“Question: Why is this piece of trashy news being translated?”
ESWN overlord Roland Soong translated several Chinese news reports surrounding a video that has been spreading in China. The video features a Chinese schoolgirl allowing her breasts to be kneaded by several surrounding bakers schoolboys, and the entire controversy surrounding it has been dubbed “Breast Fondling Gate“. I saw the video about a week ago but have been patiently waiting to see if a more suitable website (I dunno, like chinaSMACK?) was going to report on it. The above quote is excerpted from the explanation Roland later added for why he reported on this piece of news:
Question: Why is this piece of trashy news being translated? Is this the usual effort to pander to vulgar tastes in order to boost website traffic? Well, I could easily boost traffic by several orders of magnitude if I post the original video here, but I won’t. My point here is that if you don’t understand this now widely known story and other similar stories (note: right after Breast Fondling Gate, there has also been Pull Pants Down Gate and the 613 Handa Archbishop Building photos already), then you don’t understand why Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang is able to ask back “Do you have any children yourself?” in reply to a question on Green Dam during the press conference. It is this and other similar stories that disturb many people in China. Do not scorn them for their conservativeness or ignorance. If you believe in democracy, then those people happen to constitute the majority. The Green Dam narrative is not completely one-sided, and this is also the reason why Green Dam will make a comeback in some form in the future. You are going to have to explain what, if anything, you plan to do about Breast Fondling Gate (using it as an illustrative example only), both in terms of causes and effects. What (if anything) is wrong with the kids? What enables this to happen? How can you change the motive and the action? Should that video be censored? Is it part of the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and expression?
I’m personally curious as to whether Roland added this after people gave him a hard time for it, or if he just got self-conscious. Roland, you dirty old man, you!
