:: I was recently having lunch with VICE Magazine publisher Erik Lavoie in Shanghai and as the conversation wandered, he told me about some random Google recommendation algorithm quirks I hadn’t actually heard. Enjoy.  // AjS

:: together with PublicAffairsAsia, my colleagues at Edelman China published a short white paper today titled The Dragon & The Mouse. The paper takes a look at how social media is impacting public affairs in China, and even includes some insights from yours truly (bottom of page 7).

To check out the press release and more details, link here. To download the white paper as a PDF, link here. To read the paper, see below. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.  /// AjS

:: as I think most of you know, I’m a strategist at Edelman Digital Asia Pacific. As such, I just wanted to share some news.

Together with our partner Brandtology, we launched the Asia-Pacific Digital Brand Index (DBI), a regional study of online conversations about big tech brands covering 10 markets (Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, and Australia). The study captures and distills 800,000 mentions of 233 major technology and telco brands on over 4,000 sites.

For more details and market-by-market data / fact sheet downloads, link here. [Google was #1 and Dell was #10, link here to found out the rest of the top 10.]

The study’s analysis and insights are quite telling.

One of the key take-aways for me (something John Kerr, Edelman Digital Asia Pacific head discusses more here) is that while having a consistently aligned social media strategy across Asia markets on a macro objectives level is crucial, tactic execution needs to be locally contextualized to ensure success. The nuts and bolts of brand engagement simply won’t work uniformly across such diverse social media environments.

The study also puts forth an interesting series of indices that help local and regional marketers find measurement benchmarks around important areas like Internet word of mouth conversation volume, engagement (or mentions per unique voice), channel volume / breadth, etc. All very much worth checking out.

To learn more, feel free to get in touch: adam.schokora@edelman.com

Also, see below for a video of John Kerr giving a quick overview of the study. To better understand the study’s methodology, link here.  // AjS

[Full disclosure: Edelman and Edelman Digital represent technology brands around the world, many of which are included in the Edelman Digital Brand Index.]

This is another official update to the original Shift Happens video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist. For more information, or to join the conversation, please link here or here.  // AjS

:: I peeked this TED Talk today and was pretty impressed. Shirky does many things really well in this presentation, but most notably:

• he smartly and succinctly summarizes the entire “transforming media landscape” X “social / digital media is important and why” meme we have all come to know and love over the past 5 years.
• he clearly illustrates the best example of social media in a China to date – better than any of us so-called Chinese digital experts have done. [Hail the power of online video and good public speaking skills!]
• he says this, “on the Internet, every medium (i.e. TV, magazines, telephone, books, etc.) is right next door to every other medium, put another way, media is increasingly less just a source of information, and increasingly a site of coordination.”
• he also puts forth this brilliant nugget of wisdom, “the media landscape that we knew, as familiar as it was and as easy as it was conceptually to deal with the idea that professionals broadcast messages to amateurs is increasingly slipping away. In a world where media is global, social, ubiquitous, and cheap; in a world of media in which the former audience are increasingly full participants – in that world [i.e. today], media is less and less often about crafting a single message to be consumed by individuals, it’s more and more often a way of creating an environment for convening and supporting groups [i.e. conversation and community-based interaction]. The choice anyone who has a message that they want to have heard anywhere in the world faces, isn’t whether that’s the media environment we’ve want to operate in, that’s the media environment we’ve got. The question now is, how to we make the best of that medium even though that means changing the way we have always done it.” [Halle-fucking-lujah! Shirky, you killed it with that closer – bravo!]

The last point is what I have spent a good chunk of my professional life trying to get others to understand (and pay for). It has vast implications for “media people,” (who is everyone now-a-days) as well as the communications, PR, marketing, advertising, etc. industries. The next time your client (or colleague, or your mom) just doesn’t get it, play them this video. If English is not their first language, get a professional to translate it into the appropriate language. It will save you a lot of time / effort / money in the long run.  // AjS

:: this week’s Friday 5 takes a second look at Chinese journalists who blog. The individuals profiled here are all quite popular on the Chinese Internet, some because of the reporting they’ve done in the line of work, and others because of their online activities. Their blogs involve journalism and media to varying degrees; it’s interesting to see how much of their own lives and outside interests they bring to the massive online readership they command. Journalists also take advantage of the more open (yet still censored) online environment to post things that might not be able to make it into print.

sports ::
Dong Lu (董路) was once the host of Beijing TV sports programs and remains an extremely prolific and well-known soccer journalist. His blog posts on Sina get page views in the tens of thousands. He comments on international and domestic football but often strays into other sports, as in a popular post titled “Yao Ming, China is calling you home for dinner!” (a play on the Jia Junpeng Chinese Internet meme mentioned in a previous Friday 5) that has been viewed 70,567 times. Dong Lu is a fan of posting videos to his blog: sometimes entertainment news, such as this discussion of Pan Changjiang (潘长江), a TV actor famous for his peasant roles, his unusually beautiful daughter, and the TV program they have together. There are also some more personal, moving posts about his daughter starting school, and a video of his daughter dancing in front of a KFC. Popular CCTV sports journalist Zhang Bin (张斌) started his career in soccer. Now the deputy director of the CCTV Sports department as well as producer for some of their primary soccer shows, Zhang achieved fame after graduating from Renmin University in 1991, going on to host Soccer Night (足球之夜) on CCTV as well as special sport shows during EURO 2000, also on CCTV. Zhang Bin keeps a blog on Sohu called CCTV-ZhangBin, with page views in the tens of thousands. A recent post on Liu Xiang (刘翔) in which he argued that China’s star hurdler should keep running if he is passionate about sport, received 30,000 page views. Zhang Bin keeps mostly to sports-related topics on his blog. In another recent post, he pondered on whether Caster Semenya, the South African 800-meter gold medalist, was male or female. Zhang Bin is often perceived as a model Sports anchor: friendly and kind. This is reinforced by a public announcement on his blog about drinking up all the contents of a mineral water bottle rather than wasting water by throwing it away half-finished. However, Zhang is also somewhat notorious for a public marital spat in which his wife. Hu Ziwei, another well-known television personality, crashed a live CCTV broadcast to accuse him of having an affair.

arts / Entertainment ::
Meng Jing (孟静) is a senior reporter for the news weekly Sanlian Life Week (三联生活周刊) who is well-known for her celebrity profiles and interviews. Her blog, which she updates in periodic bursts, follows her work fairly closely. She writes about the practice of journalism (as in one recent post on the uncomfortable necessity of flattering an interview subject), and posts intriguing snippets of interviews that didn’t make it to print. However, her interests range widely, from feminism to groan-worthy jokes. Yuan Lei (袁蕾), who blogs under the name Milk Pig (奶猪), is often called the southern counterpart of Meng Jing. Yuan, who writes for the culture section of Southern Weekly (南方周末), is a keen-eyed interviewer in her day job. Her blog is considerably less formal, and employs a curious writing style that approximates a sort of girlish tone through the use of character substitutions and odd vocabulary choices. Ahead of the publication of major interviews, she’ll often present pull-quotes or teasers, and she also puts up interesting observations and anecdotes that may not amount to proper news stories (such as an account of a telephone scam). Other posts are devoted to media and policy rumors and wry comments on spiked stories, but the cutesy language distances her from other journalists who trade cynical comments about media and politics. Lately there have been quite a few photos of her dog.

columnist ::
Chang Ping (长平 real name Zhang Ping 张平) is a journalist who has served as director of the news department of the prestigious Southern Weekly and as the deputy editor of Southern Metropolis Weekly (南都周刊) but was forced out from his editorial position after publishing “sensitive” editorials around the time of the Lhasa riots last March. Chang Ping has abandoned blogs on Tianya, Sina, and iFeng because of frequent deletions by blog administrators, and opened a blog on an independent domain. Most recently, Chang Ping blogged about the Kunming prostitution case, before “technical problems” took the blog down for three months before August. Thanks to Isaac Mao and Zuola (Chinese Internet insider and citizen blogger respectively; see these interviews from the CNBloggercon), it is active once again. Chang Ping has an active Twitter account as well as a column on the FT Chinese website where he writes about issues such as civic society. Xiong Peiyun (熊培云) is a European correspondent for the newsweekly Window of the South (南风窗) and a senior commentator at The Beijing News (新京报). This year he launched a new group commentary blog, 21Pinglun to replace his personal blog la république d’esprits which is blocked on the Chinese mainland. Posts concern a wide range of subjects, with a particular emphasis on rural issues (which Xiong occasionally writes about for the magazine and other media outlets). Xiong recently wrote about Internet Addictive Disorder and shock treatment, referencing the Ludovico Treatment from A Clockwork Orange. Much of the content consists of reposts of op-eds originally published elsewhere, with deleted portions restored in many cases, a common practice on blogs kept by print media columnists.

business ::
Apart from his day job as a host and anchor for various TV programs on CCTV’s international and business channels, Rui Chenggang (芮成钢) is also a blogger who keeps a high-traffic, influential blog where he regularly posts photographs in which he stands shoulder-to-shoulder with his world leader interviewees who usually have his book in their hands (former British prime minister Tony Blair, for example). With his established career in the media, his young, energetic screen image and good looks, Rui is idolized by numerous young students, who see him as a mentor and role model. His international outlook and rare fluency in English among his state media colleagues earns him the title of best qualified candidate for China’s ambassador to the world among some Westerners. However, Rui has no shortage of critics. He has been called an egotistic self-promoter, an unprofessional journalist who has overstepped the boundaries of his field by playing economist, a dyed-in-the-wool nationalist for his crusade to drive Starbucks out of the Forbidden City in 2007, and a propaganda mouthpiece for the government. Recently, Rui stoked controversy again with his questions to American president Obama at the G20 summit in London. After writer, car racer and blogger Han Han posted Rui’s questions and Obama’s answers in both English and Chinese on his blog below characteristically sarcastic comments, the topic was picked up by other netizens and heatedly discussed in various forums. Most netizens found Rui’s wording “on behalf of China” and “on behalf of the World” an inappropriate expression of a typically condescending attitude of the Chinese government toward the Chinese people. Rui’s upbeat blog post about his performance at the Summit only exacerbated netizen ire and heaped more ridicule upon him.

society ::
Chai Jing (柴静), a television journalist with CCTV’s News Investigation program, resumed blogging this year after a lengthy hiatus. Chai is conscious of the possibilities of her blog as an interactive platform, typically using videos of her programs as a prompt for readers to discuss the key issues at hand. She then responds to netizen questions. In two recent posts, she explained her view of the comments section and her moderation practices. Other posts address the practice of journalism in general, like a recent selection of excerpts from a Walter Cronkite book. Chai’s high profile, accentuated in the past month by her involvement in the exposé of shock therapy clinics for Internet addiction, means that she’s sometimes the target of nasty rumors. She recently had to fight back at online rumors that she had been arrested for accepting bribes in return for providing CCTV advertising spots to a Chongqing textile mill. Chai also occasionally contributes to Xiong Peiyun’s 21Pinglun (as in this anecdote about gentrification and cultural heritage). Wang Keqin (王克勤), a journalist with the China Economic Times (中国经济时报), has been called China’s chief anti-corruption journalist for exposing “the dark side of society.” Wang is unique in working up to a story to post on his blog, probably with the knowledge that the full version will not be published in print. For example, he tried to visit Deng Yujiao in June, when she was released from a trial centering on the murder of two officials in Hubei province. She was acquitted on self-defense grounds (she had stabbed the two after they tried to sexually harass her), but Chinese and Western media were prevented from visiting her at home. Wang’s record of his futile efforts to get there has since been taken down by Sohu, but is available in a reposted version. Wang’s accounts of his journalistic activities end up widely reposted: another account of violent attempted visit, this time to to the family of blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng (陈光城), was cross-posted to liberal blog service my1510 by Zhai Minglei (翟明磊), who is also a well-known muckracker (See this interview from the CNBloggercon). Wang is sometimes called China’s Lincoln Steffens as a salute to his muckraking tendencies. A list of his articles up to 2006 is collated at the China Elections and Governance Chinese website.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work for Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

:: 本周的Friday 5 将再次关注中国的记者博客。在本篇中予以介绍的记者在互联网上都享有较高的知名度，其原因或是因为其在传统媒体的成就，或者是更偏重其在网上的努力。这些博客不同程度涉及他们所从事的新闻媒体工作，另外，他们向大量网上读者所传达的关于他们日常生活的点点滴滴也相当有趣。而这些记者也大多利用互联网这个更加开放（虽然依然被审查）的环境来发表那些不能被传统纸媒所接纳的文章。

:: “men,” as in 门 (the Chinese word for “gate”), is an important element of modern Web culture in China. Chinese netizens and even the local media at-large are fond of tacking “gate” (门) onto scandals and memes, perhaps even more than the Western press. Chinese netizens are even quicker on the draw; online conversation about scandals is often a forest of “gates,” many of which have similar or even identical names. This week’s Friday 5 takes a look at recent examples from five of the most common categories of “gates” on the Chinese Internet: food quality, donations, cars, espionage, and of course, the centerpiece of all durable Internet buzz, sex!

food: radiation-gate ::
Food safety has been a serious issue for Chinese netizens this year following the melamine milk scandal of 2008. A number of brands have been embroiled in their own additive scandals (a previous Friday 5 addressed Mengniu and Wang Lao Ji); in July, two instant noodle makers, Master Kong and UniPresident, found themselves in a scandal over labeling and irradiation. The allegations, published by a prominent business newspaper, accused the two companies of distributing instant noodle packages without clearly labeling that they had been irradiated. Both companies denied the charges and insisted that their products were completely safe. Dubbed “radiation-gate” (辐射门) by netizens and media, the scandal was related more to the deception than the radiation itself (although a small but significant portion of the online conversation was devoted to radiation fears). The initial response of both brands was mealy-mouthed: UniPresident claimed it did not use radiation but “could not rule out” use by its suppliers; Master Kong pled ignorance, saying it didn’t know it had to note that its suppliers used radiation. A rather snarky news report made the rounds of video sites and caught the attention of online gamers and other netaholics who survive off of instant noodles at Web cafe’s, etc. (”Woe to my instant noodle life!” reads one comment on the video.) Other netizens piled on with other quality complaints. Ultimately both brands said that they would improve their package labeling. Although the news caused considerable stir immediately after it was reported, Chinese Internet users quickly tired of the affair and it is no longer brought up in discussions of the brand and instant noodles in general. As with many of the minor “-gates” that crop up in online conversation, “radiation-gate” does not exclusively refer to the instant noodles affair: it’s also been used by Chinese netizens to describe mobile phone radiation scares and the effect of high-voltage power pylons on residential neighborhoods.

Yu Qiuyu’s “donation-gate” ::
Yu Qiuyu (余秋雨), a drama professor turned popular essayist turned TV commentator, has long been dogged by controversies ranging from accusations of being a henchman of the notorious Gang of Four to having accepted a luxurious villa from the Shenzhen government in exchange for favorable reviews. The source of Yu’s latest controversy, known as “donation gate,” was his old foe Xiao Xialin (肖夏林), whom he once brought to court for defamation. On May 14, 2008, shortly after the Sichuan earthquake, Yu announced that he would donate RMB 200,000 to build an elementary school in the quake-stricken Dujiangyan. In a blog post published on May 5 of this year, Xiao Xialin suggested that Yu had not spent a cent of his own money. He demanded that Yu provide proof he had really donated. A blog post Yu made in the wake of the earthquake in which he issued a “tearful plea” to the Chinese people had been mocked by a wide swath of Internet users, and his silence on the donation issue revived his “tearful professor” title and prompted more mockery from netizens, including this article sarcastically proposing that the Chinese government should help Yu to forge a donation receipt. Some public figures, such as Yi Zhongtian (易中天), also urged Yu to show evidence. The belated response came in June 22, when Yu denied the charges following a newspaper report that quoted a local government official from Dujiangyan confirming that Yu did donate RMB 200,000. According to the government official, because the construction standard has been upgraded after the earthquake, RMB 200,000 was no longer enough to build a school, so it was spent to buy books for three school libraries to be named after him. This was not enough for some netizens, who were put off by the thought that Yu had made the donation under public pressure or out of self-promotion. “Whether the donation is real or not, I think that the actions of Yu and his cronies are more disgusting than misappropriating RMB 200,000,” read one comment.

car scandals
In the beginning of September, a driver in Shanghai named Zhang was stopped by a pedestrian who complained that his stomach was killing him and who asked for a ride to the hospital because he couldn’t wait for a taxi. Zhang refused his passenger’s offer of payment, but when he reached the hospital, the passenger grabbed his keys, and the car was surrounded by seven or eight uniformed individuals. Zhang was charged with illegally operating a taxi. In many Chinese cities, unlicensed taxis are frequently targeted by law-enforcement campaigns and their drivers are subject to fines, license suspensions, or even more serious punishment, but this kind of fishing expedition, preying on the good intentions of ordinary citizens, raised the hackles of many netizens who already had a fairly poor opinion of local law enforcement. The situation first came to public attention when Han Han (韩寒), a bestselling author and race car driver who keeps a phenomenally popular blog, posted two letters under the heading “This is certainly just a rumor” on September 11. From Han, who has been named an online public opinion leader by a number of media outlets, the story received immense exposure, and the mainstream press tracked down and verified the story. “Fishing-gate” spawned op-ed columns on entrapment, the rule of law, and the limits of administrative authority, and these in turn generated even more netizen debate (”Where is my Party, my great Communist Party? We miss you so!”) and parody. Han prefaced his repost of the rumors with the following comment: “I’m republishing two posts that have not been verified. It’s highly likely that they’re just rumor-mongering by reactionary elements bent on ruining the National Day atmosphere. I’ve selected them so that the relevant departments can proceed with arrests.” This is a reference to the arrests of previous online rumor-mongers, including one of the netizens involved in a previous car-related “gate”: the “Hu Bin stand-in-gate” (胡斌替身门 or “surro-gate”, as one translator put it). That scandal captured netizen imaginations over the summer and demonstrated the limits of the power of crowd-sourcing to determine the truth from questionable photographs. Hu Bin, who struck and killed a pedestrian, turned up in court looking very different from photos taken at the scene. Rumors sprung up online that he had hired someone to take his place in prison. The “human flesh search engine” tracked down a likely stand-in. Someone masquerading as that individual denied the rumors, but it took the mainstream media to clear up the situation and determine that Hu Bin had actually appeared in court.

spygates ::
Espionage has considerable cachet online in China. Unverifiability of much of the information about spies has rumors flying fast and thick, and Chinese netizens attempt to ferret out the truth even as the mainstream media remains tight-lipped. In June, rumors snowballed that Fang Jing (方静), the host of prime-time CCTV programs such as Defense Watch who had lately been absent from the screen, was accused of being a spy for Taiwan, detained, and missing for three months. “Fang Jing Spy-Gate” (方静间谍门) led to a lot of speculation online about the situation, even after she denied the rumors. Later it was revealed that rival CCTV presenter and professor Ah Yi (阿忆), who could have been jealous of her, exposed her status as a “spy” for Taiwan in a cryptic blog post (since deleted; repost here). Fang Jing quickly returned to present another program for CCTV to put an end to the rumors altogether, although conversation about the incident continued: a blog post on Sina BBS dissects the heated discussion following Ah Yi’s rumormongering. In another recent spy-gate, Rio Tinto employees, including the Shanghai General Manager, were detained by the Chinese PSB in July on suspicion of stealing state secrets. Known as “Rio Tinto Gate” (力拓门) or “Rio Tinto Spy-gate” (力拓间谍门), the case came at a time of bad relations between the Australian government and China, and it sent a shock through the international iron ore industry. The murky situation was quickly elaborated upon, but the online response in China was widespread. Both the Fang Jing and Rio Tinto Spy-Gates were talked about in light of the then-popular espionage TV drama Hidden (潜伏), which involves a Communist spy in the KMT before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Variations of the spy cases have cropped up, after Rio Tinto’s “gate” turned into a “spy and espionage gate”: on the Netease Money BBS, for example, netizens talked about a senior member of Shougang (首都钢铁公司) being taken away for corruption. In the iron industry, it seems, espionage “gates” are closely tied to bribery “gates” at the moment.

sex-gates ::
Since the Edison Chen (陈冠希) “racy photo-gate” broke in 2008, leakages of private / bedroom photos and videos have turned up fairly regularly on the Chinese Internet. The ones that attract the most attention involve celebrities who inadvertently got their overexposed personal pictures leaked. Often these get compared to the Edison Chen scandal (as the topless paparazzi photos of Zhang Ziyi (子怡) – “beach gate” – was in January), but they tend to fade away much more quickly. Other popular sex scandals involve teens who intentionally post their own racy photos or videos to the Internet. In “breast rubbing gate”: In a video which has been circulating on the Internet since late June, a female student is lying on a desk in what looks like a classroom; around her are a number of male students fondling her breasts. Via “human flesh searching” tactics, Chinese netizens eventually discovered the real identity of the girl, a student at a vocational school in Cixi, Zhejiang Province. After the incident broke, the girl in the video posted to her QQ page (repost) that she was under immense pressure and felt suicidal. Netizens engaged in heated debate about the moral issues involved. This blog post argues that the moralists who criticize the girl have done more damage to her than her classmates. Netizens also discussed another issue highlighted by the incident, the imbalance gender ratio: as the only female in the class, the girl said she gave consent to the boys for the “solidarity of the whole class.” For these sex scandals, even though most websites swiftly delete the content whenever it pops up, a sufficiently determined and patient Internet user can eventually locate a reposted copy.

/// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work for Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

:: 相比较于西方的同行，中国媒体对为各种丑闻贴上“门”

/// AjS

[Friday 5是我服务的爱德曼数码(中国)的一项产品。这里是全部Friday 5 的存档。 有意通过电子邮件订阅双语Friday 5者可通过以下地址向我发送邮件索取：adam 点 schokora 在 edelman 点 com。]

:: viral ad / marketing fatigue shows up in a number of videos on this week’s list. It’s worth noting that viral ads are still well-received when they’re well-crafted and original, but Chinese netizens are liable to turn on brands they feel are attempting to manipulate them with obvious advertising. Overly obvious branding and messaging doesn’t work. Entertaining, compelling, and unique content does.

For more of the latest hot videos, check out the Youku Buzz blog, which posts recent hits along with snarky commentary from Kaiser Kuo, one of the site’s authors / contributors (check out his dismissal of Zeng’s talents), or the just-launched Eyes On Me feature of the In2Marcom blog, a monthly roundup of popular viral videos.

Zeng Yike spoofs ::
Zeng Yike (曾轶可), who was introduced in a previous Friday 5, was eliminated from the Super Girl talent competition in August, yet she remains a popular subject for Internet videos. Her catchy tunes led Netease user Scapegoat (替罪羊) to collaborate with video engineer Flying Frog (飞飞蛙) on a video of Scapegoat singing Zeng’s “Leo” in the voice of 15 different famous Chinese singers, such as Andy Lau (刘德华), Cui Jian (崔健) and Fei Yu-Ching (费玉清). Another popular video was made by students attending a summer military training camp at Shanghai Jiaotong University. The boys sing “Leo” to girls who are lined up on the opposite side. Two other songs follow. Zeng recently became embroiled in “Copy-Gate” (抄袭门), a scandal in which she was accused of plagiarizing the melody of “Leo” from “Horizon,” a song from Taiwan. Although we’re still waiting for standout viral videos about the discovery (all that’s come up so far have been comparisons of the two songs), it’s been the subject of quite a few BBS posts and blog posts, particularly concerning her befuddling defense to the accusations: “Horizon” was written by “another self in this world.” Netizens have been having fun with Transformer mashups lately, and Zeng Yike was the focus of one of the most popular, Transformers 3: The War of the Earth (变形金刚3：地球之战). Zeng’s unique qualities help her save the world from alien invaders in a short film full of product placements and brand messages – most likely a parody of movie-making practices in both Hollywood and China these days, and something that shows up in a surprising number of the most recent virals (more on that video here).

Citroen “advertisements” ::
Continuing with the Transformers theme, Youku user C-Team Transformers (C派变形金刚), a Citroen fan, has posted two popular Transformer-themed mashup videos. The earlier (and more popular) of the two was posted in August under the title C-Team Rendezvous (C派集结登场), and takes the form of mash-up of previous authorized Transformer-themed Citroen commercials, including an ice-skating spot and a dancing robot spot, covered in a previous Friday 5 on video marketing. Then in early September, the same user released a Citroen-themed parody of Crazy Racer (疯狂的赛车) in which aspiring champions compete for second place because of Sébastien Loeb’s multi-year dominance of the World Rally Championships driving for Citroen. This video was far less successful: apart from a bemused response on some auto forums, the majority of netizens who viewed the clip felt it was a “third-rate ad” (二流广告) or asked how much Citroen had paid the netizen who posted it. Ensuing discussions devolved into denigrations of the brand, which may, in fact, have had nothing to do with the videos at all.

Product placement in Meteor Rain ::
Product placement backlash was even more visible in the response to a knockoff version of the Taiwan TV drama Meteor Garden. The original, adapted from Japanese manga Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango), was a runaway success among Asian TV audiences when it first hit screens in 2001. This year, mainland entertainment station Hunan TV produced a copycat version called Meteor Shower that began airing in early August. The stars of the original, known as F4 (for Flower Four, from the original manga), were replaced with four new teen idols known as “H4.” However, fans of the original didn’t see eye to eye with the media juggernaut, calling the new version a “shanzhai” Meteor Garden. A backlash against the remake took place in various forums, with blatant product placement being one of the major complaints. Netizens produced videos mocking the drama to an enthusiastic response. One popular video assembled a number of the most distasteful product placements, including a long, pointless introduction to a Nanjing-manufactured MG 3SW. For fans familiar with the earlier version, it seemed ridiculous that a scion of a wealthy family would dream about owning a car that cost less than 80,000 yuan. Netizens on Douban and other online forums found the parody hilarious. Ironically, some netizens complained that all of the product placement was offensive to a Chinese audience mired in economic doldrums. Another video posted on a gaming forum highlighted a silly, stilted discussion about the MMORPG ZT Online. It looks like such product placement is only going to get worse: SARFT has placed limits on television commercials and commanded that commercial breaks last no longer than 90 seconds. In response, Hunan TV said that it would incorporate even more product placement into its shows. This will likely lead brands / marketers in China to leverage online video even more.

Hyundai viral ads ::
Turning to viral video marketing that’s been more effective, Hyundai has put up a number of entertaining clips over the past month. In late August, a vignette between a clueless driver and a hapless police officer was passed around a number of major social networks and overseas Chinese websites. The clip makes use of stereotypes about woman drivers in a dialogue-free story that makes heavy use of physical comedy. In a second clip, a careless man gets himself into a lot of trouble trying to do too many things at once: drive, light his cigarette, and use his mobile phone. A third clip shows a drift racer squaring off against a parkour traceur. Auto forums enjoyed this one, and used it as the starting point for discussions of drifting, or whether a stock Hyundai could perform as shown. These videos aren’t exactly subtle: the Hyundai logo is shown in frequent close-up, and each clip closes with a credit screen mentioning Beijing Hyundai. But most netizens found them entertaining. Yet even here fatigue seems to have set in. The “woman driver” clip garnered a huge number of views overnight, and the amount of positive votes / comments on Youku far outweigh the negative ones. The “careless driver” clip has slightly more positive votes than negative, but the “parkour” clip has been voted down heavily, with some commenters even calling, “bury all crappy films!”

National Day in China ::
National branding turns up in videos celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic. TV reports about the preparations for the military parade and showing the kinds of weapons and the types of troops that will be seen on October 1 are popular with online viewers. A report from Beijing TV uploaded three days ago has garnered 1,468,413 views and 2,482 comments. Netizens have incorporated tanks and airplanes into their comments; this meme shows up on other reports about the preparations, including this one from Dragon TV (东方卫视). One of the high points of the celebration is the film The Founding of A Republic (建国大业) which has many trailers on Youku, and one of them has been viewed 923,781 times and commented 455 times. The trailer is incredibly star-studded, leading netizens to comment on the plethora of famous acting talent on display: Zhang Ziyi (章子怡), Jet Li (李连杰), Zhang Guoli (张国立), to name just a few. Some netizens responded with comments saying how the government is great, while others complain about the money spent. A little older but still relevant is a Warcraft machinima created by patriotic gamers at the Qingdao Technological University. Vast arrays of troops line a simulacrum of Changan Avenue as tanks and other armored units parade past. Negative attitudes do show up in text-based forums, with a lot of complaints about the traffic controls that are imposed when students, soldiers, and artillery displays practice for the big day, or how much of a headache it is to be chosen to participate, but videos about the anniversary of the PRC brand are pretty much all positive and excited.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work for Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

:: 大众对于病毒式传播的视频广告逐渐产生审美疲劳。尽管制作精良，

// AjS

“It’s Your Turn” (到你了) is what Converse (China) has aptly titled its latest campaign featuring “flagship” spokespeople, Queen Sea Big Shark – one of China’s better-known indie bands. The campaign crowd-sources not only lyrics for the band’s new song Let’s Play, but also extras for cameo appearances in the song’s music video.

Once again Converse, bravo, well done.

Our friends at W+K Shanghai also deserve a chest bump for their work on this campaign – they are Converse’s agency of record in China.

What do I like about the “It’s Your Turn” campaign? Find out just below this mad hot Queen Sea Big Shark band photo.

First, it’s leveraging web basics (social media, user-generated content, etc.) to co-create with, among other target-audiences, the Chinese creative community. I love the web and I love the Chinese creative community, using the former to get through to the latter makes me happy and is just plain smart, kudos!

Second, it’s providing a Chinese indie band yet another platform of exposure, promotion, and “packaging;” and it’s doing it in a non-intrusive, non-corporate way. Converse is just playing a facilitator role to make it all happen – none of the hype is focused on the brand, it’s all about the band. This campaign is not only good for Queen Sea Big Shark’s prospects, but also for the healthy development indie music scene and creative community as a whole.

Third, whether Converse wants to admit it or not, it’s not just for the indie crowd in China, or anywhere really. It’s a massive brand with the majority of it’s consumers falling into the “mainstream” crowd. The efforts Converse is making to align itself with Chinese indie culture and the Chinese creative community does well to establish / accentuate the brand’s personality and distinguish it among competitors in the China market, but more importantly (to us anyway), it helps educate “the mainstream” (i.e. the 90%) about the indie / creative scene (i.e. the 10%). This is something the former desires and the latter of course welcomes, and in the end, the brand wins too. This kind of education / awareness raising is a great service that (in some ways, only) big commercial brands and mainstream media can provide both demographics. Involving a mass audience in an indie band’s creative process is a nice way to achieve this.

Fourth, related to the third reason, the offline auditions for music video cameos are being held in Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Shenyang, Wuhan, and Xian – all second tier cities (except Guangzhou). This is a smart move for Converse on many levels, but what I most like about it is that the brand is bringing indie / creative culture to new demographics, not just the tried and true 1st-tier markets of Beijing and Shanghai.

Fifth, there is half compelling prize. It’s depressing how many of these user-generated content / co-creation efforts by big brands (most of which probably have significantly larger marketing budgets than Converse) are incentivized with lame awards. “It’s Your Turn” winners get an all-expense-paid 5-day trip for two to Beijing to attend Modern Sky’s MIDI Music Festival in October. Winners are also given a RMB 2000 shopping spree at a Converse store. Both of these things are in addition to the obvious – winners either having lyrics they wrote used in a Queen Sea Big Shark song (Let’s Play) or appearing in the band’s Let’s Play music video, both of which will be high-profile, nationally promoted pieces of content. (Hell, I’m thinking about participating.)

Last, the campaign simply works. It’s achieving exactly what Converse wants it to – pushing the brand’s image / traits / attributes further in the direction it wants to go.

I only have two small critiques:

First, I think the campaign could be amplified better. It has been live for two weeks and besides some banner ads on Douban.com and the official Converse China website, I haven’t really heard much else about it. (Hopefully this post helps get the word out further.) Connecting with influential bloggers / online communities and courting brand fans to spread the word would help give an already great idea more legs within the indie community, but more importantly, among mainstream audiences. And of course, tapping more mainstream channels (online and off) would help increase the reach of the campaign across multiple demographics / localities.

Second, although I think this “one-off” campaign is a great thing all around (as was the LoveNoise campaign), I would like to see Converse communicate more openly about long-term commitments and plans for the brand’s involvement in the Chinese indie music scene. This is something that Pepsi has done quite well (albeit only in words and on paper at this point) with its Battle of the Bands / Voice of the Next Generation campaign and QMusic label.

I’m all for leading through action, which Converse has done admirably, but research we’ve done at NeochaEDGE has found that brands have much to gain from publicly stating their long-term commitments or plans to engage with the Chinese creative community and local indie culture.

To learn more about the “It’s Your Turn” campaign’s lyric-writing contest, link here; for more on the campaign’s “be an extra in the Let’s Play music video” contest, link here. See below for two videos introducing both elements of the campaign. For more NeochaEDGE posts on Converse, link here. For more from W+K on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

:: China’s Web 2.0 space is in constant flux. Companies rise and fall, and the ones that remain are forever adjusting their positioning, rolling out new services to compete in new sectors, and even changing their corporate identity altogether. And that’s without accounting for the hand of the government in all-things digital.

:: in China, discussion of online Internet word of mouth (IWOM) PR crises always seem to be focused on foreign companies, but this is a bit misleading because local Chinese companies get it too. Online crises in China comes in many forms. Sometimes they are brought on by circumstances outside of a brand’s control – a freak accident that explodes into a storm of online controversy, or changes in government policy that throw a benign long-term practice into the worst possible light. Other crises are unfortunately engineered by the brands themselves, through carelessness or malice. The five examples below of Chinese brands in crises online in China show that in many cases, rather than the details of the problem itself, what’s important is how a brand responds to the initial crisis that makes a lasting impression on Chinese netizens. A swift, engaging, well-targeted response can make all the difference between a satisfied group of online consumers / stakeholders, and a devastating rumor that will continue to harm a brand’s image and reputation for years to come.

BYD’s “five-star” scandal ::
BYD is a domestic Chinese auto manufacturer that aspires to be an international brand. Although it has attracted considerable attention this year for its electric models, more recent news reports have focused on a safety scandal involving a traditional model. In July, a BYD F0 car rear-ended a mini van. Although BYD has boasted about the car’s superior safety rating (BYD claims “five-star” passage of the C-NCAP collision test) none of the F0’s air bags inflated when the collision occurred. The owner of the car took BYD to court for misleading customers with false test results. Shortly afterward, the China Consumer Association, the quality supervisor, issued a warning that the collision test results for the F0 are not due to be released until September, so the “five star” test results cannot not true. This statement brought the incident to the attention of the national media, and from there it spread to online forums where netizens blasted the company’s dirty dealing. In the aftermath, BYD responded by releasing an open “letter of gratitude” implying that the lawsuit was an effort by its competitors, referred to as “foreign brands and co-brands,” to fight the pressure of BYD’s climbing sales figures. An article entitled “BYD incident exposed an unspoken rule; the collision test gates is all bullshit” was published in the print media and widely republished on the major portals and auto websites. On a more grassroots level, an online post entitled “Protest! F0 was bullied. Let’s comment and tell the truth” emerged on a BYD sponsored forum and has been reposted elsewhere. Although these articles have currently diverted attention from BYD’s misleading advertising to focus on the company’s victimization at the hands of big brands who feel threatened, the cycle of the scandal is probably not finished yet. It remains to be seen whether BYD’s appeal to nationalism will ultimately work out to its benefit on the Chinese Internet, or if it will eventually have to speak directly .

Mengniu’s OMP Scandal ::
Milk Deluxe (特仑苏), a premium brand of milk from Chinese dairy heavyweight brand Mengniu, was marketed to wealthy consumers as an especially healthy beverage choice. The packaging and advertising heavily emphasized the presence of “osteoblast milk protein” (OMP), an additive that Mengniu claimed would help the absorbtion of calcium to promote bone growth. With consumers and the Chinese government wary of any and all additives to pure milk in the wake of 2008’s melamine scandal, the attention of Chinese netizens and the local mainstream media turned to OMP. A government quality investigation of Mengniu’s OMP practices hit the media in February, 2009, and sparked intense online debate (”Who’s messing around? It’s Mengniu! Is someone afraid of chaos? Are we just supposed to sit and drink poisoned milk in silence so the world will be at peace?!”). Because the product was aimed at a relatively limited consumer group, Mengniu’s difficulties were not directly related to the additive itself. Instead, it was its ambivalent response to the crisis that got it into the most trouble online from Chinese netizens who are highly sensitive to perceived hypocrisy. Initially, Mengniu claimed that OMP contained IGF-1, but when news came out that IGF-1 could be carcinogenic in large doses, it changed its tune and said that OMP was essentially Milk Basic Protein, an accepted food additive. Fatigued consumers didn’t care much at this point (”Experts say milk with OMP isn’t harmful to your health.” “Then let the experts drink it first“). However, when third-party tests were released showing that OMP did not have nearly the extent of health benefits that Mengniu claimed, the company was hit again. A posting on the influential popular science community blog Squirrel Society concluded “To make such claims about efficacy based on such preliminary research, it’s quite an understatement to say they merely ‘exaggerated the effects’.” The additive was eventually banned, and Mengniu, which had emerged relatively unscathed from the melamine scandal, ended up with a black eye.

Wang Laoji’s additive scandal ::
Wang Laoji (王老吉凉茶) is a “herbal tea” drink that rivals Coca-Cola in popularity in China, but is preferred by many because it’s a Chinese product rather than an international or American brand. It also plays up the health qualities of its formula, which is based on the use of traditional Chinese medicinal ingredients. This practice got the brand into trouble earlier this year. In May 2009, Ye Zhengchao (叶征潮) accused Wang Laoji of giving him gastric ulcers because it contained prunella vulgaris (夏枯草), an ingredient usually associated with Chinese medicine. The Ministry of Health had once claimed that adding prunella vulgaris to food and drink violated the Food Safety Law. The charges were heavily reported in the media and became a popular conversation topic on BBS discussion forums (”Wang Laoji is poison that’ll hurt your liver!”). Web portals, such as the Influential Brands website has a whole channel devoted to Wang Laoji and the case. The case even acquired its own “gate” : Additive Gate (添加门). [Chinese netizens are in the habit of adding "gates" to the ends of catch phrases representing particular online scandals.] Anti-fraudster and TCM-buster Fang Zhouzi weighed in with a blog post about implications of drinking herbal teas drinks, further polarizing the issue: now Wang Laoji’s defenders were sticking up for the entirety of traditional Chinese medicine. The popular nationalist-leaning Tiexue BBS hosted many threads related to Wang Laoji, both positive and negative. Defenses were widespread based on Wang Laoji’s previous reputation: for example, a post dated May 11 details the first time that netizens noticed the brand, which was during the Sichuan earthquake in 2008: “Wang Laoji donated 100 million yuan instantly, and is far superior to the wealthier Coca-Cola and Pepsi,” and said that the Ministry of Health should take care of Coca-Cola first if it wanted to clean up Wang Laoji. Elsewhere, netizens were not entirely negative about the additive itself: a Baidu Knowledge answer talks about the widespread notion that people in Guangzhou use prunella vulgaris to brew medicinal soups, and that it’s not bad for the body at all. The company made no response: when China Newsweek tried to interview a company spokesperson about the case, they were rebuffed as were other Chinese media outlets. On May 12 the Guangdong Food Profession Union (广东省食品行业协会) declared that prunella vulgaris had been listed in the Ministry of Health’s list of legal food additives in 2005 and that it is not known to cause gastric ulcers. So the takeaway seems to be that if you’re a well-regarded national brand known for philanthropy and that’s connected to a point of national pride, you may be able to ride out a health crisis by simply relying on the government and the patriotic public. Wang Laoji  may have avoided a crippling scandal this time round, but the poison allegations will continue to circulate online, and when they are brought up in the future, there will be no company response to rebut them.

China Post’s EMS handling scandal ::
Around August 24, a several minute clip appeared online that showed postal workers unloading EMS (China Post’s Express Mail Service) packages from the back of a mail truck. Rather than handling them carefully, as customers might imagine, the workers rolled or threw the packages onto the ground, where they landed with audible “thumps.” One of the comments on the post read, “This is a serious infringement on consumer rights….it must be strictly investigated, and management must be overhauled. Otherwise, our countrymen will have no choice but to choose Fedex, UPS, or DHL.” The video quickly spread to other hosts, like 56, and sparked animated discussion among netizens. On the Xitek forums, the netizen who started the thread said “Don’t use EMS from now on,” and similar sentiments echoed across the Chinese Internet. However, netizens confessed that many times they are in a bind: in urban areas there are lots of choices of delivery services, but China Post is practically the only option in smaller towns across the country. The response so far from China Post has been entirely media-driven. Although the mail truck’s plates placed it in Panzhihua, Sichuan, it was the Hangzhou-based Qianjiang Evening News that picked up the story in the interest of its readership, which would be particularly concerned because the city is home to the headquarters of online auction house Taobao and many small online retailers. The newspaper reported a mealy-mouthed statement from the Panzhihua Post Office: “The truck in the video isn’t likely to be ours because our mail trucks are mostly Chang’an vans. From the scene, we are not able to confirm the registration number at the moment,” which also suggested that the clip could be a malicious hoax. The paper also spoke to a Hangzhou postal official, who said that such mishandling never occurred in his city. Netizens who commented on QQ’s repost of that news item were dubious, with most seeing the official’s statement as a purely cover-your-ass action.

Google.CN’s porn scandal ::
In June, Google China was the subject of CCTV news reports that accused it of violating social morality. As part of a national campaign against pornography and other corrupting online influences in easy reach of the country’s youth, CCTV revealed that Google.CN would suggest filthy phrases and sentences to innocent netizens searching for completely ordinary, benign terms. The accusations blanketed the national media both online and off, and although netizens were generally sympathetic to Google because of previous prejudices toward CCTV’s hatchet-jobs in the service of government propaganda campaigns, it is still instructive to see how Google responded to the crisis. Unlike the dodgy medical ad crisis last December, during which Google China’s protestations made it appear like a defiant outsider attempting an end-run around China’s advertising law, its attitude all along was one of active cooperation. Its fast response drew a favorable reaction from many Chinese netizens. Initially it worked to remove the search suggestion tool that had gotten it into trouble, and thereafter made periodic statements that it was cooperating with the authorities to ensure that its search results were acceptable. At least in the context of Internet word-of-mouth, what started out as a slam on Google’s online reputation turned into a credibility hit for CCTV. Google declined to comment, preferring to let netizens draw their own conclusions about the Google.CN vs. CCTV “PK” matchup. Some netizens even suggested that Baidu, which had been blasted by CCTV for accepting paid ads for medical products it knew were of questionable legality, had made up with the network and had called in the hit on its international search rival. And when Chinese netizens discovered that CCTV had interviewed its own intern for a man-on-the-street response, and when they unearthed evidence that CCTV had essentially gamed the search suggestion tool to create the pornographic sentences, Google China continued to cooperate the authorities and let the IWOM play out on its own.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work for Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

:: here are five more examples of the fascinating Chinese Internet slang and memes that today’s local netizens are all about. This installment ranges from memes inspired by government-speak (”pressure difference”) and the depressed economy (”to be found a job”), to imports from Korea and Japan. Two examples trace the progress of a meme from its use as an inconsequential piece of Internet fluff to its roll in larger commercial or charitable endeavors.

brother chun / brother zeng (春哥 / 曾哥) ::
Li Yuchun and Zeng Yike, both tomboyish Super Girl stars whose androgynous style is a key factor contributing to their popularity. When Li won the competition back in 2005, she appealed to many female fans because she seemed like a liberator who cast off social constraints, and she gave confidence to women who fell short of the cultural ideal. On the other hand, there are those who think “she looks like a man.” The Brother Chun meme is due to this second group. The initial catchphrase was “Brother Chun is All Man, A Real Iron-man” (春哥纯爷们, 铁血真汉子) and sparked an online explosion of photoshopped images that combined Li’s head and men’s bodies. It soon transformed into a parody cult, with Li’s head ’shopped onto the bodies of the icons of various religions, all captioned with “Believe in Chun brother and live forever” (信春哥，得永生) Since then, there have been other variations in a more materialistic vein: “Believe in Chun brother and you will not fail your exams (新春哥，不挂科), and “Believe in Chun brother and make a fortune” (信春哥，发大财).With an Internet culture in China that seems able to turn everything into entertainment, these memes spread quite fast and also extended their influence to the offline world. “All man” (纯爷们) or even just 纯 (pure) has gone on to be a general reference to “male quality” with a humorous undertone (the term was notably used by mincing comedian Xiao Shenyang at this year’s Spring Festival Gala, the biggest annual mainstream media / entertainment event in China). Brother Chun even has been exploited for commercial gain: an expansion released in June for the Chinese edition of the video game MapleStory (冒险岛：骑士团的逆袭), run by Shanda, echoed the meme in its advertising: “Help Brother Chun: Exterminate the Spring Dove and Gain Eternal Life” (助春哥，灭春鸽，得永生). Zeng Yike had her own set of fans and slightly obsessed anti-fans who copied the Brother Chun phenomenon wholesale – “Brother Zeng,” male body photoshops (particularly Stallone), slogans, a parody cult, and an ugly undercurrent of misogyny.

jia junpeng, postcards, & loneliness (贾君鹏 / 明信片 / 寂寞) ::
On July 16 a post appeared on the Baidu World of Warcraft Postbar (魔兽贴吧) that read simply, “Jia Junpeng, your mom wants you to go home for dinner” (贾君鹏你妈妈喊你回家吃饭). The short post – nothing more than the title, and no clue as to the identity of Jia Junpeng – highlighted the intensity of gaming culture on the Chinese Internet: eating and sleeping in web cafes without going home to eat. By the end of the day the postreportedly had more than 4 million views and 300,000 comments. A Beijing-based media company later claimed that the phrase was a viral marketing ploy, although there are other competing theories as to its origins. Jia himself was never found (see ChinaHush for more). Like other memes, Jia Junpeng has been Photoshopped extensively: Saddam Hussein, films stills, and comics, among other settings (see chinaSMACK for more images). It was also harnessed for other causes: “Taiwan, your motherland wants you to come home for dinner”). The Jia Junpeng meme, with its mention of “dinner” and a reference to the non-loneliness of being with family, was a natural complement for an earlier WoW meme, “Brother’s not eating dinner, I’m eating loneliness” (哥吃的不是面, 是寂寞), which appeared accompanied by a picture of a young man and a bowl of noodles after WoW suspended operations on June 7. Without a game to play, online groups sprang up: the “Loneliness Group” (寂寞派) and the Loneliness (Political) Party (寂寞党), and the catchphrase structure gave rise to many variations, such as “I’m not posting a post, I’m posting loneliness” (我发的不是帖子, 是寂寞). Jia Junpeng took on another dimension when the Amoiist, a blogger from Xiamen, was detained by police in July 2009 for posting an appeal video about a rape and murder. After his arrest, other netizens got involved to save the blogger, whose real name was Guo Baofeng (郭宝峰). They twittered “Guo Baofeng, your mum wants you to go home for dinner” in Chinese and English, and organized a drive to send postcards bearing that message to the Mawei prison where Guo was being held. He was eventually released, and whether or not the postcards had anything to do with it, the campaign captured the attention of the major mainstream media (See The Time Weekly 时代周报). And both Jia Junpeng and loneliness have been appropriated as t-shirt slogans. Mengtoy, a T-Shirt and plush toy company with a shop on Taobao.com, features t-shirts bearing the slogan “WoW: your mom wants you to go home for dinner,” and “MoM: I’m not eating dinner, I’m eating loneliness,” cleverly inverting the WoW into MoM.

passive actions: 被 ::
被 (bèi) is a passive marker in Chinese language, but when it’s used with verbs that aren’t normally thought of in passive terms, it represents futility in the face of external circumstances beyond your own control. It’s a familiar linguistics structure – remember back to last May when donations were being solicited for the Wenchuan Earthquake recovery effort, and 被捐款 (bèi juānkuǎn), “to be donated”, indicated that a “voluntary” contribution was automatically (sometimes unwillingly) deducted from many people’s salary. But involuntary donations apparently take place all the time, and they’ve been on the rise following the damage wrought on Taiwan by typhoon Morakot. This June, recent graduates exposed a dodgy strategy that some colleges use to inflate their successful employment statistics: they require students to provide proof of employment before they can obtain a diploma, or they cook up fake employment contracts and recruit graduates into non-existent jobs. The term 就业 (jiùyè) means “to find a job”; made passive, 被就业 (bèi jiùyè) indicates that the job-seeker finds themselves with an employment contract without actually having any of the benefits or responsibilities that come with a job: work and a salary, for example. In July, 被增长 (bèi zēngzhǎng, “to be increased”) hit the net. 增长 (zēngzhǎng), means “gain”, and is used to describe economic gains, increases in satisfaction rates, and other rising trends. When it’s applied passively, “to have been increased” indicates that someone is part of a statistical group whose numbers have risen without any actual gains being made. (This happens more than frequently in China.) The term seems to stem from a blog post made by commentator Xia Yucai, who wrote “My income has ‘been increased’ by the State Statistics Bureau” (我的收入在国家统计局那里“被增长”了). Finally, in late July and early August, 全勤 (quán qín), “perfect attendance,” has also been taken passive, 被全勤 (bèi quánqín, “to be perfect attendanced”), to describe workers who don’t take any vacation, not of their own volition, but because they are unable to take time off. Originally an isolated observation, the term took off in popularity because “perfect attendanced” workers form a significant group online. The question “Little white-collar, have you been ‘perfect attendanced’ today?” notes the demographic group affected by “perfect attendance” and many of the other passive memes.

Korean and Japanese affectations ::
思密达 (sīmìdá, also 斯米达) is a Chinese transliteration of a Korean honorific (하십니다) that is used as a sentence-ending particle in net-speak. It invaded Tianya’s Entertainment Gossip boards in 2008, to the point that people made posts asking people to please knock it off, and it’s spread across the net since then. There’s an undercurrent of anti-Korean sentiment to its use in some contexts (online jokester Chun Baba has the line “Everything belongs to Korea simida” 什么都是韩国的思密达), but it’s also used generally as a mark of sarcasm, or even simply a cute affectation that flies over the heads of many ordinary netizens. What’s particularly amusing about the mystery surrounding 思密达 is that when it shows up in the title of a web page (which pushes it to the top of search engine results), it’s most likely being used as the transliteration of Smecta, a diarrhea remedy for young children, so casual netizens who run across the term in forums remain in the dark, unless they take advantage of one of the many Ask sites, where the term is defined quite widely. There’s something similar going on for the Japanese sentence ending particle です, which has been taken into Chinese as 的说, most likely through soaps imported from Taiwan. It’s much less tied to Japan than “simida” is to Korea, and is mainly used as a cutesy, exclamatory sentence ending word. There’s a contentious Baidu Postbar devoted to the term where enthusiasts and denigrators fight it out through the use of other contemporary memes. And then there’s the meta-commentary: “The word desu was invented by the Koreans simida” (“的说”这个词是寒国人发明的思密达).

pressure difference: the Shanghai building collapse ::
On June 27, a 13-storey building in the Lotus Riverside development in Shanghai toppled over due to poorly-planned excavations for an underground parking garage. The building remained in one piece, and photos of the accident captured the attention of China’s netizens. Just as they had with the CCTV fire in February, netizens reimagined the scene in a series of Photoshops showing a Transformer attack, a number of Ultraman battles, and various other destructive events, including a visit from Brother Chun. The term 楼脆脆, “fragile building”, was the popular term used to describe the fallen structure. Just this month a building in Chengdu was discovered to have leaned sideways so the top was resting against the building next door, and it was given a similar name: 楼歪歪, “leaning building.” The official explanation for the Shanghai collapse employed the term “pressure difference” (压力差) to describe how the building was pushed over. The term was first mocked for seeming to indicate that the building itself was problem free (“blame it on the pressure difference”) and it now has been adopted for use in other areas of pressure (not just the physical ones of ground on building): A thread titled “India, be careful of ‘pressure difference’” was posted on Sohu’s military forums (印度，请小心“压力差”), and netizens have mixed the term with last year’s “Have you gone out for soy sauce today?” (今天你打酱油了吗) to create “Have you had pressure difference today?” (今天你压力差了吗？).

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]