Trending in Beijing: Death Education in Schools, McDonald's Donut Sticks, and How Big is Beijing?
The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this: a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.
1) Proposal for "death education" to be added to school curriculums
One National People's Congress deputy and a chief surgeon, Gu Jin, proposed a bold addition to the national school curriculum during last week's Two Sessions plenum: a course about death to be taught in either primary or middle school. This "death education" would inform students about the importance of life, with the intention of also giving them a greater understanding of mortality. Gu Jin stated that as a medical professional, he sees seriously ill people on a daily basis and notices that their relatives aren't always equipped to cope with the prospect of death. Furthermore, he said society no longer holds the value of life in high enough regard, and too many young people commit suicide for frivolous reasons.
Additionally, Gu Jin made the case for adopting assisted suicide, or euthanasia in China (安乐死 ānlèsǐ, literally peaceful death), which is currently illegal. He admitted that "there was a long way to go" before planned suicide would be accepted by society.
On Weibo, netizens seemed to be quite accepting of the Gu Jin's ideas but added that society at large wouldn't be so supportive. One user looked at the bigger picture, saying: "China lacks three kinds of education: sex education, love education, and death education." Another wrote: "Sex education is already difficult to implement; parents will tear down the schools if you try to teach the kids about death." The discussion continues under #建议全民开展死亡教育# (suggestion for nationwide death education).
2) McDonald's starts selling youtiao in the US
... or so Chinese netizens would have you believe.
Back in February, McDonald's stores in the US launched cinnamon sprinkled donut sticks, but Chinese netizens only recently began insisting that they are simply a long lost cousin of youtiao. We'd argue that Chinese influence reverberates in a variety of cuisines, and even Wikipedia appears to believe that the French crepe is actually just a variation on Chinese jianbing.
In Beijing, youtiao has already made the leap from street vendors to KFC and McDonald's, and has been part of the breakfast menu at branches across China for years. It is equally famous for its chewy texture as its enormous calorie count. The main difference between China's variation and the one now found at McDonald's US appears to be the size (stubby and finger-length versus foot-long) and the fact that they're rolled in cinnamon.
One netizen asked out of curiosity: "Is soymilk also available?" referring to doujiang, the soy-based beverage typically paired with youtiao here. Netizens continue the discussion of whether youtiao is a universally shared food or a Chinese export under #美国麦当劳卖油条# (American McDonald's sells youtiao).
3) Beijing is big. But how big really?
Everyone knows that Beijing is a big city. In fact, its size is so difficult to grasp by our primitive minds, that netizens have started asking "just how big is Beijing really?" This video (Chinese audio with English subtitles) posted on Mar 12, poses just that, breaking down the city's 16,000sqm landmass and comparing it to other places in a number of creative ways. For example, the video claims that two and a half Shanghais or almost ten Xiamens could fit into the same area taken up by Beijing.
Aside from its daunting square-meterage, the video shows how Beijing also impresses in terms of population, noting that its total of 21.5 million permanent residents is only 3 million of the entire population of Australia.
In the comments, one netizen offered an even more relatable comparison in order to help us fathom just how large the city is: "If a boyfriend and girlfriend live in the north and south of Beijing, it's basically a long-distance relationship."
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Email: tautviledaugelaite@thebeijinger.com
Images: Weibo, The Takeout
