HEROES

Ma Yun

Jack Ma, billionaire founder of global giant online retailer Alibaba, has become the richest person in Asia, with a personal fortune of US$28.6 billion, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index released in December. He edged out Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, who had topped the index since 2012 but this year managed a close second with US$28.3 billion.

More than half of Ma’s fortune comes from his 6.3-percent stake in Hangzhou-based Alibaba, which has been in the spotlight since its massive September initial public offering in the United States and a 54-percent surge in its shares. The company’s market capitalization at US$259 billion has triggered another round of “Ma fever.”

Long a hero for young Chinese aspiring to become entrepreneurs, Ma, born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, has become a top click on the Internet.

His speeches and interviews go viral. The publishing industry has gone wild releasing books about his life, from “A Close Look at Ma Yun” to “Ma Yun Plans for Young People.”

Firefighters

In March, the official Weibo account of China’s Fire Department released the photo of a firefighter, in uniform and gas mask, running with a gas can that was alight.

The photo was posted online with the text: “Nobody knows if it will explode. Everyone knows I will die if it does. I have no choice. I just did this instinctively so that those still left in the room would be free of danger. Yes, I’m a firefighter.”

The photo was taken while the firefighter was on a rescue mission in a restaurant in the city of Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province.

The photo quickly attracted many re-tweets and comments, most expressing admiration for firefighters.

More pictures of firemen in brave acts followed on the Internet. They included a firefighter who died battling a Beijing blaze at the new China Central Television headquarters while trying to save a man trapped inside, and the photo of a fireman who gave up his gas mask to protect an infant rescued from a blaze in Jiangsu Province.

In the most recent case, seven firefighters rescued an abandoned newborn in a public toilet on December 8 in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province and rushed her to the hospital within four minutes just in time to save the baby girl’s life.

Li Na

In September, Li Na, China’s first and only Grand Slam tennis champion, made the surprise announcement of her retirement. It came only months after she defeated Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova and won the Australian Open in Melbourne, her second Grand Slam title. Li won her first at the 2011 French Open.

How Shanghai ranks

Safest Chinese city

A survey by the Party-run magazine Insight China and Tsinghua University ranked Shanghai the safest city in China, based on residents’ replies to a questionnaire.

The survey comprised five major categories: social security, health safety, production safety, economic safety and psychological security. No definitions were provided for these terms.

Beijing ranked second, followed by Hong Kong, Macau, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Tianjin, Taiwan, Shandong and Hainan.

Top spenders on Alipay

In the first 10 months of 2014, Shanghai residents spent an average US$6,230 through Alibaba’s payment affiliate Alipay, topping consumers from the rest of China in per capita terms.

The city’s total payments through Alipay since the service began in 2004 accounted for 9.3 percent of overall payments in China.

Costly cities for expatriates

US firm Mercer, in its 2014 cost-of-living survey released in July, listed Shanghai as the 10th most expensive city for expatriates, four places up from its 2013 ranking.

Shanghai was the most expensive city on China’s mainland, followed by Beijing in 11th place and Shenzhen in 12th. Hong Kong ranked above all of them in third place.

The survey covered 211 cities across five continents, taking into account expenditures on housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

The baseline of the index is New York, with a score of 100 and an average annual income of US$48,473. Shanghai scored 101, with an average annual income of only US$6,463.

Gadgets and apps

Emperor for a day

The Beijing Palace Museum recently released an app entitled “A Day in the Life of the Emperor,” which allows children to play the role of a child emperor during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The app has designed more than 200 daily interactive pastimes for the young emperors, including martial arts classes, horseback riding, archery, holding court and reading books.

The museum, which was once viewed as a rather dull official institution, now has nearly 1.5 million followers on its Weibo account. Many have been attracted by the creative products the museum sells through its Taobao online shop.

Some of the best-selling products include a pair of beaded earphones, inspired by the beads worn by court officials as part of their uniforms for formal events.

A yellow souvenir T-shirt imprinted with dragon patterns resembling those on royal robes is another popular item, as is an iPhone case that comes with either imperial dragon or phoenix designs.

Blued

Geng Le, a former policeman and founder of the gay dating app Blued, told the media in November that he received US$30 million in a new venture capital investment, putting China’s emerging “pink market” on the map.

The app, which first became available at the end of 2012, has more than 3 million users.

Geng and his team have also been working on a lesbian version called Pinked.

His ultimate goal, he said, is to list the company in the US.

Sexual problems

In December, the China Ideal Sex Bluebook was released, revealing that only 37 percent of Chinese working people are satisfied with their sex lives.

Nearly half of working men cannot manage an erection for satisfactory sex, the findings showed.

Experts blamed stress for increasing sexual problems among Chinese workers, most of whom are too embarrassed to seek help.

The bluebook is based on research arising from a sexual health forum organized by the Chinese Medical Association Men’s Branch, the China Sexology Association and Public Health magazine.

Over 10,000 people from 22 cities participated in the survey.

Scandals

Tainted meat

In July, a Shanghai TV station revealed that Shanghai Husi Food Co, a unit of US-based OSI Group, was selling meat past its use-by date and had falsified production information.

The news immediately hit the headlines and remained a hot topic for weeks after as the company was found to be supplying tainted meat to major foreign restaurant chains, such as KFC, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Papa John’s, Dico’s and Starbucks.

Local authorities confiscated about 100 tons of food products during the investigation, and six employees from the meat company, including its top executive and quality-control manager, were detained.

The scandal was another in a series of food-safety issues that have surfaced in recent years, causing the public to ask itself: What is safe to eat now?

End of a celebrity

Guo Meimei, a 23-year-old unemployed, self-proclaimed rich woman, became a household name in 2011 when she flouted her lavish lifestyle online and claimed to be working for the Red Cross Society of China.

Though it was quickly established that she had no links to the organization, the incident caused a sharp drop in donations to the charity for two consecutive years.

In July, Guo was arrested in Beijing. In tears, she confessed on China Central Television that she made her money through prostitution and gambling. Police said she made more than 60 gambling trips offshore and organized an underground casino in Beijing.

“During my detention, I recalled
what I’d done over these past years and felt so much regret,” she said in the televised penance. “After I am free again, I won’t gamble, flout wealth or do illegal things. I will behave.”

Xi’s fan club

In the past, reporting on national leaders was considered the exclusive purview of official media like China Central Television (CCTV) and Xinhua news agency. But online social media is giving the public new avenues to express their admiration for top government officials.

Xue Xi Fensi Tuan, or “Learn from Xi Fan Club,” is a popular site operated by 29-year-old former deliveryman Zhang Hongming. It’s a fan club devoted to President Xi Jinping.

The site was set up two years ago and now has nearly 2.6 million followers. An online shop followed, selling products that resemble items used by Chinese leaders at public occasions.

Fashionable first lady Peng Liyuan and Premier Li Keqiang also have inspired the creation of online fan clubs.

A song entitled “Daddy Xi Loves Mommy Peng,” written by a group of young musicians, also became a hit this year, attracting 20 million clicks in the five days after it was posted.

Sex and drugs

In November, several leading online portals reported the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television would issue new regulations limiting the astronomical salaries of Chinese film and TV stars.

The move was reportedly in response to scandals surrounding many media celebrities arrested in the past year for drug and sex-related crimes.

In October, the bureau banned performers with criminal records from screen appearances. That came after Jaycee Chan, son of Hong Kong kung fu star Jackie Chan, was detained in Beijing for possession of drugs. Chan was arrested along with Taiwan heartthrob Ko Chen-tung, who had shot to stardom in the popular film franchise “Tiny Times.”

Earlier in the year, award-winning actor Huang Haibo and Golden Bear-winning director Wang Quan’an were detained on charges of paying for sex. And Chen Wanning, a well-known scriptwriter, was detained after police found 1.5 grams of crystal meth and drug-taking equipment in his apartment in Beijing.

Like many of the detained celebrities, he told police he took drugs to cope with the pressures of fame.

Beijing police accused these public figures of setting bad examples for young people.