An anti-drug campaign released by Xinjiang authorities has become a trending topic on Chinese social media after different major Chinese official media outlets such as People’s Daily posted the video on their social channels.
One of the main reasons why the video has gone trending is not because of the strong anti-drug message it conveys, but due to the acting skills of the featured anti-drug ambassador. Many people say they would immediately believe he truly is a drug dealer.
Some people actually think he is so convincing as a drug dealer, that he is less convincing as an actual anti-drug ambassador.
“He’s a better actor than many actors we know,” some said, with others praising the ‘drug-dealer’ actor for having “such temperament, such aura.”
One hashtag related to the video, initiated by the Sichuan media account Sichan Guancha (@四川观察), is titled “Xinjiang Anti-Drug Ambassador Doesn’t Look Like [He’s] Acting” (#新疆禁毒形象大使不像演的#), and it received over 350 million clicks on Weibo on Thursday, becoming one of the top trending topics of the day.
In the video (link), we first see a man sitting in a dark room looking straight into the camera and, with a low voice, saying:
“I am a ruthless drug dealer, but I will never tell you. I’ve recently tried out a new routine again and again.”
In the next scene, we see the same man, dressed in a black coat and wearing a black beanie hat, in a coffee bar. While he is about to give a woman standing next to him a piece of candy, he again stares into the camera and says:
“Of course, I won’t tell you I’ll disguise the Methaqualone as candy for you. We also call it “Fode” (佛得). After taking it, it can trigger severe coma and lethal respiratory failure. The minimum lethal dose is just 2-10 grams..”
The video then goes on to show the man sitting down on a sofa next to another lady, about to hand her a bottle of pills:
“I also won’t tell you that these little tablets are actually Triazolam, a strong tranquilizer. Taking it can result in quick coma – it’s forty to hundred times stronger than Diazepam [Valium].“
The next scene shows the man stepping up to a woman in what seems to be a book shop or library, and just before handing her a piece of jelly, he turns to the camera and says:
“I also surely will not tell you that I’ve mixed Methcathinone psychoactive substances with jelly. It can lead to violent behavior, and heavy doses can lead to death due to heart failure.“
In the final scene, the man is back in the dark room and seems to snort something before turning back to the camera, saying:
“Oh, and don’t send this video to your friends and family. Otherwise, my tactics won’t work..”
“We would almost report him!” some official media accounts wrote about the video.
In recent years, Xinjiang authorities have stepped up their anti-drug publicity campaigns. Besides their social media campaigns, the Xinjiang Anti Drug Office also carries out anti-drug campaigns at schools.
The main actor, who is now a social media hit, appears in multiple videos issued by the Xinjiang authorities (here’s another one).
Some people joke about praising the actor for his acting skills: “I don’t know the difference between the drug lord and the actor anymore.”
“You can only play [the role] this well if you’ve seen a lot of drug dealers,” some commenters suggested.
In light of the actor almost being more popular now than the message the video propagates, many people want to know who he is and what his background is.
“Isn’t he a veteran actor?” some wonder: “What’s his name?”
Although it is not reported at this point who the actor is, some people think he is not a professional but is part of the local anti-drug office team.
It is not uncommon for local anti-drug teams to be creative in their campaigns. In 2020, Hainan’s anti-drug police force published a video of themselves covering Jay Chou’s “Mojito” (link).
Some commenters even suggested that the Xinjiang and Hainan forces join hands in making a new production.
Another campaign that was less popular was one that took place in Guangdong in 2018, when ten households in a local village were publicly shamed by having the words “Drug Crimes in Family” sprayed on their walls or doors (link). Compared to those kinds of publicity campaigns, this Xinjiang one is definitely more popular among Chinese netizens: “He might be a drug lord, but I just think he’s really handsome.”
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.
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.
The gruesome murder of the 28-year-old Hong Kong socialite and model Cai Tianfeng (蔡天鳳), better known as Abby Choi, has been all the talk on Chinese social media this week.
The Hong Kong influencer went missing on Tuesday. Just a week ago, Choi was featured on the cover of the magazine L’Officiel Monaco.
On Saturday, South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Free Pressreported that Choi’s partial remains, including her dismembered legs, were found cooked and stored inside the freezer at a village house and that four people had been arrested for murder.
The village house at Lung Mei Tsuen in Tai Po was allegedly set up as a “butchery site” equipped with a choppers, hammer, an electric saw and a meat grinder that had been used to mince human flesh.
Choi was entangled in a financial dispute with her ex-husband’s family over luxury property in Hong Kong’s Kadoori Hill. The persons arrested in relation to her murder are her ex-husband named Alex Kwong, his elder brother, his mother and his father, who reportedly is a retired police officer.
Abby Choi and Alex Kwong had two children together, a daughter and a son.
Cho was last seen in Fo Chun Road in Tai Po on Tuesday afternoon. CCTV footage captured her before she went missing. Choi was supposed to pick her daughter up on Tuesday together with Kwong’s elder brother, who drove her. She was reported missing after she did not show up to collect her daughter.
While earlier media articles reported that some of Choi’s remains had still not been found, news came out on Sunday that the decapitated head had been found in a soup pot. Seeing over 300 million views, the topic went trending on Weibo (#蔡天凤头颅在一大汤煲中找到#), where many people have closely been following the latest developments in the case. Later on Sunday night, the topic hashtag was taken offline.
Local police disclosed that the head remained “intact” although it is believed that someone tried to “smash” it. Some of Choi’s ribs were also found.
“Reality is more gruelsome than fiction,” some top comments said. “What a terrifying family,” others wrote, calling them “inhuman” and “devilish.”
Another topic related to the case also went trending on Sunday, namely that Choi’s ex-husband and his family allegedly had been planning the murder for a month (#蔡天凤前夫家1个月前开始布局#, 180 million views).
Some Weibo bloggers said the case reminded them of another well-known and gruesome Hong Kong murder case, namely the 2013 murder of Glory Chau and Moon Siu. At age 63, the couple was murdered by their own 28-year-old son Henry Chau Hoi-leung and his friend. After killing them, the two chopped up Chau’s and Siu’s bodies and cooked their remains and stored them inside the refrigerator. The 2022 crime film The Sparring Partner (正義迴廊) was based on this story.
About the Kwong family, some Weibo users write: “Too bad that Hong Kong law does not have the death penalty.” Capital punishment in Hong Kong was formally abolished in 1993.
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.
Online Anger over Zhejiang Man Being Detained for 10 Days after Acid Attack on Wife
There is online anger over the fact that the chemical engineer who doused his wife with sulfate acid was only detained for ten days following the brutal attack.
A woman who survived an attack in which her husband doused her with sulfuric acid has made a social media video, drawing national attention to the case. After the attack, the husband was initially only detained for ten days and received a 400 yuan ($58) fine.
A female survivor of domestic violence has spoken out on social media about the devastating acid attack that has left her scarred for life (#被丈夫泼硫酸毁容女子发声#).
The incident happened in Kaihua Country in Quzhou, Zhejiang, on Jan. 14, 2023, when a 31-year-old female named Zhang argued with her husband, Xu Zhong, over their marriage.
During the dispute, Xu Zhong, a 29-year-old chemical engineer, attacked his wife by throwing concentred sulfate acid in her face. He already had prepared the bottle with concentrated sulfuric acid prior to the incident.
“I want you all to see my acid burns,” Zhang says in the video she recently posted on social media, sharing how she has already had three operations after the attack, which mainly burned the skin tissue around her eyes, her face, hands, and also scarring her two ears, leaving her partially deaf.
After the acid attack, Xu Zhong was detained for ten days and received a 400 yuan ($58) fine.
The topic went trending on Chinese social media platforms Weibo and Douyin on Saturday, Feb. 18. The topic “Husband Splashes Wife with Acid, Gets Detained for Ten Days” (#丈夫泼妻子硫酸被行拘10日#) received over 82 million views on Weibo at the time of writing.
Zhang prior to the attack and in her video after the attack.
Zhang had been a victim of domestic violence prior to the brutal attack. In June of 2022, Xu Zhong raised the topic of having a second child. When Zhang disagreed, the couple’s relation went bad and Xu Zhong started being violent toward his wife, after which she wanted to file for divorce.
Because Xu Zhong would not agree to a divorce, Zhang hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit. She eventually was not able to come up with the legal fees and dropped the case in July of 2022.
In January of 2023, the separated couple met again to discuss the possibilities of divorce. It was at this time that Xu Zhong splashed Zhang with sulfate acid.
“If you want to commit a crime, just get married,” one top comment in one of the related threads on Weibo said.
The case has hit a nerve on Chinese social media, where other domestic violence incidents previously also went trending and sparked anger about the problem of domestic violence often being downplayed by Chinese local officials when women reach out for help.
Domestic abuse was officially criminalized with China’s first national law against domestic violence in 2016, but it is still a widespread problem, partly due to a general lack of public awareness and due to police officers often regarding it as a “private” family matter.
In light of the online attention surrounding the case, the local authorities in Kaihua released a statement on Saturday, in which they stated that the ten-day detention and fine were for Xu’s acts of violence intended to cause harm. The case is currently still being investigated and the local public security organs will hold the suspect legally responsible once they can assess the extent of Zhang’s injuries (#警方回应男子泼妻子硫酸仅拘10天#).
But on Weibo, many commenters do not understand the legal procedures and do not see why Xu is not already behind bars considering the severity of the attack.
“They only detained him for ten days? This can’t be real,” some write. “There is no excuse for him not being in jail now,” others say.
Similar discussions went trending on Chinese social media in 2020, after the death of Tibetan vlogger Lhamu, who died after her husband attacked her and set her on fire inside her own home. Lhamu’s death sparked widespread calls on authorities to do more to protect and legally empower victims of domestic abuse.
Besides the initial light sentence for Zhang’s husband, there is also online anger over the fact that Zhang was unsuccessful in filing for divorce in the summer of 2022.
Although many people think it should become easier for Chinese couples to file for divorce – even if the other party disagrees, – a law that was released in 2020 introduced a mandatory “cooling off period” of thirty days. The law is allegedly intended to make people think twice before finalizing their divorce, but it also triggered outrage as people felt the regulation makes victims of domestic violence even more vulnerable.
Some Chinese netizens say Zhang’s case brings back memories of the 1996 case of Yang Yuxia (杨玉霞), the most well-known acid attack case in China to date.
The Yang Yuxia case attracted nationwide attention in 1996.
Yang Yuxia was a 28-year-old primary school teacher in Shanghai who had an extramarital affair with the father of one of her students. After he ended the relationship, Yang attacked his wife and young daughter with sulfate acid, leaving them disfigured and leaving the girl (partially) blind. She was given the death penalty and faced execution by firing squad three months after the attack.
As for Zhang’s case, it is yet uncertain what the outcome of this particular domestic violence case will be, as it will depend on the findings of the ongoing investigation and the eventual ruling of the Kaihua court.
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.