April20, 2009
Today’s Dongguan Times features a big photo on the cover showing a young couple kissing each other while each standing on one foot. The headline along with the photo reads “Kissing competition: everyone comes for prizes”.
A surprisingly detailed page-three article reported that twelve couples participated in the April 19 competition, which was observed by more than 100 spectators. The winning pair, who held their kiss for the longest time (the exact time is not revealed), received 2009 yuan as a cash prize.
The use of kissing competitions as a marketing ploy has been seen fairly often in the media of late. Just last week a report on a competition in Taizhou was illustrated with a photo of two male contestants kissing.
Although neither article explicitly identifies the competition’s sponsor, it is not hard to notice the trademarks of Wahaha, a domestic beverage maker, all over the place in the photos. To promote its new lemonade drink, Hello-C, the company recently launched a nation-wide campaign promoting a “romantic C flavor” (浪漫C滋味) that involves kissing competitions all across the country.
In a more serious news, twenty-one foreign navy vessels have arrived in Qingdao to attend the April 23 naval parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the PLA Navy.
And an obituary on the front page The Beijing News announced that Zhu Min (朱敏), the daughter of former military leader Zhu De, passed away on April 13 at the age of 83. Zhu was captured by Nazi Germany in 1941 when she was in the former USSR and was imprisoned until the end of the war. Her life in the Nazi concentration camp was the basis for the character Chuchu in the 1995 movie Red Cherry.
- Dongguan Times (Chinese): Kissing competition in Dongguan
- The Beijing News (Chinese): 21 foreign navy vessels visiting China, Zhu De’s daughter died at 83