mao_dun

not entirely sure what you mean by "left thoughts" (eg what all that encompasses/excludes) but I'll give it a shot

ngl most of chinese society isn't very political and this is reflected in video games. (I'd say cinema is kind of an exception but also there's established support structures esp. by the party for the film industry; even then it's more common for "left themed" movies to be about specific historical events or important people, than like, Communism In a Fictional/Fantasy/Scifi setting, of which I can't name a single one of those off the top of my head. IMO there's good reasons for this*, even regardless of publications & RFT bureaus.) More popular setting/thematics of CN-based video games are culture or [older, usually not modern] history, or a fantastical mix of both. Additionally many games particularly the smaller ones are Chinese-language only, no English translation available.

When I played Genshin I remember some cleverly crafted writing that was ambiguous enough for western (sinophobic and anticommunist/anti-antiimperialist) audience to interpret differently, particularly the dendro area sumeru. I don't play it myself but I have a friend who plays Honkai: Star Rail and who regularly gets excited about the more overt parallels to revolutionaries/history in the writing but I'm not sure if that's only the Chinese language version/if that gets dulled down in English translation. Also not sure if grinding and slogging thru a gacha game just for some plot here and there is your cuppa tea.

.* alternative history even if overtly fictional is generally discouraged. i think the reasons are obvious (just look at how western media spins 6-4)

Right on. Sorry if I misread what was intended to be voiced from "average centrist" pov, there's been a ton of ai/tech reactionary buzz even among nominally "communist" circles recently, to the point where I'm even irked when people call generative tools "slop machines" in the same way they say "chinese goods" to insinuate cheap/bad product, when it's like, that's what you (or rather, walmart and amazon and they've monopolized and limited what alternative options you have) ordered the cheapest crap (for highest markup). Does nobody remember handmade slop content farms like 5minutecrafts? Same "market forces" (if you wanna call it that) are just ordering the same "slop" just from different sources, it's not like before genai came to wider prominence there was actually that much less "slop" and un-factual/poor quality/misleading content.

um. factories [physical and organizational structures of productive labor] aren't a "means of oppression". Capitalists owning them and workers not having control or ownership of the conditions, operations, product etc of them are the "means of oppression", not the factories themselves. Do we at the 'grad need a rehash of marxism/ML basics...?

qi gong/modified tai chi and meditation practices (by themselves) are at worst harmless, but unfortunately that cult uses that as a front/excuse/cover to describe and advertise as their primary activities, and they even go as far to ascribe spirituality to those activities and ~~synthesize~~ syncretize them into their belief system, particularly their version of faith healing.

Like it's not even medical quackery it's straight up faith healing, or rather, they believe that if you come down with bodily sickness, it's a reflection of impurity in your thoughts/belief/practices. And furthermore, you shouldn't even touch (evil, something to do with aliens/ufos) modern medicine at all: if you believe in their cult leader enough and do the Correct Practices and think the most pure/correct Thoughts particularly about their cult leader you will be healed. If you fail to be healed through FLDF practice it means you didn't do enough. Worse, part of that "good deeds/practices" to idk up your spirit points would be to contribute labor to cult activities (for example proselytizing, putting up flyers, writing, etc, all for no monetary pay)... in order to 'heal'!!!

iirc this belief system was AMONG the main reasonS they got kicked out of the PRC, family members of FLG "practitioners" lodged many complaints to the government that their loved ones were dying of colds and easily curable diseases as well as refusing cancer screenings/treatments.

so like... were these all diaspora from the fleeing aristocrat/theocrat class when the theocracy was ousted (obligatory "my recent ancestor had a monopoly on all eggs in china and the see see pee is evil" screenshot, except replace it with "my recent ancestor owned human skin drums of ritual importance") or..?

anyway "I cry for freedom thousands of miles away while my country is inhabited by a language that is foreign to us" while congregating on the anglophone webbed site

0. accelerationism (someone else did mention in their reply)

1. lelouch vi britannica is an anime character and someone the likes of him doesn't exist irl (intended tone:light)(sorry, couldn't resist)

2. "socialist-sympathetic petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie" don't exist in the US at least not in any meaningful or organized capacity, and you more or less described why a hot mess contradiction would mean they self-select for "extinction" under a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, but they (well, at least the national bourgeoisie) exist in the PRC. Obviously the difference is that the PRC is a dictatorship of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie are not the ruling class, however, the national bourgeoisie are permitted and encouraged to cooperate in building the nation and the socialist project. One such guy [who's shown up in english-language media from time to time] is a venture capitalist Eric Li 李世默, who I recall describing his venture capitalist role as "willing to take on more risk than the government normally would [in supporting/funding new businesses new tech new fields]", but he's just one example. I urge those curious to independently research the topic further, but keep in mind that the conditions, particularly historic and social, in the US are vastly different from those in the PRC.

(edit:I must note that all citizens in prc benefit from social goods and relevant conditions such as relatively affordable quality healthcare, with access still expanding to more rural areas, and relatively unprecarious housing. as such, there's less pressure compared to both workers and capitalists in the US to scramble, squeeze, and cutthroat-compete, or blame others of their class or blame workers/immigrants [I can't say non-existent tho. esp re:bigotry towards immigrants in places like hk]； well, for the blame game, there's also some difference in political education [again not perfect... chinese liberals do exist and many are proletariats tho plenty are wannabe-bourgeois])

I don't have personal experience here, but something I looked into for myself in the past (and don't currently have much opportunity to get into atm) as a starting point is workforwater.org -- more or less similar advice re:look at prospective career paths specific to what you're looking for. That website/org seems to have a (nation)wide but not super deep network to help connect mentors, apprenticeships/ish (depending on the role/location), and intern programs, at least for both water utilities and wastewater treatment industry. Either way, it's a leg up in terms of networking for that specific area. Many of the higher positions require engineering, although I can't recall if it's mechanical or civil or either/both.

Just thought to put it out there in case you had some interest in that field, infrastructure might be crumbling in this country but it's still sorely needed, and will be needed always... so, points for job availability and stability.

Dark factories sounds really awesome (best bet would be mechanical->robotics or electrical??) but unless you plan to leave the US I can't see heavy or innovative automation getting off the ground here unless it's under the graces of bezos or musk or their ilk, or a startup looking to eventually get acquired by venture capital (this is an extremely precarious position to be in, startups fail all the time but even when they "succeed" eg get bought out, your position may be eliminated in the acquisition process).

obligatory posting quote from han suyin (specifically, a mortal flower 1966) regarding [western] sinology

spoilered for suicide mention

wanted to draw China and Japan (both of which were hostile towards the USSR) into a costly war with one-another in order to weaken them both

I mean that alone is bullshit for the time period. sino-soviet relations didn't go south before prc was even established..

Just didn't know if you were giving them the hanzi or romanized :P

Yeah Taiwan doesn't use pinyin all that much afaik, but for names I think they always use a system similar to (if not just is) wade-giles for romanization

(For example 蔡英文(hanzi) Tsai Ing-Wen (taiwan romanization) Cai Yingwen (pinyin);; 马英九 (hanzi) Ma Ying-jeou (tw) Ma Yingjiu (pinyin))

You're probably fine to use it, especially if you feel it's similar to your og surname (evoking its pronunciation/first syllable, or its meaning). It's just a consideration that might come up, definitely would feel weirder if you were a white westerner haha. Historically non-han peoples sinicizing took particular Chinese last names, for example, among Hui ethnic people who practice Islam, some common last names are 胡 hu/hussein 马 ma/mohammed 穆 mu/also mohammed

^ assuming you're adopting 周 (I mean other zhou surnames like 舟， 州 are less common but would still be romanized to chou in taiwan)