Yea but you’re still hungry for another car an hour later!
I have never understood this joke
The thought is the simple carbs from rice, noodles, and high sugar sauces in a lot of takeout-style Chinese food gets digested quickly, so while one can eat that until they feel stuffed, the body will quickly break it down, and with the volume of fiber and protein in the meal being relatively low to the volume of starches and sugars, your stomach will soon be wanting more due to the low satiety provided. One could eat a smaller amount of, say, steak and broccoli, and remain fuller for much longer, due to the better nutritional balance and higher protein and fiber content which takes the body much longer to digest than starches and sugars.
It is played as a joke since a large number of people experience this overeating, yet soon hungry again situation, and attribute it to the food, although probably not in a way of understanding they're eating a different kind of junk food than what they're used to. My understanding is all this stuff is westernized and not really reflective of what Chinese food actually is.
This is also why people talk about Asians getting a "secret menu" at Asian restaurants. It's not as though Westerners are forbidden to order real Asian dishes, they're just a completely different taste profile than what a lot of Westerners are accustomed to, whether dishes be too spicy, too salty, or not sweet/saucy/cheesey/etc enough. One time I went fishing in the ocean and got way too many fish. I offered them to the guys in the Chinese takeout place attached to where I was working. They offered me some of what they made for themselves with it but gave me a heads up that I may not exactly enjoy it. I took a bite and it tasted sooooo salty, and I got surprised it still had the soft fish bones in it, and it wasn't bad but was not what my palette was ready for at the time and I could not finish it, meanwhile they were all grateful and fully enjoying it.
That was one of the most typed out joke explanations I've ever seen online, I salute your patience.
I try to keep things simple, but I also always want to give the most complete answer I can, so I end up being pretty long winded. If someone takes the time to ask a question, I assume they do want the full answer though. I always worry I'm beating things into the ground, but I really want people to know as much as they can. People are always free to tell me to shut my trap. 😄
They're implying that you could eat 5 Chinese cars and not be full, unlike when you eat one massive McGMC
Have you eaten Americanized "Chinese" food? I eat it every on every last Tuesday of the month. I order two meals for myself every time, because without fail, I will be hungry again within less than 2 hours. Yesterday (4/28/2026), I had a pint of General Tso's Chicken with a pint of beef lo mein. That's an entire quart of food. If I ate a quart of spag bol for my lunch, I'd be done for the night. I'd be asleep. But after my big ol' "Chinese" lunch, I was hungry ~90 minutes later, so I ate my pint of Szechuan Chicken and my pint of pork fried rice. Wonton soup was also involved. Yes, I added the fried noodles.
And even after that, I got a large pizza (pepperoni, pineapple, and extra cheese) at 10:30pm, just to cover the late night munchies. I only ate 4 slices out of 8, so I had some left for breakfast today. The stuff we sell as "Chinese food" in the USA is not very filling.
YMMV, I am a large man, and I am very active. I'm 6'4", I lift weights, and I run 6 miles a day. My TDEE is ~3800 calories. If you're one of those folks who only need 1200-1600 calories a day, a simple lunch from the "Chinese" spot would be a lot of food for you. My wife is small, and she can easily live off 1600-1800 calories a day. Our gf is tiny and lives off of 1200 calories a day most days. A "splurge" day for her is 1500-1600 calories.
But then my cars would be in China, and that’s not much use.
Dad?
Still getting cigarettes bud
Also I don't really need 5 cars
Income comparisons aside, what the fuck is this "journalism"???
The average new car in the U.S. in March had a list price of $51,456, according to Kelley Blue Book.
In China, there are more than 200 battery-powered models, including hybrids, for sale at less than the equivalent of $25,000, according to DCar, an information and trading platform.
Reuters compiled a list of the five best-selling electric vehicles in China that start under $12,000 using DCar data.
Did they deliberately only look at the cheapest cars to compare to the average American car in order to get their headline? Like I could buy 10 shitboxes from the junkyard for the average price of a new car, but that doesn't mean much.
Show me how many NEW cars you can buy in the US for less then 25k.
Yeah, this comparison is terrible they're purposefully putting an upper limit on price when comparing things. Not to mention that they aren't even looking at features and range of these cars.
Someone below mentions the "Wuling Hongguang", the top selling car in China apparently. While it's cheap, its max speed is 62mph and it has a range around 75 miles. Like of course that's cheap, and could work in some situations, but that's not comparable to any car sold in the US.
The more I read into things like this the more I realize that cars are just expensive. Sure China has a wider range of options, but when comparing apples to apples things look more similar than I'd expect.
look at the cheapest cars to compare to the average American car
But then the average American car isn't even electric...
I dont want 5 cars i want 1 car
Okay, but it's gonna cost five times as much.
:( can I have a 5th of a car?
So like a motorcycle?
That is like... half a car, if you count wheels and seats. Maybe a unicycle?
I dont even want a car, I want frequent and reliable transit
Because the government is subsiding those cars in a number of different ways; Attempt to control the global automotive and clean energy markets.
USA subsidizes auto industry too
And the oil industry and builds the roads and fights the wars to acquire oil.
And because wages are lower as well. Manpower costs more in America than China by quite a bit. The article doesn't scale prices to purchasing power. It's not 5x as much anymore probably, but it's a significant amount.
My guess is that manpower share is probably not that significant in the price of an EV.
And they are winning. China is expected to dominate 4 of the top 5 auto manufacturer by 2030
I assume you meant "dominate"
This is why we have trade protectionism - tariffs, "made in X" laws, etc. - to ensure capitalists can continue to generate maximized profits, rather than having to compete with Chinese-made cars.
The oft-quoted argument is "well, we need to protect jobs" - well, tax the rich and subsidize it then, if those jobs are so important. Why should the working class pay the cost of protecting jobs (ensuring ongoing production for the benefit of the ruling class) in industries where capitalists continue to maximize profit?
Step 1. Buy 5 cars in China
Step 2. Rent them out to Chinese people
Step 3. Profit
Step 4. Buy yourself an American car with the proceeds
Step 5. Can finally access entry level American labour
bad math.
Average price does not reflect what people actually buy.
Chinese cars abroad are not actually that cheap.
But can't you also buy 5 American cars for the average price of American car? Just buy used 🤷♂️
you could buy 2 us cars for the average price of a us car (2 of the cheapest us cars). seems that China still has cheaper cars, but this article is biased in the title and article for some reason
And a brake job probably wont run you $1200...
China doing capitalism better than the US 🫡......America!.....Fuck yeah!! 😒
Keep the car prices high, or its taxes and use the profits to fund public transportation?
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