Local authorities distributed an English handbook designed to teach basic English proficiency to Hangzhou residents on the chance they were to meet a foreign visitor.  As well, the handbook was chock full of praiseworthy phrases for the G20 host city such as “Hangzhou, the most beautiful city in China”.

But that was way back in July, and now the G20 summit is just days away. How did they do? How well can Hangzhou residents converse in English and welcome international visitors during this crucially important time? China Daily sent a correspondent named “Mike” to Hangzhou tourist attraction West Lake to find out.

Mike’s task was to walk from one side of the lake to the other and find Lei Feng Pagoda only by conversing in English. In the video, Mike is shown speaking to three people: a student, a police officer, and a tourist.

As seen in the video, Mike is full of praise for each person he speaks with, repeatedly telling them “Your English is very good” and embarrassing each of them in the process. Mike goes on to inquire about how they acquired their English proficiency, asking them if each of them studied abroad in the USA to gain English fluency (none of them did).

But as much as China Daily’s Mike lauded the terse answers given by his subjects, none of them were able to employ the lessons given in the English handbook, a book that Mike calls “very helpful”.

That means that despite the handbook’s initiative to teach simple English phrases to Hangzhou residents (and tourists visiting Hangzhou), they missed out on a chance to say to a foreigner, “Hangzhou, a paradise on earth.” Likewise, they lost an opportunity to use one of the “4 I’s” of this year’s G20 summit (“innovative”, “invigorated”, “interconnected”, and “inclusive”) or introduce one of the ten scenes of West Lake, like “Remnant snow on the broken bridge in winter”.

But while the handbook has failed to have an impact upon Hangzhou residents and visitors, the campaign to make the G20 summit as successful as possible has gone national.

The People’s Daily has published their cheat sheet of important G20 and Hangzhou vocabulary and phrases (shown below). Although we’ve heard that “Hangzhou xiaolongbao” is a local delicacy, it failed to make the People’s Daily G20-Hangzhou cheat sheet.

All the same, its exclusion shouldn’t stop foreign expats like Mike from heaping praise on Chinese when it is most needed.

You can watch the video here.

Want to bone up on your ability to talk about the G20 in another language? Below you can find the People’s Daily collection of G20 and Hangzhou-related vocabulary and terms:

The post The G20 Kicks Off in Hangzhou Soon, but English Ability Not Quite Ready appeared first on The Nanfang.

A video shows an unidentified, naked man being verbally and physically assaulted after being forcibly dragged from his house by a crowd of people in Chengdu, Sichuan. The man did not protect himself, nor did he refute any of the accusations or insults hurled at him.

A number of mask-wearing people carried large banners denouncing the man for being a “pervert” that had sex with animals.

Jiang Yun, an animal rights activist at the scene, told the Chengdu Economic Report that it wasn’t the activists who beat the man, but his neighbors. Other reports claimed the man was naked because he had taken off his own clothes to provide a “show” for the crowd, and would allow other people to have sex with his dogs for 50 yuan.

A local animal welfare group said they infiltrated the man’s QQ chat group three weeks ago.  The group alleged that the man made videos showing him having sex with dogs, which he then sold online to the 200 members of the QQ chat group. The animal welfare activists arranged to meet him, at which point mob justice took over.

The man has been arrested by police, who are also investigating the actions of the animal activists. So far, no action towards them has been taken. The dogs have been taken to a veterinarian for treatment, and will likely be put up for adoption at a later date.

Qiao Wei, of the Sichuan Qiming Animal Protection Center, said that although the animal activists had acted inappropriately, they were “left with no alternative”. Qiao admitted that the activist group had consulted with legal experts and were told that the man could not be held legally accountable for his actions.

Sichuan-based lawyer, Huo Zishi, said that the man would likely be punished under criminal law for spreading pornography rather than for organizing prostitution. Meanwhile, Wang Yongjie of the Zeyong Law Firm in Beijing, said the activists may face a higher risk of prosecution than the man.

Videos that show the man being assaulted by the crowd can be seen here and here.

The post Man Putting on a “Bestiality Show” in Sichuan Mobbed by Neighbors appeared first on The Nanfang.

The video shows a chengguan in uniform physically attacking a man on the street when another chengguan suddenly appears, delivering a flying kick in the fracas.

The mid-air kick doesn’t land on its target, however. Instead, one chengguan bumps into another, and in the confusion, an elderly man standing with his bicycle gets knocked to the ground.

As the old man falls to the ground, the surrounding bystanders all come to life. The crowd jeers and points fingers at the chengguan, while one man is seen applauding their mistake at knocking down an innocent bystander (shown above).

The two chengguan, named Liang and Zhang, have since been fired, reports say.

Here’s the video below, and a mirror link to a Miaopai platform:

The post Watch: Chengguan Attack Hawker With Flying Kick appeared first on The Nanfang.

MacDonald, who has been working as a colour commentator for CBC Television during the Rio games, and is a long-standing swim coach at the University of Toronto, was caught making a derogatory comment about one of the Chinese swimmers following the Women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay final.

MacDonald, who believed he wasn’t on-air at the time said: “The little 14 year-old from China dropped the ball, baby. Too excited, went out like stink, died like a pig. Thanks for that.”

Soon after, Scott Russel who was hosting CBC’s broadcast apologized on-air for MacDonald’s comment, saying: “We apologize the comment on a swim performance made it to air. It was an unfortunate choice of words, we’re sorry it happened.” By then however it was too late, and video of MacDonald’s comment was quickly doing the rounds on social media.

Earlier this week, Chinese took to the internet to voice their objections against Australian swimmer Mack Horton after he refused to take back comments describing Chinese swimmer Sun Yang as a “drug cheat” after winning gold and besting his rival. Horton’s Instagram has been flooded with angry comments by Chinese people calling him a “racist” and demanding he apologise for his words.

Western netizens have since retaliated by ridiculing Sun for a failed celebratory act after winning the 200 meter freestyle.

You can watch the video here.

Byron Macdonald explains how the 14 yr old Chinese womens swim team died like pigs. #shame @CBCOlympics pic.twitter.com/rcboWZLK5v

— Rob Barber (@barberrob) August 11, 2016

The post Canadian Swim Coach Caught Saying Chinese Swimmer “Died Like a Pig” appeared first on The Nanfang.

Bloomberg Businessweek recently forwarded a video on its Weibo micro-blogging account (shown above) that stumped a lot of its readers. Described by Bloomberg as “thought provoking”, the 5:03 minute video is a foreign language production that revolves around a central concept put forth in Orwell’s novel: “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.”

In the video, a teacher in front of a classroom teaches a group of students that “2+2=5” using rote learning. When one student questions the lesson, the teacher tells him not to subvert authority and simply do as he is told. However, another student won’t accept that “2+2=5”, and pleads with his fellow students to not follow the teacher. Angered, the teacher leaves while the other students complain objecting to the lesson will only bring trouble for all the students.

When he returns, the teacher is flanked by three older students wearing red armbands. All three older students repeat that “2+2=5”, and the objecting student is given one last chance to change his ways. When he writes that the answer is “4”, he is violently killed by the three older students who are wielding imaginary guns. The teacher asks the class if there are any more objections, and then the lesson continues.

The 1984-inspired video drew a lot of mixed responses from Chinese netizens. Some called it out for being an Orwellian reference, but not that many were willing to apply it to China; instead, most comments referenced incidents where truth was suppressed outside of China, as in the case of Copernicus.

A number of netizens were simply flummoxed by the video, and could not make heads or tails out of it. Others still outright rejected it as some kind of disruptive foreign ploy to destabilize China.

What do Chinese netizens think about “2+2=5”? Here are some of their online comments:

村民5号：
Why is the truth so weak?

ping1971：
People who persist in upholding the truth under (a regime of) power are becoming increasingly scarse

待业中的股神–经病：
This scene is all so familiar.

坏小子爱采花-DyMy：
Don’t oppose the government

南海之鳄：
Is this an Indian educational film? (uses derogatory slur)

郭志勇：
Power is truth, this is correct. If you don’t believe me, then dismantle the aircraft carrier for those American blokes, smash their warplanes and see if the people of the USA would still have their total world hegemony.

快乐光圈-2：
Perhaps you consider 2+2=4 to be the truth. But in fact, this is just common knowledge, a type of survival technique.

青泽金钰61283：
There have been an incalculable number of scientists and philosophers who were executed for persisting with their own line of thinking. In sacrificing their lives and maintaining the truth, they (eg Copernicus, Socrates…) they did not know that they were not alone. Instead, there have been an incalculable number of people in their wake who have taken up their point of view, waiting for the opportune moment to rise up.

二锅头一杯就醉：
This is somewhat interesting.

红旗公寓111：
This this this!

白居不易：
Very disappointing video. Just using cliched innuendos about power and tyranny to subvert brainwashing. All this video does is repeat 2+2=5 over and over again. You need to reassess what really is the truth and see how the concept of 2+2=4 is formed so that you can attach importance to it.

Allen許先生：
Now I finally understand why Europeans are so bad at math.

n宁儿墨：
What does this mean?

用户cbscfdculc：
？？

l哥只是个传说l：
？？？

波波酱go：
This is really scary.

Sakae0429：
This is China

兰捷：
Everybody repeat: The Chinese Communist Party played a decisive role in the people’s War of Resistance against Japan. Therefore, this is why the positive CCP leaders of the PLA were the pillar of strength during people’s War of Resistance.

GodPain：
Hey, whom are you trying to provoke here? Other people have already established that the movie is referring to North Korea. Are you North Korea?

心在苏州的朵颜三卫：
What is this in reference to? The law and order of our great Celestial Kingdom? It doesn’t clarify the truth and benefit as being different. However, are we to follow your Western logical line of thinking and doubts? How much money did you accept for putting this online?

suisok：
You don’t have to sacrifice your body to maintain the truth. The ones that are truly smart will bide their time.

偶语嘤嘤_18315：
So terrifying. The last scene is a real twist.

阿丫拉妹：
Don’t understand what this is trying to say.

王路飞x：
Everyone: The pronunciation of “four” does not sound like “death”.

最爱晓颖：
I was hit emotionally hard by this video. The brave boy who persisted in saying the truth was killed. Even if life is this way, there is always an unexpected answer. We always will want to resist, but we must remember, we can’t resist things when we are weak, only when we are strong. As well, the truth is the truth; it could be covered up, but it can never be destroyed. You can keep it inside your heart. No matter what other people say, no matter how they threaten or suppress you, you don’t have to be scared!

走在笔尖的青春：
What does this mean? I don’t understand.

有新不忘心：
Am I the only one here who thinks this video is ridiculing the Chinese education system?

老槐树下想往事：
In this society, you can only do what the majority of people think is right. You can’t have your own line of thinking; you can’t have a free-spirited sense of humor. People will think you don’t respect them.

御风者董磊：
Boring without a doubt.

超级合伙人联盟：
So, who’s right?

FOX旦旦sh9kd (responding to above):
One is the truth, the other is a rule. Both are correct.

大海没有针：
Red Guards? Under the centralized authority of the government, no one was willing to speak the truth; everyone was scared to say the truth. Even as people recited mistaken words, they still deeply believed it was the truth.

项诗琴：
Just wanted to say that I don’t understand this.

事情总是西么哒：
I’m willing to die for the truth, and not willing to live under the boot of tyranny.

惜花兔：
Don’t know why, but am starting to get fed up with these metaphors.

Sadhu_Jia：
In showing this to a Chinese audience, it turns out that many don’t understand it at all.

幸福的拾荒者Phemir：
I thought the story would end differently with the teacher praising the student for perservering with the truth.

眯-Ya-咪-Ya：
For every one person who follows the truth that is struck down, there will be millions upon millions of those who will rise up in his place.

CallMeFri：
This made me think of the heliocentric theory (of Copernicus which states the sun is in the center of the solar system)

呆萌牙：
…yep. I have no words for people who can’t understand this after watching.

長頸緑：
We all know what the truth is. We just aren’t willing to say it.

The Miaopai video was first uploaded on July 17, and has since received over 5 million views.

The post Orwellian Video About Oppression Leaves Chinese Scratching Their Heads appeared first on The Nanfang.

Zhang Zhendong, a member of the racing team “Lingrui 300+” and a former China Touring Car Championship winner, was one of the drivers arrested. Zhang was driving a red Porsche GT3 that reached speeds of 183 kilometers per hour during the race.

The other vehicle, an Infiniti, was driven by car mechanic, Yang Zhengxing.

The video showed the passenger’s perspective as Yang chased after Zhang, weaving in and out of traffic and narrowly missing other cars.

The chase started at Handan Road Tunnel and ended up at the Pudong exit of the Jungong Road Tunnel. The two drivers covered about 11 kilometers in about 10 minutes.

Yang said he did not personally know Zhang; but, he wanted to race the driver upon seeing the Porsche. “All I thought about was to race the Porsche for sheer excitement,” he said. Both drivers did not own the cars they were racing.

Shanghai Daily reported they both face a maximum of six months detention and fines for illegal lane change and speeding.

China’s fascination with high-end sports cars is reflected in the country’s top-grossing Hollywood film of all time, Furious 7, as well as domestic features like Mr Six. Although ownership of such rare and expensive cars is limited to the very few, collisions involving these cars are common in China.

A McLaren P1 supercar worth $2 million crashed in Hangzhou this past April. In March of 2015, a Ferrari 458 worth, $300,000, split in two after hitting a tree in Foshan. Similar fates have befallen Lamborghinis and Maseratis.

You can watch the video here.

The post Chinese Race Car Champion Arrested Following Shanghai Street Race appeared first on The Nanfang.

The unidentified man approached a group of cats at a Shanghai playground. After watching the cats eat for a short time, the man picks up two kittens and slams them into the ground. The man then stares at the cats for a moment before walking off.

After going viral, online commenters were calling for the man’s blood. While the fate of the kittens remains unclear, the man is believed to be a tutor who teaches at the same location as the one where he abused the cats.

This photo of the man was circulated online:

One online commentator wrote, “We have this type of person living in our world. I propose he be killed,” while another asked, “Why hasn’t this person been shot in the face?”

The highest-rated comment on Weibo insisted that animals deserve the same rights as human beings: “My hope is for more people to adopt this stance towards animals: you don’t have to like or love them, but you absolutely can’t harm them. They are the same as people in receiving the gift of life. You don’t have the right to strip them of their lives. Who the hell do you think you are?”

Police are said to be investigating, but it’s not clear what crime they would charge him with. Despite repeated attempts proposed by lawmakers, China does not have any national animal cruelty laws.

You can watch the disturbing video here.

The post Shanghai Kitten Abuse Video Prompts Calls for Revenge appeared first on The Nanfang.

A three year-old child beggar seen smoking cigarettes on the streets of Jiangsu province has outraged Chinese netizens.

The issue has come to national attention in China after a netizen uploaded videos where the child, equipped with his own pack of cigarettes and lighter, is seen lighting up a cigarette and smoking it.

The unidentified child spends his days blocking traffic and begging for money from passing motorists. Estimated to be around three or four year-old, the child sleeps outside at a bus station with his father, whom he accompanies.

The child’s father is said to be addicted to drinking and smoking. A local homeless outreach program said they are familiar with this individual, and say his homelessness is a long, recurring problem. The program also said the father refuses any aid they offer him, but remains unwilling to work.

The boy’s mother is said to have left the family years ago.

Chinese netizens are upset at the father for allowing his son to get into this situation.

“If you are fit and able, one should go work to support one’s family,” wrote one person, while another wrote, “This kind of father should be deprived his right to custody of their child.” Another person said, “I’m heartbroken. It seems like every kind of scum exists in this world.”

Some netizens have more extreme opinions. One person wrote, “I hope that once this kid grows up, he’ll beat his dad everyday to the point that his teeth are littering the floor.” Another person said, “I have no words for the father, but the child is done for.”

Others have suggested that the situation requires society to get involved. One person wrote, “It’s clear that the government isn’t doing its job,” while another wrote, “Child protection services should intervene.”

China has the most smokers in the world, claiming over half of all men in the country. However, the huge numbers of Chinese smokers has led to an epidemic of smoking-related health problems, claiming one million fatalities a year. A recent study has suggested that a third of all Chinese men will die from smoking unless they refrain from picking up the habit.

Anti-smoking efforts in China have raised cigarette taxes and have implemented city-wide public smoking bans in Beijing.

You can watch video of the child smoking here and here.

The post Video: 3 Year-Old Smoking on the Streets of China Leads to Calls for Action appeared first on The Nanfang.

As an expat living in China, you might “like” living here, but that’s not enough: you need to “love” China, and that requires your full obedience to the country. That’s according to one impassioned expat blogger who wants to tell all “laowai” who dare to complain about China to “piss off”.

David Gulasi is a 33 year-old English teacher from Australia who is also a popular blogger known as DavidHohhot on the Weibo micro-blogging platform. Gulasi has gained 730,000 followers in a short time. Although Gulasi has a number of posts to help viewers with English, Gulasi has also become popular by whole-heartedly catering to Chinese interests.

On May 25, the expat blogger uploaded a 2:53-long video in which he complains about expats who complain about China. The video has received over 52,000 likes and almost 16,000 forwards.

Gulasi started off by saying:

I’m sick and tired of seeing foreign people come to China, earning the money here, living the life here, like, having so much freedom in China, and then complain about China. I want to tell those foreign people something. If you’re one of those foreign people, I want to tell you: Piss off! Okay? Piss off back to your country.

Gulasi says the cost of living in China for expats is their compliance:

If you don’t like China so much, don’t stay here and earn the money. Don’t stay here and date the women. Don’t stay here and survive. Go back to your country, okay? Because you decided to come here, you have to accept the locals, you have to accept the culture.

Gulasi brings up the USA as a counter example where newcomers to the country act accordingly to its rules:

No country, no place is perfect. There’s no such thing as a perfect place. You think if I go to the US, I don’t have a chance of getting shot in the bloody street? Of course I do! But people don’t go there and bloody complain! And if they complain, they don’t do it so verbally outside.

Gulasi claims that he’s not “kissing locals’ asses” by having such an opinion, and shares one personal anecdote to explain why this issue upsets him so much:

I saw a foreign guy in an elevator once, swearing to another guy. And it really pissed me off! I swore to him, I said: “老外，咋了？”(“Laowai, what are you doing?”) And I said it in Chinese, and the guy looked at me, and I said to him, “Piss off, go back to your country.” Like, I’m sick and tired of these kind of foreigners coming here.

At one point in the video, Gulasi walks back his comments. Contrary to what he had previously said, Gulasi says expats are in fact allowed to complain in China, but “don’t be rude about it, okay? Try to be nice about it. If you don’t like something, say you don’t like something, don’t be rude to the locals.”

However, Gulasi also encourages Chinese to be openly hostile to expats whom they find disagreeable:

I’m sick and tired of foreign people being rude to Chinese people. If you want to be rude, then piss off! I want to tell Chinese people something: If you see a foreigner doing this, tell him to “F” off, okay? Tell them to “Go back to your country”. If you don’t like it here so much, don’t stay here, alright?

Asserting that “China doesn’t need you. You need China,” Gulasi said expats in China should be more appreciative of the country, like he is:

I’m here because I need this place. This place has helped me a lot. And I appreciate this place. So guys, be grateful for what you have, alright?

Gulasi’s rant was warmly received by many Chinese netizens who think his words are a mandatory lesson for “laowai”, a Chinese term that marginalizes expats by emphasizing their foreign qualities.

One person echoed Gulasi’s sentiments by saying, “We have no choice but to drive these immensely ignorant laowai out beyond our borders! China does not lack talent, and we don’t need you!”

Other Chinese netizens showed their appreciation of Gulasi’s positive opinion of China. “Thank you so much for fairly treating China this way~ I hope that you can continue to like and enjoy China,” said one person, while another commended him by writing: “David, you’re so handsome!!! All countries (are the same in that they) don’t want rude foreigners. Even though there are many unsatisfactory things about China, we can’t allow foreigners to criticize it! You’re so great!! I like you!”

Gulasi showed he had really endeared himself with his Chinese fans when one person told him, “My goodness, you really are a Chinese.”

In an interview with China Daily over his newfound celebrity status, Gulasi revealed that he had previously tried stand-up comedy. “I’ve always tried to do something to make people laugh. It’s built in my DNA,” Gulasi said.

But Gulasi’s attempts at humor reveal a disrespect towards people from countries outside China even before he made his recent rant.

In one video, Gulasi insists that Indian-accented English is difficult to understand by extensively performing an Indian accent, but claims he wasn’t being discriminatory. And in a blog about stereotypes, Gulasi states that women from the USA are in fact promiscuous because if you “Give them alcohol, good music and lots of friends… Then you will see…. They are awesome to party with!” In the same blog, Gulasi states that women from Russia are “beautiful until they get married…”

[h/t r/China on reddit]

The post Expat Blogger Praised for Telling “Laowai” Who Complain About China to “Piss Off” appeared first on The Nanfang.

“The foreign media might be too sensitive about the advertisement,” said a Leishang Cosmetics spokesman named Wang. “We meant nothing but to promote the product, and we had never thought about the issue of racism.”

To some, that may sound like a denial of responsibility, the key component of offering an apology. However, some media sources have argued that responsibility doesn’t lie with Leishang Comestics. In a recent rebuttal to the Qiaobi controversy titled “The West should be more realistic about it’s own racial issues”, the Global Times argues that responsibility doesn’t lie with Leishang but rather, that racism is a learned trait brought on by Western influence:

There is no doubt that from a Western perspective, Qiaobi’s ad is a blatant display of racism. However, unlike many developed countries that were brutal colonizers and engaged in the slave trade, racism is not an innate problem in Chinese society. From ancient times to nowadays, the country has barely been troubled by race problems. It has only emerged in recent years as China opens up to more people from overseas, and more Western viewpoints start to make an impact on Chinese social consciousness, which have caused some misunderstandings.

The racist ad is not based on intentional prejudice, but out of a collective unconsciousness of racism…

The Western hemisphere should be more realistic in addressing their own problems over race rather than seeking relief by exaggerating other people’s careless mistakes.

As it turns out, the Qiaobi controversy is such a “non-issue” that even China’s foreign ministry has issued a statement. FM spokeswoman Hua Chunying told the press that her ministry hasn’t received any diplomatic complaints over the commercial: “Everyone can see that we are consistent in equality towards, and mutually respect, all countries, no matter their ethnicity or race. In fact, we are good brothers with African countries,” said Hua.

Despite all of the statements of fraternity, it’s difficult to find a silver lining in the controversy. Even the Leishang spokesperson admitted that his company has no idea why people are so offended by the advertisement. Wang explained that the company had actually chosen an alternate version for broadcast: “Instead of using the full version of the commercial, we actually aired a five-second version which does not have the black character. We have no idea why the full version went viral online.”

The post Global Times Questions Western Criticism Over Racist Laundry Commercial appeared first on The Nanfang.