The front page of the Yangzi Evening News (扬子晚报) from Nanjing in Jiangsu province today features the curious storyof a drunken returnee student (醉酒海归女) who left a traffic officer perplexed when he found her driving under the influence – but she was sitting on the hood of the car using a remote control to drive it.
The Yangzi Evening News story is based on a video (which can be viewed here) that was uploaded to Youku yesterday. The woman in the video is described only as being a drunken returnee student, and the exact location of the incident is unclear. The video shows the lithe woman, dressed in a tight skirt clambering onto the hood giving the camera a generous view of her legs and cleavage. Once on top of the car, she nudges the car forward using a remote control. Then a soft-spoken man with a ‘Police 警察’ reflective vest (the type anyone can buy in China at police surplus stores) tries to stop her from “drunk driving”, but she says since she’s on top of the car, not in it, it can’t be drunk driving.
According to the Yangzi Evening News, a senior official at the Nanjing prosecutor’s office said the woman’s behavior should be classified as drunk driving because the car was moving forward and was under her control. No matter if she was using a new-fangled remote control or actually behind the wheel.
The video is obviously professionally produced. It includes little scripted touches such as the police officer asking ‘What’s all this then?’ A male bystander answers that this is ‘high-tech, haven’t you seen it before?’. The video ends with the girl saying to the police officer “What kind of policeman are you, nagging all the time? In all my many years outside of China, I have never seen a policeman like you.”
A rather orderly and well-lit street scene that showcases a young lady’ legs and a BYD remote controlled car – image from from BYD website.
The Yangzi Evening News article notes that apparently the officer ended up having no choice but to let the woman go, sp perhaps it wasn’t drunk driving after all. The article also states that because the authenticity of the video could not be ascertained, the whole thing may have been a set-up by a car company to draw attention to their remote controlled cars. From research undertaken by the paper, the source of the video was traced to a web portal in Hunan province called “华声在线“. All the paper’s further attempts to find more information on the video or the person who uploaded it came to naught.
Although the logo on the car is blurred out in the video, it appears to be the logo of the Chinese company BYD, who just happened to launch its new remote-controlled car a few weeks ago.
There are also photo galleries on BYD’s own website, and a modest amount of comments, 42 postings at time of writing on BYD’s forum. A promotional game for the car, the Surui (速锐) where you can use your mouse to guide a car is here.
It’s very clear that BYD or one of its agents produced the video and Internet publicity campaign (chaozuo 炒作). What’s not clear is if the Yangzi Evening News sold BYD a whole package including video, Internet publicity and print coverage, or whether the campaign was planned by an agent and the newspaper just took money for the page space.
Other interesting front page stories from around China today:
The front page of the Chutian Metropolis Daily (楚天快报) from Hubei province today carries the story of the man who is probably China’s most industrious cop. Over the course of the last 25 years, police officer Wang Changjie (王昌杰) from Fancheng (樊城) in Hubei province has completed 88 university courses and six specialized university diplomas – all by means of self-study, earning Wang the nickname ‘self examination brother’ (自考哥).
The front page of the Strait Herald (海峡导报) from Xiamen in Fujian province today contrasts two stories which the paper respectively approves of and disapproves of. Next to a big 赞 (zan, praise) is the story of a chengguan (城管) (i.e. urban law enforcement officer) who was on a street in Xiamen advising a local beggar to move, when someone suddenly stole the beggar’s hard-earned begging money. The 城管 – not usually known for their kindness towards beggars – then suddenly transformed himself into a police officer and ran after the thief, eventually returning the beggar’s money. The front page contrasts this tale of kindness with a story next to a big 批 (pi, criticize) of a police officer who was seen in public and on duty wearing only his swimming trunks.
The front page of the Youth Daily (青年报) today asks: Is it a shoe? Is it a car? No! Its an illegal advertisement! In recent days a peculiar advertisement appeared in Xiangfan (襄樊市) in Hubei province: a massive sports shoe. Passersby don’t quite know what to make of it or why its there, though many appreciated the novelty. But unfortunately enquiries revealed that the very big shoe is actually not a very legal advertisement.
Lastly, the front page of the Sanjin City News (三晋都市报) from Shanxi province carries the story of a 14-year-old in Hubei province who’s using microblogging site Weibo to find a new husband for his mother after his father died from an illness.
Links and sources
Yangzi Evening News (醉酒女遥控开车)
Chutian Metropolis Daily (自学拿到6个大学文凭民警被评全国优秀自考生)
Strait Herald (城管“变脸” 帮乞丐追回“要饭钱” ; “裸体执法” 平潭一工商干部挨罚)
Youth Daily (这是鞋子？车子？不！是违规广告!)
Sanjin City News (14岁少年用微博给妈妈征婚)
More Front Page of the Day stories on Danwei