Zhu Ling, the victim, narrowly escaped death in 1995 because of the Internet, even though it was only in embryo in China back then. 18 years later, it was the internet again, this time with all-out support of a much larger online population, that came to her aid. But the growing sense of social injustice in the past few years and total lack of trust in Chinese judicial system turned netizens’ attention to the White House, which they believed is more likely to address grievances in China than the Chinese government.

At the time, Zhu was a sophomore majoring in chemistry at the prestigious Tsinghua University. In December 1994 and March 1995, she was twice hospitalized for severe pain in abdomen, limbs, extreme hair loss, facial paralysis, respiratory dysfunction and eventually, in the case of the second hospitalization, a five-month coma.

Photo of 20-year-old Zhu retrived from CCTV

Zhu Ling agonizing in hospital bed.

According to multiple Chinese media reports, including the state broadcaster China Central Television, the police later determined that Zhu was poisoned with thallium, an extremely toxic and deadly and yet rare chemical substance, to which only a handful in the entire university had controlled access. The perpetrator clearly made two separate attempts. Seeing Zhu was able to recover from the first poisoning attempt, the perpetrator significantly increased the dose three months later in an effort to kill her.

The case was a landmark in that it is the first medical diagnosis in China reached through international crowdsourcing. For over a month since the second poisoning in early March of 1995, doctors at the best hospitals in Beijing were unable to determine the cause of or find treatment for Zhu’s inscrutable ‘disease’.

In a desperate attempt to save Zhu, then struggling in great pangs of pain between life and death, Bei Zhicheng, a high school classmate of Zhu then studying computer science at Peking University, thought about seeking help on the Internet, which, in 1995, was only available to a few research institutes in China. He sent out an SOS email detailing Zhu’s symptoms to a number of Internet usenet groups.

Screenshots of the email correspondence between Bei Zhicheng and medical experts overseas

Of the thousands of email replies he received from 18 countries, about one-third inferred Zhu was suffering from thallium poisoning and suggested trying Prussian blue, an industrial dye also used as the antidote to thallium in medicine. In the end, Chinese doctors followed the advice and saved Zhu Ling’s life, although she had already sustained irreversible neurological damage and is left with permanent intellectual and physical disabilities.

Internet discussions and Zhu’s parents quoted by the Chinese media say that the prime – some say the only – suspect is Sun Wei, Zhu Ling’s dormitory roommate at the time. Sun was both Zhu’s good friend and a fellow contender for a spot in the university orchestra. Because of her advisor’s research interest, she was the only student at Tsinghua University to have access to the chemical. But she was never arrested or charged, and the police indefinitely suspended investigation of Zhu’s case after the questioning of Sun, citing lack of evidence.

It is never known why exactly the police neither prosecuted Sun Wei nor pursued the case further, but rumor has it that Sun’s family with powerful political connections to Jiang Zemin, then top leader of the Communist Party, obstructed investigation and even pressured the police to release Sun. The primary investigator, Li Shusen, reportedly told Southern People Weekly in January 2006 that investigators had in fact reached some important conclusions regarding the case, but that the information was ‘too sensitive to be released’.

The unanswered questions about the tale of intrigue and betrayal have kept it alive in the past 18 years, although the topic was only sporadically discussed in internet forums. Every thread about Zhu’s case inevitably ended with dismay over the dark side of China that set the perpetrator on the loose.

However, in April, an entirely unrelated murder on the campus of Shanghai-based Fudan University, in which a postgraduate medical student poisoned his roommate to death out of jealousy, sent shockwaves around the country and refreshed the nation’s memory of Zhu Ling. Images of a 200-pound near-blind Zhu Ling drooling like a two-year-old and unable to move or speak properly circulated like a wildfire on Sina Weibo, the Chinese Twitter. “The Fudan murderer is now brought to justice. What about Tsinghua’s Zhu Ling?” Many wondered aloud.

Zhu Ling before and after the poisoning.

In the U.S., where many of Zhu Ling’s contemporaries, including her former classmates, have settled down, discussion is equally heated. On China Gate, the largest overseas Chinese-langauge web portal, a special web page was devoted to all threads related to Zhu Ling.

Chinese internet censors that swooped in the next few day added even more fuel to the public anger. Tweets about Zhu Ling were deleted. Searches of related terms, such as “Zhu Ling”, “Sun Wei” and “thallium”, were blocked. Several Chinese media stories that quested for the truth were taken down. All these fed the wide speculations that politics have done the dirty on Zhu Ling.

The suppression of the information was lifted Sunday, but many Chinese netizens no longer pinned their hope on the Chinese authorities and resorted to the White House petition, because they learned that if 100,000 signatures can be collected within 30 days, the White House may review the petition and respond.

According to the grammatically flawed petition authored by an anonymous Chinese expat, Sun Wei entered the U.S. years ago by changing her name and committing a marriage fraud. “To protect the safety of our citizens, we petite [sic] that the government investigate and deport her,” it reads.

“If a country as large as China fails to uphold justice for this vulnerable woman, this is shame on the country. If 1.3 billion fellow countrymen fail to provide aid and support to Zhu Ling, this will be the moral degeneration of all of us,” a widely circulated appeal for donation and petition says.

Montesquieu once said, “An injustice committed against one is a threat made to all.” He would have never known that more than three centuries later in the campaign for Zhu Ling, this quote of his has become the wake-up call for Chinese and has been shared by more than 42,000 Weibo users.

Transcript:

One of the Chinese students died shortly after the explosion. The other is recovering in hospital, and her condition has stabilized.

On Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, web users collectively managed to identify the victim despite her family’s request for anonymity, and flocked to her profile page to mourn her death.

Her last post on the morning of the Boston Marathon, showed a picture of a fruit salad she prepared and a caption about “my wonderful breakfast”, received over 23,000 comments, most of which are emoticons of flickering candles, often used as prayers for the dead on Chinese social media. Most lamented over her young age and her upbeat personality reflected in her posts.

But way before the news of her death, Chinese netizens had already been expressing their sadness at the bombing. This post, shared 1,400 times, said, “The September 11 attack 12 years ago caused our nation to cheer in unison for the heavy strike on Imperialistic America. This Bombing in Boston, aroused mostly grief and condolences. Even though ‘education’ and propaganda these years are getting worse, we are still trying out best to return to humanity.”

In addition, several microbloggers with large followings praised the swift response of the local authorities and news media to the event and the outpouring of love and help extended by strangers to victims. This long post was retweeted 59,000 times. It ended: “the positive interaction among the government, the media, businesses, and citizens is a lesson that we should learn from.”

Interestingly, netizens on both ends of the political spectrum criticized the obsessive attention to the blasts. Conservative nationalists called it typical worship of anything American. Here’s one example from Weibo:

“Sympathy is the best we can give to them. Do we have to weep and wail as if our mom and dad died? Now we can tell how many American spies are hiding in China!”

Liberal intellectuals weighed in too. This post says, “CCTV and other state-run media were jaw-dropping in their extent of coverage of the Boston bombing. Why three deaths in America can get to their G-spot, but deaths of migrant workers run by steamrollers in China would not turn them on at all?”

The post brought this sour reply, “I can fully understand. Because children of our big bosses wouldn’t be in the village, but could very likely be in Boston, where Harvard, MIT and BU are.”

But one media commentator nailed it with his post, “We are more worked up by news abroad than at home mainly because at home, the media are not allowed to report what’s happening, not that they don’t want to.”

For Link Asia, I am Jing Gao.

A spittoon! Into which Deng, then the paramount leader of China, expectorated loudly while expressing his firm stance on Hong Kong’s return to China in early 1980s.

Her tripping down the steps in front of the Great Hall of the People is also a memento to Chinese.

But the good news for human rights activists in China is, the latest 20,000-word investigative story published in Lens Magazine revealed the most horrific and inhuman side of the reeducation system that even Chinese people, well-vaccinated against any dirty tricks of local authorities because of having heard too much about it, find appaling. (Full-length article in Chinese can be viewed here.)

@Lens Magazine wrote on its official Sina Weibo account that in Masanjia Women’s Reeducation Through Labor Camp in northeastern China’s Liaoning province, torturing methods, such as exploitation of camp labor, solitary confinement, electric shock, ‘big hang’, ‘tiger bench’ and ‘death bed’, are taking place almost every day. Some may have become pregnant by the time they are thrown into the camp, but are forced to work nevertheless.

The Liaoning authorities announced on April 8 that a special team had been formed to investigate Masanjia labor camp, and results will be made known to the public truthfully.

Below are some excerpts and highlights of the article, including some unheard-of terminology.

At Majiasan Labor Camp, petitioners, as ‘key targets’ are placed under the strictest surveillance. ‘Flanking’ is arranged for them immediately upon their arrival at Majiasan.

‘Flanking’ (包夹, bao jia), in the context of the reeducation-through-labor system, is around-the-clock surveillance on ‘key targets’ by personnel or by trusted fellow inmates. “Two well-behaved (inmates) will be responsible for keeping an eye and sleeping, eating and working together (with the key target),” said Peng Daiming, former chief at Majiasan.

But in reality, the number of people who flank a key target may well exceed two. Mei Qiuyu got ‘priority treatment’ for holding some material evidence against the local authority, “In the workshop, seven people watch me. At meal, four. In the aisle, four,” she said.

Gai Fengzhen, one former forced labor camp inmate at Masanjia, recounts her story of being put through ‘big hang’ and ‘small room’.

Labor camp inmates who generated massive output value do not receive much of payment or reward for their labor. Peng Daiming recalled that in his days, labor camp inmates were never paid for their wrok. In recent years, some labor camp have started to grant each inmate a largely symbolic stipend of 10 yuan (US$1.6) per month,  but even this paltry payment is often withheld.

Peng Daiming has always maintained that labor camp inmates are different from criminals in jail and deserve payment for their work as much as ordinary workers do.

In recent years, there has been a sudden increase in the number of petitioners at the labor camp. Because they believe they are not at any fault, they often resist hard labor and are therefore often punished for that. This has been the biggest conflict between officers and inmates here, according to a staff member at Masanjia who spoke under the alias of Xiao Xi. Zhu Guiqin, a petitioner with disabilities, received punishments such as ‘small room’ and electric shock regularly for failing to work.

Some forms of torture with fancy names are:

‘Big hang’: An inmate is hung by cuffs that restrain her to a bed, a wall or a door at her four limbs, stretching her body to the limit with gravity and other forces.

‘Small room’: A nick name for solitary confinement. It comes in various forms, the smallest being less than 4 square meters (43 sq ft) and the larger one about 6 square meters. There is no natural light or window, and only a bulb for lighting and a vent-hole. If the vent-hole is blocked, breathing will be very difficult. Besides, because an inmate put into ‘small room’ is deprived of freedom to use the restroom, she has to eat, drink, urinate and defecate in the same room.

Rehabilitation through reeducation must be used together with punishment. If one is locked in a ‘small room’, she may be asked to recite the “30 rules” until she mentally breaks down.

Liu Hua’s ‘Diary at a Labor Camp’ was written on a scrap of paper and slipped into her vagina in order for her to take it outside.

Zhao Min’s front tooth was knocked off when she was force-fed on the ‘death bed’. 

‘Tiger bench’: an iron bench to which the inmate’s ankles and knees are cuffed in a way to cause her legs to bend upward for a long period of time. Her hands are tied behind her backs. The cuffs are designed to tighten if they struggle.

‘Death bed’: an iron or wood board with handcuffs and shackles to restrain an inmate who goes on hunger strike and force-feed her. The inmate is often stripped naked with her rear over a hole in the bed for urination and defecation. That way, she can be restrained for a prolonged period.

‘Forcefeeding’: A cervical speculum, commonly used for gynacological surgery,  is employed to pry open the hunker striker’s mouth. After the forcefeeding is finished, the speculum is still left in her mouth for the next meal. Gai Fengzhen, a regular victim, had many of her teeth damaged by the forcefeeding process. Two officers on the shift could not stand the sight and demanded to transfer to other shifts, saying they did not have the heart to do it.

Zhao Min’s leg has a scar left from sitting on the ‘tiger bench’. 

Mei Qiuyu’s paperwork for her release. The local judiciary dropped charges against her and granted release, but the labor camp stepped in nevertheless on the same day and threw her into custody. 

A reeducation-through-labor announcement paper without even a rubber stamp. 

Li Ping’s disability worsened at the labor camp from the third degree to the second degree.

Selected comments from Sina Weibo

青莲066：The reeducation through labor system is extremely evil!

作家草军书：Investigate my ass! The torture by the police is a hidden rule. Which Chinese doesn’t know that? You’d better investigate which jail or which labor camp does not do that. The same for corruption: an investigation team is not formed until a case is aired on the web. So is there any good guy on your investigation team? Just the same!

自由-北风：A concentration plan of the modern age. The disgrace for the civilizaiton!

军少先生：Really? This is only happening in Masanjia in Liaoning??????

媒体人杨清林: A real living hell! You call that the embodiment of the advantages of our political system too? If we really believe in our ideology, please shut down labor camps, abolish the system and let people live free from terror!

文笔流畅love：An open-minded government will never use force against its people! This shows how corrupt the Chinese government is. It’s like a big tree. Even if you are strong and exuberant, your root and trunk are so rotten that you are doomed to fall sooner or later.

追梦女王_乔：I cannot go on reading it at all. It’s so horrific! What’s wrong with the country I love! How did this happen? Wake up! The lion is about to fall asleep!

王二律师：Not only labor camps need investigating. Prisons, detention centers, forced rehab centers across the country need investigating too.

I know I am not a cameragenic person:P I am especially clumsy with makeup. Please be soft in your critique of my work:D

The transcript of the video:

Imagine that you and your loved ones sit at the dining table, munching on BBQ pork or sweet and sour pigs’ trotters. You turn on your TV and the news is that thousands of dead pigs have been rotting for more than a month in the same river your tap water comes from. Disgusting!

The stomach-churning carcasses of pigs were found in the upper reaches of Huangpu, the so-called mother river of Shanghai.

Chinese state media say that since January more than 20,000 pigs have died at pig farms around Jiaxing, a town 50 miles to the west of Shanghai.  The local authorities have fished over 83-hundred bloated carcasses out of water to stop them from drifting further downstream.

There has been speculation that pig farmers have been secretly dumping pigs dead of disease into the river, although the authorities denied the existence of a pig epidemic.

But the first sighting, or smell, of legions of rotting pigs was not reported until last week. A local resident uploaded a picture onto Sina Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter. He ranted, “This is the water we drink! Animals’ dead bodies could easily be seen … and it stinks horribly!”

Dead pig has quickly become one of the ten hottest trending topics on Weibo, with more than 700,000 posts using the hashtag Dead Pigs in Huangpu River.

This user raised health concerns: ”So are we drinking any water or not? Eating any pork or not?”

This cartoon of a man looking dolefully into the river at his reflection, which is a pig, went viral. The caption?  “Huangpu River is a mirror for the Chinese people”.

And the public relations effort by the authorities failed miserably. Repeated claims that water quality is not affected and there’s no danger to public health ran into a wall of disbelief. An official explanation that the pigs only froze to death brought public opinion to another boil.

One user wrote, “Next time you lie, please use your brain.”

Even President Xi Jinping weighed in during the political meeting, “Nowadays the sole criterion for testing water quality is if the mayor dares to jump in the river and swim.” His comment was repeated by nearly 7,000 on Weibo.

Some net users, however, unleashed their humor on the pig scandal, with these cartoons.

Finally, this post wrapped up the recent air and water pollution mess in China.

It read, “Beijingers say, ‘we are the happiest bunch, able to smoke for free just by opening the window.’ Shanghaiers reply, ‘So what? we have free pork soup coming out of our faucet!’”

For Link Asia, I’m Jing Gao.

Tech giant Apple and German automaker Volkswagen were accused of jerking Chinese consumers around in a 3-hour expose aired by China Central Television Friday evening, but a celebrity’s foolish mistake on Weibo revealed that the so-called investigative journalism from CCTV was nothing but the big shark’s PR offensive against the wrong targets.

Each year on March 15, the Consumers’ Rights Protection Day in China, CCTV runs a special “3.15” evening show that takes to task shoddy products or substandard services in the name of alerting the nation and laying bare corporate evils. In this year’s show, CCTV said that Chinese customers are not provided with the same customer service from Apple as it does to users in other countries, and that Volkswagen cars have this direct shift gearbox transmission problem that makes car suddenly lose power during driving.

A screen grab of the segment about Apple’s “discriminatory customer service” in CCTV’s “315” evening show

But the twist came at 20 minutes into the show, when a well-known singer/actor echoed CCTV’s accusation in an angry post on Weibo. Peter Ho, who has five million followers on Weibo, wrote, “Apple played so many tricks in customer service? As an Apple fan, I am really hurt… Is what you’ve done worthy of Jobs the head (Steve Jobs)? Worthy of the young man who sold one kidney? So you bully customers just because you are big! To be posted at around 8:20.”

Peter Ho

The last sentence, “To be posted at around 8:20,” sounds very much like an instruction to Ho about timing of his attack on Apple. Oops, did he just copy and past every word onto Weibo from a PR person and forget to leave out the telltale message?

At least five other similar posts were published at the same moment by various influential personalities on Weibo, including Zheng Yuanjie, a popular children’s book writer, which only lead more to believe that Apple had been set up in a carefully orchestrated smear campaign that ended in a fiasco only because of this Peter Ho who let the cat out of the bag.

Two hours later, Peter Ho took down the post and wrote, “Someone stole my Weibo account and published the previous post! Can anyone tell me what was wrong? This is ridiculous,” which most users call a clumsy denial, “a lousy lie”.

“Notebook”, a very famous social commentator, summed up the 315 drama in his post, “3.15 has been a weapon to strike down competitors. It uses dirty tricks, bribes big shots from all sectors on Weibo, assigns them tasks of posting content on Weibo at around 8:20 to work with CCTV in a concentrated fire on the target CCTV presets. It makes people sick.” It was retweeted more than 20,000 times in ten hours.

Although so far the claim that those who publicly spoke against Apple got a fat paycheck from CCTV cannot be corroborated and is probably exaggerated, there is little doubt that in this case, the single most powerful broadcaster in China abused its media power by mobilizing so much manpower behind the scenes to beleaguer one corporate.

If only they scratched the right surface. This year, also joining Apple and Volkswagen in the list of “dishonest enterprises” are Craft Food, Chow Tai Seng Jewelry, and web portal Net Ease. CCTV’s allegations are that the cheese does not meet standards, the gold necklace is adulterated, and that the website does cookie stealing to infringe upon privacy. Like “Notebook” said, “It leaves alone countless rubbish cell phones or computers and instead attacks a company that is a hundred times better than you are in every way out of jealousy.”

One user wrote, “You made no mention of the notorious tainted baby formula, or food scandal, or substandard gas and diesel that has created smog, or SMS spams from telecom oligarchs, and instead hypocritically singled out small faults of NetEase and Apple. Who are you bluffing?”

Another wrote, “Actually, Peter Ho is the real fraud buster today. He crushed an evening show and a hypocritical crowd with two Weibo posts.”

It is not the first time CCTV’s expose was lambasted. Last year, it sent an undercover reporter  to one McDonald’s restaurant in Beijing, who filmed with a hidden camera how the restaurant staff prepared food with ingredients past their expiration date. Its newsgathering method and motive were questioned by many, who said they would rather trust McDonald’s than CCTV’s news report.
In 2008, CCTV picked on Chinese search engine giant Baidu.com for running ads paid by illegal and unlicensed pharmaceutical companies. Baidu’s stock price took a terrible tumble afterwards. But in 2009, after Baidu plunked down 40 million yuan (5.7 million) as the sponsor of CCTV’s Chinese New Year Gala, one of the most watched TV program in the world, CCTV left it alone.
Robin Li, founder and CEO of Baidu.com (left), was invited to 2009 CCTV New Year’s Gala after paying “protection fee”.

No one probably nailed the truth about these two flagship shows of CCTV better than this post, retweeted by Xue Manzi, a famous venture capitalist, on his Weibo page Friday after CCTV’s 315 night turned into a scandal, “The difference between its Chinese New Year Gala and 315 Evening Show is, you can pay money to appear in one and pay money to avoid appearing in the other.”

We don’t know yet if the polluted water has killed too many pigs, or too many dead pigs have polluted the water, but the sight of over 1,200 bodies of domesticated pigs floating with tons of garbage and flotsam in Songjiang River, which has the city of Shanghai downsteam and has been its 20 million residents’ source of drinking water, is beyond disgusting.

It is reported that since January, over 20,000 pigs have died in the neighboring rural villages. The mass death event has overwhelmed pig farmers as well as villages living in that area.

Because the pig bodies have been soaked in the water for too long, each one is swollen like a rubber ball. Some of them are so rotten that their internal organs are clearly visible. The overpowering stench of the pigs as the result of prolonged sun exposure and heat in Shanghai these days has made most reporters on the scene sick.

A villager in her 60s told Xinmin Evening News that she saw before pigs secretly dumped into the river after they died from diseases. She said these carcasses might have drifted down from the upper streams lately, although it is also likely that they were pigs raised and dumped by residents in the village.

The local authorities have been fishing carcasses out of water. So far, more than 900 have been removed and sent for non-pollutive carcass disposal. Retrieval effort is going on.

A staff member at Shanghai’s Water Supply Bureau told Xinmin that the water quality has not been affected, and the bureau so far has no plan to stop using water from the river or halt water supply altogether, although it vows to keep monitoring the water quality in the event of a deterioration as the result of the incident.

The city’s agricultural commission said that no evidence has been found to support the claim that farmers have been improperly disposing of pig carcasses. Nor has there been any report of animal epidemic outbreaks.

But Jiaxing Daily, a state-run newspaper circulated in Zhejiang province, disclosed Saturday earlier on its official Sina Weibo page, the Chinese answer to Twitter, that 10,078 pigs died in January and 8,325 in February. Into March, an average number of 300 pigs are killed each day. “Mass graves for burial of the pigs have been dug one after another. If it goes on like this, we can’t hold it,” the Weibo post reads.

Jiaxing Daily blows the lid on pig death toll on Sina Weibo.

The news has clearly set off alarm on Weibo.  Net users are not only concerned about food safety and water quality being compromised by this incident, but questioning what caused so many pigs to die as well. Others worry that the government has been covering up the issue in the past few months.

Selected comments from Sina Weibo:

一马平川在路上V2: People in Shanghai are rewarded with free pork soup every day, how lucky!

上海天气预报台：A few months later, we will be ready to eat some pork rice balls from Jiaxing.

神舟十八: Each month, ten thousand pigs die in one village. That’s over 100,000 pig deaths a year. What about the entire region? Where has meat of so many dead pigs gone? Probably to the stomachs of you and me. Do you really think you have never consumed pork from a dead pig?

上海优活指南: What on earth is this? Are we sure there is no pollution at the source? 

杨浦机器猫：So now water and pork in Shanghai are both unsafe.

举两个栗子：I am really worried that questionable pork will hit the market. Besides, will burying sick pigs affect the quality of underground water?

超宁冲：Deaths of pigs are not frightening. What’s frightening is the cause still hasn’t been determined despite so many pig deaths. Do they want to give up the investigation? Or they did investigate, but are unwilling to disclose the results?

科协工作者：It’s been more than two months. Nice cover-up job.

刘裕xv：Why the word didn’t come out until two months passed? Did the government try to suppress it? If it is because of feed containing genetically modified soybeans, will humans eating such pork okay? The government, where are you when the people need you!!

A 19-year-old Chinese community college student is facing homicide charge after killing a 25-year-old woman in a fatal car crash in November. His mother flew to the U.S. from China and paid two million dollars in bail last week. Chinese social media are now abuzz with condemnation of such “despicable behavior of fu er dai“, or the rich second generation, and with gossips about who on earth his father is, since almost every detail of the news story has raised a red flag on the minds of Chinese netizens, who have a deep-ingrained aversion to the rich and powerful.

Xu is charged with vehicular homicide among other five counts, to which he pleaded not guilty. His bail was set at $2 million. On March 1, his mother presented a cashier’s check to pay the full amount to release him from the King County Jail, which really surprised Ian Goodhew, King County prosecutor’s chief of staff.

“Rarely is a bail of that amount posted,” said Goodhew, “We asked for $2 million because…we are very much concerned he won’t show up.” There is no extradition treaty between the United States and China, so Xu is considered a flight risk.

Xu Yichun, 19, was a student at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Wash.

It is revealed by Sing Tao Daily, a Hong Kong newspaper, that Xu Zhaohong, the father of Xu Yichun, is the chief executive of a prominent mainland tax and accounting firm, taxchina.com, which has 33 branch offices in China. Furthermore, an online educational program operated by Taxchina is even the only training institution for certified tax agents recognized by China Certified Tax Agents Association.

Xu Zhaohong told Sing Tao Daily that he “is already back in Beijing… Everything is alright with my son. Thanks for your attention.” A court clerk told the newspaper that Xu shoved him away and caused all papers to scatter on the floor during his visit to the King County Jail for his son when he was trying to give him court documents.

The accident took place at around 3 p.m. on November 10 when Xu Yichun, on his way back from an afternoon party with four other teenage girls, was driving a 2008 Mercedez-Benz he just bought four days ago with 31,000 in cash at 70 mph in a residential area in Des Moines, Wash. He ran a stop sign and crashed into a BMW driven by a woman taking her four family members to a birthday party.

Xu reportedly told the police that he was driving “slightly faster,” and that he made a sudden U-turn only because his GPS told him to. Although Xu had a driver’s license in China, he did not have an international license, nor had he ever driven in the United States.

Brenda Gomez, the BMW driver, sustained fatal injuries and died days later at a local hospital. Her four young siblings in the same car were all injured to varying degrees, including a 14-year-old brother suffering a traumatic brain injury. Two 18-year-olds in Xu’s car were also injured, but one of them refused to receive any medical treatment. Two 17-year-olds were not hurt.

On the Internet, convinced that the 2 million dollars are ill-gotten gains, Chinese net users shared the news and the screen grabs of U.S. media reports with anger and utter disgust while highlighting Xu’s father’s influence.

A screen grab of a U.S. news report on Xu’s Case is now circulating on Chinese media

From Sina Weibo

老张家的小方：Only with a father whose hand can cover the entire sky do you have the nerve to blow a hole in the sky. Pity that 2 million dollars, which was taken from the Chinese people and now used in the interests of American people!

老燕915：No wonder there are so many exorbitant taxes and levies! Finally I have got some clue. If ordinary people don’t pay them or pay less, how will corrupt officials’ children be able to pay their bail when they commit a crime! Americans are really stupid. Next time when they have a similar case, investigate his family background first. Fine them 20 million or even 200 million dollars. After all, they have countless ill-gotten money.

第一只草泥马：The father has victimized countless fellow countrymen and used the money dripping with blood to send his brainless son abroad so that his son can brandish wealth, bully around, disregard the law and kill innocent people. The problem is, there are already too many shitty sons like him…

细马赶三老：I knew (the father) must be somebody. Where does the 12 million RMB (converted from 2 million USD) come from? Anyone has the guts to find it out?

蘇迪_SF：The great government of the United States, please exterminate garbage like this.

wanghui111：I finally know where my tax money has gone!

帥Vic：Now it has taken “harming the father” to a new height, “harming the country”. It has perfectly embodied the ‘mores’ of the Heavenly Kingdom’s money and power worship! What a disgrace! The United States should draw experience from our country’s “punish-hard” spirit in the Mekong River murder case!

Due to my family’s relocation plan, I am now looking for a job in the United States. I figure while I will be sending out application packages every day, it does not hurt if I advertise myself here, since we already have thousands of followers.

Zhouxiaoniu, a net user on Sina Weibo, first posted the screen capture of the scene, “Tearing the devil with bare hands! I am on my kneels begging for the name of this television drama! So fuking awesome!” The tweet has got nearly 6,000 shares and 1,400 comments.

The violent and yet surreal scene was mocked by netizens as a wet dream for Chinese government, as the nation’s TV screen is flooded with over-the-top dramatization of Chinese militia’s heroic defeat of Japanese troops during the Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945. Many Weibo user joked that the stupidity and implausiblity of some scenarios have made such dramas look sci-fi, and that Chinese dramas must have the highest Japanese body count.

State-run newspaper Global Times quoted a report as saying that in eastern China’s Hengdian, China’s largest outdoor film studio, of the 150 television series it provided sets to in the past year, 48, or nearly one third, were set during the anti-Japanese war. Among the 300,000 extras the studio used, 60 percent played Japanese soldiers.

In one recent news story done by Hangzhou-based Qianjiang Evening News, an extra named Shi Zhongpeng told the reporter than he played nameless Japanese soldier 200 times in over 30 dramas throughout 2012. On one day, he “died” eight times. His experience of  portraying a Japanese? “Act as lewd and abominable as possible,” Shi said that when casting the role of a “Japanese devil”, production crews often pick extras who are slit-eyed and look mean and evil.

The surfeit of anti-Japanese is an answer to censors at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), who strictly limit costume period dramas or CSI-style spy and crime stories during prime time slots. The heavy hand from the media watchdog basically leaves TV production companies with no choice but anti-Japanese patriotic storylines.

In October, 2012, there were media reports about “Red tourism” in Shanxi province, where a theme park based on anti-Japanese storyline was built for park visitors to dress up as either a Communist soldier, an ordinary villager or a “Japanese devil” and face off in a simulated combat.

Weibo users’ comments on Japanese ripped in half

MAA_happy：When you see a grenade take down an aircraft,  this is really nothing! Your brain malfuctions after you watch those anti-Japanese shows.

Loui5_Lu：You would think that China might have invaded Japan for eight years after watching such a show.

Alex-Squirrel：…How…awesom…it…makes…one…feel… So every Japanese has “Tear Along the Perforated Line” written on their head?~

修齐LT：So many anti-Japanese dramas are being made. Each one of them can’t be faker! A glimpse at it would make me sick! If you go to Hengdian Studio, at least ten are shooting anti-Japanese dramas at the same time.

寿限无寿限无卷卷毛：Right!! Hengdian Studio is the place with the most and the bloodiest deaths of ‘devils’ inside China, isn’t it!!

火柴–Man：So SARFT will simply leave such a gory scene alone?

纠察来了：So they don’t think airing this will scare children.

朱少微：I heard 700 million “devils” were killed off in Hengdian. The bodies, if lined up together, can circle the earth twice…

静月秋韵：So senseless!!! Glamorizing violence, what a human disgrace!

亮ZAI：Chinese-style crappy drama~~

吃面是一种shenghuo态度：All kinds of nonsensical dramas…Can’t watch any.

老虫是吃货胖纸小噜噜的爸爸：Haven’t watched any anti-Japanese drama since graduating from primary school. Wonder what viewers of such a drama are like.

暮色晨光V：Another brainwashing drama. Communist Party is always unparalled in this regard!

草根深圳V：Wet dreams make a country stronger.

奥黛丽好笨：Apple should have invented a new game: Slicing devils~ (Fruit Ninja is translated as “Slicing Fruit” in China) This must be popular in China. 

笑笑3128620395：Chinese-style wet dream. 

As complaints over the severe baby formula shortage in Hong Kong rise, the local authorities plan to slap a tough restriction on the amount of formula outbound travellers can take. The new rule, which is aimed at mainland Chinese smugglers, has sparked fear, outrage and angst on Chinese social media.

Under the regulation, each individual leaving Hong Kong can take no more than 1.8 kilograms, or two cans, of baby formula past the border. Violators can face imprisonment of up to two years and a maximum fine of HK500,000. In addition, the city has stepped up border inspection to keep potential smugglers at bay. More than 600 were denied entry into Hong Kong in the past four days since the announcement.

The prohibitions arise from the large amount of baby formula being smuggled out of Hong Kong into mainland China on a daily basis. Cross-border traders buy up imported formula in Hong Kong and sell them at a premium in the mainland. But as the result of the ongoing Chinese milk scandals since 2008, most Chinese middle class families concerned with food safety are more than happy to pay the hefty prices.

A long line in front of a store in Hong Kong with a sign that reads, “Japanese Milk Powder (baby formula)”

A drugstore in Hong Kong packed with shoppers who snap up baby formula 

The high demand for baby formula from the mainland has drained Hong Kong residents of milk, and the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on February 10 this year, has only exacerbated the shortage. Last week, nearly a hundred local protesters besieged a drugstore packed with mainland smugglers and shouted their slogan, “Regain Possession of Hong Kong! Give Formula Back to Us.”

Hong Kong parents’ fury and frustration at illegal baby formula trade can even be felt overseas. On January 29, they launched a petition at the White House web site, calling for international support and assistance as malnutrition and hunger loom large for the city’s babies. As of Tuesday, the petition has garnered over 22,000 signatures.

The new two-can limit imposed in response to the clamor, which is likely to go into effect by the end of the month, has set off alarm on Sina Weibo, Chinese twitter, where net users chewed over the significance of the regulation.

Some accuse Hong Kong, a former British colony, of being ungrateful for and discriminatory towards the mainland. They argue that Chinese government has been providing resources, business opportunities and food supply to the otherwise isolated island, and yet Hong Kong has failed to return the favor.

“For so long, the mainland has been shipping the best to Hong Kong, but now they are talking about clampdown after mainlanders buy a few cans of formula. Hong Kong people, a few cans of formula is a testament to your shamelessness!”

 ”You have been consuming our meat products for so many years. What’s wrong with us drinking so little of your milk?”

Others call for a boycott of Hong Kong in retaliation,

“Haha, as soon as we mainlanders stop travelling to Hong Kong, those Hong Kong guys will loosen up.”

Such mentality has aroused antagonism and aversion on Hong Kong’s part. Liao Weitang, a Hong Kong author, commented on Weibo,

“For today’s matter of baby formula, we most Hong Kong parents have displayed extreme restraint and tolerance…But now so many people and officials have jumped out and asked us to be grateful in a colonialist tone! Enough is enough!”

This prompted more rounds of verbal attacks between Hong Kong and mainland net users. One Weibo user from Hong Kong made a poignant comment on the topic,

“It is everyone, regardless of citizenship, who is prohibited from taking more than two cans. Besides, your children’s tragedy is your own fault. If mainlanders were more united, three million people is enough to solve all the problems when they take to the street and demand the end of one-party rule. What has poisoned your children is those parents who have no gut to hit the street and supervise the government!!!”

Such a sassy tongue has had some ears on the mainland. One said,

“I can understand Hong Kong people’s frustration over mainland’s sweeping purchase… Mainlanders’ colonialist air is so disgusting. You’ve paid so damn high taxes to a damn government, and you are tough with Hong Kong people? If you have the nerve, protest in front of toxic formula manufacturers and the supervisory departments! Please change your own country!”

The post was shared over 1,200 times.

Last year, spats between Hong Kong residents and mainland Chinese escalated to nasty confrontation, culminating in a full-page ad run in a Hong Kong newspaper. Trash-talk reigns the Internet, with mainlanders calling Hong Kongers dogs and slaves, and the latter responded by labeling the former “locusts.” The ad shows a locust overlooking Hong Kong’s skyline. “Hong Kong people have had enough!” it screamed, calling mainlanders out on a wide range of social issues including baby formula buy-up and births by mainland parents for Hong Kong citizenship.

Despite the widening rift between Hong Kong and mainland over the formula, they actually share the same sentiment: worry. Even if the restriction proves effective, the shortage in Hong Kong is unlikely to be alleviated anytime soon, and Chinese parents will have to start hunting elsewhere for their babies.

The two men, one a retired teacher and the other a rural migrant working as a water bottle deliverer, created a profile page named “Two Old Men’s Romance” on Sina Weibo, a hugely popular microblogging service, where they proudly and publicly displayed their affection for each other in pictures, postings and videos, many of which received thousands of comments and shares. Since their first coming-out posting on Jan 18, the gray-haired couple now have more than 12,000 followers.

In one posting, the couple blast their attackers on the web, “What is wrong with us two old men falling in love? We are so much better than you straight guys who always divorce, find prostitutes and keep mistresses! What gives you the right to toss filthy words at us! We’ve just had some sparkles of love between us. Love at this age is not easy-won!”

In another video clip, the lovebirds sit side by side, caress each other’s faces and kiss from time to time while singing “The Moon Says About My Heart”, a well-known Chinese love song by the late Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng, “Please give us your best wishes. There is no use objecting even if you do,” reads the caption on the video.

Their unofficial wedding ceremony on January 30 was streamed online, but according to the couple, it was going smoothly until the son of the teacher, who has been estranged from the father for years because of his homosexuality, crashed it, chased their guests away and cut off the streaming. “It made us so humiliated, so painful … Why even a stranger can wish us happy and my own son cannot?”

The couple held their ‘wedding ceremony’ in Beijing and invited net users over to their reception.

Many Chinese net users were very generous in their wishes and encouragement. “Support! I am so touched after watching this!! Best wishes to you! You’ve found a partner to go hand-in-hand with in the twilight years!! Grandpas, you guys will be happy… Wish you a safe and smooth life ahead!!” one net user wrote.

Others, however, were not sympathetic, and even threw vitriol at them, “I don’t think your son did anything wrong. You are so selfish. Have you thought about your son’s feeling!! You deserve it,” one user wrote. Another chimed in, “So disgusting! Why don’t you two old men go to hell?”

Some, including self-proclaimed gay-friendly people, claim they were simply put off by the high-profile and lovey-dovey nature of all their messages and visuals. “Heterosexuality and homosexuality are both right. But you two are at such an age. You can’t think about yourselves alone. Think about the grannies that you spent half a life with. Keep your love low-key. I don’t discriminate against anyone, but I feel terrible for the two old ladies who have got no love in return for their life-time devotion.”

In China, where homosexuality had been listed as a form of mental illness by the Ministry of Health until 2001, coming out can be a risky thing to do, which can mean social stigma, severing of family ties, and if not handled well, mental meltdown. According to a scientific survey of 1,502 residents in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the three largest Chinese cities, over 54 percent of respondents considered homosexuality abnormal. Only 31 percent said they “feel okay.”

Source: Guangzhou Public Opinion Research Center

In recent years, there are signs of growing acceptance and tolerance toward homosexuals on the Internet, especially among younger generations, but it is worth pointing out that it is partly attributable to the influence of boys love fandom originated from Japan’s comic books and animated works. As one post on Weibo points out, many young women who have fantasies about male-male romance are usually so obsessed with beautiful faces and ripped bodies that when they see a real-life plain-looking gay couple, they frown upon the gap between the ideal and the reality.

More important, some Chinese may be noncommittal with homosexuality, but when it comes to their own family member being gay, they suddenly become intransigent and pig-headed in their objection.

That’s why 90 percent of homosexuals in China don’t open up, and 80 percent of them who actually do only come out to friends, according to a study by South China Normal University of 293 gay college students. 73 percent of them believe family is their major source of stress.

And the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on February 10 this year, is seen as a potential coming-out season. When gay people of marriageable age return to their hometown for family reunion during the holiday, their family and relatives arrange back-to-back blind dates and pester them to marry so much that they reach a breaking point and come out, much to their family’s complete consternation, which can ruin the entire holiday for the family.

It is estimated that there are nearly 30 million homosexual men and women in China. 16 million women are desperately stuck in fake marriages to gay men who are still in closet due to family pressures.

A report from Reporters Without Boarders suggests that freedom of the press in both Hong Kong and Taiwan has dropped.  The Press Freedom Index, which is compiled of 179 nations, showed Hong Kong drop from 54 to 58 and Taiwan from 45 to 48, while Mainland China was elevated from 174 to 173. Finland maintained its position at the top of the list while Iran, Syria, Somalia and North Korea all positioned lower than China.

In an interview with the BBC’s Chinese service, Hong Kongese academic Willy Lam suggested that this drop was attributed to the influence of increased business links between the Mainland and the two independently governed regions of Taiwan and Hong Kong.

He reportedly told the BBC,

“Freedom of the press in Hong Kong has been decreasing ever since the hand over from the British in 1997. Heads of Hong Kong’s main media companies have significant investments on the Mainland, they don’t want to get on the wrong side of China, so they will often practice self-censorship and won’t cover stories that could upset Beijing.”

He also suggested that Beijing aimed to build close links with the editors and owners of Hong Kong’s media providers so as to liaise information back to the Chinese capital. As a result he said that the amount of negative news stories in Hong Kong directed at the Mainland had reduced.

Despite its drop in the rankings, Taiwanese media celebrated holding onto the title of the freest press in Asia with its closest competitors being South Korea and Japan, positioned 50^th and 53^rd respectively, with most other Asian countries trailing in the rankings.

In China, state media clam up about the index. “Reporters Without Borders” has been listed by Sina Weibo as a “sensitive word” and is therefore not searchable. But Chinese netizens’ views of the hideous ranking that China has got run the whole gamut, with some snubbing it as a Western dirty trick to demonize China, some expressing incredulity and the rest using dark humor or hand-wringing about the doomsday for Chinese press. From Sina Weibo:

“Imperialist countries certainly will rank socialist countries at the very bottom.”

“Have Westerners ever given China any fair judgment?”

“At least our country ranks the third among socialist countries!”

“I personally feel the press freedom in China is much greater than many would imagine, or at lease on some topics. Then whether this ranking is fair is open to question.”

“This (173rd) is a rather ironic number when put together with GDP…”

“That’s too much. It (China) should be at least out of the bottom 10.”

“We don’t have media but propaganda; we don’t have Internet but Intranet; we don’t have freedom but censorship.”

“I personally believe that too much freedom is not a good thing We’ll probably see more commentary like that regarding [Chinese Nobel Laureate of Literature] Mo Yan, saying that one can’t produce great works in these kind of conditions.”

“This decline will continue until Communism falls.”

 Hong Kongese netizens also shared their own views online,

“Of course it’s going to be like this, it would be a wonder if we don’t get influenced by the Mainland. Reporters are being beaten and detained by the police. What is said on TV and on Radio is being distorted as we speak!” 

“The media reports about us losing our freedom every day, it’s only rational that Hong Kongese media’s freedom is also being taken away.”

All too often, visitors to Beijing fret and cluck their tongues at the air pollution. While it certainly is awful, clearing the air is certainly no simple matter. This year, the most encouraging aspect of the whole siutation comes with the breath of fresh air from a simple local front page headline.

As you probably already know, the air here has been bad. Really bad. So bad that international news outlets picked up the story, perhaps most tellingly reporting the US Embassy’s air quality meter a few Saturdays ago tweeting readings above 700, when the scale was supposed to only go up to 500. Or The Economist’s photos of people practicing tai chi  in the haze.

As for myself, it’s been something of a learning curve roller coaster. My expectations were quite low to start with, based on experiences in the late 1990s and early 2000s (the last time a spent a few weeks at a time in Beijing in the winter). At that time, buildings just across the street would disappear in the haze. Then, during spot visits in 2008, with all the hoopla around cleaning up the air for the Olympiad, the long haul of raised expectations began. During those visits, the pure blue of the sky was truly amazing. It continued to amaze when I moved here last fall.

Indeed, even as the weather cooled and the community heating kicked on, there was nothing but blue skies. As folks globally told me to be careful of the air, I was sending out many an Instagram of Beijing’s blue. I just couldn’t get over it.

At the end of 2012, a weeks ago, just west of GongTi Stadium

Then “out of the blue” came the heavy-duty pollution. Ironic, no?

Just west of GongTi stadium, on infamous 700 Saturday (Jan. 12)

The reactions reported internationally mostly concerned the government’s response and the run on breathing masks and so on. I certainly did see a lot of that, but it wan’t the most shocking piece of news to me.For the most part, we Beijingers* seem to have just shrugged and gone on with life. The preparations for the New Year aren’t going to take care of themselves, so you have to go out and shop. And being cooped up at home has its limits, so there are always people out on the streets, in the parks and generally “out and about.”

For myself, I took a small, non-scientific poll of my colleagues. For the record, there’s only two foreigners in the company, me and a Singaporean, the rest are mostly either originally from Beijing or nearby places like Tianjin. The optimists thought that the situation is much improved from the past, so even though it was bad, the common reply was “It’s getting better!” They happily talk about how most of the factories have been moved farther away or how traffic controls (e.g. the odd-even license plate controls into downtown) are working. Still, their concerns are revealed in many other ways. For example, those with children regularly complain how troublesome the kids are at home. Why? “Well, when they can’t go out to play, they have no way to let out their energy.” The implications are obvious.

The pessimists seemed less willing to accept the situation and to want outside confirmation that the situation was unbearable. Many a conversation in the last few weeks would begin, “Is it like this in the US?” Or “What do you think of this? It’s terrible, isn’t it?!” What can you say, except “No,” and “Yes”? The complaining usually continues to cover the ways roads were being closed because visibility is so poor, and the extra trouble that causes. A sort of adding salt to the wound set of thinking.

Speaking of the office, we have something of our own air quality monitor. As we look east from the Second Ring Road, if we can see CCTV tower over on Third Ring Road, it’s All Clear. If we can make out some of the outlines in that neighborhood, it’s Take Care. If it’s just a blank wall of smog, we go to Stay Inside.

When you see CCTV Tower, it’s All Clear

The same view on 700 Saturday – Stay Inside!

On a more personal note, I mostly get around on foot and public transport. The haze is obviously ever present, and it’s effects always something of a concern.  In a complete turnaround, I now find myself wonder: “Where does it all come from?”

Firstly, there’s of course so many cars. Beijing’s traffic is infamous, and its contribution to the pollution probably goes under reported and until recently under recognized. New emissions regulations have been annouced for the expected 6 million cars in Beijing by 2015. More personally, there is nothing like traveling at 200 meters an hour to drive the point home – cars foul the air!

Travelling between these two bridges took 30+ minutes.

Other sources of pollution are more “out of sight, out of mind.” Then, surprise! There it is.  As in this case, where I went to visit some local friends who live just north of the third ring road…

…And was stunned to find they live right next to a power plant. I am sure that when the plant was built, this seemed plenty far away. But now these poor folks are the front lines of the “human filters” that have lit up WeiBo these past weeks.

Sadly, the picture overall is hazy – not just the air. Put simply:  folks should have electricy and motor vehicles, but must we live like this?

To be very clear, I am not asking this judgementally. I originally come from the Rust Belt along the Ohio River. I know all too well about rivers burning from industrial waste. I’ve seen the pictures from Pittsburg and other steel towns in the US, and recently there was even badness from an inversion in my adopted home, Seattle.

The difference of course, is that those situations and incidents led to the Clean Air and Water act. One wonders how China might learn from the US experience and do better for it’s citizens. And in that area, perhaps the optimists are right.

Indeed, as you’ve no doubt inferred, I find none of the above surprsing. So, were there any surprises? Yes! This frontpage headline:

“Heavy Pollution Blatently Reveals China’s Weakness”

It is very certainly most surprising to see a Beijing paper put out something this blatant. In many ways, its the most encouraging breath of fresh air that could be hoped for.

(More at ChinaGamerGuy.com)

(Thanks to Piet who pointed out that we are to the west, so we must be looking east from the Second Ring Road to the Third.)

*I realize it may sound strange that I call myself a Beijinger, but why not? If folks who just moved to New York can be New Yorkers, then I figure I can be cut some slack.

Video:

The video clip of the show was posted on Sina Weibo, the Chinese hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, and soon became the hottest topic, garnering 12 million discussions. It tickled almost every Chinese online viewer, especially those born before the 1990s when sightings of elderly popcorn vendors (usually males) wandering around the streets with the ‘cannon’ and a giant sack are a part of their childhood memories. Nowadays, it can be rarely seen in big cites.

Watching a “grandpa” operate the popcorn cooker is a part of the national childhood memories.

Below are some very interesting and typical comments on Sina Weibo:

神隐汪：I just love foreigners who are so bumpkinish/yokelish, but the thing is, they don’t seem to have got the quantity or the method right…··

相对纶女装设计师：    How can you earthly people manage this godly tool well!

音玄3917： Holy sh*t~ You guys think you are dismantling a bomb?!!

矛盾体大骚包有幻想症：Chinese grandpas would say, “It’s a matter of bare fists and empty hands. What are you laowai (foreigners) making a fuss about!”

君儿是个神经病：Stupid laowai.

钱锤银：There are so many things in China that you guys have never seen.

老山城的足球流氓：It seems the seller did not give you the sack that you explode your corn into when you mail-ordered it. Give him a bad review!

_小呆欣_： Go ship them a Chinese grandpa right away!! And also, remember to let him bring the sack!!!

蔚蔚_茂也：How can there not be a sack?? So they plan to eat from the floor??? Sigh…

阿Sun–：I truly feel worried about American people’s IQ.

今天要翻谁的绿头牌呢-老少年们：Actually I wonder: what kind of myth they want to bust?

九撇上一点儿： I finally have a sense of superiority!

一路向北我的海： Sigh~ Nowadays, even in China, this godly tool is rarely seen~~~

郭沅丰： So Americans also have their moments of stupidity!!

onepiecee-：LOL. I can see that on the street every day, okay?

Fed-up-with-everything：Soooo lame. Chinese grandpas and grandmas are awesome.

步如花： So the best gift for foreign friends should be popcorn made with Chinese popcorn machine!!! Yummy food made at the risk of one’s life!

凸囧凸凸-_-凸： It reminds me of the rice cane maker that looks like it is pooping. It is actually even cooler to watch.

绯馆的绯二： My goodness. In the future, if those Yankees negotiate with China, our country of food lovers don’t even have to mention the aircraft carrier. Just put the popcorn cooker with bare fists on the table, and make it clear that in our reserve there can be endless supply of this thing. Do you guys still have the nerve to mess with us?

The plug-ins, provided by a number of Chinese software companies such as Kingsoft, 360 and Sogou, can be installed onto web browsers to create a fully automated process that combines refreshing the page and placing the order and replaces the manual process. It is said that since the travel season started, the website has been seeing as many as 1.5 billion hits per day, a lot of which were contributed by these apps.

“Use 360 browser to snatch train tickets. Has successfully helped three million people buy train tickets,” the ad reads

Queuing in the virtual world

Some argue that the unfair advantage given to plug-in users makes them effectively ‘queue-jumpers’ in the digital world.

In response, the Ministry of Railways first tried to talk the domestic software companies out of providing such apps. On January 18, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the real boss of China’s web giants, even stepped in and ordered them to put an end to the situation.

Yi Junqing, director of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, has been removed from post for his “improper life style.”

— Xinhua News Agency (@XHNews) January 17, 2013

Although no further explanation was provided, the move to discipline him is widely seen as an official confirmation of the previous guesses that Yi Junqing had been a master of the pay-to-play and sleep-to-play schemes.

Mr. Yi, 54, helmed China’s Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, an official think tank that translates and does research for policy makers. Although Yi remained out of spotlight as a scholar for the most part of his career, his rank in the Chinese bureaucratic hierarchy is the same as a vice minister’s.

Last December, a woman posted a 120,000-word diary that documented in excruciating detail her 17 sexual encounters with Yi Junqing, including dates and the names of hotels. A dozen others working at the Compilation and Translation Bureau were mentioned in the diary. The article immediately grabbed eyes of curious net users, and had circulated on almost every popular web portals, message boards and social media.

“A bottle of sake, we each emptied half. My face flushed terribly, but my mind was sober. I leaned on the side of the bed, as he walked to the bathroom. Having the last ‘lesson,’ this time, I undressed until only two little undergarments were on me. When he came back to the bedroom, I was already lying under the duvet, blushing. Naturally, two became one,” she wrote.

In a nutshell, the author, Chang Yan, a postdoctorate researcher at the bureau, claimed that she wanted to relocate to Beijing and secure a hukou, or a permanent residence permit, in Beijing. Only after slipping over 50,000 yuan into Yi’s pocket did she get a chance to sleep with him. When Chang, already emotionally attracted to Yi, found Yi had other mistresses and would never keep his promise of a hukou, she demanded Yi of a million yuan as hush money. Though Yi gave her the money, Chang aired the dirty laundry anyway after they fell out.

A few days later, as the internet was buzzing about the kiss-and-tell story, Ms. Chang took down the article and issued a written apology on the web, stating that the diary is “a mere fictional work” she wrote “under severe depression due to huge stress from scientific research.”

But almost all net users were convinced that it is an unflattering and faithful account of the facts, and that Chang must have been come under pressure to retract it. They also thought Yi’s case proves a rule, rather than an exception, in China’s filthy officialdom. “Can the eggs remain intact when the nest is totally ruined? Can there be any white cloth inside a dye vat?” One Weibo user asked.

Since last year, social media has proven an effective platform for journalists, vindictive mistresses and even snarky ordinary citizens to expose officials’ scandals and corruption. One local official in the southwestern city of Chongqing was sacked in ignominy after a video of him having sex with a teen was leaked by a citizen journalist online. Another in Shaanxi province who was seen smiling at a fatal accident scene was subject to online public scrutiny that accused him of owning too many luxury watches and eventually cost his career.

Besides, Xi Jinping, the Communist Party’s new leader, has been waging a war on corruption since taking charge in November. “There are many pressing problems within the Party that needs to be resolved urgently, especially the graft and corruption cases that occurred to some of the Party members and cadres, being out of touch from the general public, bureaucracy and undue emphasis on formalities — they must be resolved with great efforts,” he said in his debut speech. So far, a number of senior government officials have been removed or prosecuted.

But it remains unclear how long the new broom will keep sweeping clean. Just as one Weibo user put it, “Unless there is supervision and effective system of checks and balances, today one Yi fell down, tomorrow, thousands more Yi will rise up.”

After so many years in greater China, I thought I had things straight. Sadly, my first-time, full-time working in Beijing apparently presents many new opportunities to learn. So, while I’m not shocked at the surprise, I can’t seem to wrap my mind around the confounding New Year holiday schedule!

Before getting started, let me just say this is not my first new year in China. I’ve been in greater China for a couple decades, living and working in the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Still, most of the living (and therefore paying attention to holiday arrangements) were not in the mainland. Nevertheless, I thought I new what time it was. Sadly, my calendar was off.

It unfolds like this: On Dec. 29 (Saturday) we worked and were told we’d be given the following Monday (not an official holiday) off. That makes some sense. Trade a non-working weekend day for a working weekday and receive a three-day holiday. Terrific!

I thought I’d have a nice day off. Instead, I had a couple doubt filled days and then worked through a weekend. Huh?!

Funny thing was, on the January 2, I went to the office. Walking over though, I couldn’t help noticing how empty the streets were. Not many cars, no one honking endlessly, very few pedestrians. Seemed strange, but who knew? Maybe denizens of The Jing just party that much harder for the new year? Non-noobs see the mistake already.

Still, when the whole office building was pretty much dark I had my first glimmer that I was the odd man out. When 10:00 o’clock rolled around and not a single other person came in, it seemed clear: I was the fool. So, I checked some websites in English and Chinese, which oddly reported a mix of either January 1 or January 1-3. Any way I cut it, I had the day off.

So, after enjoying the day, but keeping my doubts, I came by the office on January 3 too. Still dark, and I had learned my lesson, so I skipped merrily by, all the while wondering “why the heck take these days off, return for one Friday (January 4) and then take a weekend?”

Despite expectations, this is what really happened.

So, Friday morning I come in and finally there are my colleagues, and then things get stranger because I begin to hear them making plans for meetings on Saturday (January 5). I can hear you far-away readers wondering along with me, “What?!?!” Yes. Saturday. After being “given” January 2-3 off, we were required to come to work January 4-11.

No matter how I look at it, I can’t accept the “given.” They were traded, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

I wish that were the end of it, but then I asked about Chinese New Year (CNY, in early February this year). Turns out we’re getting the same gift then too! You see, the official holiday falls on February 9-11 (Saturday-Monday) and everyone will be “given” February 9-14 off. But then will have to work February 15 – 22 straight.

Here are the days published as “off,” sadly they are on the weekend. Oh well, better a three day weekend than none.

I’ve asked all my colleagues (I’m the only foreigner in the office) about it firstly because I wondered how’d I’d missed it. Certainly, there was no announcement. What I learned was, this is just the way things are. No one felt the need to explain it. Secondly, because I wondered if they’d thought the situation over, especially when a holiday falls on what is already a holiday (like CNY falling on a Saturday).

The reactions came in increasing easier to understand flavors. Firstly, I can’t understand the common “we strictly follow the national guidelines” because that just makes no sense. It’s a Catch-22 because the national guidelines are *also* to take weekends off. Secondly, I can kind of understand the “that’s just how we’ve always done it,” but have little patience for things that are just habit. Thirdly, I can allow for the folks who told me, “well, everyone else is off and I was working when they were not or vice versa, it would be no fun. So, I just go with it.” Finally and clearly, the response closest to my heart was “yeah, now we have to work eight straight days. Nice, huh?”

The far sadder thing was, based on my experience in other…dare I say “more civilized”?…China, my real expectations for the Chinese New Year holiday were much grander. Indeed, given the mass migration and the long factory closing and all the rest I’ve very familiar with, my tickets were already booked for the whole week off. That is to say, February 9 to 17. So, it looks like I’ll be burning through my vacation days really early this year. What is the New Year equivalent to “bah! humbug!”????

This is an impossibility in the workers paradise. Bah! Humbug!

Numerous elder Chinese have a desire to remain fit and to nurture health. Some of them even fulfill this need by swimming in icy lakes and pushing the body to efforts that it had doubtfully met even in its younger years. Yet the recreational activities of retired Chinese are not merely a personal hobby but a social gathering and perhaps the most lively hours in one’s social routine.

The double objective of taking care of the body while enjoying social encounters is partially attributed to the fact that the outdoors is in fact the best place to meet, and no ‘party’ can offer more excitement for these veterans than a sunny muscle stretch. The fact that many old Chinese live in small apartments or become a burden on the shoulders of their children makes the outdoors an ideal choice, that liberates both parents (or grandparents) and children. A deeper observation into the cultural meanings of these activities can provide even more reasons to this choice of action. Most elder Chinese refer to this type of activities as yangsheng, which means ‘body nourishment’ or ‘taking care of one’s health’.

Methods of yangsheng have been instructed by ancient Chinese traditions long ago, through body balancing techniques of Chinese medicine or by the self-cultivation customs of Confucianism. It is therefore not surprising that yangsheng carries a holistic meaning, referring not necessarily only to physical exercise but possibly to any recreation that nurtures the body and soul (calligraphy, singing, dancing, etc.). For some participants, accordingly with the Confucian tradition, it can even have moral implications as a ritual that negotiates with important social customs.

Another dimension of the yangshen activities stems from the socialist background of the participants. On one hand, these individuals experienced the intense social structure of the work unit, where privacy was a forbidden concept and at the same time social support was quite rewarding, and they now have a social void that needs to be filled.  On the other hand, the Maoist years also presented uncertainties, particularly during the Cultural Revolution, when no one was immune of becoming a target of political criticism, losing social status and even worse…

Judith Farquhar and Zhang Qicheng, in their ethnographic report of Beijingers practicing yangsheng, suggest that the combination of the social needs of these people (according to the authors these ‘meetings’ even carry a sense of patriotism) and their awareness of a ‘potential human violence’ (violence that can range from inner group hostility to more threatening persecution) is what brings them to choose the harmless spaces of recreational yangsheng. In this atmosphere, they can both enjoy time spent with friends yet remain in an ‘airy’ social framework, without stepping on each other’s toes in any aspect.

Other factors that relate to the yangsheng activities are more objectives conditions of the modern society. Neoliberal structural developments that reduce welfare, increase the cost of medical services and emphasize ‘personal responsibility’ lead individuals of all ages to cater their own bodies more wisely. Taking care of the body is mostly prolonging life in a race against time, yet it also has a financial value that one cannot disregard. While the elderly embody traditional values and knowledge which derive, for example, from the legacy of Chinese medicine or Confucianism, as mentioned earlier, they also vividly respond to sociocultural changes, unlike what many would assume.

The preoccupation of elders with health is by no means a new phenomenon, yet some of its 21^st century manifestations reflect modern culture. Many of the active veterans consume self-help books, read health magazines and listen attentively to the voice of experts in a manner that strongly corresponds to the image of the ‘self-responsible’ citizen that modern society is producing. Yangsheng is therefore not only a natural choice for these people in terms of their past life development, but also in the manner it correlates to the modern sociocultural landscape.

A classic mixture of over-the-top yet sincere customer service sprinkled with cultural “close enough-ness” to be charming.

A soft knock on my hotel door reveals a smiling young man with my Chinese Herb Pillow as I think “what a crazy idea”.

This is one example of why I love China and reminds me how lucky I am to experience firsthand this turning point in history.

After its emergence from the cocoon in the late 70’s, China is airing out its wings and we all know the inevitable flight will follow. However, as with a butterfly’s flight pattern, it is impossible to predict the paths’ trajectory.

I have found that business meetings can also follow this same unpredictable pattern.

I try keep in mind the continual subconscious pull of Confucian social harmony and general collective agency in the Chinese conscience, but does everyone really need to be given a chance to try show their “expertise” right in the middle of my presentation?

It ends up feeling like an improvisation comedy word association game where everyone immediately starts to talk which in turn spurns alternate discussions with more word association games until that one late guy shows up and then half the room leaves for a smoke break and the other half explains what he has missed which in turns spurns even more word association games.

I suppose one could argue that my presentation is the cause for the fracturing of attention, but it has happened with enough frequency to lead me to believe it doesn’t all fall on my shoulders.

For a Westerner, this can be quite baffling the first time once experiences it, but I have learned to accept it. In fact I often find myself being surprised at the orderliness and quietness of meetings back home.

I fear I am entering a nowhere land between East and West where things simultaneously seem weird AND normal in each place – where people in both cultures view my opinions as strange and even borderline offensive.

I am finally smart enough to realize that my initial impressions and opinions of things I see in China will very likely change eventually.

One of my first interests was watching the wonderfully chaotic swirling mixture of cars, buses, trucks, electric bicycles, two-wheeled bicycles, three-wheeled bicycles, diesel farm buggies, and the fascinating assortment of what I like to call “other forms of transportation”.

My ability to understand was overpowered by it all, but now when in a Shanghai taxi and approaching a seemingly impossible traffic obstacle I find myself thinking, “yeah, we can make it, something might give”, and often something DOES give, the driver adjusts slightly, and we glide through.

For my fellow Americans…imagine being a running back suddenly breaking into the secondary, but instead of trying to outmaneuver line backers and defensive backs, you find an assortment of cars, buses, trucks of various sizes, bicycles, electric bikes (faster and deadly quiet), and pedestrians coming at you FULL SPEED from ALL DIRECTIONS.

That ability to handle (potentially dangerous) incoming information will come in handy in remaining calm during business meetings when it appears all hell is breaking loose.

After another stimulating day, it turns out the Chinese herb pillow wasn’t such a crazy idea after all.