Chinese Kids Are Getting Their Parents, Their Parents’ Parents, And Their Parents’ Parents’ Parents Involved In A Meme

There’s a new meme in China, and it’s very wholesome. The challenge, called “four generations,” includes four generations of family members making an appearance, from youngest to oldest. A son would call his dad, who then calls his dad, who then calls his dad. And a daughter would call her mom, who calls her mom, who calls her mom. The results are super cute.

The videos are being shared on video app Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, under the challenge name, “Four generations under one roof.”

[source] [vid source]

The fantasy isn’t that a brooding “tall, dark and handsome” man will come and swoop you of your feet. 

Darcy changes for Elizabeth. She rejects him, she stands up to him, she insults him in a magnitude of ways, both warranted and not, and he takes all of that, and he reflects on it, and he changes his behavior. He tries to be better. Because he respects Elizabeth and he finds her opinion valuable. 

Think about it. A usual response, both back then and today, would be to dismiss Elizabeth as a “crazy bitch.” He doesn’t do that at all, no, he takes valid criticism found among misunderstandings and takes it to heart. 

The Mr. Darcy Fantasy is a fantasy about being respected and having your opinion be valued very highly. 

He backs off. 

Like, he sends her the long ass letter to apologize for his screwups and clear up the more serious misunderstandings (which, in the case of Wickham, is doing her a solid), but he *actually stays away*. Not in the sense of suddenly doing a 180 and doubling down on his bad attitude and making things uncomfortable to “punish” her for rejecting him–in fact, he’s very civil and welcoming when *she* appears unexpectedly at his place. But he actually respects her wishes by not bothering her anymore. Not trying to change her mind. Not hounding her for a second chance. Not badgering her with shit like “WHY ARE YOU DENYING THIS OBVIOUS PASSION BETWEEN US”. In fact, he doesn’t even propose again until he actually has a good reason to believe she’s changed her mind.

Even in modern romances, that’s pretty refreshing! Obsessive behavior and flagrant ignoring of stated boundaries are still so heavily romanticized–the idea that if they’re REALLY in love with you, a “real man” won’t stop hounding women until they give in. But that’s not what happens here. It’s a shame, honestly, that this part of P&P still feels like a breath of fresh air today. 

Also, re the “bad boy reformed by the love of a good woman” fantasy: in a lot of other examples, what you’ll see is some prick consistently failing, but then suddenly changing his ways because “I can’t live without you”. Darcy changes because of Elizabeth, but it’s explicitly stated that it’s not with the ulterior motive of winning her back. He changes on his own, when they’re apart, because he actually heard what she had to say and realized she was right. Even if he’d screwed things up with her, he still wanted to be a better person. It’s not “her love” that changes him, it’s not that “if you really loved me, you’d change”, it’s that he sincerely wants to improve himself.

I especially love how Austen deliberately contrasts Darcy with Mr. Collins, who, when he’s rejected by Elizabeth, REFUSES to leave her alone and basically steamrollers over her objections, telling her she’s just playing hard to get, she doesn’t have any better options, he’s a nice guy with a house and a job, and who does she think she is, anyway?