The Beijing government triggered fierce public criticism after it began to dismantle large billboards and remove building names from rooftops at the end of November.
The Beijing government triggered fierce public criticism after it began to dismantle large billboards and remove building names from rooftops at the end of November. The government claimed the move aimed to standardize the design and installation of signs on buildings to improve the city’s skyline, but the public complained that it just means they are getting lost, since buildings can no longer be identified from street-level. Some legal experts also criticized the government for not issuing a law over the policy, saying the government has no right to dismantle any legitimate private signs without a due legal process.
A “women’s virtue” training class in Fushun, Liao-ning Province, shocked netizens by advocating the feudal idea that women are inferior to men. The class reportedly taught students that they are dirty and should be at the bottom of society. It blamed women for not doing housework and preached that women should always serve men, even if they are subject to domestic violence. Pressured by netizens’ anger, the local government quickly banned it, but people wondered why in a modern society, women are still attending such an unimaginably strange class. Media revealed that some of the students had been through a divorce or had an abortion, while the class just attributed their sufferings to “female guilt.”
Yang Huan (alias), a doctor in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, received netizens’ sympathy after he was held partly responsible for an elderly man’s death, whom he asked not to smoke in an elevator. According to media reports, the man quarreled with Yang, and then suddenly fell to the ground because of a heart attack. Based on the law which states that both sides share the losses if neither is the wrongdoer, the court asked Yang to compensate the old man’s family with 15,000 yuan (US$2,300). Netizens, however, felt that Yang had been wronged, arguing the old man was wrong to smoke in a public place and that nobody would dare to tell people to stop misbehaving anymore, for fear they would be punished like Yang.
“Cui is a real man of iron. Let’s salute him.”
Cui Songwang, a journalist from Henan Television Station, received much praise after media revealed he had helped police clamp down on eight underground brick-making factories which had allegedly been abusing mentally-ill people and forcing them to work. To investigate the situation, Cui presented himself as a mentally-disabled man at the local railway station, from where he was “sold” to one of the suspect factories. The foreman frequently beat Cui and other disabled laborers. After escaping, Cui reported his experiences to the police as well as writing a long report, which led the police to investigate other suspect factories. Many popular microbloggers have retweeted his stories and praised him as a “true hero” and “a man of iron.”
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