Trending in Beijing: Emoji Quits Smoking, Stuck in the Bathroom for Spring Festival

The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this? Trending in Beijing is a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.

Lose the ciggy, General Emoji

Is the [Commando] emoji on the patch? Previously, the commander was never to be seen without a cigar between his lips, smiling as if to say, “Mission accomplished.” Well, he’s kept the smug expression, but in the latest update to WeChat's basic emoji pack, the mission he’s accomplished seems to be quitting smoking – the cigar is no more!

When netizen’s took note of the change, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily went sniffing for answers and discovered that the Beijing Tobacco Control Association had recently written a letter to Tencent requesting the change. The association has apparently been hounding Tencent about its various tobacco promotions for years now and was worried that the smoking emoji could influence impressionable children.

A popular blog on Weibo discouraged netizens from “making a mountain out of a mole hill," arguing that the change is an empty gesture and that what China actually needs is increased regulation for tobacco products.

In fact, however, netizens weren’t taking the matter seriously in the first place. Most comments were related not to the smoking issue, but to the fact that the emoji is still wearing a green hat – a sign of being cuckolded in Chinese culture.

“Now I can finally be proud of my green hat,” joked one commenter.

Woman trapped in her bathroom for 30 hours

When 26-year-old Yang Lin decided to stay in Beijing rather than return home for Spring Festival, she knew that the New Year would be a bit lonelier than usual – but she wasn’t expecting to spend it holed up in her own bathroom with no one but her cat coming to her aid.

Yang was getting out of the shower at her apartment, where she lives alone, when she discovered that the door had become stuck and she had no way to get out. Worst of all, she had left her phone outside of the bathroom and was thus unable to message anyone for help. Her efforts to call for Siri and her Tmall Genie (the Tmall equivalent of the Alexa smart speaker) went unanswered.

After sleeping one night on the floor, she was able to get the attention of a neighbor, a middle-aged woman, who could hear her through the door. But after interrogating her through the door, the woman refused to believe that she was actually trapped. Only her cat seemed to care that she was trapped. Fortunately, the pet had more than enough food in its bowl, but it still pawed at the bathroom door, helpless to save its owner.

Eventually, she was able to get the attention of another neighbor by rapping on a pipe. The neighbor called the police, who recommended calling a locksmith. After 30 hours of hunger, she was finally rescued.

However, when her story was made public, many netizens made comments that were unfairly critical of her, asking why she locks the bathroom door when she lives alone – and why she even lives alone in the first place.

On these commenters, one Weibo user wrote, “So it turns out this society is really cruel to women who live alone.”

Adults try on kid’s clothes in Uniqlo

Netizens were not amused by the latest trend among fashion wanghong as these internet celebs took selfies in the dressing room at Uniqlo wearing T-shirts meant for kids. While there’s nothing wrong with wearing an undersized shirt, Weibo users were disturbed that the wearers had no intention to buy the children’s clothes, only to snap a pic and put them back on shelves.

One commenter suggested that it’s more than just Uniqlo who needs to do something about the trend, arguing that the blogs these wanghong post to should censor such posts, lest they corrupt the youth.

READ: Trending in Beijing: The Rice and Fall of Baijiu Stocks

Images: Weibo