Posted on 11/11/2024 7:54:18 AM PST by george76
‘Night Riding Army’ flash mob causes chaos in an ancient capital and sparks complaints from locals..
More than 100,000 Chinese students took part in a 37-mile night-time bike ride on a quest for soup dumplings, bringing a main highway to a standstill.
The “Night Riding Army”, as some participants called it, rode for hours after a huge turnout for the rolling flash mob that had been gathering riders for months.
It was inspired by a viral craze of young Chinese people trying to travel as cheaply as possible in the face of high youth unemployment and scarce job prospects.
The “soft protest” movement was first set off in June when four female college students chronicled their ride on social media to try guantangbao, a type of soup dumpling.
...
Chinese authorities are now clamping down on the activity, imposing new traffic restrictions and controls on bike rental companies to prevent further chaos.
Footage from Friday night showed the blocked highway that links Zhengzhou, the largest city in Henan province, with Kaifeng, an ancient capital famed for its soup dumplings.
By Saturday, pictures showed thousands of the riders – waving the Chinese flag and singing the national anthem – had overrun the small tourist city, sparking complaints from locals.
“Last night’s ‘Night Riding Army’ was spectacular!” one rider posted. “Two lanes were opened, but that simply was not enough: The cycling army accounted for four!”
‘Much more than a bike ride’..
...
Liu Lulu, a student at Henan University, told China Daily: “People sang together and cheered for each other while climbing uphill together. I could feel the passion of the young people. And it was much more than a bike ride.”.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
When I was a student at South Dakota State University, the students would converge on some small town with the goal of drinking it dry.....................
100,000 dumplings is a lot of dumplings.
Cheap money, inflated economy, inflated jobs, deflating economy, deflating jobs.
China tried what did not work in Japan - massive amounts of infrastructure projects, generating massive government spending across the country and as long as it all kept pace the economy inflated, as did real esttate, jobs and comsumer spending. Time to pay the piper is beginning. Social unrest can easily grow.
Fifty thou a year will buy a lotta beer
The Soup Dumpling Gang.
Too bad it wasn’t fortune cookies. They would clean themselves up.
“a symbol of youthful energy and the joy of shared experiences” - Idiots imitating idiot US students. Youthful energy will get you run over or worse in China. How about not opening more lanes using only the bike lane so mature responsible working adults can get to work on time so they’re not fired and their kids have a place to sleep on a full belly and maybe emergency vehicles can get through. Apparently, Chinese parents have failed but not nearly as much as American parents.
You’d think they’d come up with a better excuse than dumplings but ok. So, as if the restaurant would be open in the middle of the night, has enough tables for 100,000 and could possibly make enough dumplings of all things, smh. Idiots. Chinese college students no smarter than American college students is scary so another failing grade.
Grandma failed these kids by not teaching them to cook on their own. Saves a ton of money and you won’t block traffic.
Dumplings - Mix together flour and water, let sit 15 minutes, roll out, spoon whatever leftovers with Asian seasoning in the middle, seal edges and fry/steam/boil. Ain’t rocket science.
Tell you Ping to leave the kids alone.
In a perverse way, one can say that China and the CCP exploit and suppress Chinese peasants and workers - for the benefit of American consumers.
Well they do it for their own benefit, American consumer benefit as a by profit.
I think you missed the point of the article
Chinese students understand at both conscious and unconscious levels that joining together and expressing their societal frustrations in the form of outright political demonstrations will face the wrath of the CCP
China is a country where every social organization and activity is ultimately controlled and adjudicated by the CCP
So whether consciously or not, these kids mask their communal gatherings as a fun social trend with simple, apolitical purposes. This search for identity and agency occurs among all teens and young adults.
Indeed, probably most of them are not there for outright political reasons.
Bkmk
Wonder if they’d settle for the dumplings made of recycled cardboard that China exported a few years ago.
Unemployment, unemployment? But I thought the Chicom economy was doing fantastic! I guess you can only build so many ghost cities and have only so much room for those fleets of EV’s built that no one buys.
Unemployment, unemployment? But I thought the Chicom economy was doing fantastic! I guess you can only build so many ghost cities and have only so much room for those fleets of EV’s built that no one buys.
My new love is Bibigo mini wonton...lunch mini & brocoli....I could turn it into stir fry or add to soup. Good stuff!!Target
So, communism not delivering full employment!
Whodathunk?
One wonders how different the Tiananmen Square Demonstrations would have turned out had there been social media back then.
China spent itself into the poor house by building weapons that no one else wanted and that it wasn’t using. Armies are expensive. It’s why the Soviets used their army as farm labor.
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