Here we are then, the last few days of 2018. Phew, what a year.
Before we party likes it’s 2019, take a whistle-stop tour of some of the biggest moments from our coverage in 2018 with the RADII team, featuring everything from China’s #MeToo to the year of Kris Wu…
As we predicted back in October, the Beijing-based bike sharing pioneer Ofo is wobbling on its last kickstand.
Here are signs the end is near: One, every sidewalk is littered – one might even say plagued – with broken yellow bikes. Two, the cash-strapped company started slamming the breaks on its operations in Germany, Australia, and Israel and backpedaling from the American market earlier this year.
Now, the billion-dollar start-up seems a bell’s ring away from bankruptcy.
In an internal letter circulated among local news outlets on December 19, Ofo founder and CEO Dai Wei stated that over the past year, the Alibaba-backed shared bike service has been under immense cash flow pressure.
“We have to return users’ deposits, pay back suppliers, and maintain the company’s operations,” Dai wrote. “One yuan must turn into three.”
Related:
Watch: Jaw-dropping Video of China’s Shared Bike Graveyards Goes ViralArticle Jul 28, 2018
On top of that, the company said it was unable to secure external funding, and even considered filing for bankruptcy, “so that everyone would not have to continue to bear such pressure.” Rumors continue to abound that ride-hailing giant Didi has been blocking new investment into Ofo after the latter refused to sell out to the former.
That same day, Chinese media reported that the 27-year-old executive had been blacklisted for debt default (the ruling came on December 4). The Haidian District People’s Court in Beijing requires Dai to get approval before engaging in “excessive spending,” defined as: taking vacations, buying cars or properties, splurging on hotels or golf courses, sending his children to expensive private schools, flying first-class, and purchasing seats better than second-class on high-speed trains.
Piles of broken Ofos have become common sights on Chinese sidewalks
This legal blow comes a few days after hundreds of Ofo customers swarmed the company’s headquarters demanding their deposits back. Users had initially been asked to pay a 99RMB deposit (14USD) to use the service, which was later bumped to 199RMB (29USD). That leaves Ofo scrambling to find around 1.2 billion RMB (174 million USD) if it is to refund all of its users.
In his letter, Dai claimed that Ofo would “be responsible for every penny we owe, and be responsible for every user who has supported us!” But as negative headlines about the company pile up like Ofos in a shared bike graveyard, users have become increasingly jittery about the viability of retrieving their refunds.
As of Thursday evening, 11.7 million customers were waiting in the virtual line for their money back – making getting a refund from Ofo harder than snagging Hamilton tickets when Lin-Manuel Miranda was performing.
Piles of disused Ofos and Mobikes in Shanghai
And if that wasn’t enough negative press, Ofo’s refund strategy has also come under fire for favoring foreigners. On December 13, Weibo user zjt93 posted screenshots of an email written in English stating that he applied for a refund more than a month ago and was willing to sue. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, this “pretend to be a foreigner” strategy worked, and zjt93 got his money back the next day. Netizens weren’t too happy about this, evidenced by the hashtag “pretend to be a foreigner and Ofo will give you a refund in seconds” (#假装外国人ofo秒退押金#) climbing Weibo’s hot search list.
A Weibo user claims to have received a quick refund from Ofo after posing as a foreigner
Given the number of angry clients and the amount of controversy, we’re almost surprised an Ofo-themed diss track hasn’t dropped yet.
For the bigger picture on bike sharing culture in China, including Ofo’s origins and how it got to this point, see below:
China Explained: All You Need to Know About the Bike Sharing Boom (and Bust)Article Oct 23, 2018
This week, Xi Jinping gave a major speech celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Reform and Opening era. It also happens to be the time of year when I attempt to indoctrinate my wife into the joys of Christmas by forcing her to watch beloved holiday specials from my childhood. Now that I’m older and I live in China, I’ve come to realize some of these traditions were pretty messed up, but they also make excellent heuristic devices for understanding the last four decades of Chinese development.
With that, I give you the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer guide to Reform and Opening
Comet: Now, now. What’s all this nonsense here, bucks? After all– [yells when he sees Rudolph’s nose, too]
[The other reindeer gasp, but then they laugh]
Reindeer #1: Hey! Look at the beak!
Reindeer #2: Hey, Fire Snoot!
Reindeer #3: Rainbow Puss!
Reindeer #4: Red Schnoz!
Rudolph: Stop calling me names!
Reindeer #5: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!
Santa: [glares at Donner] Donner, you should be ashamed of yourself! What a pity! He had a nice takeoff, too!
Comet: [blows his whistle] Alright! Alright, now, yearlings! Back to practice! [The other reindeer return to playing and Rudolph tries to join them] Oh, no! Not you! You’d better go home with your folks. From now on, gang, we won’t let Rudolph join in any reindeer games! Right?
The Cultural Revolution profoundly sucked but it’s nice to know that China wasn’t the only place in the 1960s where the masses turned on individuals deemed unfit for joining the new order. That Rudolph wasn’t able to better establish his “Red” credentials and then use those to wage retributive political war against his enemies simply shows a lack of imagination on his part.
That said, it’s also worth considering that the Cultural Revolution, as horrible as it was, acted as a brushfire clearing the way for the bold reforms of the Deng Xiaoping era. It’s hard to get people to give up a system which sorta kinda works no matter how good the idea. It’s easier to convince people that change is necessary when you drag them through ten years of turmoil and political hell.
“Head Elf: Hermey! Aren’t you finished painting that yet? There’s a pile up a mile wide behind you! What’s eating you?
Hermey: Not happy with my work, I guess.
One of the problems of central planning is that nobody has much of a choice… in anything. Historians, economists, and politicians love to argue about who gets credit for the Reform and Opening Era. Xi Jinping seems to have some clear thoughts on the matter. So does Mike Pence. But I think it’s pretty obvious that much of the credit should go to the Chinese people, who took advantage of new opportunities to make their lives and those of their children better.
Did foreign investment prime the pump and provide the capital? Absolutely. Did the Party create conditions for people’s prosperity? Probably. But however you want to look at it, the Reform and Opening era created a lot of opportunities for people to be happy – or at least better paid – for their work and folks took that opportunity and ran away with it.
“Hermey: Hey, what do you say we both be independent together, huh?
One of my favorite things about Deng Xiaoping is how he ran a whole country of people who were, even by the standards of the era, a lot taller than he was. Dude was basically Tyrion Lannister in a Mao suit. I also love that he did it all without a lot of titles. Sure, he held on to one of the biggest ones (Chairman of the Central Military Commission) but he wasn’t head of state or head of the party. Those were titles for the people who worked for him, notably Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang. Hu Yaobang may have been the only person in the entire CCP shorter than Deng Xiaoping while Zhao Ziyang had shown some reformist chops in his home province of Sichuan.
They were two of the most important figures at a critical moment in the Reform and Opening era and they also made convenient fall guys when things went off the rails. Hu Yaobang was ousted in 1987 following a wave of student protests and Zhao Ziyang followed in the wake of the 1989 demonstrations (which began, of course, in part as a memorial to the recently deceased Hu Yaobang).
It’s also interesting if you read Zhao Ziyang’s memoirs, just how much Zhao and Hu didn’t get along.
Yukon Cornelius: We’ll have to outwit the fiend with our superior intelligence.
Undoing a quarter century of disastrous policymaking wasn’t the only thing the Party did to kick off Reform and Opening. They also invited in the world to share their money and their knowledge. This can be a tricky thing. In the 19th century, officials would talk about “Chinese things for what is essential, Western things for what is useful.” In the 1980s, Deng liked to refer to a screen which lets in the fresh air of capital and technology transfers without any of the mosquitos and flies (presumably democracy and some of the early ’80s Def Leppard albums).
Technology transfer was a cornerstone of the era. Companies from all over the world, including the United States, Europe, and Japan, opened factories and facilities in China and shared their technology with Chinese counterparts. It was a huge boost to China’s modernization to be able to absorb in a short amount of time the trial-and-error of the world.
It was all very clever up until the point that Canada started taking hostages and the world realized that gifting the CCP the best practices and the best IP the world had to offer and then letting them put it to work building a strong Chinese State might not have been in everyone’s interest.
Related:
People’s Daily Releases Epic Illustration for 40 Years of Opening and ReformArticle Dec 18, 2018
As many have written, it started with a fundamental miscalculation: If we develop China’s economy, then the people will eventually get rid of the CCP. That’s the way it has always worked. If we sign a few deals and transfer some tech it won’t matter. The long-term goals are too juicy to worry about the short-term problem of Chinese companies making photocopies of their partner’s IP in the back while toasting foreign CEOs and heads of state out front in the banquet hall.
Yeah, well… looks like the world called the putt on “economic development will lead to peaceful evolution” just a wee bit early.
Yukon Cornelius: You’re going to stay with me and we’ll all be rich with the biggest silver strike this side of Hudson Bay. Silver.
Hermey: I thought you wanted gold.
Yukon Cornelius: I changed my mind.
At the same time, it’s easy to think that the Chinese government and the Party were executing some kind of deep plan brimming with strategic brilliance and ancient insights. Not so much. One of the characteristics of the 1980s at least is that there wasn’t really a plan. The same could be said for today. There was, and still is, a lot of reactive fetishization of GDP and economic growth but not always actual strategy. I wonder if that’s why Xi is so attached to “Made in China 2025” because it looks like the Party is trying to be proactive for once.
Yukon Cornelius: Whoa. Whoa. Unmush, will ya?
There were also the unintended consequences of reform. Deng, ever the farsighted hobbit, knew this would be an issue. He said: “The penetration of bourgeois ideas is inevitable.” But by 1983, it was clear the Party didn’t want to be penetrated quite that deeply or in as many orifices as was the case in the early years of Reform and Opening. American capital is good. American technology is good. The strident and trenchant songs of that notorious American revolutionary poet John Denver… not so much.
The Party needed to remind people that the country of Wham! was also the country of the Opium War. The 1980s were characterized by cautious moves toward greater openness and then campaigns which smacked of retrenchment. It wasn’t until the 1990s, in the wake of the Tiananmen Square disaster, that the Party and Deng realized that half-measures weren’t going to cut it. What the Party tried to do in the 1980s was, to quote the late political economist Robin Williams, like partial circumcision. Less than ideal. You either do it all the way or fucking forget it.
Hermey: Well, someday I’d like to be a dentist.
Head Elf: A dentist?
Hermey: Well we need one up here. I’ve been studying molars and bicuspids and incisors…
Head Elf: Now listen, you, you’re an elf and elves make toys. Now get to work.
Which of course leads into one of the most famous – and unfortunate – events of the era.
When thinking about the Reform and Opening era, whatever your politics, the numbers are staggering. The World Bank claims 800 million people were lifted out of poverty on Deng Xiaoping’s watch. The process wasn’t always pretty, but one of the most staggering transformations of society in human history occurred while he was in charge.
But Deng’s obituaries, those written outside of China anyway, all cited Deng’s use of the military to clear the demonstrators, usually in the first couple of paragraphs. That’s what happens when you make terrible choices. OJ Simpson is in the American football Hall of Fame. Gary Glitter sold over 20 million records. I guarantee that’s not what comes up when you Google those names.
There’s been a lot written (and with the 30th anniversary coming up there’s sure to be more) about the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. But one thing that is sometimes overlooked is the extent that anxieties over jobs and careers motivated many of the students in the square. Things were changing in the 1980s but for many college students in the era, their lives and careers were out of their hands. As the economy changed and corruption flourished, many of China’s best and brightest worried about being left behind. There were others as well who didn’t want to be an elf and go to elf practice. They wanted to be a dentist. Frankly, Hermie the elf should wake up every morning in his North Pole dentist office grateful that Santa doesn’t have any tanks.
Happy Christmas or Happy Reform and Opening 40th Anniversary depending on your location and political affiliation.
The Wǒ Men Podcast is a bi-weekly discussion of life in China hosted by Yajun Zhang and Jingjing Zhang. Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men Podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here.
Debate is a historical form of discussion which was one of the earliest methods for decision making and even law and legislative making.
Six years ago, after witnessing a woman in an English debate by chance, Lysa Wei became deeply fascinated by the nature of debating – logical consistency, factual accuracy and emotional appeals to win the audience’s hearts and minds. She became determined to be a debater.
At that time she could barely present an argument in English. Today, she is the holder of numerous debate championship titles including Grand-finalist of the China National Debating Championship (FLTRP Cup) 2014, and Grand-finalist and 5th Best Speaker of Singapore Debate Camp 2014. Lysa is not only one of the most prestigious debaters in China, she has also co-founded China’s first women debate network and started to nurture the next generation of women debaters.
Today, we have Lysa Wei joining the show to share her extraordinary experience of English debating and how debate has widened her horizon in life and opened doors in her professional life.
Find the latest episode on iTunes.
Previously on the Wǒ Men Podcast:
Wǒ Men Podcast: Gu Xi, Female Coding Pioneer (Redux)Article Sep 21, 2018
Wǒ Men Podcast: My Dating App Match with an FBI MoleThe Wo Men Podcast team dive into the world of Chinese dating apps, courtesy of guest (and experienced Tinder and Tantan user) Sunny SunArticle Nov 30, 2018
Wǒ Men Podcast: Prison BreakerArticle Oct 08, 2018
Jackie Chan’s sudden rush to fame afforded him an enormous influx of wealth and status – and the freedom to wreck a Porsche in the morning and a Mercedes-Benz in the evening, according to his memoir. A very candid account of the superstar’s life, his autobiography covers more than just the dirty secrets of his past. But really, that’s all anybody is interested in.
Chan’s confessional memoir “Never Grow Up” was just translated into English, so if you don’t read Chinese, now is your chance to experience the extravagant and dark stories of the martial artist’s past for yourself. Some of the most shocking moments include Chan spending $500,000 HK dollars on luxury watches, regular visits to prostitutes, and throwing his son across the room in a fit of anger.
Related:
Jackie Chan’s Daughter Has Married Her Influencer Girlfriend in CanadaArticle Nov 27, 2018
The memoir was published in Chinese in 2015, so you’ve probably already heard about at least a portion of the shockingly honest content. For instance, Jackie Chan’s affair with actress Elaine Ng, and the subsequent birth of their daughter Etta, is already widely known. Etta just announced last week her marriage to Canadian girlfriend, social media influencer Andi Autumn.
Even though the media has already covered the deep, dark secrets of Chan’s life extensively, you now have the option to explore what he has to say about his path to fame (and all his regrets) in his own words. The Chinese version has a rating of 7.5 out of 10 on Douban, so it might just be worth a skim.
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Chinese magazine 咬文嚼字 Yao Wen Jiao Zi (literally meaning “Biting Words”) recently released their “Top Ten Popular Words of the Year”. Intrigued, but don’t know Chinese? No worries, we’ve got the breakdown.
Here are the best new words and phrases coined in 2018.
1. “A Community with a Shared Future” — 命运共同体 Mìngyùn gòngtóngtǐ
This phrase was largely propagated by President Xi, who mentioned the term in several public addresses throughout the year.
The phrase was also added to the constitution’s preamble during the National People Congress’ historic amendment this March. It’s since been used by news outlet when reporting on global-level diplomatic events, such as Xi’s meetings with African leaders to discuss One Belt One Road policies.
Most recently its been used by media outlets while discussing the G20 conference this past weekend.
2. Koi Fish — 锦鲤 Jǐnlǐ
While koi fish have long been a symbol of luck and prosperity in Chinese folk legend and culture, this term went viral after Alipay’s “Chinese Koi Giveaway” sweepstakes this past October. Alipay awarded one winner with a ridiculously large prize pack. With millions of entrants, winning could be attributed only to pure luck — the luck of a koi fish. The “koi fish” idea then expanded as other companies throughout Mainland China started their own spinoff of the “koi giveaway” in order to attract more business.
The Chinese Internet is Awash with Life-Changing Koi. Here’s What’s Going OnArticle Oct 15, 2018
3. Waiter — 店小二 Diànxiǎo’èr
In more antiquated Chinese, this term literally means “waiter”. But this past year it’s come to express government assistance to businesses, in efforts to catalyze economic development and reform. In that spirit, Chairman Xi announced in early November that the CCP would offer unwavering support to private enterprises across the country. Many Chinese netizens commented that the publishing of this list was the first time they encountered this phrase. It’s hard to determine how in touch with the common people this phrase may actually be, but it’s nevertheless been an important phrase for the government sector this year, as the country tries to “deepen and improve reform” during the 40th anniversary of the Reform and Opening period.
4. A Textbook Case — 教科书式 Jiàokēshūshì
This term spread through the Chinese net after a video of a police officer in Shanghai demanding a driver’s license went viral. Chinese netizens accused the officer of using unnecessary force, but his response was that he was just “going by the book”.
5. Official Announcement — 官宣 Guānxuān
This term literally means “to officially announce” or “an official announcement,” and was previously used to indicate official government announcements. The term went viral when two A-list Chinese actors Zhao Liying and Feng Shaofeng used the term to officially announce their marriage this October after a series of online rumors about pregnancy and a “secret marriage.”
6. “Soul Gaze” or “Confirmed by the Eyes” — 确认过眼神 Quèrènguò yǎnshén
Reportedly taken from some mushy JJ Lin song lyrics, this term means “to examine, to see”, etc. It was popularized online around Chinese New Year when it was used to roast people in Guangdong for giving small hongbaos (small red envelops filled with money), one netizen writing “it was confirmed by my eyes, you’re from Guangdong.”
7. Retreat — 退群 Tuìqún
This is a term you’ll see appear when you choose to quit a group chat in apps like WeChat. Recently, however this term has been used when describing global level current events. From “retreating” from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Paris Climate Agreement, and UNESCO (just to name a few), President Trump’s behavior has also given Chinese media outlets an abundance of opportunities to use the term. Most recently, this term was used by Chinese news outlets when reporting on Qatar’s announcement it will “retreat” from OPEC starting in January 2019.
8. Buddha-Like — 佛系 Fóxì
The term “Buddha-like” actually doesn’t have much to do with Buddhism in earnest. The term was first used in 2014 by a Japanese magazine describe uncommitted, chill male millennials, content with the pursuit of their hobbies and their studies. The term was adopted my Chinese netizens, describing men who have a fairly lackadaisical attitude towards most everything. Instead of labelling these friends “lazy” or asserting that they “don’t care,” many have chosen to label their friends (or label themselves) “Buddha-like”. The Buddha-like friend in your life can be spotted as the person who always replies “OK, come over whenever,” “we can meet whenever,” or “anything’s cool with me.”
9. Big Baby — 巨婴 Jùyīng
With the influx of crazy, entitled public transport passengers, it’s no wonder this term has picked up steam on the Chinese internet. This term is used to describe adults who exhibit child-like behavior.
Instead of explaining, here are two notable examples from this year in China:
Example 1: The High-Speed Train Seat Boss
Here’s one of several videos which surfaced this year on social media of adults refusing to give up their seat to the person who actually purchased it. Another video showed a grown woman screaming at the train attendants after they asked her to move from first class to second class (she had purchased a second-class ticket).
Example 2: In a more tragic example, a passenger on a public bus in Chongqing violently argued with the bus driver after she missed her stop. She hit the driver several times and attempted the jerk the wheel. Her attempt to grab the wheel caused the driver to loose control, and plunge off the side of the bridge he was driving on. Over a dozen people lost their lives in the incident.
10. Argumentative Person — 杠精 Gàngjīng
We all have that friend. That guy. The one who likes arguing for the sake of arguing. The person addicted to disagreement for the sake of disagreement. This year, the Chinese net popularized a hard-to-understand term for this type of person: gangjing, 杠精.
Back in the old days, 抬杠 taigang referred to carrying a coffin around on poles. In a monumental rhetorical leap, the term now refers to being very argumentative. The second character in gangjing — 精 jing — connotes a kind of energy or spirit. It’s also found in the word vigor, for instance.
So gangjing is like the existing slang taigang, just more… spirited. That’s pretty much all we can say about that one.
Word of the Year
What would the top phrases of the year be without the word (well, character) of the year?
English speakers combine words into portmanteaus all the time to make new, more hip-sounding words (brother + romance = bromance, etc.). What happens when this same phenomenon occurs in Chinese? Well…this:
Pronounced qiou this character is a mashup of a few Chinese characters, 穷 qiong, meaning poor, and 丑 chou, meaning ugly. Some people also see the character 土 tu — dirt — in there, which has recently come to mean a person with bad taste (or the things they fancy).
The meaning of the character is depicted in the picture below:
Meaning #1: Poor to the point of eating dirt
Meaning #2: Not only ugly, but poor to the point of eating dirt
Meaning #3: Ugly, Poor, Dirt (poor taste)
If you look close you’ll see that the word “qiou” is a combination of these two characters:
Poor (qiong 穷)
Ugly (chou 丑）
Thus, together, the hitherto non-existent “qiou“.
Many Chinese netizens have joked that that the character should actually be pronounced as “wo,” or the Chinese word for “me”, the implication being that the new character describes them perfectly.
While it may seem like a light joke, many social media users point out that the popularity of such a character could be indicative of the situation faced by college-age students and young adults in China. College graduates find it increasingly difficult to find appropriate work after graduating, and the exponentially rising use of social media sets beauty standards at an all-time high, leading many Chinese netizens to comment that a seemingly frivolous character-creation is really a mirror into the current state of youth in Chinese society. As put by one of my good friends and schoolmates here in China: “This is China. In our time, it’s a society that looks at the face.”
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