Viral Week is our weekly round-up of the weekend’s trending memes, humor, rumor, gossip, and everything else Chinese netizens are chatting about.
This week, fans make historic faux pas, a square dancer takes revenge, there’s discussion about violence in schools, and transportation troubles strike again.
Repeat rabble-rouser
An airline passenger, who was filmed claiming to be an “Air China inspector” and threatening to detain fellow passengers for using their phones, was discovered by netizens to made similar scenes on subways and buses.
Air China has admitted that the woman is an employee who is on sick leave due to mental health issues.
Teacher trouble
A Henan man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for “provoking quarrels” after slapping his former teacher, whom he claims beat him violently 20 years ago.
The incident has started debate on the use of excessive punishment in Chinese schools, along with the news that a Shaanxi teacher was recently fired for bullying a 13-year-old student.
Historic misstep
Fans of several pop stars—including Cai Xukun, Yi Yangqianxi, and Zhu Yilong—made the political faux pas of comparing their love for their idol to the Treaty of Nanking, a humiliating contract signed by the Qing government in 1842 after the First Opium War (“You are my Treaty of Nanking, the start of my fall,” one fan wrote in a since-deleted Weibo post).
Liaisons danseuses
A Zhejiang retiree has been detained for slander, after putting up posters accusing her former square dance partner of having “improper relations” with two other dancers whom he “jilted” her for.
Expensive robbery
A man has been sentenced to 13 years in jail and fined 34,000 RMB for robbery after convincing a 9-year-old Zhejiang girl to let him into her home—the man left with just 110 RMB from the girl’s own savings.
Techno-Teahouse
Disapproving audience members have been walking out of a re-make of Lao She’s classic play, Teahouse, which opened in Avignon, France, on Tuesday with radical updates like special effects, rapping, and techno music (the play will tour China later this year).
Rocky romance
In a heartwarming tale that went viral on Facebook, a man from Taiwan and a woman from Chongqing became a couple after holding hands on a turbulent plane ride.
Cover Image from Unsplash
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