NE China street cleaners gain popularity on Weibo
By Wang Zhen
2015-04-21
A sophomore at the Jilin Animation Institute, in the city of Changchun, Jilin province, did not quite expect that his random posting of a shot of two street cleaners would grab so much attention on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, just in a couple of days.
The 20-year-old Wei Xiaoquan, a journalism major, posted a tweet on Weibo, on a sunny April 16, under his own name, saying, "These shots are from the sports ground on Jilin University's south campus."
Wei frequently visits neighboring Jilin University and caught the two who were nothing more than what seemed to be maintenance personnel in the usual orange uniform, relaxing on the sports ground. The female was on a swing set and the male cleaning away some small adverts on a handrail nearby.
So, he went on to muse on Weibo, "Love is where you are swinging and I'm behind you," then added, "The man is so hard-working, he's still on the job during lunch time."
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Wei Xiaoquan, the 20-year-old collegue student from Jilin Animation Institute posts?two cleaners' tweets on Weibo. [Photo provided to ejilin.gov.cn]? |
In explaining the story to a local newspaper and recalling what happened, he says, "It was around lunch time, say 12:00 noon, when I was playing on the basketball court and they were pretty close to me. I could tell they were cleaners from the uniforms and was guessing that they were a couple, because while she was swinging, back and forth, the man was pushing her now and then. It was really touching, even if they didn't look all that young anymore."
So, the young student did what any young people would do and quickly tweeted a group of photos on Sina Weibo, then went back to his dorm for a nap. He woke up to a surprise, with the random message getting a lot of attention and some people sending their best wishes or others asking him odd questions, such as, "Do you think it's appropriate to post photos of a private activity in a public sphere?", to which he replied, "I got their approval before I did it."
Other people doubted the relationship, for example, "What if they're not a couple at all?" leaving Wei a bit uneasy and embarrassed. So, in the afternoon, he posted, "Well, thank you guys for commenting on my post. It was quite unexpected. I simply hope Weibo can help draw people's attention to these street cleaners. I believe they deserve it."
He then changed his caption a bit to, "Love is not just a word ,like 'IOU', it's when you're swinging and I'm behind you and working around you," responding to some anonymous suggestions.
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The two cleaners in Wei's photo are working for Jilin University and getting quite relaxed?in a sunny afternoon. [Photo provided to ejilin.gov.cn] |
Later, Wei's two cleaners were identified as a couple in their late 40s who work for Jilin University.
Wei's simple action might be a minor case study in how a seemingly private or random message can get a lot of attention quickly, far more than he expected and, though he may not know it, Weibo had 240 million registered users in China and abroad at the end of 2014, according to China's Internet Network Information Center.
Zhang Zhi'an, a media researcher at Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University, describes its popularity this way: "In the past, the first thing you might do in the morning was kissing your girlfriend, but now it might be switching on Weibo instead."
In other words, the air of participation and level of public engagement could be so enormous, after all, Sina Weibo encourages users to volunteer for this or that through a 140 characters in complementing with picture(s) or video(s) in posting every single tweet. For example, in the city of Foshan, Guangdong province, In 2011, 2-year-old Wang Yue was hit by two vehicles outside a hardware store and was completely ignored by passers-by in spite of her bad injury, and was then rescued by a 58-year-old scavenger. Well, the incident quickly spread on Sina Weibo and, at some point, had generated more than 4.5 million posts and even a "stop apathy" campaign online, along with a heated debate on moral standards in a rapidly changing society, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.
Meanwhile, according to Zhang, Sina Weibo is itself reality, or in his words, "Don't see it as a medium, or a tool, it's the real world, a new form of social-relations, and a reflection of power-relations in reality."
Wei himself told China Daily website that he simply likes taking photos to capture the moment, and didn't expect so much attention or so many re-tweets in such a short period of time. That lead to broader social relations, with the majority expressing their best wishes to the two cleaners, and with one Weibo opinion leader, "Changchunguomao 7788", saying, "The most romantic thing that occurs to me is to go swinging with you", on April 16.
That was the same day Wei posted his tweets.
In commenting on Changchunguomao 7788's comment, he says, "He's a Weibo celebrity, and it's really kind to re-tweet my post,"then concludes, "It's a kind way to transfer love to more people."
