2011 chinaSMACK Year in Review

 

2011 was an eventful year for chinaSMACK. We published over 450 posts over the course of the year, struggled with repeated server downtime as our traffic grew before moving to our new hosts at Voxel, and launched a new section, all of which have helped chinaSMACK grow to over 1.3 million visits and 3.2 million pageviews per month. Now that 2011 is officially over and we’ve entered the new year–a year which an unhealthy amount of Chinese netizens entertain as being our last–let’s take a look at some of the notable posts chinaSMACK published over the past year…

One of the first major stories in China this year was Chinese netizens organizing themselves online and offline to photograph child beggars on the streets in an effort to identify them for parents of missing and kidnapped children so they can be rescued. While many supported the movement on the belief that many child beggars are enslaved by criminal organizations, many others also questioned its effectiveness and whether it was harassment of legitimately unfortunate families.

In February, Chinese netizens reacted to news of China surpassing Japan to become #2 in world GDP after the United States of America, some expressing pride, others remembering that China is still far behind Japan in standard of living.

Gan Lulu

In February, a video of a mother filming her naked daughter to help her find a boyfriend went viral on the Chinese internet, introducing the daughter’s name Gan Lulu to mainstream Chinese netizens who either criticized the mother’s actions or speculated that the video was just a publicity stunt for the mother-daughter pair. That suspicion gained weight two months later in April when Gan Lulu and her mother next appeared on the “Lady Gua Gua” talk show and the mother proceeded to physically attack her daughter on camera. Since then, Gan Lulu’s internet fame has been firmly established, allowing her to command crowds simply by appearing at a minor auto show later in early December of this past year.

The Japan Earthquake

On March 11th, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit eastern Japan and while historical grievances led some Chinese netizens to cheer the news, many others criticized them and offered sympathy and compassion. Watching the disaster and its aftermath unfold from afar, Chinese netizens widely admired the response and behavior of Japanese civilians, expressing a lack of confidence in the behavior of their own in the face of such a disaster.

Panic Buying

The 2011 Japanese Earthquake would have ongoing effects over radiation fears from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. Soon after the earthquake, a salt panic occurred in China where many Chinese consumers fearing radiation spreading from Japan rushed to supermarkets to buy iodized salt. Many Chinese netizens bemoaned their ignorance, blaming the panicked behavior on the older generation, somewhat comforted later when Korean panic buying over fears of radiation also made the news.

However, what made “panic buying” a defining phenomenon in 2011 China would be the media’s attention in the following months to reports of Shanghainese panic buying laundry detergent over fears of impending price rises and panic buying of bottled water after a Hangzhou chemical spill.

When the US-led Coalition attacked Libya in March, Chinese news portals set up dedicated pages covering the news with Chinese netizens offering their opinions.

Then, when the United States assassinated Al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Chinese netizen again voiced differing reactions.

Five Stripes

In early May, a young boy named Huang Yibo became famous on the Chinese internet, partly because of his parents boasting of his childhood accomplishments, partly because of his ridiculous photos, and partly because he proudly wore a 5-stripe “Young Pioneer” badge when the highest is normally only 3-stripes.

Soon, “Five Stripe Young Pioneer” t-shirts and badges were being sold online and making appearances on celebrities on television.

Planking Spreads to China

Photos of two girls in Taiwan planking, the silly act of lying rigidly face down in strange places, spread across mainland Chinese internet sites in mid-May. Widespread photos of mainland Chinese planking appeared by June.

Already long criticized by many Chinese for commercializing the Shaolin Temple, Abbot Shi Yongxin was caught visiting prostitutes in May. He claimed he was performing spiritual services. No one believes him.

Also in mid-May, a broken-hearted young woman in a wedding dress was seen straddling her apartment window, ready to jump. When she did, a man on the scene who was part of the group trying to convince her to come down managed to grab her just in time, saving her life, and becoming a rare example for Chinese netizens of a government official being a good “public servant”.

When news of E. coli contaminated cucumbers from Germany spread across Europe at the turn of May to June, Chinese netizens laughed at how weak European immune systems are when in contrast they face food safety issues on a daily basis.

Photographs of an “escaped tiger” training drill at the Chengdu Zoo for staff and Forestry Police went viral in early June, amusing Chinese netizens around the country. The reason? They used two men in Tigger costumes to act as the escaped big cats in the exercise who were then surrounded, shot dead, and carried away, no doubt confusing the real tiger who was still in its cage.

Guo Meimei Red Cross Controversy

In late June, a young woman named Guo Meimei attracted the attention of Chinese netizens after using her Sina Weibo microblog to show off her wealth with photos of expensive cars and luxury handbags while claiming to be high level management of an organization associated with the Red Cross. Chinese netizens quickly questioned where her wealth actually comes from, whether it is from corruption involving money donated to the Red Cross or being the mistress of a Red Cross official.

Despite her mother and her appearing on television to respond to the controversy (part 2 & part 3), with attempted explanations and apologies, donations to the Red Cross dropped. Guo Meimei not only destroyed the Chinese public’s trust in the Red Cross foundation, the controversy surrounding her led another young wealthy woman being dubbed “Lu Meimei” for her involvement in the China-Africa Project Hope controversy.

Floating Chinese Government Officials

In late June, several obviously photoshopped photographs of Chinese government officials apparently inspecting a newly paved road in their jurisdiction circulated on the Chinese internet to much ridicule, further photoshopping, and confirming for many Chinese netizens that their government officials are inept at both their work and lying about their work.

Chinese netizens soon discovered that they weren’t alone when Filipino government officials also appeared to float.

In early July, it was reported that a Hangzhou woman on the ground successfully caught a 2-year-old little girl who had fallen out of a 10th floor apartment, shattering her arm in the process but saving the toddler’s life. Jack Ma, the head of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and the woman’s employer awarded her 200,000 RMB in recognition of her heroic deed.

Reports of former Chinese leader Jiang Zeming’s death in July turned out to be greatly exaggerated but not without first capturing the Western media and the imaginations of many Chinese netizens who widely refused to believe government denials.

In July, Singapore-based Chinese luxury furniture retailer Da Vinci Furniture found itself mired in allegations of passing off low-quality made-in-China furniture as exorbitantly expensive Made-in-Italy furniture. The Chinese-Singaporean CEO then made things worse by breaking down hysterically at her own press conference that was organized to respond to the controversy, refusing to answer reporter questions.

The high-end retailer would later close multiple stores in China, although there were undercurrents of speculation amongst netizens that Da Vinci’s fall was partially instigated and compounded by underhanded competitors in the obscenely lucrative market to fleece rich Chinese with obscene amounts of money to spend on obscenely priced furniture.

Nobody knew whether there should’ve been a space between “Da” and “Vinci”.

During the July British Parliament hearings over the “News of the World” phone hacking scandal, one man in the audience attacked News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch with a foam pie, to which wife Wendi Deng immediately sprung up with a retaliatory smack. This earned her no small amount of admiration from many Chinese netizens as a woman who stands up for her husband.

July also saw Chinese netizens taking notice of a former gymnastics champion who has been reduced to being homeless, scraping by performing on the streets, after allegedly being forced out of the sport due to injuries. Many Chinese netizens criticized a state sports apparatus that trains and discards its athletes, but as a media circus surrounded him, questions about his story appeared.

Meanwhile, Chinese netizens also offered their reactions to Chinese sports celebrity and former Houston Rockets center Yao Ming’s retirement from professional basketball.

Wenzhou Train Accident

In late July, one of China’s high speed trains stalled on its tracks was then rear ended by another train near the city of Wenzhou. Videos of rescue efforts by local residents, surivvors, and Chinese people lining up to donate blood after the tragedy soon blanketed Chinese online video sharing websites. Immediately, questions were raised about the the government’s handling of Wenzhou train accident with suspicions that officials were trying to cover up evidence in their rush to bury train cars and incredulity over Railway Ministry spokesperson Wang Yongping’s response to reporters that he himself believed his explanations regardless of whether they did. His response became one of 2011′s most popular internet memes.

The attention of Chinese netizens were also focused on one Chinese husband’s demand for an explanation from the government over the loss of his wife in the train disaster, a police captain’s persistence that resulted in saving yet another little girl from the wreckage, and the government offering additional financial incentive for victims who quickly accept their compensation while Wang Yongping took the plane instead of the trains he represented.

In August, female Chinese netizens were up in arms when a new judicial interpretation of China’s Marriage Law was passed down that allegedly favored the man’s interests in a divorce over the wife’s interests, particularly when it came to whether or not a woman would get a share of the house that her husband or her husband’s family paid for. Many Chinese males criticized female complaints as being too materialistic and calculating.

Chinese netizens weighed in on Steve Jobs’ resignation in late August as images of the late Apple CEO appeared online showing him looking disturbingly frail and sick. Two months later, many of the same netizens would mourn the iconic founder’s death both online and offline at the few Apple retail stores in China.

Late August saw a controversial race between China’s star hurdler Liu Xiang and Cuba’s Dayron Robles. Liu Xiang had been steadily recovering to top form ever since his high-profile withdrawal from the 2008 Olympics and Chinese netizens were pissed when it appeared that Robles intentionally pulled on Liu’s arm in the final hurdles, distracting Liu, throwing off his pace, and causing him to lose first place. Liu Xiang didn’t look very pleased either.

A photo series featuring African businessmen and entrepreneurs living in Guangzhou made the rounds in mid-September, prompting the usual internet discussion featuring not only Chinese stereotypes and discrimination against black people but also exhortations against discrimination.

An internet campaign by Chinese animal activists and pet lovers successfully stopped an annual “Dog Meat Festival” from taking place in Zhejiang province in late September.

A video of a wife glaring at her husband for dropping the daughter he was holding in his arms in his excitement to catch a ball at a Taiwan baseball game reached China and earned peels of laughter from Chinese netizens just as it did everywhere else.

In mid-October, Chinese sailors were murdered in the Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle after being hijacked by drug traffickers. Chinese netizens bemoaned the uselessness of the Chinese government in protecting its own people abroad.

Little Yue Yue

Mid-October also saw the tragic case of a 2-year-old little girl being run over by a car in a narrow alley in Southern China. What was even more shocking was that 18 people walked by her body before someone stopped to help her. The girl, named Little Yue Yue by the media, later died of her wounds at the hospital while Chinese netizens across the nation lamented the indifference or reluctance to help of bystanders, many citing the fear that getting involved comes with great personal financial risk due to past instances where Good Samaritans were instead blamed and successfully sued for their efforts. The older woman who stopped to help Little Yue Yue was rewarded 25,000 RMB for her good deed.

While Little Yue Yue has since become the poster child for the problem of bystanders seen widely as pervasive in modern China, there are still routine examples of Chinese helping their fellow man, such as when a Wenzhou crowd lifted an SUV to free a child that had been run over underneath later in mid-December.

This past Fall also saw the world population surpass 7 billion, and as members of the world’s most populous nation, Chinese netizen surely offered their own reactions to the milestone.

In November,  a Shenzhen man was widely shamed for cowardly hiding while his wife was beaten and raped nearby. While many Chinese netizens condemned the man’s failure to protect his wife, many also sympathized with his sense of helplessness in the face of the assailant, who had a history of harassing the couple and claimed connections with the local police.

After nearly 2 months, when “Occupy Wall Street protesters” in America were forcibly cleared out by New York city authorities in mid-November, Chinese netizen comments ranged from contempt for the state of “human rights” in the United States and contempt for those Chinese who would have such contempt given the big picture.

School Bus Accidents

When a small school bus in Gansu, China that was loaded with over 60 schoolchildren when it was designed only to accommodate 9 was hit by a large truck killing over 20, many netizens started comparing Chinese school buses to those of the United States, expressing outrage when another school district in Guiyang reserved its “American-style” school buses for transporting its teachers instead of its students. With the nation’s attention on this news, media reports of school bus accidents like a rollover in Jiangsu province received more and more attention.

The end of November saw a moving photo feature documenting the last 12 hours of several condemned female prisoners in China before they were to be executed for drug trafficking crimes. Chinese netizens were conflicted, caught between sympathy for these women in their last hours and their opposition against the social ills caused by drug use. Still others wondered why corrupt government officials who embezzle hundreds of millions seem to escape the punishments ordinary people cannot for arguably lesser crimes.

In early December, Chinese netizens offered their reactions to what state media characterized as “dense fog” but which everyone knew as startling thick pollution that had enveloped Beijing.

When Liege, Belgium was hit with a shooting and grenade attack days before Christmas, Chinese netizens not only made jokes about online first person shooter video games but also indulged in some black humor that crazy people in China can rack up higher kill counts with just vegetable knives. In an expression of disdain for Chinese police, many netizens also commented admiringly on how Belgium police officers actually ran towards the danger.

Kim Jong-il’s Death

The November death of Kim Jong-il immediately stormed the Chinese internet as major Chinese news portals set up special pages and sections dedicated to reports and features about the former North Korean leader, such as photos of Kim Jong-il’s life and an assortment of North Korean propaganda posters featuring Kim Jong-il. While news portals forbade Chinese netizens to comment on their reports, many Chinese netizens took to discussing the “Supreme Leader’s” death on popular Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo.

While food safety issues are commonly reported and commonly discussed on the Chinese internet throughout the year every year, one of the larger incidents of the year involved major Chinese dairy company Mengniu Dairy finding dangerous levels of carcinogenic aflatoxin in its milk. The company, whose reputation was also tarnished by but ultimately survived the 2008 melamine milk scandal, found its website momentarily hacked as 2011 wound down with a note calling the company the “nation’s shame”. Chinese netizens following the news echoed frustrated disgust with Chinese companies who seem to export their best and highest quality products while feeding their own domestic customers shoddy or unsafe leftovers.

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From all of us here at chinaSMACK, happy new year!

Thank you for reading, and for your continued support into 2012! We’ve got some new developments in store for you all, and if you haven’t yet, be sure to take a moment to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter!