An anti-discrimination bout staged in China's cyberspace
By Sophie Beach (EastSouthWestNorth Forum)
Updated: 2005-09-12 09:57

The drama-like story in Nanfang Weekend which follows the story of one particular post about rich versus poor at the Tianya Club.

The post first appeared in February 22, 2005. Since then, it was been viewed more than 223,000 times, and almost 4,000 people have commented on it.

It is estimated that it will take a person 7 hours to read the whole thread. With the national exposure from Nanfang Weekend, there will probably be another huge traffic surge.

What is the subject? It is about rich versus poor in China. It was two principal characters describing their daily lives and commenting on each other.

The precipitating cause for the forum post was a frequent forum participant named Yi Yeqing. She described herself as a Shanghai elitist and repeatedly asserted that society is divided into classes of noble people versus the riffraff.

From 2004, she wrote several essays to express her contempt of peasants, migrant laborers, outsiders, beggars and others.

For example, in the essay "Today, I saw a migrant laborer without shoes", she wrote: "This migrant laborer is worse than even people in the poorest country in the world ... his attitude was so backwards! I despise him!" In another essay, "My views on the housing situation of Chinese university students (it shocked me)", she spoke about "observing some horrible things" during a tour of a Shanghai university: "Heavens! Four people live in one single room! I have never heard of such a thing. Even more unthinkable is that these four people use the same bathroom. It is really unhygienic ... this is pitiful, this is pitiful!"

On February 22, a netizen posted an attack on Yi Yeqing and her elitist attitudes. This was promptly supported by many others. This is not the first time that Yi Yeqing had been attacked this way. In fact, every one of her previous articles probably drew similar criticism.

Page:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Close

Paris Hilton turns happy homemaker Fashion Week in New York Miss international beauty pageant

Today's Top News     Top Life News
Oil prices too high to stock strategic reserve         US to blame for China trade friction: Amcham         Fresh nuke talks bid to end nuclear impasse         Hu signs trade pacts with Mexico's Fox         Many IMF directors want gradual yuan moves         Human tests prove AIDS vaccine safe	Yahoo! hires top journalist to tour world's danger areas       Could China's richest be the tax cheaters?       What's in a name in Yunnan?       From rural China to laptops and laundromats       Tibet lamas enjoy their new freedom       Cowardly men afraid of watching child birth