Weibo Roundup: Cake, Scandal, and a Little Locke
As we head into the Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend, what's been burning up the Chinese microblogosphere? Fans of mooncakes have taken to Weibo to vent their anger over new taxes levied on the holiday treats. Meanwhile, Chinese celebs are getting panned and fresh foreign faces can do no wrong.
Officials have decided that mooncakes given by employers or as gifts need to get taxed. Outraged Weibo'ers are thinking of ways to get around the issue. Some girls may opt to go the Lady Godiva route to protest the pastry tax, while others are suggesting a more linguistic runaround, i.e. simply renaming the cakes. Suggestions have included: “Moon baked bread,” “moon bun,” and even “moon pizza.”
Mooncakes are not the only thing stirring up the net. Chinese celebrity teacher Li Yang, the founder of Crazy English, has sparked a furious debate about domestic violence after his wife posted photos on her Weibo account of injuries allegedly sustained from a beating by her husband. Li Yang later used his own Weibo account to apologize to his daughters (though he refrained from addressing any of his wife’s claims) and to point out the secret energy behind family life.
Another infamous Chinese face getting the Weibo treatment is TV celeb Zhao Benshan. The comic actor recently opened a posh private club in a renovated Qianmen complex and was promptly accused of damaging a protected historical buildings. Weibo commenters have generally been admonishing Benshan for disrespecting cultural heritage, even though the renovation of antique siheyuan structures is nothing new, and anyway, if Qianmen's heritage has been sullied it happened a while before Benshan got there.
While Chinese celebrities are causing scandal, Weibo is loving anyone who is American or a politician. (Double points if you have a connection to both.) A recent addition to the Weibo family is Neil Bush, a younger brother of George W. Since he opened his account, Neil Bush has been posting a lot of pandering praise for China. While the Chinese are bowled over by this, other online media are pointing out his questionable ties to Chinese business and thinly veiled motives for befriending the Chinese public.
But the biggest hit continues to be the Locke family, and the excitement is not just over Ambassador Gary’s frugality but now Locke's son Dylan as well. The 12-year-old boy recently wrote a blog post for the US Embassy’s official Sina.com page about a visit to the Great Wall. The young “drummer in search of a new band” charmed netizens as he revealed his older sister’s fear of heights, his younger sister’s quick fatigue and his attempt at filming his toboggan ride down the mountain -- being the “natural photographer/videographer” that he is.
Photos: Inquisitr.com, Sina.com
