Trending: WeChat Backend Crashes, a Hospital Homicide, and More

Original Tautvile D. theBeijinger

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The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this? Trending in Beijing is a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.

The WeChat backend crashes

The editors of China's official WeChat accounts (the Beijinger's included) were sent into a tizzy this Boxing Day when the app's backend crashed. Although the outage only lasted for approximately 30 minutes between 5.20-5.50pm, the frustration of being unable to create or read official account posts was only made worse by a mild but perceptible Christmas hangover... at least in our experience. To add insult to injury, during the outage, all we had to look at was a passive-aggressively smiling anthropomorphic computer, aka the equivalent of a middle finger.

China Mobile News speculates that more than 100,000 articles may have been lost due to the crash, although how they arrived at that number is unclear. Luckily, things were all back to normal just as we were all about ready to pack it in and call it a night. A true Christmas miracle.

We weren't alone in that assessment, with one netizen screaming "Look how many people are just waiting to publish the articles and get off work!" into the pixellated abyss, an abyss that now has 420 million followers. Follow updates under the hashtag #微信公众号后台崩了# (wēixìn gōngzhòng hào hòutái bēngle, WeChat public account backend crashes).

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Murder at the Beijing Civil Aviation General Hospital

On Dec 24, Yang Wen, the deputy director of the emergency department of the Beijing Civil Aviation General Hospital, was stabbed in the neck by a 55-year-old male. She later died from her injuries. The perpetrator, surnamed Sun, attacked the doctor during a routine consultation and treatment, and while the case is still under investigation, authorities have disclosed that the suspect was the son of a 95-year-old patient being treated by Yang. It is alleged that in the lead-up to the incident, Sun had been dissatisfied with Yang's treatment of his mother, and had argued with her several times.

Yang was working the night shift and was attacked two hours before the end of her shift. Doctors from China-Japan Friendship Hospital were mobilized and brought in for treatment but the injuries were so severe that Yang died at 12.50am on Christmas morning.

Violence against doctors in China has been an increasing problem. In a 2012 report (via thelancet.com), 96 percent of medical staff claimed to have been abused or injured by patients or their families. Due to overcrowding in many metropolitan hospitals, doctors are often overworked, leading to dissatisfaction among patients and accusations that they are not receiving proper attention. Netizens are following the tragic case under #北京遇袭女医生抢救无效去世# (běijīng yù xí nǚ yīshēng qiǎngjiù wúxiào qùshì, female doctor in Beijing dies despite attempts of rescue).

Chinese men report being more satisfied in marriages

According to recent research released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, men are reportedly happier in marriages than women, with those over 50 years old being the most satisfied. The lowest marriage satisfaction is found in the first-tier cities.

While the full report is not yet available to the public, netizens were quick to blame traditional gender roles for the disparity in satisfaction, with women usually expected to cover the housework (whether or not they have a job) while husbands act as the breadwinner. "Do you still need surveys for this? Just look at the rates of divorce and who initiates them," wrote one user, referring to statistics released earlier this year that showed 74 percent of divorces are initiated by women. "It's only because men are easy to please," wrote another user.

Netizens are discussing the possible reasons for male satisfaction under #中国男性婚姻满意度高于女性# (zhōngguó nánxìng hūnyīn mǎnyì dù gāo yú nǚxìng, Chinese men are more satisfied in marriage than women), which currently has over 360 million readers.

Rat-infested Forbidden City

Finally, some cute news. The Forbidden City is already gearing up to greet the upcoming year of the Earth Rat with a giant mouse sculpture, which popped up in one of the famous tourist sight's courtyards this past week. The sculpture depicts a mythical Tibetan treasure-spitting rat, which was said to live in the ocean in ancient times, spitting out everything it ate as golden beads. Users are sharing their cute pictures of this lucky rat under the hashtag #故宫吐宝鼠# (gùgōng tǔ bǎo shǔ, Forbidden City treasure-spitting rat).