In the traffic congested city streets, an advertiser was busy handing out flyers for the newly constructed condos. “Beautiful homes, starting at 29,800 yuan per square meters”, one flyer ended up in the hands of a cab driver who was waiting in traffic. He looked at the flyer and thought “It takes 125 years in order to buy this home”. That made his nose bleed.

A young man got into the cab and picked up the flyer on his way to work. Up in the elevator, punched his time card at exactly 9 am, he rushed into his cubical to start his day of work. Then he read the flyer and thought “It takes 87 years to buy this home.” Foaming at the mouth, he threw the ad into the trashcan.

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Netease Sports, June 28:

Today a group of Korean-speaking men came out of a Korean style barbecue restaurant near the East Bridge in Beijing.  Several of them were wearing the red Korea DPR football team jerseys, and one of tem was the world-famous “People’s Rooney” Jong Tae-Se who burst into tears during the match against Brazil.  It turned out that the North Korea team did not return home directly after the World Cup loss in South Africa, (nor were they sent to work at the coal mines, or not yet at least) rather arrived in Beijing for a short stay due to a flight transit.

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Everywhere in Beijing, bus stops and magazine stands have advertised the June issue of Cosmo, with a purple-clad Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker on the front cover. As I’m unfamiliar with the international magazine industry as it relates to China, I was eager to obtain a copy and see for myself what this hefty, 362 page issue contained. I flipped past the beauty, the fashion and the countless ads all the way to the end, and I was left feeling a bit unsatisfied. Something important was missing, and it didn’t take long to realize what it was. Where was the sex?

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Recently, Chinese netizens organized the anti-“Super Junior” and their fans movement (the 69 Jihad), and then Chinese Internet users’ feeling of resentment towards (Hahanzu) “Korean Wave” have fermented, the situation gradually developed into anti-Korean sentiment. After we talked about the “69 Jihad” and the recent “Simida Zongzi gate”, many readers strongly reacted to these incidents. This article on Netease is in line with some of the readers’ views: In fact, since the new century almost all anti-Korean sentiments are exclusively based on the spreading rumors. And why do these obvious rumors have such a large market and making Chinese people to keep dwelling on them?

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I spent a day at the Beijing Zoo last week for some intern work, and instead of oggling at the pandas like everyone else, I spent a good chunk of my time petting dogs and cats and feeding small goats at the Children’s Zoo. After comparing my Chinese zoo map with my English one, I discovered that the Chinese version uses the phrase 小动物爱心俱乐部 for “children’s zoo.” Directly translated, it means “Small Animals Affection Club.” I think this is much more fitting for furry creatures like these, don’t you?

From Sohu: Cnr.cn news, Beijing. According to the news reported by Voice of China “Peak Evening News” at 17:39 on June 24, Air China cabin service department vice-president Wang Xiaolun said, some passengers need to be constantly reminded by the flight attendant to turn off their cell phones before the plane takes off, this indicates people’s need of communicating with the outside world (when on a plane). Achieving communication via cellular phone in above 10,000 meters altitude will become an effective way to attract travelers and to provide satisfactory services for the passengers.

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From Sina:

Recently, a shanzhai (fake) ATM appeared on the street of Xuanwu district, Beijing. Customers who used this “ATM” soon found that all their money in the bank account disappeared without a trace. Sina Reporter was told by the Beijing Police that the suspect Huang who set up the fake ATM was already arrested on the charge of credit card fraud. This is the first fake ATM case ever cracked in Beijing.

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Recently the Chinese websites and forums are filled with the talks of North Korea National football team are going to be sent to coal mine as punishment if they lose at the World Cup.  Is this true?  Netease talked about this “as a not verified news” on June 17 after North Korea’s 1-2 loss to Brazil.  Some sites claimed this news came from U. S. blogs and small websites. This article from IFeng talked about a “rumor” found on a Team Liquid forum posted by a Romanian:

“As I was turning in to see the second half of the Argentina vs S. Korea game, I heard the newscaster for TVR1( Romania’s national TV station) talking about four north Korean players gone missing from world cup.  It is believed that they have fled in order to avoid going back to North Korea.”

The article also stated that a former North Korea assistant coach said “If we lose, they will be punished, some players will be sent to work at a coal mine.”

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China’s Internet Video landscape is growing in a fast pace as the major video sharing sites like Youku and Tudou becoming popular in Chinese people’s daily digital lives. These sites are not only served as user based video sharing networks, unlike Youtube, large number of the Chinese people actually watch their favorite TV show and movies on these sites. Issues of copyrights aside, the Hulu-like business model actually opened up a lucrative market for the Chinese companies. At the same time business opportunities were also created for individuals or small groups who are interested in internet media. The idea of “webisode” started in the western world, a new trend which provides opportunities for individuals or small groups to create media content that can potentially become popular. As we observe, user generated content / webisodes is the latest growing trend on the China’s Internet media market. Let’s see some examples.

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(From China News)

People in China have just enjoyed the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, to many football fans, this was a timely rain. However, the three day vacation is coming to an end. Many fans began to wonder how they can manage to not miss any upcoming exciting World Cup matches.

Football fan Xiao Yu was just worried about this, so he searched on the Internet for some help. Surprisingly he discovered that someone is selling “doctor’s note for World Cup sick leave”. With doctor’s note in hand, it is like giving the green light to requesting time off, Xiao Yu was really tempted. But, after thinking it through, he still felt a bit indecent, so he called the Chinese News hotline: 85055555.

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(photo by Xihua reporter 杨磊)

(From 002china.com) Currently the hottest news topic around the world is probably the World Cup. Other than the excellent performances by the teams of various countries, the most talked about subject is perhaps the loud horn noise that fills up the entire stadium from the beginning to the end of each match. These long plastic horns called vuvuzela are causing heated discussions internationally because of the high decibel noises they make.

Although the Chinese team did not make it to the World Cup, perhaps Chinese people can feel satisfied to know that 90% of the globally resounding horns are made in China. Other than the horns, many other products related to football at the World Cup are all made in China.

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If you surf Chinese websites long enough you will probably notice how things or people become popular on the Chinese Internet can be a bit strange and unpredictable. This recent viral photo has just made “Brother Blanket” the latest Internet meme in China.

(From Netease) A graduating senior at Hunan Agricultural University unconventionally wrote these words “Brother is leaving” on his blanket and hang it on his dorm room balcony. The downstairs balcony then “replied” with “Ding upstairs”. (A pun to Chinese BBS forum: A forum post is called a building and each comment below is a story of the building. Ding means to support or to raise.) Thus netizens call him “Brother Blanket”. (Photo by 张骛)

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Dragon Boat Festival  (or Duanwu Festival) occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar. In 2010 this day falls on June 16. According to the custom the celebrations includes eating zongzi, drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.

Recently, a forum post titled “Korean beauty student teaches you how to eat zongzi” stirred up a storm on the Internet.  One girl claimed to be a Korean student studying in a Language University in Beijing, accused Chinese people do not know the etiquette of eating zongzi and posted a lot of pictures to teach Chinese people how to eat zongzi step by step.  Once the post spread, debate over Dragon Boat Festival echo through the Internet.  So called “Simida zongzi gate”, this post once again sparked off the dispute on Dragon Boat Festival between China and Korea.

Hi, I am a Korean student studying in Beijing Language University.  Now lived in Beijing for 3 years, there are so many different kind of food here, I really like Beijing.

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From Netease:

Elegance and vulgarity has always been sworn enemies of each other in popular culture over the years. Guo Degang once said, drinking coffee is elegant and eating garlic is vulgar; nude photography is elegant and couple telling dirty jokes is vulgar… Now, in a scenic spot of Xinmi, Henan Province, elegance and vulgarity crashes again.

Planed to dedicate herself to the art, the nude photography model never thought she was going to get shooed away by tree branches. On June 9, 2010, at the scenic area of Xinmi, a naked female model posing for nude photography was shooed away by the local villagers.

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(From ctdsw) To protect his contracted property from being demolished by force, 56 years old peasant Yang Youde builds a blockhouse on his farming land and successfully scares the demolition team away twice using fire-tubes. Yang says he is not nail-household who struggles for higher compensation, he is just fighting to justify what he entitled to by laws.

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