Trending in Beijing: Fluff Storms, the Met Gala, and One Month Until Gaokao
The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this: a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.
Beijing promises better fluff-fighting strategy in 2020
We really copped it with the catkins this year, the season for which seems to have doubled in length compared to previous years. To help each other through the traumatic, extended fluff season, Weibo users are posting messages of encouragement under the hashtag #五月飞絮还要10天# (May's catkins still have 10 days) which now has almost 1.3 million followers.
According to an article published via the WeChat account "Character Reporter" (人物记者), the poplar blooming season started earlier this year and is only just over halfway done.
Besides being a pain in the ass the minute you step foot outdoors, catkins can also trigger allergies and are a real fire hazard when they pool up on streets and in yards. To battle the problem, authorities in Beijing have implemented a number of means to better the situation, including cutting down the overabundance of female poplar trees (which produce the catkins) to injecting them with a chemical solution to limit catkin production. This year, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscaping and Greening said they are looking into significant improvements for 2020.
Next year apparently can't come soon enough, with the excessive fluff causing a number of netizens to contemplate living conditions in Beijing overall: "Autumn sandstorms, winter smog, summer catkins – Beijing is just not suitable for human habitation," sighed one.
Weibo goes mad for Met Gala outfits
Chinese netizens are elbow-deep in this year's campy 2019 Met Gala outfits, with the hashtag #MetGala# garnering 540 million followers and some celebrities earning themselves their own dedicated hashtags. For example, Katy "Fruit Sister" Perry (水果姐 in Mandarin, more on why here), saw her old nickname left behind, donning a more meaty moniker for Gala and earning herself the 140-million-follower-strong hashtag of #水果姐已经变成汉堡了# (Fruit sister has already become a hamburger) in the process. However, not everyone was loving it, with one user writing: "All the others came dressed for the red carpet. Only you are ready for Halloween."
The gala, which took place on May 7, also included showings from a number of Chinese celebrities. Singer-songwriter Lay Zhang (张艺兴) from the band EXO made his Met Gala debut wearing a custom UFO printed suit by Valentino paired with black sneakers. The cool but relatively understated look was enough to earn him the hashtag #张艺兴Met Gala#.
One of the biggest Chinese names in fashion, philanthropist and investor Wendy Yu (余晚晚), who is also a member of the event’s hosting committee, attended the gala for the third time, in a frothy blue and white couture Giambattista Valli gown.
One month to go until gaokao
On Jun 7-9, more than 10 million Chinese high school students will sit the National College Entrance Examination AKA the gaokao, one of the toughest examinations in the world. The Chinese higher education system remains wildly competitive, with 65 students competing for a single spot at first-tier city universities on average.
Weibo has taken up arms to try and keep up students' spirits. This inspirational video showing the good, bad, and the ugly of the gaokao has been doing the rounds, as have videos demonstrating the great lengths that students go to in order to achieve good academic results. One student, who hopes to study at Tsinghua, was caught on video scurrying back to his study area carrying a huge bowl of rice, enough for three people to eat so that his study buddies could "save time." Other students said that they only spend 15 minutes eating lunch so as not to miss out on precious studying time.
Most of the netizens are calling upon their luck in the exams, but some are much less excited. "One month until another generation of fools will think that they are liberated," wrote one particularly cynical users. You can browse the well wishes and (largely) inspirational content under the hashtag #高考 加油# (gaokao, add oil).
READ: In 2008 Beijing Declared War on Plastic Bags... So What Happened?
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Images: Weibo
