Discussions on Weibo bring positive energy

[Photo from Internet]

Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, has not only turned into a daily provider of latest news and spicy gossip but also a venue where Internet users can comment on the hottest events. The interactions among millions of people sometimes turn into a positive energy that provokes deeper discussions or activates a string of reactions in real life.

A recent photo of street cleaners went viral on Weibo. In the picture the senior couples are holding a cardboard that said: "To the young people: if you could play less fireworks, we will be able to go home earlier this year. Thank you for your understanding."

The post focused the spotlight on the living conditions of city cleaners. A Weibo user Weimei said: "A lot of cleaners are underpaid. All the local governments should triple their salary if they are required to overwork during the Spring Festival according to our law. Besides, regulations should be made for the specific time and place for fireworks."

Some restaurants' owners even volunteered to provide free meals to the cleaners. Tiechengshuli posted photos in which a restaurant in Chongqing invited 556 cleaners to dine last Wednesday in order to thank them for their efforts in the past year.

The positive role of Weibo also shows in the netizens' reactions to celebrities' news.

Last Sunday was the fifth wedding anniversary of actor Deng Chao and actress Sun Li. Deng posted pictures of the anniversary on Weibo, including a cartoon portrait of the couple that according to the actor took him one year and a day to finish and a loving note that said that he didn’t have enough money to buy expensive gifts but still "happy anniversary to my dearest wife".

Within 24 hours, the post had received more than 1.49 million likes and had been forwarded 120,000 times, topping not only the Weibo's ranking list but also other major entertainment websites' front pages and pushing the news of singer Wang Feng’s wedding proposal to actress Zhang Ziyi to the back.

"Maybe the grand party he threw and the expensive diamond he bought has less attraction to us than the picture Deng drew," a Weibo user Lingtianxing said referring to Wang Feng.

Some netizens on Weibo even made a chart of sixteen coincidences when Wang Feng's news collided with some other big events and he always lost the chance to top the hottest topic ranking list. The jokes were mostly well-intended but they revealed the Internet users' social values.