Well. Making videos is great! But scamming others’ money is wrong! I don’t believe your videos need any extra funding, besides TH-cam ads revenue. Especially if your videos are about China, a country the majority of people don’t care much about.
Glad that Vivi didn't accept the label of having a "sad" childhood. If you put a different spin on it, she experienced a high level of independence and learned to entertain herself at an early age, which would have been common in the U.S. when my parents were kids. Helps us to understand why she is so outspoken and independent-minded today. Cool topic.
My parents were old school so I grew up riding a bike being outside unless the weather was too bad or freezing but even in the winter I spent time outside, did chores, no allowance. Like they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Woochinatchika Kokillibolinov interesting. Your experience makes me a 1990-born Chinese feel I am a spoiled brat. When I was 7 years old, it was a big deal too to go to McDonald’s - for birthday for Chinese kids for example. Nowadays, just everybody except for really poor people go there and grab a breakfast.
I grew up in the Norwegian woods, had to walk for an hour to get to the nearest friend, so most of the time I would just hang out in the woods with my cat. Skiing in the winter or building snow castles. We were the poorest in my class and I lost my mother at age 9, so it wasn't the best of childhoods, but the hanging out alone part was nice. There's a lot of good and bad things about my childhood. But most of the bad memories revolves around my dad, and how I was treated at school. While most of the good memories revolves around me being alone. Playing around in the woods. When you're a kid your mind is just too filled up with curiosity and creative ideas, it's hard to get bored when you have a pine cone and some sticks. I guess that might sound sad for the people who grew up with friends and stuff, but that was just my reality. It made me who I am today.
Saft Suse thanks for sharing your story it’s beautiful and interesting to hear about how you grew up in Norway. I think some alone time is great for children to develop their deep thinking abilities
@@rasensis "Deep thinking abilities." Well, that might explain why I ended up wasting my teen years away reading philosophy and writing poetry, failing school as a result :p I think it differs a lot from child to child. Some children have the personality for it, while for others I am sure it would be very difficult. For me, playing alone in the woods was a great escape and a comfort.
Saft Suse Have you seen the TV series The Last Kingdom? Your childhood sounds like what a character Brida in the series experienced in the woods in 9th Century England. Pretty fascinating and even mythical. Most Chinese kids like me born after 1990 were forced to grow up in concrete jungles. I now have become extremely fond of national parks in the US and tired of metropolitan life.
@@alexanderchenf1 :) Sounds good. I grew up reading the texts of Daoism, and Chinese poetry like Wang Wei, and that really made me understand nature in a different way. I have an idealized image of China with misty hills and bending rivers. Today, that mist is mostly smog from factories making smart phones for the entire world. How things changed.
Grew up in Southern California in hoods seen so much violence that one time at 9 me and my family walked by a crime just after cops got there and there was a mom and dad on the floor dad with brains on the floor and some blood still trickling out his head contributing to the pool mom shot in chest obviously and their kids crying while cops trying to get them offstage cause a lot of people that heard the shots came to watch really I was so numb to it I didn't even think about it and told everyone to hurry up and quit looking cause im hungry and wanna get home
Every laowhy86 video includes food, now you know you can never unsee the fact that C-milk is munching some or other food in each sode ;) Gives Laowhy86 sodes a special "Flavour" #cmilkeats
Burning your pal like that. Funny. Love your stuff. Provides a view that you don't see elsewhere. Perfect balance of serious vs. funny / praise vs. criticism. Thanks for the work you do. I'ts enlightening.
@@coolstuffunboxings1127 Only Americans drop the 'U' from English words. Notice how Winston says zed instead of zee? We speak the same language differently.
Man... this video made me somewhat sentimental. I am around same age as Vivi, and I had very similar childhood as her. From bicycle to motorcycle then to privately-owned cars, from only public phones to smart phones, life in China has really changed a lot. The generation born in the 80s & 90s have witnessed probably the most drastic change in the history of modern China.
Growing up in Russia I ate like omlette, different types of porrige and a combination of mashed potato or spaghetti/macaroni with plain sausage or beef stroganoff or some cutlets... and well soup like Borsch and other Russian soups... Sweet and candy were not as accessible as in US but still pretty okay and sometimes even great. I worshipped MacDonalds because there wasn't one in my town when I was a kid and early teen and would just have mouth orgasm every time I ate a cheeseburger in MacDonalds in another city because you can't buy burgers and fries anywhere else in Russia when I was growing up in early-mid 2000's
In Finland children in first grade walk to and home from school alone, I don’t find it weird at all haha. Also children can be at home alone as long as you teach them responsibility and how to behave. The it’s up to the parent to decide, depending on the child’s age, behaviour and for how long, if it can be left alone.
I’m an old grandma, and I remember (Back in the day) being left alone for very brief periods of time (10 -30 minutes) as a young child, then from age 9 to 11 I wore my house key on a chain under my clothes to school. I was only allowed to let one specific playmate into our house, and it was about 2 hours until the parents showed up, so I didn’t have much time to get into too much trouble. But it was always a strict rule for me to keep it a secret. Mom was afraid that some nutcase would find out that a child was alone and I would be harmed, or full on disappear. I was not to mention it to classmates or teachers. Maybe Mom didn’t want the over-protective finger wagging mommies to come at her, as well. But only one playmate, one trusted neighbor, and the grandparents knew that I had a couple of hours to myself. When I was bored at home alone, I ate food that I wasn’t supposed to get into, rummaged through the parents’ personal belongings. Then, I think in the 80’s, each state began making laws about what age and how long children and adolescents could be legally left without supervision. Each state is different, but somewhere between 10 years old and 14 years old.
Vivi's childhood was the norm in western countries many years ago as people didn't molly coddle their children like they do now. There were no babysitters as everyone had to go out to work to put food on the table. I've looked after elderly people and they told me that by 8 years old they were looking after their younger siblings whilst their parents worked.
I was born in China in 88, i dont see it as a bad childhood, i see it as a really good experience that kids nowadays would never be able to experience. Growing up in the 90s in China is probably like the 70s in the states, kids go on adventures in different parts of the city, go on hikes, ride bicycle to places, find ways to have fun, boys being boys. I would never give those days away. My parents were probably considered the higher middle class of the time, we have a condo, go on 2 or 3 trips a year, no car, but my dad does have access to company car life was very good, simple, no computers, no phones, no distraction from human contacts. I feel like kids born in 1995 and earlier were probably the last generation with some of these experiences.
My girlfriend, born 1986 in a small village near Wuhan, went to a type of boarding school. She shared the dark room with 8 other girls doing homework by one dim light, so now her eyes are incredibly poor. They had no heating or AC so in winter she got chillblains and her skin split and bled, and in summer she got so hot that her legs blistered due to sitting in hot wooden chairs all day and again bled. She's still got the scars all over her legs and arms from when this happened.
My wife was born in "86 in China as well but didn't have such hardship . they lived in Chengdu and had grandparents who had been in the army so they had decent housing. But she bears the psychological scars of growing up knowing she was not wanted because she was a girl. (only one chance to have a son at the time) So she was not shown love. . only discipline and criticism. Inner scars . . . .
@@TynanCreations I know what you mean. As a countryside family, the one child policy wasn't as strictly enforced. Her parents had her older sister first, who was good at school, then my girlfriend was born and wasn't quite as good, then they had a boy and obviously he was the jewel in the family crown. My girlfriend was sort sidelined because of her better schooled older sister and her younger brother. I guess she loves her parents but she doesn't really miss them and only sees them once a year and contacts them rarely. So different from my own loving family upbringing in England.
Viv looks fantastic when she smiles. Keep smiling Viv. When I was a little kid, we took a bus or we walked to get to our destination. There was no bike in my family till I was 9 years old. I got that for my birthday which I used to deliver papers as a paperboy.
Very good comparison and contrast, guys. Have you ever seen in Japan how mother's ride their "mama chary" bicycle? It's a custom bicycle with seats in front and back with groceries! I grew up during the 70s & 80s in Canada and my father worked for the government, too. Raised us as a single Dad. Yet, the only prestige really was the lifetime employment, pension and benefits, I believe. We weren't rich but comfortable. The leaving kids home alone or with a key was quite common until the mid 80s, I think. I walked to and from school or cycled as everyone else did back in early 80s. Ate everything on my plate or couldn't leave the table.
Oh, my ! When she said she was out with the key and she could not open.... I remembered of myself when i was in primary school! Every day a child was chosen to announce the break time every hour. And me, unlearned how the clock on the wall it is read .. Nobody had taught me. :))) I was not even very socialized, to ask. I'm glad these times are gone. But in Romania, in the rural area, it is still lacking the education in all its aspects. And i was from town. Now i'm 27 . Hate the indifference and the ignoring of the information. If I have children, i want them with no black holes like in my childhood!
I grew up in (West-) Germany in the 80s (was born in 78) and although it is and was considered a "first world" country and there is nowhere near as much wealth disparity as in China or even the USA, most of the things Vivi tells about her childhood, sounds pretty familiar to me. We did have a car, but both my parents worked and I had to walk to school, have my own key and had to take care of myself when at home, from the first day of elementary school on too. I still remember it vividly, because I had to walk through a large cemetery on my way to school and there was an large, old, gnarly looking tree standing near the entrance, which was infamous because they hung deserters from that tree during the last months of WW2. I still was prone to magical thinking at age 5 to 6 and I always talked to that tree, wishing it a nice day and asking how it was, to appease it, so it wouldn't grab and eat me, hehehehe. My parents should have made decent amounts of money, considering the jobs they had (he was a tool maker and she was an accountant), but they saved most of it to buy a house and my sister and me lived pretty modestly, without many toys or other stuff. I got an allowance of 2 Deutschmarks a week, which must have been about a Dollar at the time. I pretty much worked through all the longer school breaks and holidays since I was 12, to afford stuff like a bicycle or video games. The current Super Hero movie craze annoys me a lot, because I never got into comic books and never had the chance to feel nostalgic about that crap, because I couldn't afford them either. A average comic book would have cost me my whole month's allowance and even as a kid I knew that the 10 minutes you need to read through it, isn't worth that. Basically everything always was too expensive and we kids didn't get it. I remember when Germany's biggest chocolate producer had a marketing campaign, advertising chocolate covered peanuts for the first time (till then they had only sold hazelnuts) and I really wanted to try them, but my father smacked them out of my hand, because they were too expensive. Funny how those memories are at the same time amusing and kind of fucked up. Hehe.
The kids of today in the USA have no fricken clue how good they have it. If the kids in the USA today would have the ability to experience what other kids had to go through in their own lives growing up I do honestly think the world could be a better place. With that being said I also think that, religion, social structure, and the blatant use of greed in the world don't help any either. No i'm not for a socialist form of society where everyone gets their free things. I would like to see just everyone be happy with who they are and be content with that. Life would be so much better if you lived based on your merits and abilities rather than some social/economic status.
True words spoken. Much love from San Francisco U.S.A. We're aren't all obsessed with unicorns and gum drops. :) Edit: I'm not for socialism either but I'd love to live in a society where we all have each others' backs! It's just so much more fulfilling and re-energizing. I don't need a fcking ferarri to be happy. i just need a good IPA. it's the simple things in life brother
This was really interesting, probably the video of yours I've enjoyed the most recently. This kind of growing-up cultural experience stuff is what it's really hard for foreigners to get much insight into. Great stuff! I think the western world has changed a lot in the past few decades too though - I'd always walk to school from primary school age. Although, my first school was only about 100m from our house, so that was always safe, but from age 7 or 8 when I moved up to junior school, it was about a mile each way. But I'd never have even wanted a lift, because it was always a fun time talking to friends, or picking the blackberries on the way home in summer, or whatever. And on the weekends, from when I was about 6, I'd be out on my bike probably doing at least 10 miles a day just going wherever I felt like.
i was born in kenya 1997. lived in nairobi suburb really fun & friendly even tho more dirty & unregulated streets &standards. i can rly resonate w/ vivi's childhood. although my parents lived in rural area& had it worse. moved to chicago immediately got made fun of 4 accent & blackness lol.
I'm 57 and we were left alone all the time, I remember my parents went to Mexico on holidays and left us along 12 & 14 year old boys for 10 days, as a small child I remember being alone more than with my parents watching over us. I survived and so did my brother...
I remember visiting a village outside of Wuhan, and we talked to this granny and her granddaughter about how drastically technologies advanced. She said that they went from one payphone that the whole village had to share, located a 3km outside the village, strait to people having cellphones and smart phones. The transition was so sudden!
Bethany Runyon it was probably so easy for them to have phones even if they lived in rural areas. I remember those Chinese keypad phones were really cheap, and it was the time when phones just got released.
Wuhan is an amazing city. 10 years ago, no subway, now the city has complete access..... I live in NYC and it takes 16 years to put up a building....scaffolding just becomes part of the community for decades.
@@rickc7303 I grew up in Changsha, and when my family moved back to the US I remember being so confused about why road construction took so long. I guess one of the benefits of having a big government is that you don't need to wait around for private contractors and permits and everything
Hey I'm from Wuhan! I remember a few years back I was visiting the palace of fine arts in San Francisco. We overheard some other Chinese tourists chatting with Wuhan dialect. It's a funny feeling meeting someone from home on the other side of the Earth.
From what I’ve heard Vivi say in the past, she had quite a brutal childhood. In fact when she mentioned it, I felt pain for her. Those Fords, the Escort and Mondeo are very different to the English Escorts & Mondeos. I wonder why they use the same names. My husband was born on the next road to where I grew up. He is 10 years older than me so growing up it was his younger brother I dated and even got engaged to on my 16th birthday. He cheated on me though with a 40 year old woman who had 2 young boys so I dumped him and he moved in with her. I’d always liked his brother; He had 3 brothers and a sister but the brother next in age to him was my favourite and we had a little flirtation but it took until I was 40 to eventually get him for myself. We married last year after 8 years together. Even though we live in the next county along, 80 miles away from where we were both raised, it’s as though we have always been together, we know the same people, attended the same school albeit at different times but the best thing, with dating his brother for a long time (he died in 2013 aged 49) I’d been accepted into his family and really got on well with his parents and even though my father in law had passed away before I got together with big brother, their mum was still alive to see us happy together and so suited to each other, like peas in a pod.
I would be interested in that too. Each region in the US has stereotypes for the other regions, as well as rural vs. urban. I also remember, that when I was in the north of China, people telling me not to go down south because the food was bad.
I was told the whole China hate my hometown Wenzhou people! I personally would tell my women friends not to marry the Northern Chinese, especially the Shandong people because they are all too traditional.
I remember being left alone as early as eight years old. I had older sisters, but they had activities. Mom and Dad had work and stuff. Being home alone was no biggie. At ten and 11 i was learning how to cook on gas stove. At 12 i would grab my own breakfast and make sandwich. As in cut bread, no sliced bread in Czechoslovakia, slice meat, slap some butter and a few chives. At 12 i was babysitting an infant with my sister, so i got to do all the dirty jobs. Kids are sheltered these days.
it's funny how anyone can find similarities even being from far away... I had often rides in my grandpa's Ford Escort during childhood, and my dad had a Ford Mondeo when I was 18, which was the first car I officially drove, that being while learning to drive, with my dad yelling at me during those rides 😆. I was born in '85, so we grew up in the same generation 👍
The interesting thing is when Chinese people come to America, things change completely. I mean we did get left home once in a while, but mostly had my grandma with us, but my parents were super protective. Bars on all doors, double locks, wasn’t allowed to walk home TWO Blocks from school until around 12. Lol
Vivi's still smoking, she's doing the mom thing now. Go back and watch the hot springs video if you want some bathing suit action :) Cmilk was pandering...
Always interesting to hear first hand accounts of the rapidly developing China period. I remember in Taiwan (1986) seeing a woman on a step through scooter, a child on a tiny wooden chair in the step though part, and another two children on the seat in back of mom, strapped to her. Yikes, but they didn't seem concerned.
My mother being a single mother in the U.S. she always left my sister and I alone when she would work. My sister and i are only one year apart, and we would need to walk home from elementary school (cross the road) and be home all day by ourselves. We would have to cook, clean, study, and watch tv until she got home. Although our neighborhood was not particularly safe, it was real bad either. We just would answer the door. If someone was to knock, we would peel through the blinds. When it would rain really hard, thunder and all, we would get scared and hide under the bed. I am glad we at least had each other.
Can you do a video on Chinese as a high context language? And English is a low context language? Have you had to adjust your speaking to meet each other's cultural expectations?
@@bethanya99 I'm pretty sure what he's referring to is the grammar of both languages. In Chinese you can omit the subject very often, aka you don't need to specify I, you, or him. I don't think it presents a big a challenge as he thinks though.
John Smith, thanks for putting it aptly! Chinese stories are so intertwined with their history, only a true scholar of Chinese can grasp its essence and gain authenticity, integrity, wisdom and compassion... and even then, the great country is too massive to categorise but the government is working constantly to improve life for all its people. China always amazes... and I hope I live to see 2020, 2030 and 2050! May all lives all over the world keep improving.
@@bethanya99You can go check the Wikipedia page about topic-prominent languages. In such languages (including Chinese) the word order alters according to the speaker's focus. For example, "I've never heard of THIS!" would be "This I before never hear!" in Chinese.
"I wasn't a picky eater" you didn't have a choice, if you wanted something to eat, you ate what was in front of you, period. As far as being home alone, it's kind of more and more the "norm" because the way parents work schedule makes it hard to always be there for kids getting out of school. As the cost of living becoming impossible for many, kids have lost their childhoods, having to raise themselves because their parents are barely able to provide the barely basics for their families. Yes, it kind of teaches independence but also stress and depression of uncertainty.
Someone please tell me what 6:39 is!!! I have been looking for this food for over 3 years!!! I've had it in a Cantonese restaurant in the US but since coming to China no one seems to know what it is. This stuff tastes awesome. I tried 肉夹馍 which... Kinda sucks honestly. I've had it from a bunch of different places. This isn't 肉夹馍. What is it?? Someone please end my 3 year quest 😭
lol...go back to the source of 6:39 and investigate , asking the people who introduce that timer? I've never heard of 6.39 but that's why China's always interesting.
I now teach English to Chinese children online.I am so interested in their culture now. I appreciate your page. Looking forward to my trip to China in 2019
Really glad I found these video's I've enjoyed them a lot and they've given me more insight into a country I didn't know a lot about from a daily living perspective. I especially enjoy the videos of Vivi reacting to something that she's never experienced or tried before and hearing her thoughts about it.
I just found Laowhy86,Serperntza on the advchina. You guys are awesome. Been trying to watch all the videos. Going to be a while watching them. Oh I watch Vivienne's. Btw you and Vivienne's video great too.
My step mother was raised in China and came to America at the age of11. She often tells my kids what her childhood was like in China 50 years. My kids are amazed how different it was to theirs. She told my son that her toys as a kid was basically mud pies.
I'm extremely impressed that China was like moving from a pre world war 2 country to a 21st century country over night. Vivi's family could afford motorized private transportation was like one in 100 million.
Americans had similar experiences as Vivi growing up, but it occurred in a different decade. The transformation wasn't as fast. In the 1980s, obesity rates and an obsession for money took off here. The population's overall health and happiness started declining. At one time, poor people here were thin and ate pretty healthy foods while the rich were the opposite. Over time, this switched. So far, the happiest folks I've met had the least amount of stuff. The most important things in their lives were family and friends (not work, money, and materialistic objects).
Good job Matt you're smart you pre-made and scheduled a bunch of video for the times that you won't be able to make it when your new baby is born, great planning skills
In China those days, the rich and the poor are not that different. There was even a saying: "A guy who works with a scissor (a barber) and a guy who works with scalpel (a surgent) get the same pay." The only difference is the social respect they get.
Found you and ADVChina from watching SerpentZA's channel not long ago after his videos kept showing up in my feed and I must say I enjoy your videos. I'm really, really excited for you guys to make new series too about traveling through other asian countries. You definitely need to motorbike in Vietnam, it's probably the 'most dangerous' Asian country to drive a motorbike in for a foreigner but it just so happens to be the most popular one. Backpackers love going to Vietnam to do the Hanoi>Ho Chi Ming City route or vice versa and I'd love to watch you and Winston do it!
Awesome to hear :)! I want to visit Vietnam sometime for 3 months to do drive from north to south and from what I've seen the north is just stunning. Any hints as to when the series will be coming out? Will it be youtube videos or will it be a documentary like Conquering Northern China?
Thanks for the stories. Cute images of your wife. Thanks for the Chinese translation for “Are you okay” you put on the screen. I am second generation American of Haitians. I grew up in the city now I am in country. I wish could have the food you ordered. I grew up as a latchkey child. We are Haitian rice and beans and vegetables and tomato sauce made with chunky salsa. I was not crazy about meat. At least Haitians clean their meat like others from the West Indies. Mayonnaise sandwiches were my lunches. I felt like I grew up on a fine razor edge between two cultures. I also say that West Indies and American minority culture of blacks was different. I would speak to my parents in English and they would speak to me in Creole Haitian. Only later did I discover American Cajuns spoke and sang in Creole.
black Toyota Crown official cars were already pretty modern. In early 1980s, there were no foreign made anything period. Ranging from toothpastes to toys, to public buses and train cars. Government official cars were all local made Shanghai brand or Hongqi brand.
Oh I can’t relate more to Vivi’s childhood!! I remember us ‘poor’ kids having to walk to school since primary school and them ‘rich’ kids always getting dropped off by their parents, with their scooters/motorbikes LOL Back in those days these kids were considered spoiled and those who had cars were the crazy rich
I ride bike (motorcycles) here in America more than I ride a car, I'm 61 and started riding minibikes at age 8. I got here by watching ADVChina, then SerpentZa, then he mentioned you have a channel of your own, too. So, now I subscribe to all three. Your wife is absolutely lovely and so sweet, you are blessed. What a great video.
Watch Vivi's face, her mannerisms, etc. in the last 10-15 seconds or so of this video. She is just totally and completely adorable. A dream girl ! Matt is one incredibly lucky guy.
It’s kinda interesting when I look at your wife’s childhood photos I instantly recognize her, but when I looked at your childhood pictures I cannot figures out who he is.
Vivi makes the videos worth watching. I can remember 2 families in our community having horse and buggy. They would hitch rides to town with others that had cars/trucks. By the time I was old enough to ride (legally) a motorcycle, all the horse/buggy people were either gone or finally had cars.
I was in guangdong in 95. I never saw so many bikes in my life. There was also a dude driving a naked chassis with the engine spewing black smoke and he was standing behind the steering wheel and driving highway speed with a bunch of animal carcasses on the back
Wow I couldn't leave my child at home alone because your child should be the most important and precious thing in the world to you, so I'm glad to hear her say that she would never leave her child home alone.
So, Awesome you two sharing the real lives you lived. Hearing about her life growing up and her views of your American life, really ends the stereo types. Learned so much from your videos & put faces to real people that live in the concerns china.
Its is interesting to hear about Vivie's childhood and yet she still has a positive attitude! I can , in a small way, understand C-Milk your attraction to her! Vivie is a lovely woman and soooooo super cute as a kid! Best regards to both of you and the little ones!
It is weird today... I went on a buss and traveled across the whole town to buy a food for my water turtle when I was 8. It was normal back then. Parents today do not leave their kids to play outside or stay alone for a while. These kids will grow into helpless individuals.
Great video! I see that you guys shot this video in Taiwan. Would love it if you can make commentary or references to your shooting location when making your videos, especially when it's in Taiwan. I am a Taiwan native :-). Love your videos! Keep up the great work!
One day your child will say, my mother came from china, my father from america, they were never supposed to meet , but their love changed history (like in aquaman ) lol
When I was growing up my dad was in the service so he wasn’t home at times One time we lived in Germany and he didn’t come home for days and we didn’t have groceries so we had to eat c rations We were brought up having to eat everything on or plates. Once in Awhile we had a can of cola we had to share between 3 kids. We lived a very strict life. Just like the cat Stevens song from the time you could walk you were ordered to listen. Times has changed a lot from the time I grew up.
Oh man C Milk you missed out growing up. My mother learned to cook from my paternal Grand Mother who was a zen master of German style country cooking...and I know you know what that’s like cause I saw Vivi trigger the Amish... and she cooked all these wonderful recipes like braised beef and noodle, chicken and dumplings, roasts, stews, Broasted chicken, home made pies and cakes...she spoiled me rotten with her cooking. Sorry you missed out on that dude.
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Barbeque tofu!? Sounds like your mom was a hippy.
这个渣子伙同婊子在恶心中国人。
Could we get an update on new baby status?
In the thumbnail, she looks like the girl that was kidnapped in Rush Hour.
Well. Making videos is great! But scamming others’ money is wrong! I don’t believe your videos need any extra funding, besides TH-cam ads revenue. Especially if your videos are about China, a country the majority of people don’t care much about.
Glad that Vivi didn't accept the label of having a "sad" childhood. If you put a different spin on it, she experienced a high level of independence and learned to entertain herself at an early age, which would have been common in the U.S. when my parents were kids. Helps us to understand why she is so outspoken and independent-minded today. Cool topic.
My parents were old school so I grew up riding a bike being outside unless the weather was too bad or freezing but even in the winter I spent time outside, did chores, no allowance. Like they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Yeah I grew up on a farm in western Ohio. I was a teenager before I knew all kids weren’t raised that way.
Free range parenting was the norm in the 70s. It created independence and critical thinking. And, it was fun!
@@mjc42701
You sound like Karl Pilkington. No offense though.
Woochinatchika Kokillibolinov interesting. Your experience makes me a 1990-born Chinese feel I am a spoiled brat. When I was 7 years old, it was a big deal too to go to McDonald’s - for birthday for Chinese kids for example. Nowadays, just everybody except for really poor people go there and grab a breakfast.
I grew up in the Norwegian woods, had to walk for an hour to get to the nearest friend, so most of the time I would just hang out in the woods with my cat. Skiing in the winter or building snow castles. We were the poorest in my class and I lost my mother at age 9, so it wasn't the best of childhoods, but the hanging out alone part was nice.
There's a lot of good and bad things about my childhood. But most of the bad memories revolves around my dad, and how I was treated at school. While most of the good memories revolves around me being alone. Playing around in the woods. When you're a kid your mind is just too filled up with curiosity and creative ideas, it's hard to get bored when you have a pine cone and some sticks. I guess that might sound sad for the people who grew up with friends and stuff, but that was just my reality. It made me who I am today.
Saft Suse thanks for sharing your story it’s beautiful and interesting to hear about how you grew up in Norway. I think some alone time is great for children to develop their deep thinking abilities
@@rasensis "Deep thinking abilities." Well, that might explain why I ended up wasting my teen years away reading philosophy and writing poetry, failing school as a result :p
I think it differs a lot from child to child. Some children have the personality for it, while for others I am sure it would be very difficult. For me, playing alone in the woods was a great escape and a comfort.
Saft Suse Have you seen the TV series The Last Kingdom? Your childhood sounds like what a character Brida in the series experienced in the woods in 9th Century England. Pretty fascinating and even mythical. Most Chinese kids like me born after 1990 were forced to grow up in concrete jungles. I now have become extremely fond of national parks in the US and tired of metropolitan life.
@@alexanderchenf1 :) Sounds good.
I grew up reading the texts of Daoism, and Chinese poetry like Wang Wei, and that really made me understand nature in a different way. I have an idealized image of China with misty hills and bending rivers. Today, that mist is mostly smog from factories making smart phones for the entire world. How things changed.
Grew up in Southern California in hoods seen so much violence that one time at 9 me and my family walked by a crime just after cops got there and there was a mom and dad on the floor dad with brains on the floor and some blood still trickling out his head contributing to the pool mom shot in chest obviously and their kids crying while cops trying to get them offstage cause a lot of people that heard the shots came to watch really I was so numb to it I didn't even think about it and told everyone to hurry up and quit looking cause im hungry and wanna get home
Every laowhy86 video includes food, now you know you can never unsee the fact that C-milk is munching some or other food in each sode ;) Gives Laowhy86 sodes a special "Flavour" #cmilkeats
Look in the meer.
Can't unsee.
I bet yours is that you always wear a suit, even under your motorcycle gear 😂
Burning your pal like that. Funny. Love your stuff. Provides a view that you don't see elsewhere. Perfect balance of serious vs. funny / praise vs. criticism. Thanks for the work you do. I'ts enlightening.
@@laowhy86 you should have replied with its flavor not flavour
@@coolstuffunboxings1127 Only Americans drop the 'U' from English words. Notice how Winston says zed instead of zee? We speak the same language differently.
Man... this video made me somewhat sentimental. I am around same age as Vivi, and I had very similar childhood as her. From bicycle to motorcycle then to privately-owned cars, from only public phones to smart phones, life in China has really changed a lot. The generation born in the 80s & 90s have witnessed probably the most drastic change in the history of modern China.
Well said.
Growing up in Russia I ate like omlette, different types of porrige and a combination of mashed potato or spaghetti/macaroni with plain sausage or beef stroganoff or some cutlets... and well soup like Borsch and other Russian soups... Sweet and candy were not as accessible as in US but still pretty okay and sometimes even great. I worshipped MacDonalds because there wasn't one in my town when I was a kid and early teen and would just have mouth orgasm every time I ate a cheeseburger in MacDonalds in another city because you can't buy burgers and fries anywhere else in Russia when I was growing up in early-mid 2000's
@@Fizzing-Amperage yea, that's when you eat something so tasty and desirable it's as pleasant as orgasm
@@johnteslov5870 I know what you're talking about, I grown up during "90s", and even pryaniks were a rare thing.
@@teacherfromthejungles6671 yea... only 90's kids would know :D
thanks for sharing your story, bro! -- from san francisco with love, mang!
When I moved back to the US from rual Kazakhstan and had McDonald's I got really fat as a kid haha
Vivis stories are the best 🤣😅😅😍😁😂😄
Vivi she's just kept real.
In Finland children in first grade walk to and home from school alone, I don’t find it weird at all haha. Also children can be at home alone as long as you teach them responsibility and how to behave. The it’s up to the parent to decide, depending on the child’s age, behaviour and for how long, if it can be left alone.
I’m an old grandma, and I remember (Back in the day) being left alone for very brief periods of time (10 -30 minutes) as a young child, then from age 9 to 11 I wore my house key on a chain under my clothes to school. I was only allowed to let one specific playmate into our house, and it was about 2 hours until the parents showed up, so I didn’t have much time to get into too much trouble.
But it was always a strict rule for me to keep it a secret. Mom was afraid that some nutcase would find out that a child was alone and I would be harmed, or full on disappear. I was not to mention it to classmates or teachers. Maybe Mom didn’t want the over-protective finger wagging mommies to come at her, as well. But only one playmate, one trusted neighbor, and the grandparents knew that I had a couple of hours to myself.
When I was bored at home alone, I ate food that I wasn’t supposed to get into, rummaged through the parents’ personal belongings.
Then, I think in the 80’s, each state began making laws about what age and how long children and adolescents could be legally left without supervision. Each state is different, but somewhere between 10 years old and 14 years old.
9 to 11 isn't bad, but i wouldn't leave a 5-6 year old.
Crazy to see jiangbei go from farm to economic city center
Love Vivi, her personality is so warm. She has a refreshing authenticity that is hard to find.
Seriously, your skills get better by the episode. Keep up the good work amigo. Really appreciate the stories you and the family share.
Vivi's childhood was the norm in western countries many years ago as people didn't molly coddle their children like they do now. There were no babysitters as everyone had to go out to work to put food on the table. I've looked after elderly people and they told me that by 8 years old they were looking after their younger siblings whilst their parents worked.
I was born in China in 88, i dont see it as a bad childhood, i see it as a really good experience that kids nowadays would never be able to experience. Growing up in the 90s in China is probably like the 70s in the states, kids go on adventures in different parts of the city, go on hikes, ride bicycle to places, find ways to have fun, boys being boys. I would never give those days away.
My parents were probably considered the higher middle class of the time, we have a condo, go on 2 or 3 trips a year, no car, but my dad does have access to company car life was very good, simple, no computers, no phones, no distraction from human contacts. I feel like kids born in 1995 and earlier were probably the last generation with some of these experiences.
You both have taught me so much about a place so far away , I’m very grateful to you both . ~ Illinois 🇺🇸
sweet me 2
Same!
My girlfriend, born 1986 in a small village near Wuhan, went to a type of boarding school. She shared the dark room with 8 other girls doing homework by one dim light, so now her eyes are incredibly poor. They had no heating or AC so in winter she got chillblains and her skin split and bled, and in summer she got so hot that her legs blistered due to sitting in hot wooden chairs all day and again bled. She's still got the scars all over her legs and arms from when this happened.
My wife was born in "86 in China as well but didn't have such hardship . they lived in Chengdu and had grandparents who had been in the army so they had decent housing. But she bears the psychological scars of growing up knowing she was not wanted because she was a girl. (only one chance to have a son at the time) So she was not shown love. . only discipline and criticism. Inner scars . . . .
@@TynanCreations I know what you mean. As a countryside family, the one child policy wasn't as strictly enforced. Her parents had her older sister first, who was good at school, then my girlfriend was born and wasn't quite as good, then they had a boy and obviously he was the jewel in the family crown. My girlfriend was sort sidelined because of her better schooled older sister and her younger brother. I guess she loves her parents but she doesn't really miss them and only sees them once a year and contacts them rarely. So different from my own loving family upbringing in England.
My latest "Wife" was born in '99
ElementEvil why the quotes? Is she not your wife? I don’t get it
ElementEvil Dang married at 19-20 is pretty early, she must be very mature for her age
That picture of soy hot dogs will haunt my dreams. Oof
Viv looks fantastic when she smiles. Keep smiling Viv. When I was a little kid, we took a bus or we walked to get to our destination. There was no bike in my family till I was 9 years old. I got that for my birthday which I used to deliver papers as a paperboy.
Very good comparison and contrast, guys. Have you ever seen in Japan how mother's ride their "mama chary" bicycle? It's a custom bicycle with seats in front and back with groceries! I grew up during the 70s & 80s in Canada and my father worked for the government, too. Raised us as a single Dad. Yet, the only prestige really was the lifetime employment, pension and benefits, I believe. We weren't rich but comfortable. The leaving kids home alone or with a key was quite common until the mid 80s, I think. I walked to and from school or cycled as everyone else did back in early 80s. Ate everything on my plate or couldn't leave the table.
Oh, my ! When she said she was out with the key and she could not open.... I remembered of myself when i was in primary school! Every day a child was chosen to announce the break time every hour. And me, unlearned how the clock on the wall it is read .. Nobody had taught me. :))) I was not even very socialized, to ask. I'm glad these times are gone. But in Romania, in the rural area, it is still lacking the education in all its aspects. And i was from town. Now i'm 27 . Hate the indifference and the ignoring of the information. If I have children, i want them with no black holes like in my childhood!
It is so cool that we can casually communicate around the world like this . Thanks for sharing stay safe!
I grew up in (West-) Germany in the 80s (was born in 78) and although it is and was considered a "first world" country and there is nowhere near as much wealth disparity as in China or even the USA, most of the things Vivi tells about her childhood, sounds pretty familiar to me.
We did have a car, but both my parents worked and I had to walk to school, have my own key and had to take care of myself when at home, from the first day of elementary school on too.
I still remember it vividly, because I had to walk through a large cemetery on my way to school and there was an large, old, gnarly looking tree standing near the entrance, which was infamous because they hung deserters from that tree during the last months of WW2. I still was prone to magical thinking at age 5 to 6 and I always talked to that tree, wishing it a nice day and asking how it was, to appease it, so it wouldn't grab and eat me, hehehehe.
My parents should have made decent amounts of money, considering the jobs they had (he was a tool maker and she was an accountant), but they saved most of it to buy a house and my sister and me lived pretty modestly, without many toys or other stuff. I got an allowance of 2 Deutschmarks a week, which must have been about a Dollar at the time.
I pretty much worked through all the longer school breaks and holidays since I was 12, to afford stuff like a bicycle or video games.
The current Super Hero movie craze annoys me a lot, because I never got into comic books and never had the chance to feel nostalgic about that crap, because I couldn't afford them either. A average comic book would have cost me my whole month's allowance and even as a kid I knew that the 10 minutes you need to read through it, isn't worth that.
Basically everything always was too expensive and we kids didn't get it. I remember when Germany's biggest chocolate producer had a marketing campaign, advertising chocolate covered peanuts for the first time (till then they had only sold hazelnuts) and I really wanted to try them, but my father smacked them out of my hand, because they were too expensive.
Funny how those memories are at the same time amusing and kind of fucked up. Hehe.
The kids of today in the USA have no fricken clue how good they have it. If the kids in the USA today would have the ability to experience what other kids had to go through in their own lives growing up I do honestly think the world could be a better place. With that being said I also think that, religion, social structure, and the blatant use of greed in the world don't help any either. No i'm not for a socialist form of society where everyone gets their free things. I would like to see just everyone be happy with who they are and be content with that. Life would be so much better if you lived based on your merits and abilities rather than some social/economic status.
Give it 10-15 years until the world goes all black mirror and they might.in saying that,some might not notice the difference.
@@ianleishman6774 Compared to 10-15 years ago, the world is already all "Black Mirror". It's all relative.
@@wrathofvaughn9309 true.4 or 5 of the episodes have come to pass.10-15 down the line,it might be all 4 series.
Very sane words Mr Richard. After all money only can not bring happiness.
True words spoken. Much love from San Francisco U.S.A. We're aren't all obsessed with unicorns and gum drops. :)
Edit: I'm not for socialism either but I'd love to live in a society where we all have each others' backs! It's just so much more fulfilling and re-energizing. I don't need a fcking ferarri to be happy. i just need a good IPA. it's the simple things in life brother
Please do more of the Chinese subtitles! I'm moving to China soon, and I found them so helpful to aid in learning the language :)
I swear, when Vivi pouted she looked just like Olivia when she’s sad! Crazy!
This was really interesting, probably the video of yours I've enjoyed the most recently. This kind of growing-up cultural experience stuff is what it's really hard for foreigners to get much insight into. Great stuff!
I think the western world has changed a lot in the past few decades too though - I'd always walk to school from primary school age. Although, my first school was only about 100m from our house, so that was always safe, but from age 7 or 8 when I moved up to junior school, it was about a mile each way. But I'd never have even wanted a lift, because it was always a fun time talking to friends, or picking the blackberries on the way home in summer, or whatever. And on the weekends, from when I was about 6, I'd be out on my bike probably doing at least 10 miles a day just going wherever I felt like.
Super interesting, and what a wonderful bunch of contributions below too. I think Vivi's memories touched a lot of us.
In reality, it's not the fall that kills you it's the sudden stop at the end.
i was born in kenya 1997. lived in nairobi suburb really fun & friendly even tho more dirty & unregulated streets &standards. i can rly resonate w/ vivi's childhood. although my parents lived in rural area& had it worse. moved to chicago immediately got made fun of 4 accent & blackness lol.
hey! keep that chin up baby! that's what us humans are good at! :0
Were the people of Nairobi very similar culturally?
@@_Junkers similar to...
Is there a kenyan enclave in chicago?
I'm 57 and we were left alone all the time, I remember my parents went to Mexico on holidays and left us along 12 & 14 year old boys for 10 days, as a small child I remember being alone more than with my parents watching over us.
I survived and so did my brother...
I remember visiting a village outside of Wuhan, and we talked to this granny and her granddaughter about how drastically technologies advanced.
She said that they went from one payphone that the whole village had to share, located a 3km outside the village, strait to people having cellphones and smart phones.
The transition was so sudden!
Bethany Runyon it was probably so easy for them to have phones even if they lived in rural areas. I remember those Chinese keypad phones were really cheap, and it was the time when phones just got released.
Wuhan is an amazing city. 10 years ago, no subway, now the city has complete access..... I live in NYC and it takes 16 years to put up a building....scaffolding just becomes part of the community for decades.
@@rickc7303 I grew up in Changsha, and when my family moved back to the US I remember being so confused about why road construction took so long. I guess one of the benefits of having a big government is that you don't need to wait around for private contractors and permits and everything
Hey I'm from Wuhan! I remember a few years back I was visiting the palace of fine arts in San Francisco. We overheard some other Chinese tourists chatting with Wuhan dialect. It's a funny feeling meeting someone from home on the other side of the Earth.
@@limingxu8648 that's awesome. I really enjoyed my time there. My pen-pal showed me around the city and we ate SO MANY DUMPLINGS!
8:34 “there in a really nice apartment” *shows footage of crappy rundown ghetto apartments*
From what I’ve heard Vivi say in the past, she had quite a brutal childhood. In fact when she mentioned it, I felt pain for her.
Those Fords, the Escort and Mondeo are very different to the English Escorts & Mondeos. I wonder why they use the same names.
My husband was born on the next road to where I grew up. He is 10 years older than me so growing up it was his younger brother I dated and even got engaged to on my 16th birthday. He cheated on me though with a 40 year old woman who had 2 young boys so I dumped him and he moved in with her. I’d always liked his brother; He had 3 brothers and a sister but the brother next in age to him was my favourite and we had a little flirtation but it took until I was 40 to eventually get him for myself. We married last year after 8 years together. Even though we live in the next county along, 80 miles away from where we were both raised, it’s as though we have always been together, we know the same people, attended the same school albeit at different times but the best thing, with dating his brother for a long time (he died in 2013 aged 49) I’d been accepted into his family and really got on well with his parents and even though my father in law had passed away before I got together with big brother, their mum was still alive to see us happy together and so suited to each other, like peas in a pod.
I love this community u guys have put together with cmilk really nice vibes in comments.
me too
Would you do a video on the general attitudes about China in China? Like how the Chinese people think about people in other districts or prefectures
I would be interested in that too. Each region in the US has stereotypes for the other regions, as well as rural vs. urban.
I also remember, that when I was in the north of China, people telling me not to go down south because the food was bad.
Bethany Runyon ikr poor Alabama.
would do a vid on the economy of China now and how difficult is it for the educated Chinese to find a good job thanks
I was told the whole China hate my hometown Wenzhou people!
I personally would tell my women friends not to marry the Northern Chinese, especially the Shandong people because they are all too traditional.
I remember being left alone as early as eight years old. I had older sisters, but they had activities. Mom and Dad had work and stuff. Being home alone was no biggie. At ten and 11 i was learning how to cook on gas stove. At 12 i would grab my own breakfast and make sandwich. As in cut bread, no sliced bread in Czechoslovakia, slice meat, slap some butter and a few chives. At 12 i was babysitting an infant with my sister, so i got to do all the dirty jobs. Kids are sheltered these days.
it's funny how anyone can find similarities even being from far away... I had often rides in my grandpa's Ford Escort during childhood, and my dad had a Ford Mondeo when I was 18, which was the first car I officially drove, that being while learning to drive, with my dad yelling at me during those rides 😆. I was born in '85, so we grew up in the same generation 👍
I was born in 1981, and I wasn't allowed to stay home alone until I was 13 lol!
strangulator42 i was born in 1982. I Was finally able to stay home alone at 12 lol.
I stayed home alone since I was three years old ,as my parents both have to work
The interesting thing is when Chinese people come to America, things change completely. I mean we did get left home once in a while, but mostly had my grandma with us, but my parents were super protective. Bars on all doors, double locks, wasn’t allowed to walk home TWO Blocks from school until around 12. Lol
Well tbh with a nickname like 'strangulator' ill give your folks props for lookin out for you so long.
Lol almost became burn girl, love Vivi.
I like her sense of humour
3:50 wow, Vivi looked mad cute back in her days.
Alex are you proposing vivi isn’t cute anymore? :(
@@千反田奉太郎-c2q
Makeup*
Vivi's still smoking, she's doing the mom thing now. Go back and watch the hot springs video if you want some bathing suit action :) Cmilk was pandering...
She doesn’t look that southeast Asian back then. Now she looks like a a Philippino , strange.
May it be
I actually know a Filipino girl that looks exactly like Vivi lmao
I love the cultural comparisons! I made a vlog of when I visited China. I miss it and my host family so much.
Always interesting to hear first hand accounts of the rapidly developing China period. I remember in Taiwan (1986) seeing a woman on a step through scooter, a child on a tiny wooden chair in the step though part, and another two children on the seat in back of mom, strapped to her. Yikes, but they didn't seem concerned.
My mother being a single mother in the U.S. she always left my sister and I alone when she would work. My sister and i are only one year apart, and we would need to walk home from elementary school (cross the road) and be home all day by ourselves. We would have to cook, clean, study, and watch tv until she got home. Although our neighborhood was not particularly safe, it was real bad either. We just would answer the door. If someone was to knock, we would peel through the blinds. When it would rain really hard, thunder and all, we would get scared and hide under the bed. I am glad we at least had each other.
Vivi's great. You can just tell you guys are best friends. And I gotta say, that simple chinese diet growing up has made her look super healthy
this is your best video , fascinating
Can you do a video on Chinese as a high context language? And English is a low context language? Have you had to adjust your speaking to meet each other's cultural expectations?
I am curious what you mean by high & low context. That term is new to me.
probs culturaly shared stories & proverbs & saying common in language
@@bethanya99 I'm pretty sure what he's referring to is the grammar of both languages. In Chinese you can omit the subject very often, aka you don't need to specify I, you, or him. I don't think it presents a big a challenge as he thinks though.
John Smith, thanks for putting it aptly! Chinese stories are so intertwined with their history, only a true scholar of Chinese can grasp its essence and gain authenticity, integrity, wisdom and compassion... and even then, the great country is too massive to categorise but the government is working constantly to improve life for all its people. China always amazes... and I hope I live to see 2020, 2030 and 2050! May all lives all over the world keep improving.
@@bethanya99You can go check the Wikipedia page about topic-prominent languages. In such languages (including Chinese) the word order alters according to the speaker's focus. For example, "I've never heard of THIS!" would be "This I before never hear!" in Chinese.
Thanks for posting! Very interesting! Love hearing her stories.
"I wasn't a picky eater" you didn't have a choice, if you wanted something to eat, you ate what was in front of you, period. As far as being home alone, it's kind of more and more the "norm" because the way parents work schedule makes it hard to always be there for kids getting out of school. As the cost of living becoming impossible for many, kids have lost their childhoods, having to raise themselves because their parents are barely able to provide the barely basics for their families. Yes, it kind of teaches independence but also stress and depression of uncertainty.
when i was a kid i caught my house on fire playing with matches and my parents didn't leave me alone they were there when it happened
it actually makes me happy every time he goes to a place to eat~ feels like i'm going there too~ and the video just looks better !
Someone please tell me what 6:39 is!!! I have been looking for this food for over 3 years!!! I've had it in a Cantonese restaurant in the US but since coming to China no one seems to know what it is. This stuff tastes awesome. I tried 肉夹馍 which... Kinda sucks honestly. I've had it from a bunch of different places. This isn't 肉夹馍. What is it?? Someone please end my 3 year quest 😭
lol...go back to the source of 6:39 and investigate , asking the people who introduce that timer? I've never heard of 6.39 but that's why China's always interesting.
It is called Gua Bao. It originated from Fuzhou and Taiwan region. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gua_bao
@@ro0ster648 thank you so much. You have finally answered of my biggest questions.
love your wife's honesty so down to earth,,
I love hearing her stories
Salty Fish is the most expensive food today. In L.A a medium size piece costs you $20 today!
I now teach English to Chinese children online.I am so interested in their culture now.
I appreciate your page.
Looking forward to my trip to China in 2019
Really glad I found these video's I've enjoyed them a lot and they've given me more insight into a country I didn't know a lot about from a daily living perspective. I especially enjoy the videos of Vivi reacting to something that she's never experienced or tried before and hearing her thoughts about it.
Good video liked the comparisons and as always Vivi is great
I just found Laowhy86,Serperntza on the advchina. You guys are awesome. Been trying to watch all the videos. Going to be a while watching them. Oh I watch Vivienne's. Btw you and Vivienne's video great too.
Welcome to the family!
@@laowhy86 btw I have 2 motorcycles. Harley sgs and a BMW k1300s. Love riding.
You got the best 2 channels to watch & they collaborative channel AdVChina. You want to learn all things China these are the guys!
“Kindi” for Kindergarten huh? I’ve heard Vivi say this in other videos too. @Laowhy86 but just wondering if she came up with it herself?
My step mother was raised in China and came to America at the age of11. She often tells my kids what her childhood was like in China 50 years. My kids are amazed how different it was to theirs. She told my son that her toys as a kid was basically mud pies.
FINALLY another video! Was getting withdrawals!
I'm extremely impressed that China was like moving from a pre world war 2 country to a 21st century country over night. Vivi's family could afford motorized private transportation was like one in 100 million.
Americans had similar experiences as Vivi growing up, but it occurred in a different decade. The transformation wasn't as fast. In the 1980s, obesity rates and an obsession for money took off here. The population's overall health and happiness started declining.
At one time, poor people here were thin and ate pretty healthy foods while the rich were the opposite. Over time, this switched. So far, the happiest folks I've met had the least amount of stuff. The most important things in their lives were family and friends (not work, money, and materialistic objects).
Tom, M, spot on!
About the time neo liberalism sunk its teeth in
Good job Matt you're smart you pre-made and scheduled a bunch of video for the times that you won't be able to make it when your new baby is born, great planning skills
In China those days, the rich and the poor are not that different. There was even a saying: "A guy who works with a scissor (a barber) and a guy who works with scalpel (a surgent) get the same pay." The only difference is the social respect they get.
In communistic Poland there was a saying that no matter if you are mining coal or working as a doctor your salary will be only 2000zł.
Found you and ADVChina from watching SerpentZA's channel not long ago after his videos kept showing up in my feed and I must say I enjoy your videos. I'm really, really excited for you guys to make new series too about traveling through other asian countries. You definitely need to motorbike in Vietnam, it's probably the 'most dangerous' Asian country to drive a motorbike in for a foreigner but it just so happens to be the most popular one. Backpackers love going to Vietnam to do the Hanoi>Ho Chi Ming City route or vice versa and I'd love to watch you and Winston do it!
Get ready, Vietnam is next ;)
Awesome to hear :)! I want to visit Vietnam sometime for 3 months to do drive from north to south and from what I've seen the north is just stunning.
Any hints as to when the series will be coming out? Will it be youtube videos or will it be a documentary like Conquering Northern China?
Thanks for the stories. Cute images of your wife. Thanks for the Chinese translation for “Are you okay” you put on the screen.
I am second generation American of Haitians. I grew up in the city now I am in country. I wish could have the food you ordered. I grew up as a latchkey child. We are Haitian rice and beans and vegetables and tomato sauce made with chunky salsa. I was not crazy about meat. At least Haitians clean their meat like others from the West Indies. Mayonnaise sandwiches were my lunches. I felt like I grew up on a fine razor edge between two cultures. I also say that West Indies and American minority culture of blacks was different. I would speak to my parents in English and they would speak to me in Creole Haitian. Only later did I discover American Cajuns spoke and sang in Creole.
black Toyota Crown official cars were already pretty modern. In early 1980s, there were no foreign made anything period. Ranging from toothpastes to toys, to public buses and train cars. Government official cars were all local made Shanghai brand or Hongqi brand.
Thanks for the video, guys!
Great video. So interesting. Always great
Thank you for your time. It was a good comparison.
Oh I can’t relate more to Vivi’s childhood!! I remember us ‘poor’ kids having to walk to school since primary school and them ‘rich’ kids always getting dropped off by their parents, with their scooters/motorbikes LOL Back in those days these kids were considered spoiled and those who had cars were the crazy rich
I ride bike (motorcycles) here in America more than I ride a car, I'm 61 and started riding minibikes at age 8. I got here by watching ADVChina, then SerpentZa, then he mentioned you have a channel of your own, too. So, now I subscribe to all three. Your wife is absolutely lovely and so sweet, you are blessed. What a great video.
Watch Vivi's face, her mannerisms, etc. in the last 10-15 seconds or so of this video. She is just totally and completely adorable. A dream girl ! Matt is one incredibly lucky guy.
I find Vivi's upbringing so interesting. It just makes me realize the things we take for granted others could only hope for
It’s kinda interesting when I look at your wife’s childhood photos I instantly recognize her, but when I looked at your childhood pictures I cannot figures out who he is.
Vivi makes the videos worth watching. I can remember 2 families in our community having horse and buggy. They would hitch rides to town with others that had cars/trucks. By the time I was old enough to ride (legally) a motorcycle, all the horse/buggy people were either gone or finally had cars.
I was in guangdong in 95. I never saw so many bikes in my life. There was also a dude driving a naked chassis with the engine spewing black smoke and he was standing behind the steering wheel and driving highway speed with a bunch of animal carcasses on the back
I had very similar childhood as vivi did. Didn't feel sad at that time but now I wish it could had been better. Thanks for the video. Nice job.
325,000 subcribed, whoa! Well done! 恭喜恭喜，祝贺您！
Pretty cool idea for the video hey! And the restaurant you were eating in, was it in Taipei on 永康街, near 师大 uni?
Wow I couldn't leave my child at home alone because your child should be the most important and precious thing in the world to you, so I'm glad to hear her say that she would never leave her child home alone.
It is very impressive that the country is advanced so much in 20 years. I remember that around 1990, Beijing streets are still full of bicycle.
So, Awesome you two sharing the real lives you lived. Hearing about her life growing up and her views of your American life, really ends the stereo types. Learned so much from your videos & put faces to real people that live in the concerns china.
Kids who are allowed to be bored are more creative than those who have plenty to go about.
as a kid, Vivi actually was much cuter than you.
skylinec83 if you say so.
the veggie stuff you showed (soy hot dogs and others) is actually pretty cool! I wish my mom was a cool vegetarian like yours
Its is interesting to hear about Vivie's childhood and yet she still has a positive attitude! I can , in a small way, understand C-Milk your attraction to her! Vivie is a lovely woman and soooooo super cute as a kid! Best regards to both of you and the little ones!
It is weird today... I went on a buss and traveled across the whole town to buy a food for my water turtle when I was 8. It was normal back then. Parents today do not leave their kids to play outside or stay alone for a while. These kids will grow into helpless individuals.
At a Chinese restaurant, what is proper when you order more than you can eat. Is it ok to ask to take it home?
Never waste food. Always ask for doggy bags or 'da bao' in ChInese and they'll give you free containers and bags, in UK Chinatowns.
lol, great video. I filmed a video just like this with my wife. I think it is funny because my wife said a lot of the same things as Vivi.
Great video! I see that you guys shot this video in Taiwan. Would love it if you can make commentary or references to your shooting location when making your videos, especially when it's in Taiwan. I am a Taiwan native :-). Love your videos! Keep up the great work!
Is that Cities and skylines game footage at 5:11? If it’s real it’s a really good shot, but the cars seem to not be moving like they are real
Love how cmilks trying not to laugh during so much of this video 😂
One day your child will say, my mother came from china, my father from america, they were never supposed to meet , but their love changed history (like in aquaman ) lol
When I was growing up my dad was in the service so he wasn’t home at times
One time we lived in Germany and he didn’t come home for days and we didn’t have groceries so we had to eat c rations
We were brought up having to eat everything on or plates. Once in Awhile we had a can of cola we had to share between 3 kids. We lived a very strict life. Just like the cat Stevens song from the time you could walk you were ordered to listen. Times has changed a lot from the time I grew up.
"We only had bicycles" *literally cars in the background
Oh man C Milk you missed out growing up. My mother learned to cook from my paternal Grand Mother who was a zen master of German style country cooking...and I know you know what that’s like cause I saw Vivi trigger the Amish... and she cooked all these wonderful recipes like braised beef and noodle, chicken and dumplings, roasts, stews, Broasted chicken, home made pies and cakes...she spoiled me rotten with her cooking. Sorry you missed out on that dude.
I was born in third tier city in China 1996, but we have a Honda Accord, guess I was a spoiled little brat back then..
That omni! We had a horizon haha. Same thing basically