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Nightmarish Night in Itaewon: Fatal Halloween Stampede in Seoul

The devastating Halloween stampede in Seoul’s Itaewon is among the deadliest stampedes worldwide of the past decade.

Manya Koetse

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What was supposed to be the first big Halloween party night since the pandemic turned into a tragedy in Seoul’s Itaewon, where 154 people lost their lives in a stampede, including four Chinese nationals.

A devastating stampede that occurred in the Itaewon area of Seoul, South Korea, is making headlines around the world and is also receiving a lot of attention on Chinese social media on the late night of October 29 and early morning of October 30. “Itaewon” was among the top search keywords on Weibo, receiving over 220 million views in the early hours of Sunday (#梨泰院#).

The incident took place amid Halloween celebrations in the city, where large crowds tried to push forward on a narrow street near a major central party spot. Photos and videos from above show how the crowd became so large that people got crushed. According to the latest reports, at least 146 154 people died in the stampede.

Nightmarish footage circulating on Weibo shows medical staff providing first aid and treatment to victims on the street while the party music was still blasting from the speakers at nearby party venues.

The incident took place around 22.40 local time, when crowds got so large that people were unable to push forward. Around 23:30, around fifty people were reportedly already being treated for cardiac arrest.

On the social media platform Weibo, many of the top commenters responding to the Itaewon stampede are Chinese citizens who are living in Seoul, some assessing that there were over 10,000 people in the street when the incident happened.

“I’m so happy I left early,” some people said, with other Seoul-based netizens saying: “So grateful that I felt too tired to go out tonight.”

“I was at the scene, now still on our way back. All roads were closed off by emergency vehicles and police cars.”

“Stampede incidents can just happen like that,” others said, while many people were posting virtual candles on Weibo and saying that this news made them unable to sleep.

China has also seen stampede incidents in the past. On 31 December 2014, a deadly stampede occurred in Shanghai during New Year celebrations, leaving 36 people dead and another 49 injured.

For some netizens, the tragedy in South Korea makes them reflect on the epidemic situation in China, where the zero-Covid policy makes events where such enormous crowds can gather unfathomable. At the same time, there were also many netizens who said this was not an appropriate time to link the Itaewon incident to China’s zero-Covid policies.

Considering the current death toll, the Itaewon stampede is already among the most deadly stampede incidents of the past decade.

The Astroworld Festival stampede in Texas, which also received a lot of media attention in 2021, left 10 people dead. The much-covered Berlin Love Parade disaster of 2010 caused the deaths of 21 people. In 1993, 20 people were reported to have been killed in a stampede in Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong during New Year celebrations.

Update 30 October: Chinese official media reported on Sunday that four Chinese citizens were among the 154 people who lost their lives in the stampede (#韩国踩踏事故已有4名中国公民遇难#).

By Manya Koetse 

 

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©2022 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

Manya Koetse is the founder and editor-in-chief of whatsonweibo.com. She is a writer, public speaker, and researcher (Sinologist, MPhil) on social trends, digital developments, and new media in an ever-changing China, with a focus on Chinese society, pop culture, and gender issues. She shares her love for hotpot on hotpotambassador.com. Contact at manya@whatsonweibo.com, or follow on Twitter.

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China Food & Drinks

What’s Cooking? This Is What Putin and Xi Had for Dinner in Moscow

This was on the menu during the big dinner on Xi’s first night in Moscow during the state visit to Russia.

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WEIBO SHORT | Weibo Shorts are short articles on trending topics

While the state visit of Xi Jinping to Russia is in full swing, a smaller hashtag dedicated to the Xi-Putin meeting on Weibo is about what was served during the big dinner on Xi’s first night in Moscow (#两国元首今晚吃什么#).

The hashtag was hosted by RT (Russia Today), the Russian state media outlet which also has an account on Weibo (@今日俄罗斯RT) with over 1,7 million followers.

The account has been posting a lot about the “Putin Xi Meeting” (普习会) over the past few days.

The menu was as follows:

◼︎ Far Eastern Seafood appetizer (远东海鲜开胃菜)

◼︎ Blini with Quail & Mushrooms (鹌鹑和蘑菇煎饼)

◼︎ Sturgeon Fish Soup with Pirog (鲟鱼汤配皮罗格馅饼)
Clear soup with sturgeon is a Russian traditional dish; pirog is a popular Russian pie and in this case filled with meat rather than something sweet.

◼︎ Pomegranate Sorbet (石榴冰露)
Frozen sorbet, generally made using lime and mint.

◼︎ Pechora Nelma Fish with Vegetables (伯朝拉河鲑鱼配蔬菜)
Siberian white salmon from the Pechora River with vegetables.

◼︎ Venison served with Cherry Sauce

◼︎ Pavlova Dessert
Dessert made of meringue, whipped cream, and berries.

◼︎ “East Slope” and “West Slope” wine
Russian news agency TASS reported that two 2020 wines from Russia’s Divnomorskoye Estate winery were selected for the dinner.

On Weibo, the most popular comments were from those who said they wanted to see pictures of the dishes served.

Others wondered why vodka was not on the menu.

For more articles on China-Russian relations and related Weibo discussions, check our archives here.

 

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©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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China Media

“New Chapter of Sino-Russian Friendship”: Putin Publishes Op-Ed in China’s People’s Daily, Xi in Rossiiskaya Gazeta

In Xi’s piece, the word “China” was the most recurring one. In Putin’s article, the word “Russia” was repeated the most.

Manya Koetse

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Op-eds authored by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were published in the other countries’ government newspapers ahead of Xi’s three-day state visit to Russia. Both articles emphasized the importance of partnership, mutual trust, and friendship between the two nations.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow on Monday, March 20, for his scheduled state visit to Russia.

During his three-day Moscow visit, Xi will have one-on-one talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is the first time Xi visits Russia since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On the first day of the top-level meeting, the Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily headlined that Xi Jinping published an article in the Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on the occasion of his state visit, while also featuring the news about Putin’s signed article on the front page (the actual article was published on page three).

Meanwhile, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta did the same: they also featured Xi’s publication on the front page of their digital newspaper, while also turning Putin’s contribution to the People’s Daily into one of the main headlines. The newspaper also published a special section dedicated to Sino-Russian friendship.

Xi’s article, in Russian here and in Chinese here, was also translated to English and published by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on their website here.

The article, titled “Forging Ahead to Open a New Chapter of China-Russia Friendship, Cooperation and Common Development” (“踔厉前行,开启中俄友好合作、共同发展新篇章”) mainly stresses the strong bond and mutual trust between China and Russia and the future of Sino-Russian relations, with the word “cooperation” being used 22 times and the word “friendship” used 8 times in the text. The most-mentioned word in the text is “China” (24 times); “Russia” was mentioned 22 times.

“Ukraine” was mentioned three times in one paragraph about the ‘Ukraine crisis,’ which emphasized China’s “impartial position” and its active promotion of peace talks.

Word cloud of Xi’s text for Russian newspaper (What’s on Weibo/Word Art).

The article by Putin is titled “Russia and China – A Future-Bound Partnership” (“俄罗斯和中国——面向未来的伙伴关系”) (link in Chinese, link in English) and it is similar to Xi’s op-ed in multiple ways, and also focused on stressing the special friendship between both countries and how similar they allegedly are in their culture, tradition, and foreign policy.

The article was actually also very similar to an earlier article titled “Russia and China: A Future-Oriented Strategic Partnership” published by Vladimir Putin for Chinese state media outlet Xinhua just before the Winter Olympics and Putin’s visit to China in 2022 (link in English).

The current article condemns America’s role in the international community and thanks China for its approach to the Ukrainian issue. The word that comes up most often in the text is “Russia” (20 times); “China” is mentioned 18 times. Words such as “cooperation” and “partnership” also come up a lot (7 and 5 times respectively).

Word cloud made from Putin’s text for People’s Daily, by What’s on Weibo via Word Art.

The hashtag “Xi Jinping Published Signed Article in Russian Media” (#习近平在俄罗斯媒体发表署名文章#) was posted on social media site Weibo by Xinhua.

China Daily posted images featuring several quotes from Xi’s signed article in Chinese and English.

While it was not the first time for Putin to post an op-ed in a Chinese state media newspaper, it was also not the first time for Xi Jinping to publish a signed article in a Russian government newspaper. He also posted one in 2015 (link in Chinese).

Xi previously also published letters or bylined articles in the media of other countries.

Ahead of his state visit to Finland in 2017, the Finnish newspaper Helsinki Times featured Xi’s article titled “Our Enduring Friendship” (“穿越历史的友谊”). Xi also stressed bilateral relations in letters to the foreign media of countries such as Myanmar, Greece, Nepal, North Korea, and others.

The term used by Xi in the article, “starting a new chapter” (“开启时代新篇章”) was repeated by many commenters replying to the topic on Weibo, where Xi’s Russia visit is covered by many media accounts in videos, text, and images.

In a recent post, political commentator Hu Xijin (@胡锡进) noted how Xi’s Russia visit made international headlines, underlining the major significance of the meeting. Hu wrote that no third party could hinder the “steady development of Sino-Russian relations.” At time of writing, only three out of more than a hundred replies to Hu’s post were displayed – the three replies consisted of hearts and thumbs up emoji only – with the other comments being filtered.

Although the meeting between Xi and Putin was promoted in the Weibo trending lists, most posts about the state visit only allowed some selected replies in the threads below, or simply closed the comment sections. This was also the case went Putin’s annual address in Moscow was featured by various accounts on Weibo.

For more articles on China-Russian relations and related Weibo discussions, check our archives here.

By Manya Koetse 

With contributions by Miranda Barnes

Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our newsletter and get access to our latest articles:

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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