In short, I was on F-1 and yeah it was US politics. In long… see below. I guess I don’t care about accidentally doxxing myself anymore
This is a casual convo community and I don't want to talk too much politics without a CW so here it is
I was on F-1 the entire time, 2024-2025 on OPT. I submitted my green card application in 2023, but 1) I’m Chinese and Chinese/Indian people have to wait on a waitlist for several years (sometimes decades), and 2) I’m not that talented to apply for the first priority employment-based green card (usually ppl apply for that after a few years of postdoc anyway).
I went to the US in 2015 for school. That was also when Trump became president and US-China relations were… deteriorating, fast; relations didn’t improve by much during Biden either. I heard lots of horror stories (many from ppl I personally know, back then I was still high-masking autistic so I actually had acquaintances) about Chinese students going home to visit family and never able to come back… after paying for their tuition and everything. Even those who didn’t face issues had to wait 1-2 months for a new entry visa and those visas often only lasted one year. Sooo… because of all of that, the last time I came back to China was in 2016, and from Spring 2017 - Summer 2025 I never left US borders.
Still, I was too illiterate about politics to care, and my parents being both centrist/slightly conservative (the Reagan type) didn’t help, so I ended up staying put in the US, even did a PhD here. I was in love with Chicago and wanted to move there, and I ended up taking a job at Northwestern University… I also thought Harris would be president, and I would be somehow set for life
So Trump 2025 fucking ruined my life in every conceivable way possible. On career: Northwestern’s uni president was a wimp who tried to bow down to every request the administration made, so no one had funding/money… so it was basically either I quit my position or get fired. Since there was little/no scientific funding it is basically impossible to find a job anywhere else (not even accounting for autism, I had a very rough time securing a position in the first place). On personal life: I am very obviously Asian, and I fear for my life in consideration of US’s amazing history of the Chinese Exclusion Act, treatment of Japanese ppl during WW2, xenophobia during height of COVID, … And that is not mentioning the cost of living increases as ppl in academic research don’t make much to begin with. Even on completely unrelated things: I needed an authorization from the Dept of Agriculture for my cats’ international health certificate, and even that is delayed because of course it would
So yeah, I don’t feel safe in the US anymore, both on the career front and my personal safety. I was already considering going to the EU for a few years while waiting on my green card appli, so why would I stay in the US any longer at this rate… I still find it ironic that despite me being heavily critical of many things in China, there would be a point in my life that China feels like a safer place to be than the US
… sorry, you asked the wrong person for it, I’m as clueless about Chinese social media/young people culture as any regular American is, and my parents being in their 60s don’t help.
If it is just my observation, I do think Chinese society seems… 1) a bit behind culturally compared to most of the Western world despite China’s technological advancements, and 2) seem to be almost emulating Japan’s contemporary culture (which is culturally very conservative)? If these two points hold true, I guess the logical answer is that LGBT is pretty bad. I will have to go to some bars/clubs and underground scene to check for myself though, I could be very wrong
No idea about Musk though. Although China does have several Chinese companies making a ton of domestically-produced electric vehicles so… I guess he was kind of a savior??