Trending in Beijing: Naughty Airplane Passengers, and a Hobo Messiah is Born
The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this: a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.
1) Misbehaving airpline passengers
The internet is once again up in arms, this time over two separate incidents involving Chinese men who refused to comply with in-flight regulations. The first incident occurred on a Guilin-Beijing flight on Mar 24, in which a man decided it was his god-given right to occupy a crew-only front seat, refuse to move, and caused the plane to be delayed by more than two hours.
After flight attendants unsuccessful pleading with the man, the captain was called in to negotiate with the passenger. They finally convinced the man to go back to his original seat for takeoff on the condition that he could return to the front once the airplane had reached cruising altitude. "If this happened in America, he would have been dragged out already," scoffed one netizen.
The other case occurred on Mar 27, when a passenger caught his neighbor making (or attempting to make) a phone call mid-flight. Similarly to the previous commenter, one netizen exclaimed, "I wish our flight crews were tougher!"
2) Meet China's newest internet celebrity: The Wandering Master
Elsewhere, a homeless man, dubbed the Wandering Master (流浪汉大师 liúlàng hàn), has taken Weibo by storm. The man, whose real identity is unknown and whose background is murky, was swarmed by crowds when he emerged from his shelter, needing to eventually be contained by security guards.
What we do know is that the bedraggled shifu can often be seen walking the streets of Shanghai, reading the works of Confucius and other classics. A few videos of him speaking about the importance of education and reading have also emerged, giving the Wandering Master a knowledgable and virtuous air. He speaks in standard Mandarin and expresses himself clearly.
In a statement published on Sohu, details of the man's plight emerged, detailing problems between the man and his family, problems he encountered regarding his mental health, as well as his belief in recycling and a proponent of a no-waste society.
In a sad turn of events, the man had this to say of his newfound fame: "I don't dare to go out and dare to sleep. People are staring at me for 24 hours. I can only temporarily live in a renovated room. This is not the life I want."
While some netizens are obsessing about digging up the man's life story, others are calling their disrespectful behavior out, with one netizen commenting: "It's only because he was made trending online that people created all these rumors, so he would look more exciting." After his crowd appearance, the Wandering Master is said to have gotten into a luxury car before driving off for a haircut and a change of clothes. At this point, it is truly difficult to determine the rumors from the facts.
3) A new meme brings change
A new meme showing Daniel Wu (吴彦祖, left above) gradually turning into Su Daqiang (苏大强, right above) is also hot, hot, hot on Weibo this week. Since blowing up, the image of the hunky Daniel Wu morphing into the balding and weary Su Daqiang has been used to portray the changes encountered by people working in advertising, law enforcement, news anchoring, as well as the effects of helping children with their homework (see above). Reverse the image, and it has been used to comment on the effects of beauty filters and the differences between different phone cameras (below).
Su Daqiang, famous for his portrayal of a spoiled grandpa who only cares about money in the popular TV show 都挺好 dōu tǐng hǎo, is no stranger to memes and also now has his very own sticker-like set, titled "Su Daqiang wants to drink sky-high priced water" #苏大强又要喝天价水#.
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Email: tautviledaugelaite@thebeijinger.com
Images: Weibo
