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Shaolin Temple's website recently took on a new look. First, hackers splashed the slogan: "Die, Shi Yongxin, you evil rebel of Shaolin Temple!" on the website. Then it was replaced with a "letter of contrition", supposedly from Abbot Shi, complete with a photo. In it, Shi "apologizes" for commercializing the temple and its kungfu traditions. I liked the second approach better because it was ironical and reminded me of something that happened in the 1980s. A bunch of local officials had taken all the slots for housing, back when they were dispensed as employee benefits. Regular employees, out of frustration, complained to the press. But nobody listened. Then, one of them came up with an alternative idea. He wrote to another newspaper, praising his bosses for "giving all the housing units to those in need and not taking one for themselves". The paper published the letter, without verifying it, adding a comment that extolled the noble stance of the cadres. The "positive" story essentially undid the officials, who were hurled into the public domain by the unintentionally satirical article. Eventually, they had to return what they did not deserve in the first place. If the cyber-attackers who hacked into the Shaolin site harbored similar intentions, they may comfort themselves by the fact that Shi claims to have been "spurred on" by the incident. This was a brilliant choice of word. "Biance" refers in Chinese to a form of encouragement if you do something right, or punishment if it is something wrong. It did not infer that Shi would change his ways and he showed his contempt by calling the attack a "joke". | 
