2009 top ten news
Top 10 odd stories 2009
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-12-23 06:25
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Editor's Note: Despite the often depressing headlines this year -- about the economy, corruption, the war in Iraq, pollution, and so on -- there is a lighter side to the news. Indeed, the world is never short of the amusing, the out-of-place and the downright wacky, which serve to enliven our conversations. Here we present you ten stories of 2009 that are hard to believe but absolutely true. [The Top 10 Everything of 2009]
1. Suicide-seeker gets a 'helping' pushing hand
2. Brick-wielding man smashes red-light running cars
3. County govt looks to smoke out more tax revenue
4. Short hair only! It's the new civility rule
6. Home nudists asked to cover up
8. Human skeleton is not a toy
9. No good deed goes unpunished
10. Clean and honest administration includes no porn?
1. Suicide-seeker gets a 'helping' pushing hand
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 Chen Fuchao who threatened to kill himself is pushed off Haizhu Bridge by 66-year-old Lai Jiansheng in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong province, May 22, 2009. [CFP] |
A would-be suicide jumper was given a push on Haizhu Bridge in Guangzhou by a man frustrated with the fact that the potential jumper had held up traffic for over five hours.
On May 21, 66-year-old Lai Jiansheng snuck through the police cordon surrounding Chen Fuchao, who was contemplating taking his own life because he owed two million yuan (US$283,200) after a failed construction project. Lai then climbed up to where Chen sat on the bridge, greeted him with a handshake, and pushed him off.
Chen fell eight meters onto a partially-inflated emergency air cushion and sustained spine and elbow injuries. Lai was taken away by police after the incident.
Twelve people have previously tried to jump off the bridge before.
Related readings:
Would-be jumper gets 'helping' hand
2. Brick-wielding man smashes red-light running cars
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 An unidentified man smashes a red-light running car in Lanzhou, in northwest China's Gansu province. [lzcbnews.com]
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At least one man in Lanzhou, in northwest China's Gansu province, was fed up with vehicles running red lights and not taking it anymore. On July 9th, he waited among a crowd of pedestrians gathering to cross the street. Wearing a vest and short pants, he held a brick in his right hand.
The light turned, and the crowd began to move across the street. But a large truck did not slow down. The man took his brick, and smashed its window as it went by. With a boisterous crowd obviously supportive of his action, the driver just drove off rather than risked a large confrontation.
Over the next three hours, about 30 red-light running vehicles fell victim to the man's wrath. His identity remains unknown.
3. County govt looks to smoke out more tax revenue
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 [Jiao Haiyang/Xinhua] |
The county government of Gongan, in central China's Hubei province, issued a circular in March stipulating what brand and how many cigarettes local departments must consume every year, complete with punishment for unfulfilled quotas.
The decree would require nearly 4 million yuan's (US$566,400) worth of cigarettes to be consumed.
The reason: the Gongan government wanted to boost local tobacco tax revenue.
The decree was lifted two months later, on May 3.
Related readings:
Strange decree on cigarettes
Public money going up in smoke
Watchdog backs ban on public funds for cigarettes
4. Short hair only! It's the new civility rule
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 [ctdsb.cnhubei.com] |
A high school in Foshan city, south China's Guangdong province, barred 30 of its female students from entering on September 22 because they violated a new rule: all girls must have a bob and all boys must have a crew cut. Girls' hair must hang above the shoulder, and bangs must not be below the brow.
The 30 girls, who studied music, insisted on their right to their own haircuts.
"How could discipline be upheld by cutting students' hair?" one asked.
The school insisted that the choice was clear – cut their hair or leave – and it threatened to call the police if any student tried to enter without the mandated haircut.
Related readings:
To cut or not to cut: that's the regulation
5. No more kissing on campus
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 A member of a "campus picket" responsible for warning student lovers against physical intimacy like kissing and embracing in public stops in front of a student couple at the Nanjing Forestry University November 6, 2009. [CFP] |
Months after an east China university banned public kissing and canoodling on campus, the petting police were still on patrol -- despite a heated debate online and on campus.
About 100 student guards wearing red armbands were employed by Nanjing Forestry University in November to cool down public display of affection among students on the campus in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Most students, however, felt the measure unnecessary, intrusive, and a waste of time.
Related readings:
"Campus picket" in action to prohibit intimacy in public
Chinese university kissing ban heats debate
Display your affection but think of the public, too
Commentators, please pardon the universities
6. Home nudists asked to cover up
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 [ycwb.com] |
Wang Nian and his wife practice nudism - at home. Their neighbor, Liu Hanqing, see things differently.
After noticing Wang's wife wander out onto her balcony naked, and then learning the Wangs never wear clothes at home, Liu complained to the local community committee, saying the Wangs were corrupting public morality.
The Wangs agreed to be more modest, but said they were befuddled by Liu's complaints.
7．You can't do a surgery DIY
In east China's Jiangsu province, a man named Uncle Wu broke his left leg and injured his thigh a year ago. To fix his leg, doctors implanted a steel plate in an operation at a local hospital.
This year after a check-up at another hospital in Yangzhou, Uncle Wu's leg seemed to have healed enough to remove the plate. But Wu refused to have the operation because he thought it would be too expensive.
Instead, inspired by a movie he once saw in which one of the characters successfully operates on himself, Wu used a kitchen knife, a screwdriver, and some alcohol to try and remove them late himself.
He ended up back in the hospital.
8. Human skeleton is not a toy
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In early December, photos of medical students in Chongqing playing with human skeletal surfaced on the Internet, prompting sharp criticism. The students were posing for photos with the bones, laughing and joking around the skeletons.
"What if you were the remains lying there, or if the bones they're playing with were your bones, add some rude language, and what would you think?" wondered one outraged commenter. "Don't medical schools teach their students to respect dead bodies?"
9. No good deed goes unpunished
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Zhou Cuilan is proof of the old saying that no good deed goes unpunished. A 59-year-old bean cake seller in Huai'an, east China's Jiangsu province, Zhou found 1,700 yuan on the road on November 6, and, remarkably, managed to track down the owner, a man named Zhou Jiwei. (The two Zhous are not relatives.)
But Zhou Jiwei insisted that he lost not 1,700 yuan but 8,200 yuan -- and demanded that Zhou return the remaning 6,500 yuan.
Unsatisfied with Zhou Cuilan's explanation or her persistence in trying to return it, Zhou Jiwei sued her and one other witness.
The case is pending in court.
10. Clean and honest administration includes no porn?
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 [Zhu Huiqing/oeeee.com] |
The "clean and honest work" billboard hung in front of the Public Security Bureau of Mengcheng County, central China's Anhui province reads "no making, viewing, dissemination of pornographic videos are allowed," causing locals to wonder what, exactly, prompted the reminder in the first place. After all, there is an old Chinese saying that the more one tries to cover something up, the more obvious it is.
There were also several words misspelled.
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 [club.sohu.com] |
