The Chinese Web in action: Netizens of infamy

Two recent cases have shown that the Chinese Internet is probably more alive than you ever thought it to be...

• Case 1: "The Liaoning Girl": Gao Qianhui (高千惠), a 20-year old girl from Shenyang, Liaoning (in northeastern China), took aim at the recent earthquake in Sichuan. The 3-day period of mourning took away Internet games from the girl, which made her more than unhappy. Unfortunately, the nearly 5 minute-long clip, which was also posted on YouTube, got her into deep trouble: virtually right after the clip was uploaded, she was on the front page. She was discovered on the Chinese Internet within an hour, which got a lot of local netizens more than irate. The Chinese Internet started digging her personalia like never before, with a "1.3 billion-strong manhunt" underway in virtually no time. The result: the girl was found, her Chinese ID number revealed, and even details of her family were found on the Internet. In just -- under a day. The girl, in the meantime, was arrested in an Internet café.
• Case 2: Chinese Girls of the 1990s: Another phenomenon came before the quake, and also involved girls on the Internet. Two 18-year old girls were deemed as "devilish" after they published on their blog a "declaration" of girls of the 1990s. The twins nearly instantly became the target of heavy debate, with some siding with the twins, while more and more people blasted the duo for their lack of respect for their parents, and their ungrounded enmity towards men. Rhetoric such as: "Men are stupid, dirty, and full of desires; don't believe in their sweet words"; "if you love your lady, throw at her endless supplies of banknotes" were mixed in with other comments damning the twins as "pretty trash" and "the generation missing a brain". The fact that the duo were good-looking further intensified the debate, with many wondering "how two beauties could come out with such trash".

Cross-posted from techblog86. (Twitter feed available)

Picture of "Chinese Girls of the 1990s" from Qianlong.com