China This Week: Knowing is Half the Battle

China This Week, April 9-15, 2016

Want to know about the hottest trending topics in China, you won’t see on TV or newspapers? Follow the weekly updates from U.S.-China Perception Monitor, “China This Week”. We are providing you with the most talked-about topics, most interesting points and must-know information of Chinese culture and society.

1: To the library!

Has this ever happened to you?

Its finals season and exams are fast approaching. You are now regretting the decision of forgoing your review session to catch up on another episode of Scandal. Regardless of what you should have done, the real issue at hand is your plan of attack. First you have to face off with Psychology on Tuesday, then proceed to be double flanked by Advanced Financial Accounting and Introduction to Spanish Art History on Thursday, all of this leading up to that Calculus requirement that you decided to put off until now, which will finish up your Finals Week schedule.

You can see the goal: a three-month long hibernation in your parent’s house through the summer. The scents of your childhood bed welcome you, separated only by these pesky, GPA-defining exams. There’s only one way to handle this.

Congratulations! You have taken your first step into maturity!

Filled with a second wind of accepting adulthood, you rush into the campus library, walking through the study tables, only to find that every chair is filled. The library is full. All is lost.

Too bad you couldn’t reserve a seat. But wait! Now you can!

If you are a student at Nanjing University, now you can reserve a seat at library on your phone.

Nanjing University launched a new cellphone feature that allows student to reserve seats 20 minutes in advance at the library via WeChat, the popular Chinese messenger and social media app. If you want to leave your seat for restroom, to look for some books, to have lunch or, to take a walk, you can keep your seat for a certain time limit, all the while managing it on your cell phone!

This function is in trial operation, however, students have had mixed reception of the app.

Supports think this is useful to keep your seat while you are just away for lunch. However, opponents argue that not everyone has a cellphone or is willing to use WeChat. Thus, even though the reservation system intends to be helpful, this feature actually makes going to the library more complicated, since one has to report to the cellphone whenever they decide to do something, including going to the restroom.

2 Na na na na na na na na…national security!

Hey everyone! Happy National Security Education Day! We’re serious.

To celebrate this occasion, China’s ministry of state security made a cartoon video filled with popular culture references to be super rad and way cool.

One video shows popular western-origin superheroes with different words above their heads indicating unemployment which “implying that only disgruntled citizens or foreigners would upset national security”.

The video also contains images of Chinese police arresting Batman-villains.

And even contains a cameo of Adolf Hitler being hit with a box glove.

Also, Mr. Bean is in it. No words.

However curious the video is, it is doing its best to spread the knowledge of national security to young, meme-loving Chinese Millennials. Now they know, and…

3. Zootopia: America’s Trojan Horse into China

The Disney film Zootopia has been well received in China, earning $230 million in the country. This makes the film one of Disney’s top grossing in China.

However, Zootopia has gained some criticism, specifically from a professor from the military-backed Nanjing Institute of Politics. Professor Wang Chuanbao said that “Hollywood has long been an effective propaganda machine — it has a deep understanding of the U.S.’s [political] strategies.” He goes on to say that “many Hollywood blockbusters will carefully select a topic or theme, and spare no efforts to promote America’s values and its global strategy.”

Professor Wang accused Zootopia, a 3D animated buddy cop film set in a city populated by animals, as intending to “telegraph subtle messages about the “American Dream” via the role reversal of its animal characters” as the film stars a rabbit and fox attempting to track down missing predators. The perpetrator? A sheep.

Frankly, I think there are other secret agendas being disseminated by the new film.

4 This isn’t going to end well…

A tutor at the University of Sydney in Australia has caused major controversy for his statement against Chinese international students.

Wu Wei, a PhD candidate and finance tutor has been accused of calling his Chinese students “’international pigs’ and ‘chinks’ with low IQs in blog posts to the China-based social media sites Weibo and WeChat”.

In one Weibo post, Mr. Wu, under the username Pekojima posted “A Chinese international pig representative told me that I am a shame [sic] of the Australian-Chinese international community. It is such a pity because I am your tutor of you [sic] international student pigs.”

Mr. Wu, a Chinese-Australian has just recently obtained his Australian citizenship had has recorded a video of himself burning his Chinese passport.

Fears that Mr. Wu would either act inappropriately toward his students are not completely unthinkable given his insensitive statements and many international students fear they may be treated unfairly if they take Mr. Wu’s tutorials.

Mr. Wu’s bosses at the University of Sydney and the school of business are investigating the allegations and assert that Mr. Wu’s views do not reflect the views of the University of Sydney and go against the environment the University is trying to build.

By AARON WALAYAT compiled by YAO SUN on USCNPM