Zhongshan

Keep Up, Kim Kardashian! Zhongshan Bride Wears 70 Gold Bracelets [UPDATED]

Posted: 05/26/2014 1:30 pm

UPDATE: We’ve got more pics, and they are everything your imagination could have ever asked for. Congratulations to the fabulous couple, Desmond and Neves! Good luck on naming your baby!

Demonstrating that China has taken the position as world leader in the battle of showmanship previously dominated by gangster rappers and flamboyant homosexual pianists, the city of Zhongshan was the location of an extravagant wedding that featured a blushing bride not in white, but gold. Pounds upon pounds of gold.

The evening of Friday, May 23 was fabulous. A lavish wedding consisting of a wedding party of 20 bridesmaids and bridegrooms—fabulous. A foreign groom wearing seven to eight gold necklaces—fabulous. The parking lot to the wedding reception filled with luxury cars of brands like Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini—all fabulous. In a detail not lost to the press, the fact that many of these cars were themselves adorned with vanity plates of lucky number “8′s” and “6′s”—absolutely fabulous.

zhongshan bling wedding gold bracelets

A fabulous wedding like this deserves a fabulous bride, and this one complied by wearing the proper gold required: a gold belt, gold necklaces, gold rings on fingers of both hands, and a total of 70 gold bracelets worn on her wrists and around her neck.

A reporter with Guangzhou Daily confirmedsuch fabulousness had indeed occurred by contacting the bride’s father Mr Li, a retired general manager of a water company in Shaxi County. Li fully admits that his daughter was married in such a fashion, and does not mind the public knowing about it. Li said,

They wanted this type of wedding; I have many foreign relatives; so what if I want to act like a traditional old fogey.

“Traditional”? Gold is “traditional”? Kim Kardashian is a throwback to a more conservative time? It must be her orthodoxy upon rejecting cotton blends. During this time of austerity measures and economic slowdowns, public displays of wealth aren’t taken very well by the public, so we imagine the public reception to this wedding won’t be so fabulous.

zhongshan bling wedding gold bracelets

Video with additional car footage here.

UPDATE 2, 10:36pm May 26, 2014: This topic has exploded in popularity on Weibo throughout the day. As of this update, the Sina Guangdong version of this post currently has been forwarded 8713 times, received 6666 likes, and 10034 comments.

Here are some select comments from that post:

郑梦琳这个傻子_：
Please, this just a custom, alright? Many young married Guangdong women do this! What’s more, all of those many (bracelets) weren’t bought by herself, but given to her by her many relatives; it represents paying your respects to the person being gifted. As for the giving of diamonds, since this is a custom, the traditional concept is to use gold jewelry as the foundation.

木子小马儿：
Those that don’t understand this is a traditional custom should not talk out of turn. Even ordinary families will carry gold bracelets, and more so in wealthy families. These were given to her by her family, and are paid back a gift in return…

清–在线：
This is just a custom that’s done in Zhongshan. Relatives of the bride and groom give them, friends give them as gifts. Some are rented, and some are fake. Anyhow, you should wear more, (not less). The more gold you wear, the more blessed you will be.

雪舞依然：
What she’s wearing, in fact, is armor.

浪子心声138：
This is a crazy person, they have simply gone insane.

楊大H：
That car, that cello, and all that nouveau riche gold: it just doesn’t add up.[sweatface]

番薯煎堆要咸定要甜：
Now that’s what you call love!!!!!

As every woman in Zhongshan has a father who is the general manager of a water plant, we’re sure this is a common custom.

Photos: People’s Daily via Twitter, Guangzhou Daily Report via Weibo, Sina Weibo, Sina Guangdong Weibo

Tagged: blinggoldLuxuryWeddingZhongshan

AMAZING VIDEO: This is How You Catch a Falling Baby [UPDATED]

Posted: 05/23/2014 7:45 am

falling baby zhongshan guangdong rain hero brother catch

[This story has been updated with corrections and additional details added at the end]

Otherwise known as the GIF we’ve been waiting for all year long, a Zhongshan man has performed the incredible feat of catching a falling child from a two-story apartment. In the pouring rain. With his bare hands. Like they were giving them away for free.

Captured in its entirety by a web monitor (video here), the scene took place at Chaonan Road, Xiaolan County, Zhongshan, Guangdong Province at 12:14pm on May 18. A three year-old child ~~one year-old baby~~ was left alone at a second-floor apartment when he climbed up to the window to look for his mother. He could be heard calling for her and started to crawl outside. That’s when it accidentally fell from the window.

Mr Li was across the street at the time waiting for the rain to stop when he suddenly saw the child in danger. Instead of staying dry like a normal citizen, Mr Li ran out in the middle of traffic. Other people on the street saw as well, and lay down cardboard boxes and a black cushion in an attempt to soften the fall.

Dubbed “Brother Catch” by the Chinese press, Mr Li shows us how he got his new name:

That’s extraordinary. The stilted stutter of the wilting shuffle of the two would-be baby catchers that follow the trajectory of the falling child is contrasted by hero Mr Li’s iron-clad, unwavering commitment. Here he is moments before the fall:

We don’t want to take anything away from the shirtless man accompanying Mr Li to his right, but only one of them was going to catch the kid, and it wasn’t going to be the guy flinching from the rain. No, our hero Mr Li is the guy standing still as a statue, arms fully extended, intently focused upon the target, raindrops spattering upon his eyeballs, showing all of us where the calm lies in the middle of the storm.

We don’t know what Mr Li called out right at that moment, but if he told me to jump, I would, even if I was standing on the ground.

Mr Li, thank you. We need more heroes like you. GIFs, too.

Here’s a video of the incident:

UPDATE 12:35pm May 23, 2014

Our hero, “Brother Catch” has been identified as Li Xianwen, a 50 years-old worker at an electric supply company. Li had been out with his family for lunch when he came across the three year-old child dangling precariously from the second floor window.

The mother is said to have arrived at the scene just at that precise moment. She went upstairs to the apartment, but by then the child had already fallen.

The child was taken to the hospital, but an examination showed he had not sustained any injuries.

Like all cool people, Li left the party early, not telling anyone at the scene. It was only later that his identity was discovered. Li also suffered no injuries in the incident, and was very modest about being the courageous hero that he is. Li said,

I just did what anyone else would have done…It’s very fortunate I caught him. If I didn’t, I’d regret it for the rest of my life.

Hero of Dangling Guangzhou Girl Identified

Photos: Weibo screencaps of GIFs

Tagged: falling babiesgifsheroXiaolan DistrictZhongshan

Zhongshan Wedding Guests Continue to Eat at Flooded Banquet

Posted: 05/9/2014 4:09 pm

For one Zhongshan wedding that took place yesterday evening, the bridal shower takes place in concurrence with the reception, not before.

A netizen reported an unnamed wedding reception in Zhongshan having fallen victim to the torrential rain that has been pounding Guangdong province.

A rip in an awning let in a surge of water described as a “waterfall” that soon flooded the banquet hall with 50cm of rain, forcing guests to stand on chairs.

However, the march of the wedding procession extended to the serving of the food. As wait staff continued wheeling out dishes, banquet guests continued to eat: Waiters rolled up their pant legs as guests wielded umbrellas to protect them from the elements.

It’s a wedding. Not eating would just mean that it’s not a wedding at all, and there’s no point to adding insult to injury at that point.

Alanis would have called it ironic, but Billy Idol would have called it a nice day. For a wet wedding.

Photo: Weibo

Tagged: banquetFloodingheavy rainrainWedding

Threatening to Jump, Woman in Zhongshan Falls Asleep During Suicide Attempt

Posted: 04/16/2014 6:06 pm

When is a suicide attempt a cry for help, and when is it a cry for attention? We may never know for sure, but one thing is certain: attempting suicide can make people dead tired, especially for a 50 year-old woman in the city of Zhongshan, Nandu reports.

Emergency services arrived at 10:40pm in the Antang neighborhood of Dayong District to see a woman threatening to jump off a second-story roof. Visibly agitated, the woman continually cried out but rejected any offers of help by emergency responders.

Firefighters were not able to approach the woman since the area was too dark to safely mount a rescue; turning on more lights was simply out of the question. As such, they decided not to take any further action. Instead, firefighters set up an air mattress below as personnel took shifts to watch over the woman should anything occur. It didn’t.

Instead, they found the suicidal woman had settled for dreamland over heaven and had fallen asleep on the roof. When firefighters approached the woman in the early morning hours and inadvertently woke her up, the woman got up and renewed her previous threats of suicide with fresh vigor now that she had gotten a good night’s rest.

Perhaps realizing that living on the roof is rent-free, a neighbor intervened. At 10am on April 15, a full 12 hours after the incident started, the neighbor successfully negotiated with the woman to come down from the roof.

It turns out the woman was upset because her personal ID and cash had been stolen and that she had been beaten up by someone. That being said, it’s still not clear what demands she was making while threatening to end her own life.

Photos: Nandu

Tagged: Attempted Suicideattention whoreSuicideZhongshan

Jackie Chan endorsed Guangdong-made Super Nintendo ripoff

Posted: 11/5/2013 10:04 am

Many people living in China are aware that the government has enforced a video games console ban for many years now, which was recently “lifted” — well, kind of, but that’s another story.

I am almost certain, however, that nobody reading this knows that Jackie Chan was once the face of a Guangdong-based Super Nintendo clone sold under the guise of “study aide”.

According to a report by popular gaming website Kotaku today, “Chinese netizens have been going over some of Chan’s earlier product endorsements, including ones that should’ve been banned.”

Kotaku explained:

It was basically a console built into a keyboard that took in game cartridges. The keyboard also supported NES/SNES styled controllers. The system was effectively a Nintendo or Super Nintendo Clone depending on the model number. The games that the Subor played were often variations of Japanese games translated to Chinese, or sometimes even really weird homegrown Chinese versions.

If I was a Chinese kid growing up in Guangdong in the early 90s, I would have probably given anything for one of these Nintendo “rip-offs” endorsed by Jackie Chan. Wouldn’t you?

The company that built the “study aide” console, trading under the name “Subor” in English, is still in existence today and operates out of Zhongshan.

It’s also quite an interesting case study on how Chinese companies have been getting around government restrictions in the marketplace for decades.

Be sure to check out the photos below, and see Kotaku’s article for the original video advertisement of the console, featuring Jackie Chan himself.

Photo credit: Kotaku

Tagged: GamingGuangdongJackie ChanTechnologyZhongshan

Oops! Western porn showcased on large LED screen in a public square in Zhongshan

Posted: 02/18/2013 2:46 pm

Those who were at Zhongshan’s Fuye Square got a nasty surprise Saturday afternoon when, for at least 20 minutes, a giant LED screen above the KFC in the square played footage from a Western pornographic film, Phoenix News reports.

Located in the west of the city, Fuye is one of the city’s busiest squares and is close to both a kindergarten and a primary school. Several passers by told Sohu News of their shock and disgust at seeing the footage shown so publicly in broad daylight.

Several pedestrians called the police. The following morning, the local public security bureau explained on its microblog that the unfortunate incident was caused by a worker’s computer error at the place where the screen is controlled.

One netizen said this was caused by Zhongshan’s dark history coming back to haunt it (Zhongshan is the hometown of former head of state Sun Yat Sen). Another said this was a great day in history. Another fancies that he’s seen this film before.

Tagged: Fuye SquareKFCKTVpornZhongshanZhongshan Public Security Bureau

College student from Zhongshan drops out, runs own successful porn website

Posted: 07/30/2012 1:00 pm

A former college student surnamed Kang, from Zhongshan’s Xiaolan District, who illegally earned RMB27,800 from his own porn website, has been arrested, the New Express Daily reports.

Kang was enrolled in a college in Guangzhou as a business administration student in 2008. However, after discovering that he wasn’t very interested in his chosen field of study, he left and returned home to look for a job, during which time he taught himself many useful I.T. skills. Urgently in need of money, Kang stumbled upon the knowledge that he could make money by building a porn website and charging subscription fees.

After building the website, he took many pictures and videos from other porn websites. At its peak, the website had 27 special columns of different categories of sexual activity for users to choose from. Yet knowing the website had to rely on outside servers, he contacted a web manager in Chicago. Building on his early success, Kang was about to rent six more domain names overseas to enlarge his business, but was thwarted by police.

The website reached 13,000 visitors per day, and earned Kang RMB27,800 from advertising and subscriptions.

This episode recalls the British blogger who named herself Belle de Jour who put herself through university by working as a call girl.

Tagged: Business Administration StudentChicagoGuangzhouPorn WebsiteXiaolan District

97-year-old Cantonese woman discusses her extraordinary life

Posted: 07/26/2012 7:00 am

The life journey of Zhang Yunqin, 97, has taken her from Zhongshan, to Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, according to a report in the Southern Metropolis Daily. In 2008, Zhang returned to her beloved hometown of Zhongshan, to once again be with her family. The SMD caught up with Zhang to recount some of her extraordinary life story.

Referred to as a “Spinster”, “Australian”, “English speaker and coffee lover”, Zhang remains a passionate, cheerful, vibrant, and humorous woman. Her only qualm is the occasional pain in her knees: “Perhaps Yan Wang Ye, a figure in Chinese mythology who takes away the dead, has forgotten about me!” she says. “I think it is my disciplined lifestyle and hard work that keep me healthy.”

Zhang decided at a very early age that she would be single her whole life, a decision she remains at peace with. And yet despite being separated from her family, and no shortage of adversity, when Zhang reflects upon her nearly 100 years on the planet, a child-like grin comes across her face: “I come from a big family that was very poor,” says Zhang. As a result, Zhang was forced to become financially independent at a very early age. The second of 14 children, and eldest girl, she was sent to live with her aunt in Hong Kong when she was only 4-years-old. There she worked as a live-in maid for a rich family, where life was anything but easy: “I missed home every single day”, she says. But for the sake of her brothers and sisters, she worked ever harder.

After ten years in Hong Kong, Zhang moved to Singapore, where she worked for a British serviceman’s family. Knowing no English and unable to communicate with her employer, she had to study the language in her free time. Several years later, the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan meant Zhang once again had to move; this time to Australia. Despite the distance, Zhang thought of nothing more than her family back in Zhongshan, and continued to send nearly all of her money home to support them.

Years of living abroad have left their mark on every facet of Zhang’s life, particularly for the simple things, such as food. Even today, she enjoys bread and coffee for breakfast, serves guests salad, and criticizes the butter in China as “inauthentic”.

Early in the last century, Zhang’s home village of Xianlong, whose population was only a few hundred, had a system which saw nearly twenty single women like Zhang move abroad so they could work and provide remittance for their families. But today, there are only three women taking part in the program. Unlike the other two (one went to Singapore and the other to Malaysia), upon her return to Zhongshan, Zhang didn’t seek to regain her Chinese citizenship. She remains an Australian citizen, albeit for one very practical reason: the pension in Australia is much higher than in China.

Here’s wishing Zhang many more years of happiness, fresh bread and authentic butter.

Tagged: AustraliaJapanMalaysiaSpinsterZhongshan

Riots in Zhongshan, Sichuan migrants take on locals

Posted: 06/27/2012 12:23 pm

Big cities in China are known to have a festering animosity between locals and migrants. The country’s hukou system gives non-natives many disadvantages, and last year, Premier Wen Jiabao talked about putting a stop to this discrimination.

This animosity has now manifested itself in the form of a riot in Zhongshan City, according to local media.

A 13 year-old was set upon by a gang of 15 year-olds in front of the city’s Shaxi Center Primary school. Two locals intervened and tied up the three 15 year-olds. The teenagers who were tied up came from Sichuan and their friends and family gathered to fight back. At around 10 pm, 300 Sichuanese migrants gathered to confront locals and police.

A statement by Zhongshan police said everything was under control, but pictures circulating online show police being beaten and cars being burned. Witnesses said there were at least 300 people involved in the fight. Early reports suggest five people were killed including one policeman.

This footage of riot police approaching the scene has been uploaded, and the news has gone big on Sina Weibo. Sina Weibo user Lee Hong Wei expressed support for the police and the government. Jason Zhangzhengyuan urged police to get the Sichuan “dogs” out of their territory. Another urged the government to be careful about dealing with social unrest. Another called for an end to discrimination against Sichuanese migrants.

Cantonese-languaged media have covered the story, but an official death toll and other key information is yet to emerge.

Tagged: MigrantsPoliceRiotSichuaneseZhongshan

Zhongshan crooks kidnap and extort local merchant while impersonating police officers

Posted: 05/18/2012 7:00 am

Being kidnapped and extorted a few million RMB would be considered an incredibly bad day by anyone’s standards. According to the Southern Metropolis Daily however, in a truly bizarre series of events, a Zhongshan man was extorted not once but twice by the same man.

In October of 2006, clothing merchant Tan Mouxiong’s business was losing money, and he found himself in the unfortunate position of having to borrow from a loan shark. When Tan was unable to repay the debt, he decided to kidnap a wealthy member of his own clan, identified as Tanmou, for the purposes of extortion. Yet rather than covertly grab the fellow clan member, Tan and his accomplice, Xiaomou, conceived of something much more elaborate: impersonate police officers.

In January 2007, after months of tracking Tanmou’s whereabouts, Tan and Xiaomou purchased police uniforms, handcuffs, batons, and even a car disguised as an official police vehicle. They then set out one evening and stopped Tanmou on the street, demanding that he get into the car. When the man resisted, Tan and Xiaomou tried to physically restrain him. It was at this time that two patrolling security guards who witnessed the event got involved; however, the guards didn’t assist Tanmou. Assuming the two men impersonating police officers were legitimate, the guards helped handcuff the victim, and put him into the back of the “police car”.

Once kidnapped, the two men drove Tanmou all the way to Tan’s girlfriend’s apartment in Huangpu District, Guangzhou. There they robbed the man of 20,000RMB, before calling his wife and demanding 3,000,000 more for his release. While Tanmou’s wife agreed to pay the sum, she also alerted police. Thankfully, the police were able to rescue the man, and capture Xiamou but Tan escaped with the money.

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. Only a few months later, Tan once again contacted Tanmou, demanding more money. Fearing for his safety, Tanmou sent Tan another 50,000RMB. Eventually however, guilt got the better of Tan and after almost six years, he turned himself into police this past January. He was arraigned earlier this week in the Zhongshan People’s Court, where he pled guilty to extortion and kidnapping. He has since returned much of the extorted funds and has asked the court for leniency: “I am sorry to the victims and their families” he said. No word yet on sentencing.

Tagged: CrimeExtortionGuangzhouImpersonatingKidnappingZhongshan

The Nanfang / Blog

Zhongshan

Keep Up, Kim Kardashian! Zhongshan Bride Wears 70 Gold Bracelets [UPDATED]

AMAZING VIDEO: This is How You Catch a Falling Baby [UPDATED]

Zhongshan Wedding Guests Continue to Eat at Flooded Banquet

Threatening to Jump, Woman in Zhongshan Falls Asleep During Suicide Attempt

Jackie Chan endorsed Guangdong-made Super Nintendo ripoff

Oops! Western porn showcased on large LED screen in a public square in Zhongshan

College student from Zhongshan drops out, runs own successful porn website

97-year-old Cantonese woman discusses her extraordinary life

Riots in Zhongshan, Sichuan migrants take on locals

Zhongshan crooks kidnap and extort local merchant while impersonating police officers

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