China Local News
Reporter’s Smiling Selfie at Scene of Horrifying Accident Triggers Anger on Weibo
“This is no laughing matter” – A happy selfie at the scene of a grave accident triggers anger on social media.
Local media reports in China blame a “sudden fog” for a horrifying accident at an Anhui expressway that killed at least 18 people and injured 21 others on Wednesday morning. The multiple collision caused over 30 vehicles to pile up, NDTV reports.
Multiple collision in Anhui, November 15 (Image by CCTV).
Dramatic footage (CCTV video, Youtube) taken at the scene, near Fuyang city, shows that multiple trucks and cars caught fire after the collision and how rescue workers are at work to verify casualties.
A presenter poses at the scene of the accident with a big smile.
The gravity of the accident did not stop a local Fuyang reporter, however, from taking smiling selfies at the scene. The woman, a presenter at Fuyang’s Yingxiang Traffic Radio (@颍上交通音乐广播), makes a peace sign and holds her badge as she happily poses in front of burnt out cars. A man in uniform is standing next to her in one of the photos.
The photos were posted on Weibo by multiple accounts, one belonging to a female netizen who is a local resident from Fuyang, Anhui. She writes:
“At 7.45 in the morning of the 15th, 30 vehicles collided, leaving 18 people dead and 21 wounded. Yet this Fuyang Radio presenter poses at the scene of the crash with a man in uniform grinning from ear to ear. Don’t you have a conscience? Don’t you have any personal integrity in your work?”
One of the first people to share the photos on Weibo is a local Fuyang resident.
The pictures triggered thousands of angry reactions on Weibo. A typical comment by an anonymous netizen said:
“She has no humanity at all. So many people have died, and she is still playing around with selfies, is that human? Just seeing this scene, my heart feels so upset. I hope the relevant authorities in Anhui will teach her a lesson.”
Many of the people commenting to the issue said they were also from Fuyang and grieved by the accident and the woman’s behaviour at the scene. Fuyang is a prefecture-level city in Anhui with more than 7,5 million inhabitants.
Scene of the crash, photos from Weibo.
On Wednesday evening, the presenter in question uploaded a video in which she apologizes for her actions. “Hello everybody I am Ling, and I want to sincerely apologize for what has happened today,” she says: “I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
The woman named ‘Ling’ apologized in an online video on Wednesday night.
In the morning of November 16, the Fuyang Traffic Radio station posted an announcement on social media denouncing their colleagues’ behavior, stating that her employment at the station has since been terminated.
The Fuyang radio station announced on Weibo that the woman is no longer working for them.
This is not the first time a smiling photo at the scene of a serious accident goes viral on Weibo. In 2012, a local Shaanxi official made headlines when he was photographed laughing at the scene of a traffic collision that left 36 people dead.
The photo of the “smiling official” instigated a ‘human flesh search’ with people on Weibo researching his identity and background. His expensive watches drew the attention of netizens, who eventually exposed him as a corrupt official.
The ‘smiling official’ at the scene of an accident that left 36 people dead. (Image via Chinasmack)
On Weibo, many people do not understand how someone can be smiling under grave circumstances: “Is she braindead? How could you ever laugh when 18 people just died?”
There are also a few people, however, who feel the presenter is criticized too harshly by the online community. One person writes: “Give the girl a chance. People make mistakes.”
Others remind the people discussing this issue to focus on the victims of the accident instead: “We hope they can rest in peace.”
By Manya Koetse
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The ‘Blank White Paper Protest’ in Beijing and Online Discussions on “Outside Forces”
As people in Beijing, Shanghai, and other places take to the streets holding up white papers, some have dubbed this the “A4 Revolution.”
Over the past few days, there have been scenes of unrest and protest movements in various places across China.
While there were protests in Shanghai for the second night in a row, Beijing also saw crowds gathering around the Liangmahe area in the city’s Chaoyang District on Sunday night.
Some videos showed crowds softly singing the song “Farewell” (送别) in commemoration of those who lost their lives during the deadly inferno in Urumqi.
Later, people protested against stringent Covid measures.
Scenes from Beijing's Liangmahe where people sang 'Farewell' song (送别) to commemorate those who died in the Urumqi fire on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/raivvbOibp
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) November 27, 2022
“The crowds at Liangmahe are amazing,” some people on Weibo commented.
Photos and videos coming from the area showed how people were holding up blank sheets of white paper.
Earlier this weekend, students in Nanjing and Xi’an also held up blank paper sheets in protest of censorship and as the only ‘safe’ way to say what could otherwise not be said. This form of protest also popped up during the Hong Kong protests, as also described in the recent book by Louisa Lim (Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong).
The recurring use of blank paper sheets led to some dubbing the protests an “A4 Revolution.”
“When can we have freedom of speech? Maybe it can start at Beijng’s Liangmahe,” one person on Weibo wrote on Sunday night.
Another Beijing-based netizen wrote: “Before going to sleep I saw what was happening in Liangmahe on my WeChat Moments and then I looked at Weibo and saw that the Xicheng area had added 279 new Covid cases. I started thinking about my own everyday life and the things I am doing. I can’t help but feel a sense of isolation, because I can’t fight and do not dare to raise my voice.”
“I didn’t dare to believe this is happening in 2022. I didn’t dare to believe this is happening in Beijing. I do not dare to believe that again it will all have been useless tomorrow morning,” one Weibo user commented.
During the night, various people at the scene shouted out things such as “we want to go out and work,” and other hopes they have. One person yelled: “I want to go out and see a movie!”
“I want to go and see a movie.”
The phrase “I wanna go watch a movie” (“我要看电影”) was also picked up on social media, with some people commenting : “I am not interested in political regimes, I just want to be able to freely see a movie.” “I want to see a movie! I want to sit in a cinema and watch a movie! I want to watch a movie that is uncensored!”
Despite social media users showing a lot of support for students and locals standing up and making their voices heard, not everyone was supportive of this gathering in Beijing. Some suggested that since Liangmahe is near Beijing’s foreign embassy district, there must be some evil “foreign forces” meddling and creating unrest.
Others expressed that people were starting to demand too many different things instead of solely focusing on China’s zero Covid policies, losing the momentum of the original intention of the protest.
Political commentator Hu Xijin (胡锡进) also posted about the recent unrest on his Weibo account on Sunday night:
“The people have the right to express their opinions, and you may have good and honest aspirations and have the intention to express legitimate demands. But I want to remind you that many things have their own rules, and when everyone participates in the movement, its direction might become very difficult for ordinary participants to continue to control, and it can easily to be used or even hijacked by separate forces, which may eventually turn into a flood that destroys all of our lives.”
Hu also called on people to keep striving to solve existing problems, but to stay clear-headed, suggesting that it is important for the people and the government to maintain unity in this challenging time.
The term “outside forces” or “external forces” (外部势力) increasingly popped up in social media discussions on late Sunday night.
“I worry a lot of meddling by external forces. Let’s be vigilant of a color revolution. I just hope things will get better,” one netizen from Hubei wrote.
“Young people should not be incited by a few phrases and blindly follow. Everyone will approve of people rationally defending their rights, but stay far away from color revolutions.”
The idea that foreign forces meddle in Chinese affairs for their own agenda has come up various times over the past years, during the Hong Kong protests but also during small-scale protests, such as a local student protest in Chengdu in 2021.
The term “color revolution” is recurring in these kind of discussions, with some netizens suggesting that foreign forces, such as the CIA, are trying to get local people to cause unrest through riots or demonstrations to undermine the stability of the government.
“It’s not always external forces, it can also just be opposition,” one person on Weibo replied: “In every country you’ll have different opinions.”
“What outside forces?” another commenter said: “I’m not an external force! I am just completely fed up with the Covid measures!”
Read more about the “11.24” unrest in China here.
By Manya Koetse , with contributions by Miranda Barnes
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