For those interested in China, who also LOVE coffee
December 11, 2025
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business, capitalism, China, Chinese Culture, Chinese food, Chinese history, economy, education, expatriots, food, history, tourism | Tagged: China, Coffee cafes in Shanghai China, Coffee in China, Coffee in Shanghai, History of Coffee in China | 
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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse
What came first, Paper for Printing or for the Toilet?
July 8, 2020Since COVID-19 struck like a venomous cobra killing thousand daily, toilet paper has become a very popular item in the United States and from what I am learning, the world.
March through May, I didn’t see much Costco toilet paper at the store where I shop. That started to change in June, and on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, I saw more of Costco’s Kirkland brand toilet paper in one place than I have ever seen before.
The Costco I shop at added more storage at the back of the store for toilet paper on the heavy metal shelves the chain uses that soar 30 feet from the floor to the ceiling. At the checkout stand, I asked the clerk if that mountain of toilet paper was enough to satisfy demand, and she said, those shelves had to be filled three times a day to keep up.
The pandemic is in its fourth month and demand for toilet paper doesn’t seem to be ending. What are shoppers doing with all the toilet paper they are buying, insulating their houses with it?
On the way home, I thought about the history of toilet paper. I already knew that China invented paper just like they did the printing press centuries before they both showed up in Europe, but what about TP.
History.com says, “Although paper originated in China in the second century B.C., the first recorded use of paper for cleansing is from the 6th century in medieval China, discovered in the texts of scholar Yen Chih-Thui. In 589 A.D, he wrote, ‘Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes.’
“By the early 14th century, the Chinese were manufacturing toilet paper at the rate of 10 million packages of 1,000 to 10,000 sheets annually. In 1393, thousands of perfumed paper sheets were also produced for the Hongwu Emperor’s imperial family.
“Paper became widely available in the 15th century, but in the Western world, modern commercially available toilet paper didn’t originate until 1857, when Joseph Gayetty of New York marketed a ‘Medicated Paper, for the Water-Closet,’ sold in packages of 500 sheets for 50 cents. Before his product hit the market, Americans improvised in clever ways (don’t ask).”
Why did it take more than five hundred years for toilet paper to reach Europe and the United States from China?
I wonder if China had a toilet paper shortage like we did in the U.S. after the Chinese learned about COVID-19, and first warned the world on December 31, 2019. I found one answer dated in February from the South China Morning Post reporting that in Hong Kong there was a fear driven rush to buy all the toilet paper one could drag home. Guo Yukuan, a senior researcher with the China Society of Economic Reform, a state-backed think tank, said the panic buying was irrational. “This is purely driven by panic and stress,” Guo said. “China’s production capacity [for toilet paper] can supply not just Hong Kong but the whole world.”
Next time, before you flush, thank the Chinese for inventing toilet paper.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.
My Splendid Concubine is now available to read through Kindle Unlimited.
Leave a Comment » | America, business, China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, cultural differences, education, health care, history, United States | Tagged: Before there was toilet paper how did people clean themselves, What caused people around the world to panic and empty the stores of toilet paper, What country invented paper, What country was using toilet paper in the 14th century, When did China tell the World Health Organization about the COVID-19 virus, When did the United States start to use toilet paper, Why did stores run out of toilet paper after COVID-19 | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse
China’s Sex Toy Industry Making a Killing during the Pandemic
May 20, 2020Vice.com reports, “Sales for at least five major sex toy brands have seen significant increases throughout 2020, seemingly in step with instructions to stay inside and avoid other people.”
In the first week of April, the sale of sex toys in Denmark increased by 100%
China produces the most sex toys, while the United States produces the most pornography in the world (roughly 60%) and is the clear leader in porn production.
Real Sex Reviews.com reports, “China as a whole has been estimated to produce more than 80% of the sex toys in the world, with the industry being valued at $6.6 billion and employing more than a million people.”
One of those toys is the full-sized sex doll. According to The Atlantic, “Since ancient times, men have been getting it on with synthetic women.”
Inside a Chinese sex doll factory
The New York Daily Post reports, “Naturally antibacterial’: Sex doll companies trying to cash in on coronavirus. … Sex doll companies have an important public service message: Self-isolating can be fun and safe at the same time. Self-isolating doesn’t have to be the worst! All RealDolls are made from Platinum Grade Silicone and are naturally antibacterial and nonporous! Want one?”
What explains this increase in sex-toy sales and traffic to porn sites?
Psychology Today says, “Some research has found that when we are faced with the prospect of our own mortality, this prompts sexual desire and behavior as a coping mechanism. To the extent that the COVID-19 pandemic is making mortality more salient, it would make sense that you’d see a rise in horniness right now, which could partly explain why more porn is being consumed.”
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.
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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse
China Unleashed, Again
November 27, 2019While the United States is struggling to survive the arrogant, corruption, lies, ignorance and incompetence of President Donald Trump, Wharton warns us, “China and the U.S. are battling to be the leader in 5G technology, a fight it seems that Chinese tech companies are winning.”
While Donald Trump’s followers obsess about abortion while keeping a quarter of America’s children in crushing poverty, Kara Swisher warns us in the next video that, “Next tech innovation will come from China, not the U.S.”
While Trump’s Republicans are spreading the fear of socialism, American farmers are going bankrupt thanks to Trump’s infamous trade war with China and the world, in the next video, Richard Aguilar warns us, “China (a socialist-capitalist country) is innovating advanced technology in farming.”
“China has been continuously advancing in the field of technology and … you will see how China is transforming agricultural production in their country with the use and help of their technological advancement.”
While Donald Trump’s arrogant, ignorant, and corrupt Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is doing all she can to destroy the U.S. public education system, the same schools that helped make America the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world after World War II, Rebecca Fanning, the author of Tech Titans of China, says, “U.S. awareness of China’s tech industry as a whole is limited, and this oversight could ultimately prove costly to the U.S., if it persists.”
Fanning’s new book reveals “How China’s tech sector is challenging the world by innovating faster, working harder, and going global.”
If you don’t believe China is capable of racing past the United States because it is not a democracy like the United States, learn from Joseph Needham by reading The Man Who Loved China.
For more than fifteen-hundred years starting with the Han Dynasty in 206 BC, China was the most innovative and wealthiest country in the world up to 1644 AD’s Qing Dynasty. For instance, during those centuries, the Chinese invented paper, the stirrup, the crossbow, silk, tea, gunpowder, the printing press, the development of canal locks (that make the Suez and Panama canals work), and hundreds of other innovations.
I think the reason the United States is falling behind China is because the U.S. is no longer a Constitutional Republic and democracy with a clear separation of church and state. Instead, the United States is fast becoming a theocratic kleptocracy thanks to Citizens United and corrupt, manipulating liars like Donald Trump, the kleptocrat, and Betsy DeVos, the theocrat.
Meanwhile, China throws thieves and liars like Donald Trump in prison, and does not allow religions to have political power.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.
2 Comments | America, American culture, business, capitalism, China, Chinese history, Communism, cultural differences, democracy, education, government, history, Lloyd Lofthouse, politics, propaganda, science, socialism, United States | Tagged: How long was China the wealthiest country on the planet, How many centuries did China outperform the world, What are Chinese Tech companies winning, What kind of ancient innovations is China responsible for, Who is responsible for the decline of the United States, Why does China suppress the political power of religions, Why is China's innovations better than the United States | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse
Thanks to Donald Trump’s GUT, US farmers lost the Thanksgiving market in China
November 20, 2019CNBC reports, “The duties in large part target U.S. farmers, who largely supported Trump in 2016 but suffered from previous shots in the Trump administration’s trade war with China. The thousands of products include peanuts, sugar, wheat, chicken and turkey.”
According to USDA.gov’s internal trade data for chickens, turkeys and eggs exported to China, in 2015, U.S farmers sold 260,102,000 pounds to China. Fast forward to 2018, and those exports fell dramatically to 122,000 pounds. If that is welcome news, send the Real Donald Trump a thank you tweet.
According to The Poultry Site.com, “Most of the world’s turkey meat is produced in just five countries: US, Brazil, Germany, France and Italy.”
Before Donald Trump, China bought most of its turkey meat from the United States. My guess is that China is now buying its turkey from Brazil. “Although one-fifth of the size of the US industry, turkey production in Brazil rocketed by 220 per cent between 2000 and 2008. Without a doubt, this has been the most dynamic industry in the current decade with output likely to come close to 500,000 tonnes this year making this country the second largest producer in the world.”
By the time Trump arrived and declared his tariff war with most of the world, I think Brazil’s turkey producers were ready.
According to CNBC, “Struggling (U.S.) farmers are losing a huge customer to the (Trump’s) trade war – China.”
And if you think the Chinese do not eat Turkey, you are wrong. Mentalfloss.com tells us that China is #1 among the top five importers of turkey meat. According to Mentalfloss, China imported 82.8 million pounds, and that was back in 2012.
Conclusion, if you are one of the 72,000 American expatriates living and working in China and you want to eat turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving (a U.S. holiday), that turkey probably came from Brazil, Germany, France, or Italy, but not the United States where the farmers that produce turkey are probably facing failure if not already bankrupt.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.
Leave a Comment » | America, business, China, Chinese food, expatriates, expatriots, food, government, Lloyd Lofthouse, politics, United States | Tagged: How did Donald Trump lose US farmers more than two billion dollars just from eggs chicken and turkey, How much turkey meat do the Chinese eat each year, What country is China buying turkey meat from, What four countries produce turkey to compete with US farmers, What is it like to celebrate Thanksgiving in China, Why is Donald Trump a failed business man | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse
iLook China 