Trending in Beijing: E-Cigs Banned, Mind-Monitoring Headbands, and a Racist Rant for the Ages

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.

China bans e-cigarette online sales 

Last Friday, Nov 1, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a joint statement banning all vape and electronic cigarette sales and advertisements online. This ban was implemented in the hopes of preventing minors from being exposed to e-cigarette products, and forming a habit before the legal smoking age.

The vaping industry has exploded in China, and regulators are only now trying to catch up with the market, arguing that advertisements made vaping look fun and harmless. Indeed, until August, it was still perfectly legal to sell vape products to minors.

According to the statement, online platforms exclusively selling vaping products should be shut down, and other shops should take vaping products off their shelves. While the statement included no information about how the ban will be enforced, TMall, JD, Suning, and six other platforms have already removed said stock from their sites.

In a surprise turn, China's largest vaping company RELX, who control 60 percent of the Chinese market, has publicly announced its complete support for the regulation and that it too will cease all online advertising and selling of its products.

The ban comes at a tricky time for e-cigarette manufacturers, with vape products coming under extreme scrutiny in the USA, after being linked to at least 37 deaths and hundreds of illnesses. However, China's sellers appear to be most concerned about the potential lost 11.11 sales. Netizens are discussing the ban under #9家电商平台下架电子烟# (9 online stores took electronic cigarettes off their shelves).

Beijing pupils wear smart headbands in class

Students at Beijing's No. 1 Middle School are now wearing smart headbands to monitor students' attention during classes (video here), and they are as terrifying-looking as you'd expect.

The bands reportedly track each student's individual performance and send feedback to the main database, as well as parents' WeChat groups every 10 minutes. Parents and educators with absolutely nothing better to do can see how well their bundle of joy is paying attention via a wave-like graph and overall score that is calculated for every student. In fact, teachers don't even need to consult the database to see how well the students are listening – each headband is equipped with an LED light that shines red if students are focused, blue if they are distracted, or white if the connection is not stable – as if the number of yawns per minute was not already a perfect indicator of engagement.

Netizens are divided on the usage of this new technology in classrooms. The usual concerns include the violation of minors' privacy, inconvenience, and the cack-handed approach to solving classroom problems. "If you need smart headbands to make sure students are paying attention, how boring must the class be?" wrote one commenter. Others have noted that the headbands are just one more product in a long line designed to extract more money from education-crazed families. Discussions are brewing under #北京一中学也在使用智能头环# (Beijing No. 1 Middle School also uses smart headbands).

Scholar gets fired for his LinkedIn rant

While LinkedIn is usually the platform people turn to in order to advance their career, one trendsetting Beijing-based expat was determined to use it for the opposite gains this past week. The man in question, Austrian visual designer Mark A. Kolars, used the website to post a racist tirade for the ages, in turn getting himself kicked out from the China Academy of Sciences. 

His comments were screenshotted (more illustrations here) and promptly posted on Weibo, setting off a major backlash. As well as describing Chinese people as "dirty yellow guys" who are "not smart enough" and have been "inbreeding for too long," he takes a different bent on his own "mix of European Caucasian and Asien [sic] Chinese blood" son, who is "very handsome." Hmm, thanks, Dad? Many netizens have also been wondering what Kolar's Chinese wife thinks about his outburst.

According to SCMP, Kolars later posted an apology acknowledging that his comments were hugely inappropriate. His LinkedIn page has since been deleted. If there is a takeaway from all this, it's probably: learn yourself some manners, never take to social media to broadcast your frsutrations to the world, and don't be racist. Netizens continue to roll their eyes at #中科院解聘不当言论外籍雇员# (CAS dismisses foreign employees for inappropriate comments).

READ: Following Backlash, Didi Make U-Turn on Restricting Hitch Access for Women

Images: Weibo