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China is Getting Creative to Celebrate Valentine’s Day During Coronavirus Lockdown

With many people in China still in their homes taking preventative measures against the coronavirus Covid-19, and with Valentine’s Day suddenly here, the internet is welcoming the holiday with humor, community, and sarcasm.

The hashtag #Valentine’sDayGiftRankingList is going viral on Chinese social media after netizens jokingly made Valentine’s Day gift lists with items like surgical masks and disinfectant. One highly-viewed meme reads, “Break-up tier: anything that says, ‘moved to tears.’ Good tier: everything in their Taobao shopping cart. Top tier: forget everything else, surgical masks have my heart.”

VDayMeme

One popular comment reads, “The most romantic gift is not ninety-nine roses, but ninety-nine masks.”

With surgical masks in short supply, the item has become a natural target for Valentine’s Day memes:

User 猫猫细 writes: “February 14th is coming. This year’s luxury bouquet should be 999 masks. If you have the money and generosity, I’ll marry you.”

Also out there: Valentine’s Day makeup looks, all mask-friendly. So you can look special for your loved one and stay safe. Eye makeup only, of course.

Meanwhile, gaming companies are rolling out Valentine’s Day promotions, offering users newly-released storylines in popular games like Love and Producer, 100 Sleeping Princes, and The Kingdom of Dreams.

With not much to do at home besides watching plague movies and playing plague mobile games, people are turning to technology for boredom relief, and the gaming sector in particular has been spared during a wider economic downturn. Honor of Kings, a Tencent-produced clone of League of Legends, reached a new all-time record in daily average users in the week of January 30th, while other companies, like Plague, Inc. producer NDemic Creations, were forced offline by the unexpected boom in traffic.

Finally, one meme circulating is made up to look like the ubiquitous official notices found all over China and states that Valentine’s Day has been cancelled and instead will be moved to International Women’s Day, on March 8:

valentines day china coronavirus

“I’m Not a Virus”: Chinese-Italian Man Fights Coronavirus-Related Racism with Free Hugs

A viral Facebook video shows a touching response to the recent outbreak of coronavirus-related racism spreading across Europe and North America.

In the video, Massimiliano Martigli Jiang, a Chinese-Italian man, stands in the middle of a busy square in Florence. He dons a surgical mask and a blindfold. A sign next to him reads, in Italian, Chinese, and English,

“I’m not a virus. I’m a human. Eradicate the prejudice.”

Some people pose for pictures or poke fun. But most choose to remove his mask and blindfold and embrace him.

The video comes after a series of racist and Sinophobic incidents across Italy, including reports of Chinese tourists spat at in Venice and Rome’s Santa Cecilia conservatory banning all students of East Asian descent. Currently, there are only two confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Italy, and all flights from China have been suspended.

The video was created by a group called Italian-Chinese Youth Union. Their original Facebook post reads, “The virus that really scares us right now is not the coronavirus, but the prejudice that is in the air. Remove the coronavirus but not the people!”

According to Firenze Today, Jiang says that the group was formed four years ago after civil unrest between Chinese-Italian workers and Italian law enforcement in Sesto Fiorentino, a municipality on the outskirts of Florence. In the interview, he also says that the association is collecting money to donate suits and masks overseas.

Related:

Chinatown food market Unsplash
Coronavirus Stirs Rumors and Racism Towards Chinese Eating Habits and Health
On social media, ignorant rhetoric about food and health is spreading faster than the virus itself
Article Feb 03, 2020

The video is being circulated widely in the Italian media, and has over 170,000 views on Facebook.

The wave of coronavirus-related racism has not only hit Italy; Chinese and Asian people from all over the world continue to be subjected to and document the phenomenon, from American teenagers making hilarious TikTok parodies to Chinese-French citizens starting the viral hashtag #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus (#I am not a virus).

WATCH: Observe Intimate Moments from the World’s Largest Annual Human Migration

Each year, the world’s largest act of human migration takes place as people scramble home for the Spring Festival.

This short film by New York-based filmmaker Jonathan Bregel quietly captures of the phenomenon of “Chunyun,” the name for the forty-day long period of increased travel.


Bregel’s observational lens reveals the meaningless moments that make up this momentous occasion. Some sleep propped up on their luggage, while others play mobile games or cards to pass the time. Ultimately, everyone arrives at their destination — tender moments with family.

This year’s festivities were disrupted by the outbreak of a new coronavirus, upending millions of travel plans and extending the national holiday. The government of Wuhan put the city on lockdown on January 23rd, canceling flights and halting public transportation.

Amid heightened corona contagion fears, Chinese officials on January 27 announced the New Year holiday would be extended across the country to keep people at home in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.

Related:

wuhan china coronavirus
Ordinary Chinese People are Getting Creative to Cope with Coronavirus Confinement
As fears over the coronavirus spread, Chinese netizens are sharing innovative ways to pass the time at home
Article Jan 30, 2020

Although many businesses are remaining closed or encouraging remote working for at least the next week, millions are still preparing to get on the long and winding road home. That in turn has led to the hashtag #返程路上如何做好个人防护# has gone viral across Sina Weibo, one of China’s largest social media platforms. Roughly translating to “how to protect yourself on your way back,” numerous users, major media outlets such as The People’s Daily included, are using the tag to list dos and don’ts people must bear in mind when traveling home.

The notices also discuss office behavior for those back at work, ranging from keeping your distance in the elevator to bringing your own chopsticks and disinfecting your hands and your mobile phone. Speaking of mobiles, just to ensure all generations are on board, the notices have also been set to music and turned into a Douyin-style short video.

Ordinary Chinese People are Getting Creative to Cope with Coronavirus Confinement

Hashtag #在家里无聊如何打发时间# (“How to pass the time when bored at home”) is trending on Sina Weibo, one of China’s largest social media platforms, as coronavirus-induced confinement continues to have the nation in its grip.

While the serious repercussions of the virus’ spread are being played out in news media and online, life in lockdown — whether government enforced or voluntary — is bringing out the creative side in many a Chinese netizen climbing the walls.

User 小五同学 found comfort in food, finding various ways to entertain with Jelly Babies.

Other incidences of people playing with their food included these creative takes:

Video clips have been doing the rounds on Douyin (China’s TikTok sister app), Weibo, and WeChat of other exploits to keep yourself entertained when you can’t leave the house:

Some of those under lockdown decided to look further afield than the four walls of their own apartment. Videos have been circulating of people in Wuhan yelling across apartment complexes for anyone to spark up some conversation with, while videos posted on social media on January 28 showed the citizens of Wuhan shouting “武汉，加油!” out of their windows — literally translating to “Wuhan, add oil!” and meaning “Come on” or “Hang in there, Wuhan!”

Fast forward 24 hours and their shouts of support have resulted in the following hashtag, #武汉加油MV#. Yep. “Wuhan, add oil! The Music Video.” The song comes courtesy of notorious red rap crew CD Rev.

Another contender in “how to beat the boredom” is the Chinese state media’s livestream of the construction of two new hospitals authorities in Wuhan are building to fight the outbreak of the virus in the city. At its height, the livestream has been attracting tens of millions of viewers following every nut and bolt tightened on the high-speed constructions.

Of course, despite some of the more light-hearted distractions on social media, many people in China continue to be deeply concerned about developments related to the novel coronavirus. The death toll from the outbreak as of January 30 has now risen to 170, and a confirmed case in Tibet means the virus has now reached every region in Mainland China. Health authorities on January 30 also stated there were 7,711 confirmed cases across the country.

Photo: Benjamin Chris on Unsplash

Coronavirus Memes are Going Viral in China

In mid-December, the outbreak of a new virus was detected in Wuhan, China. The virus — a new coronavirus and a cousin of SARS — has killed at least 9 people, sickened more than 440, and has just been detected for the first time in the United States.

The people of China, understandably, are coping via memes.

Here are the best memes from across the internet, as Chinese and English speakers come together to say “RIP 2020, it was a good run.”

1. “How to text your friends in Wuhan”

2. Can’t be too safe

3. What we all thought at first

4. Symptoms may include paranoia

5. When the store runs out of masks

6. Or, share with a friend

7. How to flake on plans

8. “Come out and play”

9. This season’s essentials

10. When the coronavirus hits at Chinese New Year

Influencer Drives Mercedes into Forbidden City, Sparks Outrage, Memes, and Games

Over the weekend, two women posted a picture of themselves posing with their Mercedes parked in front of Beijing’s Forbidden City, sparking a widespread conversation about privilege, wealth, and cultural dignity. And, of course, socially conscious memes and a platform game.

Weibo user Lu Xiaobao has since deleted the post, but the widely-reposted photos show her and a friend flexing their luxury car in a seemingly empty museum grounds. The caption read, “On Mondays the Palace Museum is closed, so we dodged the crowds and went to play in the Forbidden City.”

#ForbiddenCityRespondsToDrivingIncident and #DrivingIntoTheForbiddenCity both shot to the top of Weibo’s trending list, followed by an enormous wave of comments and condemnations from not only ordinary social media users, but also prominent state media figures like Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin and the editorial board of the People’s Daily.

The Palace Museum (the official name for the Forbidden City) implemented a full ban on motor vehicles in 2013, leading to massive anger over Lu’s frivolous rule breaking at the respected cultural heritage site.

People began to dig into Lu’s social media, relentlessly meme-ing the fact that she takes expensive vacations to Las Vegas, and claims to be a descendant of a Chinese revolutionary hero. One user 互联网分析湿 wrote, “The red generation shed blood and tears in order to overthrow the privileged class, and now their descendants have become part of their original resistance. Irony~”

The Palace Museum initially responded by saying it was “hurt” by the story and was investigating. However, netizens weren’t having it. One user commented, “This apology can’t quell the anger of millions. We strongly demand the resignation of Director Wang Xudong.”

One developer has responded to the event with a playable mini game

As the scandal grew, the Palace Museum issued a follow-up post, and suspended the deputy director and security director for inspection.

There have been several not-so-proper visitors to The Forbidden City in the past, including a nude photoshoot and other instances of driving inside the site. But the concentrated anger of millions of netizens indicates that this particular instance of wealth-flaunting struck a unique chord.

A side-scrolling web game, developed by Rein Lv, pokes fun at the entire thing, and firmly cements the incident in the digital zeitgeist. If you download the installer, you can play as a car driving through the Forbidden City, hopping over stone lions.