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Chinese Valentine's Day
1、China ‘sleepmakers’ for hire as youth of nation seek whimsical story cure for insomnia
Sleep-deprived China has witnessed the emergence of a unique profession that charges insomniacs for assistance in falling asleep.
So-called sleepmakers try to induce slumber with soothing conversations and emotional support before bedtime.
They cater to young adults struggling with the demanding “996” culture – working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week – marriage stress, and other life pressures.
Part-time sleepmaker, Taozi, who has a stable job with a modest salary, turned to the practice to supplement her income after experiencing the benefits of the services herself.
She told Guangzhou Daily that she used sleep services to manage the anxiety triggered by seeing her peers in her hometown marry and start families.
https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/tren
ding-china/article/3273517/china-sleepmakers-hire-youth-nation-seek-whimsical-story-cure-insomnia
2、Law graduate arrested for replacing temple's QR code on donation box with his own
A man in Baoji, Shaanxi province, has been arrested for allegedly stealing donation money from temples by replacing official QR codes on donation boxes with his own, authorities said.
Police investigations revealed that the suspect is a law graduate with a master's degree from a prestigious university.
The police were alerted after a temple in Baoji noticed suspicious activity involving the offering box. Surveillance footage showed the suspect removing the original QR code and replacing it with his own. Before leaving, he even knelt and bowed in front of the Buddha statue.
Following his arrest and interrogation, the suspect confessed to stealing over 30,000 yuan ($4,208) from temples across three provincial regions: Sichuan, Chongqing, and Shaanxi.
Police have recovered the stolen funds and returned them to the respective temples. The suspect currently faces criminal charges for his actions.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202408/05
/WS66b0d73aa3104e74fddb88b2.html
3、China firm slaps zodiac ban on certain job applicants fearing bad luck for ‘dragon’ boss
The hiring strategy of a company in China has gone viral after it explicitly banned candidates born in the Year of the Dog.
Those behind the employment policy believed that applicants born under the canine Chinese zodiac sign would bring bad luck to the boss of the firm who is a dragon.
China has 12 zodiac signs, each assigned to a year in a repeating 12-year cycle. The belief is that two signs positioned opposite each other on the cycle are in conflict, such as the dragon and dog.
A lawyer from Hubei Chisheng Law Firm said the company’s rule could amount to discrimination, but preferences based on zodiac signs were not illegal.
https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3273529/china-firm-slaps-zodiac-ban-certain-job-applicants-fearing-bad-luck-dragon-boss
Chinese Valentine's Day
4、Olympic Games Ignite 172% Surge in Group-Buying Tennis Gear Orders in China
The Summer Olympic Games in Paris have triggered an out-and-out sports frenzy in China, especially for tennis, after Chinese player Zheng Qinwen won the country’s first tennis Olympic gold in the women’s singles event.
Searches for sports on Meituan surged 180 percent since the beginning of July from a year earlier, while those for tennis rose 60 percent, according to the Chinese on-demand services giant. Group-buying tennis orders soared 172 percent in the period.
In addition to tennis, also swimming, badminton, archery, and rock climbing have become popular sports among consumers, according to Meituan.
https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/group-buying-tennis-orders-surge-172-as-olympics-trigger-sports-mania-in-china
5、Price War in China’s Cleaning Appliance Market Continues to Rage
There are no signs of a ceasefire in the Chinese cleaning appliance market’s price war, even though major companies signed a self-regulatory convention on fair competition in March.
China’s sales volume of floor scrubbers soared 24 percent in the first half of the year from a year earlier, while the sales value rose only 7 percent in the period, according to statistics from All View Cloud Data Technology.
The cleaning appliance segment was and is still one of the few in the home appliance industry with rising demand because of a low penetration rate among Chinese households.
Meanwhile, the price war in the robot vacuum cleaner segment was not as rough as in the floor scrubbing segment, as five leading Chinese robot vacuum cleaner firms occupied nearly 90 percent of the market share in the first half.
https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/price-war-in-chinas-cleaning-appliance-market-continues-to-rage
6、Huawei debuts Nova Flip phone at Bilibili-partnered launch event as it targets young audiences
Huawei on Monday launched its first foldable phone in the Nova series, the Huawei Nova Flip, one of the few foldable phones on the market targeting young consumers.
To showcase its new flip phone, Huawei partnered with Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili for a launch titled Super Science Night: New Scene. The collaboration between Huawei Nova Flip and Bilibili merged the product launch with the youth-oriented appeal of a popular video platform that has built its success on ACG (anime, comic, game) culture, increasing the Nova Flip’s visibility and appeal to younger audiences.
The Nova Flip is 6.88mm thin when unfolded, comes with HarmonyOS AI, and a 50MP rear camera with hover-selfie capability, the launch event showed. Geekbench screenshots suggest it might be equipped with the HiSilicon Kirin 8000 chip.
https://technode.com/2024/08/06/huawei-debuts-nova-flip-phone-at-bilibili-partnered-launch-event-as-it-targets-young-audiences/
Chinese Valentine's Day
7、China releases first homegrown PC operating system featuring AI
Chinese company Kylinsoft launched its first homegrown Kylin operating system for personal computers(PC) integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) on Thursday, the first of its kind in the country.
The AIPC version of the Kylin operating system, released at the 2024 China Operating System Industry Conference held in Beijing, bridges a gap in the development of edge-side inference capabilities in China's operating system industry.
A major highlight of the AIPC version of the Kylin operating system is its edge-side inference capability. This feature allows for deep integration of hardware and software, enabling users to run complex AI tasks locally without relying on cloud resources. This advancement not only boosts data processing speed and security, but also fundamentally transforms the way users interact with computers.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2024-08-09/Breakthrough-China-releases-first-PC-operating-system-featuring-AI-1vV3vHSuOEU/p.html
Chinese Valentine's Day
8、Weibo bans over 300 accounts amid table tennis fan wars after China takes gold and silver at Paris Olympics
In the women’s singles table tennis final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Chinese player Chen Meng on August 3 defeated her teammate Sun Yingsha 4-2 to win the gold medal.
However, some on-site Chinese spectators exhibited surprising behavior, such as booing directed at one of the players during the match, as the fandom culture surrounding table tennis in the country seemingly drove them to support certain individuals rather than Team China as a whole.
Some so-called fans used the occasion of the Olympic final to post irrational attacks on Chinese athletes and coaching staff online, prompting the Weibo microblogging platform to remove over 12,000 posts discussing the event and imposed temporary or permanent bans on more than 300 accounts based on the severity of their violations.
https://technode.com/2024/08/05/weibo-bans-over-300-accounts-amid-table-tennis-fan-wars-after-china-takes-gold-and-silver-at-paris-olympics/
9、Chinese national security authority warns online office tools, AI tech of risking leaking confidential info
China's Ministry of State Security warned those working with confidential information against using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to write confidential materials and chat groups to discuss classified content, saying that numerous cases of data leaks were caused by the use of online office programs in recent years.
It warned that those people are unaware that AI programs automatically collect the information input by users for autonomous learning, and the related data can be easily stolen by foreign intelligence agencies, leading to the leakage of national secrets.
The ministry also warned cloud storage software of leaking confidential documents and image recognition app leaked the original confidential documents. In order to prevent similar leakages, the ministry advised people involved in confidential matters not to handle classified information online while working remotely.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202408/1317313.shtml
Chinese Valentine's Day
10、Amateur musicians revive Zhuang ethnic instrument with pop music
In a scenic spot nestled among the verdant karst hills of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a band of five men and a woman are putting on a pop concert, dressed in embroidered ethnic costumes.
These amateur musicians of the Zhuang ethnic group are playing not only modern-day guitars, a keyboard and a drum kit, but also a couple of two-stringed Tianqin zithers, made from gourds and played like guitars.
The Tianqin, literally meaning heavenly zither, was originally played by the Zhuang people as a ritual instrument, together with the chanting of good wishes. The instrument is currently experiencing a revival, with musicians making renewed efforts to woo young audiences. The six-member pop band, named Dingding, serves as the latest example.
https://english.news.cn/20240807/923325a
d98e94399b1639424bd410495/c.html
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