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China Just Landed on the Moon, and is Bringing Back Mysterious Rocks

China just announced its newest lunar lander, Chang’e-5, has landed safely on the moon at 10:25 AM, Beijing time.

The lander launched out of the Wenchang Spacecraft Launchsite one week ago on a mission to bring between two to four kilograms of lunar dirt back to Earth. The target area, Mons Rümker, is considered one of the most interesting sample sites identified on the moon, as it may hold soil as old as 1.3 billion years.

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The spacecraft successfully entered the moon’s orbit five days later, and over the next few days, will drill into the moon’s surface to collect samples. If successful, Chang’e will be the first space mission to retrieve lunar samples in 45 years and from the third country ever to do so, after the US and Soviet Union in the 1960s and ’70s respectively.

Named after the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e-5 is just the tip of the country’s lunar program iceberg. In 2013, China successfully launched Chang’e-3 and the Yutu-2 Rover and in 2019, Chang’e-4 made history as the first craft to touch down on the far side of the moon. Soon after, its National Space Administration announced that it planned to send a probe to Mars, followed by manned missions.

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The country’s space program has grand ambitions to explore and document the moon and beyond, but as it inches closer to its goal of an operational moon base, it must first secure the return of Chang’e-5’s cargo.

Cover photo: Still from The Wandering Earth

China’s Version of GPS is Better, Says US Satellite Receiver Company

In 1978, the US launched the first of the satellites that now make up the Global Positioning System, which for a long time was the world’s only such navigation option.

Now, China has entered the ring with its Beidou Positioning System, and its early results are impressive.

According to data from US satellite receiver company Trimble, capital cities for 165 of 195 major countries are observed more frequently by Beidou satellites than by GPS.

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By observing positions more frequently, Beidou is able to produce more accurate representations, with some of this capability coming from connections with low-cost, Chinese-made smartphones. The full Beidou constellation consists of 35 satellites, compared to the Global Positioning System’s 24.

The Beidou program began development in 1994, launching its first satellite in 2000. Now fully operational, the technology is part of China’s push to decrease reliance on US-controlled infrastructure.

Today is Bruce Lee’s 80th Birthday

Today would have marked the 80th birthday of legendary martial artist, actor, thinker, and innovator, Bruce Lee.

Lee was born in San Francisco on November 27, 1940, before moving back to Hong Kong with his mother and his father Lee Hoi Chuen, a famous opera star. After racking up early acting credentials alongside his father, a rough and tumble life in the streets of Kowloon saw Lee turn to martial arts. He frequently got into street fights, and spent time deepening his study of boxing and wing chun until his father decided to send him to the United States to pursue a safer life.

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There, Lee would go on to make his biggest impact. In Seattle, he began teaching what he called Jun Fan Gung Fu (literally, “Bruce Lee Kung Fu”), and immersing himself in the city’s martial arts community, extending and developing his style alongside judo practitioners and kempo karate athletes while balancing classes at the University of Washington.

By then, it was clear that Lee had caught on to something. The no-nonsense martial arts system that later became Jeet Kune Do still resonates today, through Hollywood blockbusters and modern mixed martial arts competitions.

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But Lee’s greatest contributions were to be found beyond the physical world. Greater than his role in the global development of martial arts, was the spiritual presence expressed through his work.

Lee defied stereotypes of the emasculated Asian male, and carved out his own role in Hollywood by simply ripping apart the yellow tape around him. Working up from an assisting role as Kato in The Green Hornet to the lead role in Enter the Dragon — a film that he came up with himself out of frustration with small-minded Hollywood casting — Lee stepped confidently past obstacles to become one of the greatest on-screen heroes of all time. In 1999, TIME included Lee in its list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.

Today, we remember Bruce, and all of his enduring contributions.

Cover photo by Pop & Zebra on Unsplash

China’s Covid-19 Vaccine Has Just Been Filed for Official Approval

China National Pharmaceutical Group, also known as Sinopharm, has just filed for approval to release its own Covid-19 vaccine to the public.

Its subsidiary China National Biotech Group has developed two separate vaccines, and it’s still unclear whether one vaccine or both are being included in the filing. Although both vaccines have been tested for safety and efficacy in 10 countries across South America and the Middle East, test results have not been made publicly available.

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This announcement comes just days after American pharmaceutical giants Moderna and Pfizer announced that their vaccine trials had returned results with over 90 percent efficacies, and Pfizer subsequently applied to the US Food and Drug Administration for “emergency use” authorization of its vaccine. Russia remains the only country to date with a Covid-19 vaccine approved for widespread use.

In July, the Chinese National Medical Products Administration authorized the two Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine candidates for emergency use, one of which was the first in the world to enter the final stage of trials.

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Since then, nearly one million “high risk” people have been vaccinated — a group that includes construction workers, diplomats, and students. In November, Sinopharm Chairman Liu Jing Zhen stated publicly that there have been no cases of serious adverse reactions to the vaccine.

Though early stage trials of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines were promising, the company has yet to submit any Phase 3 trial results, which may ultimately determine if Sinopharm is to be a frontline player in the global vaccine rollout.

Are Wang Yibo Fans the New “Worst Fans?”

Wang Yibo is a smoldering heartthrob who shot to international fame as Lan Wangji, starring opposite Xiao Zhan in hit drama The Untamed.

But when a steamy fanfiction featuring their idol appeared on the website AO3, fans of Xiao Zhan launched a coordinated attack which resulted in the site being shut down in China. As Xiao Zhan suffered backlash and lost brand sponsorships, his admirers earned a reputation as “the worst fans” of any idol.

Now, though, Wang Yibo’s fans may be coming for that crown.

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The trouble started on social film review platform Douban, where many of Wang Yibo’s works had dropped to one or two star ratings. Suspecting an attack by anti-fans, Wang Yibo’s fans banded together to mass-rate his work at five stars.

On Douban, though, it’s suspected that ratings submitted by new accounts are automatically ignored for exactly this reason. To counter the measures, the practice of “growing accounts” (养号) is suggested.

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To grow an account, all one needs to do is behave like a regular user. Performing actions like leaving reviews on old movies, joining non-entertainment discussions, and posting selfies are all believed to increase the chances of your rating being counted.

But amidst the stream of oncoming Wang Yibo fans, Douban’s community began to suffer. Established ratings on classic works began to shift, and one author publicly lamented that the presence of Wang Yibo fans had negatively impacted the reception of her newly-released novel.

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Douban released a statement saying that the suspicious activity was against its community guidelines, but eventually the situation became bad enough that Wang Yibo’s management had to step in themselves.

“A good community atmosphere needs everyone to share,” Wang Yibo’s official account wrote on Weibo. “We strongly oppose actions such as ‘growing accounts’ that disturb the order of the community.”

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“Please, let’s respect all works, all artists, and the rules of the community,” the account added, writing that the attention given to a work should be based on the work itself.

Many fans of Wang Yibo responded apologetically, saying they were just trying to counter reviews from anti-fans.

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“For Biden City”: China Finally Reacts to Joe Biden Presidential Victory

Eighteen days after Joe Biden was projected as the winner of the US election, Chinese President Xi Jinping officially sent over a message of congratulations. The move brought US politics back into public discourse, and Biden’s victory soared to the number one trending spot on Weibo.

Once acknowledged by the head of state, Biden’s win saw a resurgence of public interest, with many users expressing an amused state of “eating melon” rather than in-depth policy discussions (a slang term connoting entertainment, similar to the image of popcorn and a movie in the West).

A screenshot of Biden-Trump hashtags trending on Chinese social media Weibo

Biden and Trump hashtags shot to the #1 and #4 trending spots on Weibo

“China has already welcomed Biden,” reads one top-voted comment. “They even have ‘For Biden City,’” playing on the Beijing cultural institution.

The Chinese public holds a good impression of Biden, who visited Beijing as US Vice President in August 2011, dining on noodles and steamed buns at Yaoji Chaogan restaurant. As Biden’s name jumped back to the forefront of online conversation, some users teased that his order missed out on the restaurant’s signature dish — stewed pork liver — and hoped that Biden would be able to try it on his return.

“There are lots of delicious flavors awaiting his arrival,” said restaurant owner Yao Yan after learning that Biden had been elected the 46th President of the United States.

On the other side, Trump’s “big mouth” also managed to draw attention on Weibo. Over the past four years, Trump-related memes have been doing the rounds in China.

“I think Trump is quite funny,” wrote one user. “Putting aside other things, I kind of ‘like’ this dude who refused to concede. After the election, I hope he can carry on the spirit of comedy, and make a greater contribution as a comedian than as the US president.”

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Common posts expressed hopes that Biden would contain the US Covid-19 pandemic, and alleviate US-China tensions formed in the Trump era.

“Promoting healthy and stable development of China-US relations not only serves the fundamental interests of the people in both countries, but also meets the common expectation of the international community,” Xi said in a statement released by The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Cover image: Obama White House Archives