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Q: Why do we foreigners seem so obsessed with 'Weird Chinese News’？
So many foreign news outlets now have a China section where everything is just weird news, so there is clearly a demand for it. But why specifically China? Some of these news outlets have readers outside of China but the China section is still full of weird news.
Good observation, not sure about the explanation.
Because foreigners see so many things that seems so crazy and senseless to them, they need something to be sure they are not crazy, to be certain that this is somehow normal ?
To illustrate my idea :
* Every week-end, when I go out for a walk or buy things downtown with my wife, I will see a few kids pooping/peeing in the street, or held by their parents above a garbage can... when there is perfectly fine toilets 10 meters away. I never seen that even in much poorer and backward places ! Am I crazy ? WTF ?
* Every day, I commute to work by bike. Every day, half of the traffic two-wheel will be on the wrong way. Most people will walk on the bike lane, when there is a nice, pristine, well made walkway just for walkers. Am I crazy ? WTF ?
* I eat in a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant. People will eat with their chopsticks, which is fine. When the dish is close to be empty, to get the last bits, they will pretty much dive head first in the dish, and push the food directly in the mouth while making slurping noise. Using a spoon, when there is a whole lot of clean spoon in the shop ? Nope. Just eat like a pig. Am I crazy ? WTF ?
* Rinse and repeat, I'm sure we can talk for days about crazy yet daily WTF.
Reading freak news helps to cope that you live in Bizzaro Land, that is the place which is crazy, not me. Some sort of psychological reaction to keep my sanity. Just a theory, feel free to demolish it...
Lord_hanson:
I agree with your last comment but you mispelled fhtagn. ;-p
diverdude1:
I also ride my bike to work daily and I see the exact same things u described. People walking on the designated bike path while the pedestrian sidewalk is right there,,, and the general chaos of traffic... rarely riding on the right side, but coming/going hither and yon. automobiles drive down the bike paths too, at least here they do.
I eat at working man restaurants, and boy do they eat like pigs. mouth in contact with dish is standard, and that freaky slurping noise, all accented with a nice public belch. Well, if I were a chinatron, I would never mention 3000 years heritage,,, I would say we are just getting started,,, that is why we are so far behind on the social evolution page.
I reckon it would be impossible for a foreigner to set up a "real" news site here. Copying the strange news is a safe bet.
I hate to think how difficult it would be to get a J visa for China.
And could you imagine if a foreigner published an expose on a news website here? Wow.
It's not only China tough. I remember http://englishrussia.com/ was incredibly popular in the West some time back, even with people who have never been to Russia. Same with news from Florida which have a reputation of being strange, really popular all over the states as well as starting to get popular in Europe.
As for me personally, strange Chinese news are coping mechanism. I can look at all the messed up shit happening and tell my self "nope, no way are they going to be a superpower/worlds largest economy behaving like that!" Maybe I'm just lying to my self.
Oh, I am also obsessed with actual Chinese news (not the made up kind)
When it comes to China there is no "normal" news, just weird news.
ambivalentmace:
exactly, there is absolutely no normal news, it is extinct, sadly, not sure this place was ever normal or will ever be normal.
Maybe it's a throw back to the old cold war days when it was common place for reporters to caricature China and Russia in a certain light. Some of the perceptions and stereotypes stick, at least in some people's heads. I would say this is more likely in the right wing politicized media that still like to caricature the leaders in a certain manner with the adoring brainwashed underlings. Weird news sections almost seem like a way of branding the people still further though the population do themselves no favors from this perspective.
After 5 years here, I'm OK with 'weird'.
It was very weird in 2009, when I arrived to Tangshan, Hebei, some 30 Y old city (rebuild after the earthquake).
When you walk in rainy weather, you need fisherman boots to stay dry. Water lays everywhere. The driest place to walk is on pavement's spots for blind people. And when you finally reached dry spot, there's bus or truck passing, and splashing water from the 'heaven'.
City looks like all builders were using LSD
, during the ground construction.
Buildings are OK, just floors are all vague.
DrMonkey:
The rain flooding issue you mention... I've noticed that in many, if not all cities I've been in China. The streets are built in such a way that the water does not flow to the rain water drains. For example roads are supposed to be built with a slight central bump,to make the water flow on the sides. The sides are supposed to be the lower points, with frequent drains. The walkway is supposed to have a slop too. The list goes on.
icnif77:
They don't use 'waser-waage', I forgot English name for the tool. It's tool, every builder or carpenter has in his bag. It's piece of 'perfect' rectangle wood with small 'hose' in it. There is a water in hose, but not completely full. It's a bit of O2 in hose. When you put wooden rectangle on the fridge, it shows you which 'leg' you have to adjust to stop fridge or washing machine shaking.
They don't use that in China. It's beyond ridiculous, when you see whole city build without 'tool'=spirit. Look at your bathroom. You'll see, 'dirty' water doesn't flow toward the 'exit'.
'Spirit' is the English name for the tool. I yahoo-gle 'wasser=water and 'waage' = scale'. English name is 'spirit'. They don't have that in China. We fly space ships to the space, but our builders and carpenters always use spirit at any ground work.
My 1st post at eChina was about that subject. I was even guessing, since they have so many rivers and water overall, they intentionally build that way, so rain wouldn't filled up the river too fast, because of 'river overflow', but than I saw bathroom floors are build the same way. LOL
ambivalentmace:
i doubt they use a 'level' properly and even know how to pitch an angle for bathroom tile or slope a road 2 degrees from center, but i'm just an english teacher, i know nothing, hell i cant get students here to understand centrifugal force on a curved road or center of gravity in an accident. the developers here are so lazy they dont run downspouts under ground directly to sewage but let it run all over the damn sidewalks and streets to save about 10 meters of pipe cost.
After 6 years here living in different places from downtown Guangzhou to the shittiest countryside hole that's not even on maps nothing seems weird to me anymore, I can say without being arrogant that I have seen, heard and tried absolutely everything in China. This country proves that people can get used to everything no matter how insane or abnormal it is compared to what they were used to before, when I go back home my relatives think I am crazy, crossing the road anywhere without looking twice for e.g., even large avenues, I tell them people do it all the time in China and the traffic is much more dangerous than in Germany.
This one is simple: because there simply is no other news.
What do you want to read? Politics?
"Random officials went to inspect that random institution.
The outcome was fabulous. Let's build a harmonious society and do this and that, improve this and that to reach the Chinese Dream with a widespread support of the population."
Economy?
"China's GPS will reach 12% this year, official report says"
The average income keeps increasing. Everything is wonderful. Maybe some more efforts could hypothetically be pondered upon for a better welfare, but on average everything looks good according to unnamed specialists, because building and destroying and rebuilding highways is fundamental to the people."
Oh, yeah... People!
"That chick you never heard of, which was in this movie you'll never see, dropped a nipple by accident"
That was really unfortunate, and definitely not a publicity stunt. Use Google if you want the uncensored pic. Oh wait.
Opinion?
"Why more and more Chinese men can't find a girlfriend?"
The foreigners of course, they take our women!
Errr... Military?
Diaoyu Island is secured.
Until tomorrow, when it will be secured again. And again. Because we need this story, but we can't have it look like it's stagnating.
Yeah... so... weird stories it is.
Stiggs:
Exactly. If you are the editor of a newspaper or whatever, looking for daily China news to fill your China section you probably rely on Chinese media.
Who wants to read about how harmonious everything is, that doesn't sell. What sells are the weird stories because it's more interesting than reading about how Beijing was voted the happiest city in China for the 5th year running or something.
That might also be why Chinese media print these stories. At least they get people reading them.
Let me answer with two questions: 1) Why ask why ? @) Why not ?
I guess is just the same curiosity most of the people might have had while watching the outcomes of Mordor in the Lord of the Ring
why do people go to zoos? why do people slow down for a car crash? why do people look at a train wreck?
weird is always interesting and sometimes it tells you the level of stupidity and intelligence in society. weird is cool at times.
Do Chinese people love weird foreign news too?
DrMonkey:
Based on watching my wife watching TV...
* On CCTV2, the morning news are concluded with a selection of videos from Youtube, usually featuring kids, kitten and puppies doing cute stuffs. I love the spirit of "It's censored because someone decided it was bad for you, but there, look at the kitten !".
* There's a show on CCTV (forgot which number) showing comical videos mostly from Western countries, many from the VHS era, some modern ones from Youtube. Nothing weird, just "lol he slipped" videos.
I never really saw much interest for what's going on outside on China, that does not involve China, weird or not.
DrMonkey:
On an other note : at least in my home country and English speaking countries, take a local newspaper... and you'll find weird/surrealistic/horrible stories once in a while. Some newspaper specialize in such stories. Picking those stories and translating to Mandarin would be piece of cake.
