The Dragon Boat Festival did nothing to halter or change the wave of strange. This week we were treated to zongzi, gaokao, evil nurses and more.

The Strange

1) Students Offered Dummies as Psychological Pinatas

A school in the city of Ningbo, in Zhejiang Province, has found an innovative, albeit controversial, method to alleviate their students’ level of stress and anxiety: a venting room.

As one would expect of any typical venting room, this one is fully equipped with dummies; ready to bear the brunt for every bad grade, or to temporarily enact as a teacher, classmate, etc…

Counselors reported that boys use the venting room primarily to strike the defenseless dummies, while girls used it mostly to cry.

The venting room, in which only two students are allowed at a time, is not the school’s sole attempt at reducing stress, as they also have an ambient music relaxing room, a sand-play room and a physical and mental feedback training room.

2) The Military’s ‘70 Forbiddens’ Rule Book

A little like the Ten Commandments, only…seven times that.

China’s Central Military Commission has just set up an extensive list of ‘don’ts’ in order to preserve and strengthen the moral fabric of its military. Not only that, they’ve decreed their list of ‘70 forbiddens’ would also apply to all other government officials.

While the list is mostly a compilation of self-evident duhs, certain vague or peculiar oddities were also sprinkled in:

1. No investment in foreign countries/business

1. No engaging in activities which do not promote social morality, professional ethics and family virtues

1. No lavish weddings and funerals

Additionally, as a cherry on the good-news cake, soldiers and military personnel will be denied participation to all social networking sites. A necessary measure, they claim, to the preservation of security and to avoid personal details from revealing the location of military bases.

3) Nanjing Zoo Offers Zongzi to Animals

 

A zoo in Nanjing decided the Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Jie, was as much a festival for us as it was for our furry friends. Chimpanzees and elephants, among other animals, were gifted with proportionally gift-wrapped zongzi. The elephant’s rice-treat, for example, was reported to weigh over 10 kilograms.

The Discussed

4) Weibo Frenzy over ‘Prostitute’ Sunbathing Naked

To the delight of some and the misfortune of others, microblogging is inventing new forms of distractions.

A man in Guangzhou was innocently gazing out the window when he suddenly did a double-take on a window from the building across. Just as innocently, his eagle eyes, combined with his sniper-like camera focused on the window. There she was, ‘a beauty’, the man reported on Weibo, sunbathing entirely naked.

For days, perhaps even weeks, the man followed her indecent public exposures, purporting to her frequentations and occupation. What did he come up with? The woman, lecherous by her regular sunbathing habits, was logically deemed a prostitute, who enjoyed sporadic threesomes, as she was occasionally seen with two other men (talking or playing cards).

In some cases, the rise of technology and social networking sites has led to the invasion of privacy. In this particular case, a lack of personal privacy is to blame for the shameless name-calling. This poor sunbather has no one to blame but herself.

For more pictures, please click here. Be warned, some of these pictures are NSFW (Not Safe For Work).

5) Sadistic Nurse Strikes in Old Folks Home

So innocent, and yet…

It’s the kind of thing you see in over-the-top comedies: nurses mistreating and abusing patients in old folks homes.

It seems every joke is founded on a shred of truth, and in the case of an old folks home in Zhengzhou, it proved to be more than just a shred.

After a taxi driver surnamed Wang first overheard the cries of a man emanating from one of the windows of the home at around four in the morning, he decided to take a look. There he witnessed a male nurse physically tormenting an old man. He returned on following nights to similarly cruel displays of sadism.

One night the old man was forced to gulp down urine, and when he struggled, gurgling it was too salty, the nurse would laugh and jeer, pushing more down the poor man’s throat. On another night, he was strapped to a chair and beaten on the knees.

Wang decided to tip off not the police but the Henan TV’s City Channel. The scandal was brought to light, and police arrested the nurse, a 62 year old man, as well as the home’s legal official. The Civil Affairs Bureau chief was also dismissed on the spot.

6) Student Sits for Gaokao Two Days after Deadly Accident

Three days prior to the gaokao, Ming Yafeng was involved in a roadside accident in Zhuxi, Hebei province, which killed the driver of their tricycle and plunged him in a 21-hour coma. A portion of his scalp was ripped off and a number of his lower teeth had to be pulled out.

Deserving a little rest you say? Most would agree; except Ming Yafeng. The injured student had his tutor come to his hospital bed to help him complete his reviews. He then made his way to the testing room on June 7th, a cap over his head to disguise the white bandages swathed around his scalp. 
 

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Offbeat China: Vigilantes, Hostages and More…
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