Current Events

[Randy W]

Chinese troops in Russia for military drills

Russia has launched its 7-day multinational military drills. The exercises in the Far East and the Sea of Japan include Chinese and Indian troops.

Read more: sc.mp/t8vq

Because Russia has plenty of spare soldiers with time on their hands?

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/6004503556243661/

[Randy W]

University freshmen are required to undergo one month of "military training" at the beginning of their first year (i.e., NOW). Okay, I GUESS this is news.

军训新生牵手围圈跳打跳舞。
近日，云南昆明，一学校在军训间隙带领学生“打跳”，学生们牵手围成圈上演大型“打跳”表演。这样极具云南民族特色的军训又新奇又有趣，帮助新生更快适应新环境，尽快融入学校新生活。网友：充满民族风的军训太有意思了！
Military training freshman drummers to jump and dance around the fence.
Recently, a school led students to "jumping" during military training intervals in Hunan Zhengming, and students put on a large "jump" performance holding hands around the walls. Such military training that is innovative and interesting, helps freshmen adapt to new environments faster and settle into new lives at school as soon as possible. Netizens: Military training with full of national style is so interesting!

from China Xinhua News
https://www.facebook.com/XH.NewsAgency/videos/1190758331489121/

[Randy W]

Benson is an ex-con and journeyman player who in the dying days of his professional career had been lured by the promise of millions of yuan to play exhibition games in remote areas around southwest China — a scene known locally as “wild ball.” 
Filmmaker Li Hongquan was fascinated. He’d end up spending most of the next three years following the American, documenting his doomed journey into Chinese basketball’s wild west. The result — the feature-length documentary “Wild Ball” — is a compelling watch, weaving together twin storylines.
There’s the life and times of Benson — a towering, mercurial man whose dreams of NBA stardom were wrecked at the age of 19, when he was arrested on a litany of charges including abduction, gun possession, and drug trafficking. He would end up doing eight and a half years’ jail time, before finally making good on his talent as a basketballer, picking up professional contracts everywhere from Greece to Puerto Rico and finally China, where he became a top player in the CBA.
And then there’s the bizarre world of wild ball, basically an independent series of basketball games bankrolled by wealthy businessmen in rural China. These local “bosses” pay big sums to lure pro ballers from all over the world to come and play in tournaments, which are often held alongside traditional rural festivals.
“In wild ball, they not only hire you to play, they also hire you to be entertaining, to make the boss look good in the town,” said the filmmaker.
Read more: http://ow.ly/XhPB50KzEYk

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/pfbid0W5Kg9HfmkjMKBsAS7fCJc46TvV2dDWUaLwamo9ir3WvDPjhNnDwqrosrWRSsPo2Zl

 

[Randy W]

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted Luding county in Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan province at 12:52 pm on Monday, triggering a national emergency response of Level Ⅳ, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.
The epicenter was monitored at 29.59 degrees north latitude and 102.08 degrees east longitude, at a depth of 16 km, the China Earthquake Networks Center said.
Seven people were killed in the earthquake.
A team headed by Min Yiren, head of China Earthquake Administration, has dispatched to guide the disaster relief work in Luding, said a press release from the ministry.
It said 530 rescuers have left for the county as a group of 30 firefighters head to the epicenter of the earthquake to check the situation.

from China Pictorial on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/ChinaPic/posts/pfbid02WZcCFntLcFAPbAeBYGE76n65ri427KAyitfahDkvtwAXNtuaW8y86QEwW246CqUzl

 

[Randy W]

M 6.6 - 43 km SE of Kangding, China

• 2022-09-05 04:52:19 (UTC)
• 29.726°N 102.279°E
• 10.0 km depth

from the U.S. Geological Survey

 

[Randy W]

China’s Sichuan province hit by 6.8 magnitude quake, killing at least 21 people

At least 21 people were killed when a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern China on September 5, 2022, state media reported. It’s the latest challenge for a population battling prolonged drought and a Covid-19 outbreak that has put the provincial capital under lockdown. The epicentre of the 6.8 magnitude earthquake was located about 260km (162 miles) from the provincial capital Chengdu, the China Earthquake Administration said. Sichuan, which lies along a major fault line, is among China’s most quake-prone provinces.

 

[Randy W]

 

Footage shows quick evacuation of Chinese kindergarten amid deadly earthquake in Sichuan

 

 

 

[Randy W]

Stop stealing’: China condemns US over Trojan horse cyberattacks on state-funded university

China has accused the US of using Trojan virus cyberattacks to steal high-value data from servers belonging to a state-funded university.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/1274175086683645/

[Randy W]

On 8/30/2022 at 11:24 PM, Randy W said:

Prosecutors in the northern Hebei province have filed charges against 28 people and launched an investigation into over a dozen officials two months after a brutal attack against a group of women that triggered widespread concerns about the safety of women across the country.

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/pfbid0343AEJUH6gSqKgtjoXKX9eEsPHHeufiKK78oamRGmVuy9Kdoo1fSCCBwedL8xipqpl

28 People Charged Over Brutal Attack on Women in Tangshan
The assault on four female diners in June sparked a public outcry about women’s safety in China.

A screenshot from surveillance video shows victims sent to hospital. From @央视新闻 on Weibo

 

Editorial opinion here - something about "touching melons"

#ChinaDailyEditorial It is good to see the investigators have followed the vines to get the melons. If left untouched, the melons would continue to spread new seeds to the fields, threatening public security in the city.

from China Daily on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/chinadaily/posts/pfbid03CEfBMbVURq5Thh28Xf7B82WGS8fnjnAJrmtEeVfTpxdYjijdNRTUD74dxXcjwJnl

Lessons to learn from Tangshan nationwide: China Daily editorial

Quote

 

The disclosure of the Hebei judicial authorities' findings in their investigation is noteworthy. Not only has it led to 28 suspects being charged for being involved in organized crimes, but also 15 people are being investigated on suspicion that they provided the suspects with protection, including eight police officers in the city. That explains the necessity and prescience of the province's early decision that it must be investigators of other cities, Langfang and Hengshui, who should probe the assault on the women, rather than those of Tangshan.

It is good to see the investigators have followed the vines to get the melons. If left untouched, the melons would continue to spread new seeds to the fields, threatening public security in the city.

China is widely regarded as having among the best public security conditions in the world, thanks to its strict implementation of the rule of law, good public order and social atmosphere supported by law-abiding nationals, as well as the dedication of its police officers and other law enforcers. However, as anywhere, there are always a few bad apples that undo the good work of others.

The Tangshan investigation, which has ensnared police officers ranging from the district police sheriff to grassroots police officers, rings the alarm that any rotten fruit needs to be removed from the basket as early as possible lest it spoils the rest.

 

 

[Randy W]

On 8/9/2022 at 7:17 PM, Randy W said:

Huge fire consumes 900-year-old bridge in China

The longest wooden bridge in China was burnt down by a huge fire in August. The Wan’an bridge was 98.2 metres long and 4.7 metres wide.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/1223771384872265/

On Aug. 6, the 900-year-old Wan’an Bridge in Pingnan County, a locality of Ningde City in the coastal Fujian province, was destroyed when it suddenly burst into flames.

While traditional bridge building techniques have been revived, ancient structures require urgent attention.

Read more: http://ow.ly/1Mso50KGzGB

Hell or High Water: China’s Historic Wooden Bridges in Danger
While traditional bridge building techniques have been revived, ancient structures require urgent attention.

The wreckage of Wan’an Bridge, Aug. 7, 2022. VCG

Quote

 

For Wan’an was one of a kind: 98.2 meters long and 4.7 meters wide, it was first constructed in the Song dynasty (960-1279), and was the longest wooden arch corridor bridge left standing in China.

 . . .

For some time, the intricate design and construction of the Rainbow Bridge were considered a product of the painter’s rich imagination. At least until the late 1970s, when scholars discovered wooden arch bridges in the mountains of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

Dai Zhijian, a professor at the Architecture and Civil Engineering School of Xiamen University who has long studied these bridges, believes arch bridges are the most technically delicate type of wooden bridge in Chinese history.

The bridge’s construction uses the technique of bianliang (literally “interwoven beams”), in which two sets of beams interlock to form a stable arch. One set has three long beams of timber arched across a span, while the other comprises five slightly shorter beams that alternate among the first set, forming an ancillary arch.

Rather than being held together with metal hardware, horizontal and vertical beams are connected at their intersections using traditional carpentry joints resembling mortises and tenons.

 . . .

Due to their structural characteristics, the beams carry a significant amount of upward pressure that makes them susceptible to collapsing. Therefore, roofs were often added to weigh them down, hence the term “corridor bridges.” They are usually 20 to 40 meters long.

Most of these more than 100 structures are located within a small region of no more than 200 kilometers from north to south, spanning the counties of Pingnan, Shouning, and Zhouning in Fujian; as well as Taishun and Qingyuan in Zhejiang.

It’s why they are also called “Minzhe wooden arch bridges,” with Minzhe being a contraction of Fujian and Zhejiang in Chinese.

Technically, restoring Wan’an isn’t a very difficult feat. Deputy County Mayor of Pingnan Li Zhangtong said in an interview with The Paper that archives of the bridge are suitably comprehensive.

 

The underside (left) and interior of Wan’an Bridge, as photographed by Dai Zhijian. From the June 2012 issue of “Southern Architecture.”

Edited September 13, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Changsha-based milk tea brand Chayan Yuese gave up its English name — Sexy Tea — after the signboard at a new store in Nanjing provoked a backlash from moralists online. The company said that it had intended the name “sexy” to mean exciting and appealing, but it would change the name to avoid “misunderstanding.” The company’s Chinese name is a family-friendly wordplay on an idiom describing a person with an approachable manner.

Check out more Daily Tones: http://ow.ly/WnrI50KMAnW

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/photos/a.1604152706570250/3326875730964597

The success of Sexy Tea 茶颜悦色 and queuing culture in China

from Daxue Consulting

Quote

 

Recently, Sexy Tea released a mug with the following words:  jian lou zi (捡篓子) which in the local slang means “get a bargain” or picking up a good deal. But in a campaign, they used the term to describe picking up while in line. They continued on saying “When I went to buy bubble tea, there were lots of pretty girls there. If you meet one like this, you can tell your friend – I picked up a bargain”. Meaning that when going to Sexy Tea, you could also pick up a women at the same time.

The expression sparked anger on the internet as it objectifies women. According to the BBC, the company released a statement saying “We made a very inappropriate sentence that even people in Changsha did not approve of…. we are very ashamed. We have absolutely no intention of disrespecting women”. Netizens are also pointing out that sexualizing women is a fundamental issue in the advertisement industry.

 

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Chinese skyscraper in flames after fire engulfs high-rise in Changsha city I Watch

A skyscraper was engulfed in the central Chinese city of Changsha, with authorities saying that no casualties had yet been found. Chinese media reported that the blaze broke out in a 42-floor building housing an office of state-owned telecommunications company China Telecom. Deadly fires are common in China, where lax enforcement of building codes and rampant unauthorised construction can make it difficult for people to flee burning buildings. Watch this video to know more. 

 

China Telecom investigates fire in Changsha building; no casualties reported

from the Global Times

Edited September 19, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Footage of catastrophic 7.2 earthquake in Taiwan today! Huge damage

Footage of catastrophic 7.2 earthquake in Taiwan today! Huge damage
A powerful earthquake that strikes Southeast Taiwan causes bridges and buildings to collapse or sustain significant damage. The earthquake that occurred on Sunday was recorded by the USGS as having a magnitude of 7.2 and a depth of 10 kilometers (six miles), the epicenter of the quake was 85 km (53 miles) east of Yujing district in Taiwan.

 

[Randy W]

Strong quake in Taiwan collapses bridge

This 880-metre bridge collapsed after an earthquake struck Taiwan. The quake killed one person and injured 146 people.

Read more: sc.mp/g2mv

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/630521398460899/

 

 

[Randy W]

Horror movie prop or food 😱?

This month, Dicos, one of China’s biggest fast-food chains, started selling fried chicken fillets that look like human palms. High five? ✋

Follow @goldthread2 for more!

(Via Dicos, 酸柠檬老师大吃特吃, Xiaohongshu)

from Goldthread on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/goldthread2/posts/pfbid02nJitthwK21vBE5N2KQoadRWwpezBhsbPDp6boFMNXry2PQYHnEcB3429Z54kLYpYl

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)