enovate’s Weekly Weibo Round-up

For those of you still new to Weibo, it’s Sina’s Twitter-like, micro-blogging platform that allows Chinese users to type up to 140 characters and disseminate the information onto the interwebs. (The name Weibo or in Chinese, 微博 translates to “micro-blog,” however its pronunciation is the same as 围脖  or “scarf” in English. The “scarf” translation is the “Weibo” of choice for young Chinese netizens.) It is truly an online force to reckon with. It’s usage is blossoming both online and on mobile platforms. It’s also a great way to keep an instant pulse on Chinese netizens and cultural youth topics. Thus, we’ve set our top Chinese voice, Beibei, into the rapid-fire Sina Weibo world to capture hot Weibo topics and to provide an enovate Chinese voice in this youth dominated platform.

With no further ado, we bring you enovate’s Weekly Weibo Roundup.

The recent shocking news of the 11 suicides in Foxconn has blown up and people around the world have raised concerns on the company’s poor corporate ethics and workers’ rights. On Jun 2, 2010 Foxconn Technology Group announced that it will increase its employees’ salaries by 30% to improve its employees’ standard of living after suicides. A new worker’s care hotline has also been introduced.

Young professionals at Sina Weibo felt sad about the suicides but also hope this affair will change the underpaid situation, as well as working environment of factories at the east coast of China.

2. 2010 Highest-Paid City Rankings for Chinese Undergraduates

Sina education channel announced The 2010 Highest-Paid City Rankings for Chinese Undergraduates conducted by MyCos. According to the ranking, the top 10 highest paid cities are: Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Shanghai, Beijing, Dongguan, Foshan, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Jiangmen. The survey only target students who worked in a company about half an year after graduation. The payment including basic salary, bonus, commissions and allowance.

3. Material girl Ma Nuo’s shows were banned by Chinese government

On June 3rd 2010, SARFT (The State Administration of Radio Film and Television) announced that material girl Ma Nuo’s talk shows will be banned because her moral values are too different from most Chinese audience. Ma Nuo became famous overnight in a reality dating TV show in Jiangsu with her bold speech and materialistic attitude. An unemployed biker boy asked her in the show: “Would you like to go biking around the city with me?” her answer was: “I would rather sit in a BMW and cry.”

Chinese netizens have two contrasting views on this, some people appreciate her honesty and directness, and that the government should allow free speech and different opinions; some people just think she should be banned because her moral value (or the lack thereof) and the way she became famous would bring negative influences to the younger generation.

4. 2012 is coming?

On June 4th, a big hole was found in Zhejiang province. As reported by Youth Times, the sinkhole is just like the one found in Guatemala on May 30th. Chinese young netizens are worried about environmental changes as well as “the end of the world” since the storyline of 2012 was very popular with Chinese audiences last year. A lot of them commented: “The earth is angry,” “2012 is coming,” “Let’s get on the boat,” etc.

5. Message to the future unknown lover from Kevin Tsai

Kevin Tsai is a writer and a TV host for one of the most popular Taiwanese talk shows, Kangxi Laile. He is best known for his role as the talk show host as well as his skillful writings. His recent tweet about relationship received the most reweets from Sina weibo.

“You poured your heart into your former relationship, and you ended up with a broken heart. Then in a new relationship, afraid of getting hurt again, you become very reserved. This means: the last person who broke your heart got the most complete you, while your current significant other only receives your partial attention. If you run a business, your store will definitely close: the worst customer got the best service but the new customer can only get your cold treatment.”