(picture form Tianya)

The World Cup this year created many psychics around the world making unbelievable correct predictions. If you think Germany’s ‘Octopus oracle’ is magical, China also had a faceless ‘superior being” that caused a sensation on the Internet with his predictions. Netizens calls him “Brother Future” or “King Future”.

On June 13, 12:04 pm, two days before the 2010 South Africa World Cup, a Baidu user named “X from the future” (X来自未来) posted this post titled “From the near future, come in if you want to know” on the Baidu Post Bar under the category of “2012 Bar.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Brother Future predicts World Cup final results, causes sensation in China’

A ChinaHush reader has informed me about the story of a foreign alleged web-stalker who was recently deported from China.  While this was certainly  not the first time foreigner punished for behaving badly in China, when this article was published on Global Times, the news instantly became a piece of sensational Laowai Gossip.  Perhaps some of the forum users on the Beijinger were already familiar with the situation since supposedly the man did a lot of the stalking on the Beijinger forum and many victims were expats of the Beijinger forum users.  And the alleged stalker even had posted his response to the deportation on the forum.

Many thanks to Wayne Bruce, the author of the original article on Global Times submitted the following article to ChinaHush describing the story in much details.

 
[Deported alleged stalker: Jamie Shorter]

Alleged web-stalker and controversial author deported – Unabridged & Updated Version

By Wayne Bruce

A New Zealand national, alleged to have stalked and threatened Internet forum users, and written a book that he claims to be fictional, about experiences living in Harbin, has been deported from China, police at the Exit and Entry Administration Department of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau confirmed last week.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Foreigner deported from China for stalking on the internet – unabridged & updated version’

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.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Growing trend of China’s Internet video landscape’

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)

» » » » Continue reading ‘Brother Blanket becomes popular on the Internet’

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.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Simida Zongzi Gate: dispute over Dragon Boat Festival between China and South Korea’

Recently, "69 Jihad" incident broke out in China. That is, hundreds of thousands of Chinese Internet users collectively scheduled attacks (spamming and condemning) on well-known forums and websites of Korean celebrity stars and their fans at 7 pm on June 9, 2010. The slogan of 69 Jihad was “NC don’t die, Jihad never ends”. (NC: 脑残 mentally ill, brain damaged) Now historically so-called “69 Jihad” is an significant incident of the Chinese Internet Culture conflict in 2010.

Trigger of the War:

From Baidu wiki: The “69 Jihad” was triggered by a “trampling accident” in the Shanghai World Expo Korean Pavilion on May 30, 2010.

» » » » Continue reading ‘“69 Jihad” incident, Chinese Internet users’ holy war against Korean pop fans’

We have talked about this Internet phenomenon in China before – any ordinary person can become famous or infamous over night on the Internet. In Chinese, these people are known as being “red”. We have introduced some of them, like Xili Bro, Candied Haw beauty…  but I decided to review and cover some of them we have missed. Especially Sister Feng (凤姐),  she has become so red hot on the Internet in China recently that truly deserves a post of her own.

Her name is Luo Yuefeng (罗玉凤), 1.46 meters tall, very AVERAGE looking with a AVERAGE college degree. But she started to become famous in November 2009 because she was passing out flyers on the streets of Shanghai seeking a boyfriend for marriage, and with outrageously high demands.

» » » » Continue reading ‘How Sister Feng became famous’

While we are still on the subject of Yushu earthquake, I found an interesting post about Michael Wong’s (a Malaysian Chinese singer and composer) Renren page was under Chinese fenqing’s attack because of one of his Renren status update on China’s national mourning day for Yushu earthquake (yesterday).

This kind of Chinese fenqing attack incidents are not uncommon on the internet.  They are usually very random and so are the victims, they can be from an ordinary citizen to A-list celebrities: Chinese National Flag Bikini Fashion Show was said to be disrespectful of the national flag; Zhang Ziyi was accused of disgracing China in her sexual role in an American film;  Jackie Chan was hated for his comments about “Chinese people need to be controlled”…  Compare to above this incident is even pettier, but I still feel that it is important to talk about it here especially I have seen many similar situations through comments on my blog as well.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Talk about Fenqing, start with Michael Wong’s Renren page’

From HSW:

On April 11, famous Japanese AV star Sora Aoi (苍井空) created huge buzz in the Chinese Twitter community, both girls and boys are twitting about her. Since the news about Sora Aoi registered her twitter account @aoi_sola broke out,  many Chinese netizens on Sina Micro blog “climbed over the wall” in order to follow her. (Twitter is blocked in China) The number of her followers on twitter was growing at the rate of 37 per minute. As for now, she has over 30,193 followers and her first tweet message was posted on March 30. For that Sora Aoi was puzzled, and began to interact with the fans through tweets saying thanks.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Japanese AV star Sora Aoi on Twitter creating buzz among Chinese netizens’

Two years ago, there were reports about Facebook entering China, but now there is new inside information? I was pretty surprised when reading this news, especially because I just did a post comparing Renren (Chinese Facebook) and Facebook.

From iFeng:

On April 7, according to a reliable source, the world’s largest social networking site, Facebook, is preparing to enter China. If all goes well, this plan will be implemented within 3 months. Facebook has two ways to enter China: first, through a joint venture, and second, through cooperation and acquisition.

Now, I’m not sure if this source is truly reliable, but the same report is coming from Sina and some other technology oriented sites as well.  Is there other evidence? According to the iFeng article:

» » » » Continue reading ‘Facebook to enter China within three months?’

In this age of mechanical reproduction, China is often very much guilty of making less-than-impressive versions of things that the West did first. However, I have found some exceptions and one of them is Renren (人人网, translation: Everyone’s Network), China’s version of Facebook (and no it’s not blocked).

Last year I started using Renren.com because I was about to study for a year at Peking University and wanted to understand college students in China before I actually got there. And while I give Facebook a lot of credit for being “first,” I decided I really like Renren.com for the following four reasons:

» » » » Continue reading ‘Why Renren is better than Facebook’

“Year 2015…” is the latest trend on the Internet among the Chinese Netizens.  It is a game of building a sequence (接龙) started by @Songshinan (宋石男), to imagine what will it be like in the year of 2015.  Short messages are written by netizens with the “year 2015” and to share their humors, sarcasms and visions with everyone.  On Twitter, just search for #2015 and you will see.   “2015” also became the top searched keyword these days.

The following are translated from Song Shinan’s blog, a collection of the tweet messages written by some well-known bloggers and writers.  All the names mentioned in these messages are popular figures in China on and off the Internet.  Follow the wiki links to see who they are. Don’t feel bad if you don’t understand some of the messages.  These messages are humorous and  sarcastic, they  cover a lot of China’s current affairs, social issues and memes.  It is amazing how much references can be written in 140 characters.  Well, Chinese language definitely have an advantage on twitter,  you just can write so much more with 140 Chinese characters than in English.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Year 2015…’

From Netease:

A young man named Yang Huajun (not his real name) likes to go online, one time by chance he joined a QQ group, and the members of the group often posted some pornographic videos and pictures. Out of curiosity, Yang Huajun often watched these pornographic materials, not for long, he started to download them in order to view them at any time. Until he was arrested by the local police, he was not aware of that his action had violated the law.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Man downloading and watching porn at home fined 3,000 yuan’

March 14 is White Day (White Valentine’s Day), originated in Japan and now is also observed in South Korea, Taiwan and Mainland China. It is an extension of the February 14 Valentine’s day. In Japan, February 14 Valentine’s Day is observed by females who present chocolate gifts, usually to a male as an expression of love, courtesy or social obligation. On White Day, the converse happens: male who received a honmei-choco (chocolate of love) on Valentine’s day are expected to return the favor by giving gifts back to the girl they love, usually more expensive. However, this tradition seems to be reversed in China, on February 14 boys suppose to give girls presents, usually roses or chocolate, and on White Valentine’s day, it is the girls’ turn to give the boys of their choosing presents.

» » » » Continue reading ‘White Day, write a three line love letter’

A Shanzhai version of Google.com has just been created and launched in China, introducing www.goojje.com. It is not a joke, this website is to compete with the world’s number one search engine, it is also said to be a gesture to press Google to stay in China. The appearance of the website is almost identical to Google.com. “Google” is turned into Goojje, and in Chinese, 谷歌 became 谷姐. (姐:jie means “Sister” in Chinese.) The slogan under the logo reads “Brother’s stay is for sister, brother is still obsessed with sister.”

“哥的留下是为了姐，哥依然迷恋着姐”
Brother’s stay is for sister, brother is still obsessed with sister

» » » » Continue reading ‘Goojje.com, sister of Google?’