Jianjun's Blog

Tudou¹ to shut down rumor has been circulating on the Internet for quite a while. According to some sources, it was all started from two articles published on two Chinese portals Netease and Sohu.

It was reported that Netease removed the article soon but sohu still has it in Chinese, whose title clearly indicates the information was neither independent nor confirmed（传土豆网… Source says Tudou…）.

Later this information was translated into English and appeared on some influential blogs. China Herald said its source came from a Twitter update! Danwei.org quoted China Herald, while China Herald quoted Danwei.org.

Then the rumor was everywhere, even long after the overnight denial of the shut down from Tudou on March 7 (news report appeared on March 6). China Herald’s article was published exactly on March 7 but clearly it never followed up on that denial even with two updates!

Furthermore, it says, “Tudou.com is the world’s largest video hosting firm, claiming three times the traffic volume of number two, YouTube.”, which can not be independently verified but rather doubtful. Here are the statistics I got for Tudou and YouTube on Alexa, Compete and Quancast:

So where and how did this Tudou to Shut Down Rumor get started?

The ‘media source’ mentioned by Sohu article on March 6 was probably just the deleted Netease report. But after the March 7 report from Beijing Business Today that Tudou denied such a report, the whole thing would have died down if without the ‘help’ from some of the outdated/slanted reports from some bloggers.

And who benefits most from this rumor? Definitely Tudou. I’d never visited Tudou before the rumor appeared, but have been there a dozen times since then. That’s probably why our ancestor said: 塞翁失马，安知非福 (Misfortune might be a blessing in disguise.)

The lesson learned from Tudou to shut down rumor: NEVER trust online journalism.

¹ Tudou means potato（土豆）in colloquial Chinese.

Great Chinese scholar, teacher and philosopher Confucius said：“三十而立，四十而不惑” (At thirty I stood firm, at forty, I had no doubts¹).

At around thirty, I stood firm in my religion and career as a translator. Now I’m pushing forty and a couple of weeks ago I summarized from my past experience a new motto for myself：“向最好处努力，往最坏处打算。”(Making best efforts while expecting the worst) – I guess it’s the best gift I got for my no-doubts age.

From childhood to adulthood, there have been so many things that we did, trying our best, but got unexpected bad results. My experience is, each time I expect some good result to turn up, it won’t come. We often feel bad about that. But the fault is with ourselves. Our job as human beings is to make our best efforts. As to what result will come, it is out of our control.

As a translator, we provide best possible service. As a consultant, best advice, etc. But that is no guarantee our client would appreciate the hard work. Probably nobody would ever know that you spent one hour on a sentence and stayed up late for a paragraph. Probably your advice is never highly regarded, although you did thorough research and are damn sure it is important. What you believe is art may not be so in other people’s eyes. They pay for your work, not necessarily for your art. C’est la vie.

If you can’t accept this, you are destined to torture yourself again and again in your life. Thus, let’s focus on our own job and do our best. Then expect the worst to come so we won’t get disappointed each time it really strikes.

Enjoy work! Enjoy life!

¹ Translation by James Legge (1815-1897)

Here are some of the popular Chinese words used among Internet users in China. I sort them according to my preference and their likelihood to become part of the everyday vocabulary

1. 河蟹 – literally means a ‘river crab’. A pun of the Chinese word 和谐 (harmony), which came from the call to ‘build a socialist harmonious society’ by political leaders.

In the beginning, 和谐 (harmony) was used, but later people opted to use ‘river-crab’ instead. The word is used as a verb to mean block, shut down or crack down, etc. depending on the object. For example, when a web site is blocked or shut down, we can say the web site is 被河蟹了 (river-crabbed/harmonized). Yeah, to make things harmonious, we have to get rid of those bad things indeed.

2. 粉丝 – literally means ‘starch noodle’, which came from the Chinese transliteration of ‘fans’. Used as a noun, it means an admirer or fan of somebody, famous or not. For example, X is Zhang Ziyi’s 粉丝.

3. 基民 – 基 is short for 基金 (mutual fund), 民 means people. This new word came into use when the bull market in 2006 and 2007 caused a sensation among the Chinese people and so many families put all their savings into the stock market or mutual funds. They have created a special kind of people – mutual fund people or 基民.

4. 脱女 – 脱 is short for 脱衣 (to undress), while 女 means a woman. During 2007, movie Lust, Caution entered the Chinese market and people began talking about those actresses who became famous overnight for taking off their clothes. Every such an actress is of course a 脱女. The word has a derogatory meaning.

New words appear every year. Most of them have a very short life. But I believe these words will stay in our vocabulary for a long time. If you know more popular Chinese words as such, please contact me or leave a message. I’d be glad to add them to this list. Thanks for today’s reading.