Just when I thought the Fan Meizhong story had wound down to a simmering denouement, the curtain has been raised again to feature Act II. The teacher who left his pupils behind in a notorious sprint from an earthquake-shaken classroom has made his television debut. More surprisingly, he came out the good guy - or more accurately, the better guy. Phoenix TV pitched him against a "morality fighter" who condemned Fan outright. And netizens basically voted that between cowardice and hypocrisy they deemed the former a lesser sin. If we see the earthquake response as a big picture, China's netizens have been playing the role of morality fighter. It is their favorite role. Their dominant strategy is to shame celebrities into donating "an appropriate amount". Sports superstar Yao Ming originally doled out 2 million yuan, creating an endless ripple of negative comments. Now, Yao has followed up with $2 million. But the damage is done. A few days after the quake, someone compiled an online list of "parsimonious" multinational corporations whose donations were not commensurate with their earnings in China. The digital world whipped up a backlash: See how these people are making money from us and now turn a blind eye to our suffering? It turned out the list was erroneous on many counts. These companies had given huge sums to the earthquake relief, said the Ministry of Commerce, who belatedly publicized a correct and complete list. |