Weibo Roundup: Whistleblowing, Grumbles, Praise and Rage

Gone are the days of hushed tones, trench coats and spies. Weibo seems to be the fashionable way to blow a scandal wide open nowadays. Case in point being a priceless 1,000-year-old plate which was shattered into six pieces last month at the Palace Museum.

Supposedly it was squeezed too tightly by testing equipment. Museum staff did try to glue it back together a la Humpty Dumpty but to no avail. More importantly, it happened a month ago, so why are we only finding out now? Sounds like a sneaky cover-up to me. Cue a whistleblower and we have Weibo outrage. Netizen comments range from distrusting the Chinese people, the Chinese institutions as well as the odd comment telling others “valuable though it is, it cannot outweigh human lives” and “It is just like another pinch of salt in the wound of Chinese people.”

Suede has also been gagged. No … not like that.

They were forbidden to perform their hit “Beautiful Ones,” which is a pity, seeing as that's the song that their fair-weather fans remember them for. Dismayed Weibo users shook their fists at the skies and asked, “What's wrong with Beautiful Ones???” Because the audience was deprived of their beloved song last night at Workers' Gymnasium, here's the video for your viewing pleasure.

A university professor has come under fire recently for his “unfair” rules. According to him, if you want to attend his classes you have to have an iPad. Students have been calling him unreasonable and elitist. Let's just hope they don't go to extreme lengths to get one.

Last month, we all saw Wendi Deng and her quick reflexes stop her husband Rupert Murdoch from getting a face full of Gillette. Netizens have praised the Guangzhou-born Wendi for being a ferocious “tiger wife” and an example of how Chinese women should be. “She truly loves Old Murdoch,” said one Weibo user. Apparently so.

Human-flesh search engine. It's a weird concept that sounds a lot like Hannibal Lector's ideal Sunday morning but it's what the netizens excel at over here. Give them an inflammatory photo or a video and they will track down the culprit based on the tiniest scraps of evidence. A couple of Beijing kitten-torturers are on the receiving end of this search after having videos posted of them flinging a kitten into a puddles and pressing its head down. Animal lovers were outraged; take a look at some of their comments here. For a thoughtful history of human-flesh searches, see here.

Photo: China Daily, DeShow