Trending in Beijing: Perfect Gaokao Score, Fake Street Photography, and a Crackdown on Gender Discrimination
The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this: Trending in Beijing is a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.
Students receive their Gaokao results
After years of hard work, another batch of fresh Chinese graduates has received their university entrance examination scores, and Weibo has been flooded with heartwarming videos of the moments students discovered their results.
But this year was more special than most given that one very special student, a Mr. Yang Chenyu from Guangxi province, attained the highest gaokao score in 43 years: a perfect 730 points in math and English. A video about the brilliant student has now been watched over 36 million times. You too can cheer Yang under #数学英语双满分总分730分# (full score on math and English 730).
As usual, Chinese netizens are complimenting each other via self-deprecation. One netizen wrote: "It's much higher than my sesame credit score," referring to his Alibaba-attributed credit record, which soon may be just as important a factor in success in later life as these already incredibly stressful exams.
The internet turns against fake street fashion photography
While those downright creepy middle-aged uncles hanging out around Taikooli mall might be taking pictures of you just for fun (might be), Chinese influencers have cottoned on to the idea to stage "candid" street photography sessions so as to increase their online presence. Think: Whoops, you really got me there unsuspectedly strolling in the city! lol awks.
Hired photographers can reportedly earn up to RMB 30,000 per day snapping pics of their fame-hungry clients. When news of this burgeoning sector came to light earlier this month, creative netizens in China's more remote areas did what they do best and lampooned the trend, putting on their best rubber flip-flops, grabbing their shovels, and organizing their own hilarious "farm-style photography" shoots.
You can watch everyone's efforts, candid or not, under the hashtag #街拍# (street photography).
Beijing cracks down on gender discrimination at work
Nine bureaus in Beijing recently issued a notice about new a new regulation regarding workplace recruitment, designed to tackle gender discrimination. The document specifically outlines new rules which prevent prospective employers from asking women about their marital and/or reproductive status. If found to break these rules, companies will be publicly named and shamed and fined between RMB 10,000 to RMB 50,000.
Young women jobseekers in China are frequently questioned by prospective employers about when they plan to have children, meaning that recently married but childless women generally have the most difficulty in securing a job.
The regulation also prohibits employers from listing a gender preference in job ads, except in the case of professions that the state already prohibits women from partaking, such as mining operations or heavy manual labor jobs.
Even though there are a number of gender discrimination laws already in place, they often tend to be ignored, and it is not unusual to see job advertisements that explicitly give preference to male applicants or dictate the desired appearance of the female candidate. So far, it is not yet clear how the government will enforce the new regulations, but given that most job postings are online, it should not be difficult to find breaches in the law.
Netizens are discussing the new notice under #北京不得将限制生育作为录用条件# (Beijing may not use reproductive status as a condition for employment).
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Images: Weibo, HRW
