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Reader question: Please explain “take the heat” in this sentence – If you comment on weibo you’d better be ready to take the heat. What heat? My comments: If you say something online, you’d better prepare yourself for criticism because whatever you say, there’ll be people disagreeing with you. All sorts of people are online and so any opinion is expected, as well as the different manners in which those opinions are expressed. In other words, you may be heavily, and sometimes rudely, criticized for anything you say. That, I assume, is what is meant by “the heat” one had better be ready to take while taking part in a public discourse online. Anyways, heat originally refers to the hot air in summer. The American basketball team Miami Heat, for instance, got its name after the heat waves locals enjoy (or suffer from, depending on your outlook) on the beaches of Miami. Yes, from the heat waves, not from the heat of fire. Hence, if you nitpick, you can point out that Chinese commentators all get it wrong every time they call this team 热火 Especially not on weibo, ok? Sh! Alright, heat originally refers to the hot air generated by the sun or a human-lit fire. By extension, it may also refer to the mental pressure one endures in any difficult situation, where one may get criticized or punished for any mistake one makes. In the top example, the heat refers to the exact such pressure created by, I think, the inevitable criticisms from fellow mini-bloggers – who, let’s face it, have nothing better to do with their life than to loiter online. | 
