun, they were both teaching English in China and documenting their experiences in China. Both were pretty much losers in their home countries and looked to start their lives again in China. China gave them so much and kickstarted their success, yet they continue to spread lies and misinformation.

Things took a dark turn not long after their first motorcycle journey documentary. The negative narrative towards China was relentless just before they were banned from China. Most of their content is about berating China. You could literally replace China with USA. I stopped watching them for a while. I am not even sure if they are still married, but from the comments here, it appears they are still married.

Both should have been demonetized from the platform years ago, but unfortunately, there are lots of people believing their false narrative and single-dimensional propaganda.

These guys are just content creators and will do whatever they can to get more views - unfortunately this type of content sells as people like to watch it in an effort to validate their beliefs / propaganda stemming from the Reds under the bed mentality of times gone by.

Funny you say that you can basically replace "China" with "USA" - as that is exactly what another similar Channel named China Uncensored did - they've also created a new channel named "America Uncovered"

[begov94]

There's many people out there who went to Asia to become part-time English teachers to "reset" their lives and I reckon that's better than becoming spokespersons for a foreign government.

Even 'Best Ever Food Review Show' guy and 'Andrew Binsky' mentioned being English teachers in South Korea before kickstarting their YouTube career although they're doing food & travel rather than politics. Most of these spokespersons like the Barretts or Daniel Dumbrill were bums that couldn't build their life from scratch without help from a foreign government.

I don't watch them both (serpentza and laowhy86) as much anymore because it's the same as watching the news regarding Russia vs Ukraine - nothing much has changed even though people are more and more aware about the actual truths these days. All I'm waiting for is news that countries like China and Russia is making it easy for majority of overseas travellers to visit their countries without putting them under strict surveillance.

Like the time when Uzbekistan gave visa free entry to major passport holders back in 2019 - that was a great move as the country's economy had suffered for decades since the fall of the USSR. Unfortunately COVID came in later as a trainwreck but according to recent news it's picking up again and the government is looking at improving infrastructure to accommodate the increase in tourism.

According to both YouTubers they didn't mind living in China long term. It's probably better for the wife and kids as their in-laws would love to see their grandkids more often before moving onto the next life. They were making decent wages to live comfortably in China without needing to think about moving back to the US. As they said in a few old videos - they like living in China, the locals are great if you get along but it's the government policies that are making things hard. Similarly my reason for leaving my birth country would be the same, just that I chose not to bash the politics of my birth country because I know the politicians there are hopeless.

[rooter]

Annoying Seth Efriken accent

[begov94]

Annoying Seth Efriken accent

His accent isn't as outrageous as those ones I encountered in Vaucluse or St Ives. Some can be so outrageous it sounds almost like Carribbean accent.

[James_jones]

I'm interested in what the guys here think of them. To me they're no better than the wumao guys.

I liked them but haven't watched them for years. They were interesting when doing bike/pro china content and china eventually drove them away, even though they bent over backwards to be positive. Their comment sections used to have chinese calling them out for being negative when they were riding around on bikes not commenting on politics, living conditions, pollution or anything. Truly bizarre behaviour.

Perhaps just filming chinas permanently grey sky and posting it on a western platform was enough to trigger them.

[begov94]

Perhaps just filming chinas permanently grey sky and posting it on a western platform was enough to trigger them.

That's the reality of many "3rd world" Asian countries. The problem is that many Asians from "3rd world" countries can't accept the reality that their government, infrastructure and air quality just isn't as good as Western countries and that's why they think that the West is looking down on them. At least the West isn't covering up the fact that they do have unemployment and poverty issues, however it is the wrongful perception that Asians have about Western countries because of what they see in Hollywood movies and popular news media.

In my birth country there used to be lots of slums like in South Africa. Then one day the fourth PM decided to get rid of all that and turn it into a metro wonderland - overhead light rail trains, skyscrapers, privatised garbos to increase cleanliness of the city. But the fact will always remain that it is only big cities that will look modernised whereas the rural areas will remain a lower incomed, underdeveloped place because of different mindsets. Whenever overseas media report on these rural areas the government will always retaliate by claiming these news media is trying to paint a bad image of the country by showcasing the not-so beautiful countryside.

Beauty is in the mind of the beholder. I for one had no problems staying over at friend's place in the rural villages. There may be frequent blackouts, lack of internet connections and lots of mozzies but to experience the simple blessings a villager is grateful for each day, that's bliss. That's why I'm making it a mission to one day experience my motherland. Many of my people had experienced staying a few months in the motherland and everyone was wishing the government would give them permanent visas.

In regards to the topic, I would say that the negative commenters that are potentially the wumao or 50 cent army are a bunch of city dwellers who dislikes life in the rural areas hence the reason why they think the rural underdeveloped areas should be hidden away. It's like the bunch of Chinese colleagues from my old workplace who laughed at me for owning an Oppo phone rather than an iPhone or Samsung - they're blind to the simple bliss of life. If you ask a rural villager what he or she thinks about the videos showcasing the rural areas they would've been thankful that people are interested in their ways of life.

Even in my motherland - people are calling the government corrupt for selling their souls to China yet they don't hide the fact that there are slums in the capital city and that many rural folks still live like our ancestors. In fact, it is gaining tourists recently because many people are interested in that sort of nature sustaining nomadic life.

[woodland]

Interested to know your “birth country” or “my motherland” as you keep referring to.

[begov94]

Interested to know your “birth country” or “my motherland” as you keep referring to.

Birth country - Malaysia.

Motherland - the Eurasian steppes, territory of the old Gökturk Empire all the way to the Mongol Empire. To be precise, the lands encompassing the Volga region of Russia all the way to Northern Xinjiang/Southwest Mongolia. I can't pinpoint an exact modern country as my people are scattered all along those plains which encompasses several countries.

[woodland]

A few points to the points you have made:

As far as I’m aware the Chinese govt is not forcing any government to trade with them. These choices are made by the various countries themselves. So not entirely sure what the point is - Yanis Varofarkis has some interesting points re Chinese investments in Africa and Asia. Yes the Chinese are obviously self interested, but don’t see why this is an issue. Chinese influence is relatively benign when considering the damage done by the colonial powers.

I wouldn’t call either China or Malaysia “3rd world” . I think Malaysia has done a decent job in developing itself too.
Infrastructure not as good as western countries? If anything it is better.


For sure there’s Chinese trolls just like there’s trolls from other parts of the world. I don’t believe serpentza or ADV changed their tune simply due to these trolls. Furthermore I don’t think those trolls are representative of your average Chinese folk.
It would be like taking those skinheads in Ballarat and assuming Australia is a bogan right wing nation.

[begov94]

They're not forced but they can be pressured to trade. That's why China and Japan had to open their ports up to the Europeans during their isolationist era. Now they learn that they can do similar things by pressuring other Asian countries into leasing their lands for 99 years and making trade agreements to supply them certain natural resources or face sanctions. The dirty thing about diplomacy is that they never use the word "force" but they always imply that certain "consequences" may arise if requests are not met.

Unfortunately I would still call Malaysia "3rd world". It definitely was on par with Singapore back in the 90s, I remember the Malaysian ringgit being the same value as the Singaporean dollar which was also pretty close to the Australian dollar. When the 5th PM and it's subsequent replacements took power things went downhill. There's many speculations that the economy of Malaysia will never reach its peak again any time soon. Corruption was really bad during the 6th PM's tenure which actually called for an international investigation.

The Malaysian infrastructure could do better IMO. In my experience it is pretty much facing the same issues as Australia - lack of work ethics. The only difference is that Australia has several times more the wealth so they can afford to be complacent. Malaysia on the other hand cannot afford such complacency anymore, however in recent years the complacency has gotten worse. It is similar to the complacency in China in regards to health & safety or quality assurance.

Myself I took up German work ethics. The only problem is, no one in Malaysia liked my work ethics because they're scared of losing their jobs if every employer expects their workers to work like me. Even when I came to Australia, many workplaces were using me because of my work ethics. At least now my current workplace benefits from having me in their team because of my knowledge and ethics that helps maintain our customer satisfaction.

Trolls will be trolls. The problem is when trolls are paid to do the trolling. In Malaysia there used to be paid trolls as well as paid voters. Recently the practice has been mostly eradicated and I'm hoping that it'll stay that way because I still have close families living there.

[James_jones]

Yes the Chinese are obviously self interested, but don’t see why this is an issue.

Its not an issue, in fact it is wonderful. Imagine if Europe or the US were allowed to do this as well.

I don’t believe serpentza or ADV changed their tune simply due to these trolls.

They changed their tune because they left china due it being completely unwelcoming to them and constantly causing problems. They tried to portray it in a good light and perhaps the other poster who mentioned suburbanites don't like rural china being shown off (when ironically many westerners would travel there given the chance and likely find it more interesting than most of the big cities) was correct about this aspect of wumao posting. But they didn't change their message because of comments lol

Imagine even thinking that.

[begov94]

You have to understand the mentality of 3rd world country Asians in order to understand this issue with China vs the West.

In my views the Han Chinese have been humiliated twice in their whole history - they were conquered by "minorities" twice during the Yuan and Qing dynasties. Their behaviour is based on preserving face value - they don't want to lose face like in the past. Their constant bickering with the West is basically them trying to save face. They don't want to end up like Japan - having to dumb down their economy in the 90s just because the US is scared of another Asian invasion.

To be honest I don't mind China being the richest nation in Asia. If that is really true China wouldn't be forcing countries to lease their lands and making countries such as Pakistan their puppets. They would've invested in other countries the proper way. Even in Malaysia they had to terminate a deal with Chinese Railways because of a sneaky clause that the Chinese introduced to the previous government. Unfortunately they had to cough up the fine for terminating the contract but it is better than letting the Chinese own a railway in Malaysia which can cause problems down the line.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...gh-2021-07-15/

[begov94]

(when ironically many westerners would travel there given the chance and likely find it more interesting than most of the big cities)

In my travels I never liked staying in big cities. People in cities are mostly dickheads who think tourists pack money in their suitcases. You go to the rural areas and people will cook you a good meal without asking for money - they know you don't know shit about their culture and want you to experience it. It is no wonder the trolls consist mostly of suburbanites because in real life they're just as bitter due to the 12-hour work day, 6 days a week.