Written by Charles Custer

Youku recently has launched China’s first online 3D movie theater, the Lenovo B3 3D Theater.

3D films are, of course, expensive, so Youku’s 3D Theater provides a valuable service, allowing viewers to preview films in 3D before making any expensive ticket purchases. All netizens need to enjoy the videos is a pair of the classic cardboard 3D glasses. As most people don’t have those lying around, Lenovo and Youku are holding a contest and giving away a thousand pairs. And if you don’t win, don’t worry, you can pick up your own pair for a lot less than it would cost you to buy tickets to a single 3D film.

If you haven’t got a pair of glasses yet, don’t fret, as the site also allows viewers to enjoy the same content in 2D.

Youku and Lenovo have changed the future of film and online video by bringing 3D off of the big screen and into Chinese homes for the first time ever. Now everyone can enjoy the unique experience of viewing an incredible 3D film, and what’s more, they can do it in the comfort of their own home!

Written by Charles Custer

In only its second episode, Youku’s original show “I have something to say” has already become a hit, with over 700,000 views and comments piling up.

The show aims to generate discussion among Youku users about topics they’re interested in or concerned about. Each episode poses a question, and then hits the street to get random passers-by to answer it.

The first episode – which concerned what people would do if they suddenly got rich – showed that most men would buy cars first, but most women interviewed would first buy an apartment. The newest episode poses a similar hypothetical: if you saved all of your salary, not even spending money on groceries, how long would it take you to buy a 100-sq meter apartment in a major city like Beijing or Shanghai?

The question comes from a video that has been burning up the internet with its popularity. “Sell”, a music video by singer Shawn Huang, premiered on Youku less than a month ago and is already nearing four million views. You can read more about the video here or here, but the concept is pretty simple. A flyer advertising the sale of an expensive apartment prompts various people to think about how long it would take them to buy it.

The real-life answers given by the people interviewed in “I have something to say” show that the video isn’t far off. Statistically, Youku found that 57% of the people they asked would need more than twenty years, while 43% thought they could do it in less. One young man says it would take him 125 years to buy a 100 sq meter apartment on his current salary. Other answers varied from “ten years” to “until I’m dead”. One guy even questioned the purpose of asking at all, saying, “I want to take vacation. I want to do many things. I guess I won’t be able to have an apartment at all.”

But the best responses came from the commenters. It’s hard not to agree with commenter rrrぐ塒緔ぐ尐, who wrote: “No eating or drinking? After two or three days I’d just give up, I wouldn’t want to buy an apartment anymore!”

The second episode of “I have something to say” also includes a brief interview with Shawn Huang himself, who talks about his song its accompanying music video and why he made them.

So how long would it take you to buy a 100 sq meter apartment on your current salary? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to keep an eye out for the next episode of “I have something to say”, coming soon!

Written by Charles Custer

In less than ten days, 小胖妞 (“Little Fat Girl”) has accrued over two and a half million views and thousands of comments. It is the latest extremely creative animation to hit the net courtesy of a Chinese art student, this time a final project from an animation major at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. He Weifeng, the animator, has brilliantly combined stop motion, live action, and traditional animation techniques to tell what starts out seeming like a familiar story but quickly becomes something completely original. We won’t spoil the ending for you, but it’s something you should definitely check out for yourself.

Thankfully for English-only viewers, the only dialogue is a quick voiceover introduction, and that is helpfully subtitled both in English and Chinese. The rest of the film is a quirky mix of Stephen Chow-style humor and kung fu choreography with fairy tale tropes and romantic stylings.

Youku commenters have overwhelmingly expressed their support for the video. Many said that they were deeply moved by the ending, and some even wept. Others were excited to be able to point to another example of great original domestic animation (as sometimes Chinese animation is critcized for being too derivative of Japanese and Korean styles). Here are a few translated comments:

From Legend~~Life(传奇～～人生):

Great pacing, you don’t want to stop watching. Although it’s only five minutes long…Great editing. Full of surprising twists!

From Qiyan. Tao. (七颜。逃)

Tears rolled down when I finished watching. I thought it was a perfect ending. A masterpiece!

From meeLiang:

I feel it is depicting our lives…She ran though all those basic living items such as kitchen seasonings (Chai Mi You Yan, 柴米油盐); that symbolizes a woman aging and getting fat. She sacrificed so much for her family…

The video has also ignited a heated discussion among netizens about the nature of men, and whether or not the behavior of the man in this video is symbolic of the way men think and act. If you want to know why, you’ll have to watch the video for yourself. Just don’t forget to tell us in the comments whether you think most men would really do that or not!

Written by Brendan O’Kane

Your Chinese word for the day is 状元 Zhuangyuan, a term that has been used for more than a thousand years to refer to the top-scoring candidate in the imperial examinations — and, more recently, in the annual gaokao university entrance examinations. The gaokao may not be as demanding as the old imperial service examinations — which required candidates to carry the entire literary canon in their heads, along with centuries’ worth of commentary and exposition — but it’s still pretty serious business, and top-scoring zhuangyuan are pretty much guaranteed their choice of schools.

Consider the case of Li Taibo (李泰伯), who beat out thousands of other students to become the top scorer for the Beijing region this year. Li is one seriously high-powered young man: the top student at the top high school in Beijing (or one of the top schools, at least — Renmin University Middle School), president of multiple student organizations and winner of countless awards. Li is headed for bigger and better things — which for the past few decades would have meant study at a top American university.

And yet!

Much to everybody’s surprise, Li was turned down by the 11 American universities he applied to. The reasons? A mystery — but you can be sure that there are plenty of people trying to get to the bottom of it. Experts have commentated; educators have pontificated; even Li “Zhuangyuan” Taibo himself has written a blog entry speculating as to why he got turned down. (Li’s theory: his other test scores, the ones required by American universities — presumably meaning the SAT or TOEFL — may not have been high enough). Internet users left thousands of comments within the first day after the entry went up. The story will keep evolving - and we’ll keep you posted!

In a Youku poll to see what made the biggest impression on viewers of this year’s World Cup, the vuvuzela — the horn responsible for the loud, angry blaring in the background of the matches — drowned out the competition to take first place, with 22.5% of respondents voting for “The ear-splitting vuvuzelas” as the most striking feature of the matches so far.

The vuvuzela, whose sound has been likened to “a giant hive full of very angry bees,” “a goat on the way to slaughter,” and other, ruder things, won nearly twice as many votes as the second-place choice, “The matches are kind of boring” (14.7%).  Other things people said had made an impression:

Not enough good goals: 13.7%
Spain lost!: 11.3%
Jong Tae-Se crying during the North Korean national anthem: 10.8%
Star players not dazzling enough: 9.7%
It’s all a blur - I don’t remember: 7.0%
Good performances by Asian teams: 4.6%
Power teams switching up their style: 3.2%
Green’s butterfingers “save”: 2.5%

As of this writing, there are 9,861 votes and counting. Click here to vote, or here to see the live results (both in Chinese). Or sound off in the comments — what’s your impression of this year’s Cup?

Written by Brendan O’Kane

Like the rest of the world, China’s in the middle of World Cup fever, and everybody — even those of us who don’t usually pay much attention to sports — has got an opinion on what their favorite teams should or shouldn’t have done. The World Cup is truly a unifying force — and seldom has the world been more unified than in the aftermath of last weekend’s USA-UK march, when UK goalkeeper Robert Green fumbled the ball into his own net, gifting the US team its only point of the match. You could hear the shouts of dismay from Britons all across Beijing.

On “No Interference,” a World Cup program made by Youku for Chinese netizens, French comedy performer Julian Gaudfroy — better known to his Chinese fans as 朱利安 Zhu Li’an — came to poor Green’s defense after well-known host Dong Lu asked what the fan reaction to Green’s gaffe would be. Skip ahead to 33:50 to hear Julian express his admiration for Green’s sportsmanship and remind us all that win or lose, it’s all about how you play the game. For those keeping score: that’s a Frenchman defending a British goalie’s flub against an American team in Mandarin. International enough for you?

Besides “No Interference,” Youku is also producing another World Cup coverage program, “Big Talk on the World Cup.” Both programs present more irreverent takes on game coverage than traditional sports programs. The first episode of “No Interference” featured Zhao Zhongxiang (赵忠祥), the “Walter Cronkite of China,” offering World Cup commentary in the style of his signature “Animal World” narration. The shows have been runaway hits with netizens, with “No Interference” receiving more than 500,000 views on average for every episode, and “Big Talk on the World Cup” seeing 10 million views in its first month.

A cross-dressing lad, Liu Zhu (刘著), is stirring up this year’s Chinese Idol Super Boys. See this video in which one of the judges was so confused as to his gender (mostly due to Liu Zhu’s typical feminine voice) that he persistently interrupted his performance even after the event organizer explained in the background that Liu Zhu’s male identity has indeed been verified. Sister Zhu (著姐) is only 19-year-old, and is a college student in Sichuan. Later coverage found out he started cross-dressing during middle-school years, and had been so deeply depressed that he has made multiple suicide attempts. Now he’s able to face the judge’s ferocious interrogations with perfect calm. His fans called themselves Bamboo (竹子，zhuzi, 竹 being a homophone for 著). Compared to Super Girl star Brother Zeng, Sister Zhu does sing well, and can compose. He/she is pretty as well. Video view on this video is reaching 30 million within a week, Thumbs-up vs thumbs-down almost 10 to 1.

The shoe throwing attack is getting fashionable. When the de facto spokesman for Chinese realtors, Mr. Ren Zhiqiang, received his allotted share at Dalian, he expressed his gratitude for this Presidential treatment. He was talking about Wo Ju, Narrow Dwellings, a real phenomenon on the Web, when the shoes started flying.

As later reports discovered, the footwear assailant is a 25-year-old man. He’s not what people think of when they think of “house slaves,” but rather he’s one of those many, many millions of Chinese who can’t even afford the down payment for an apartment. He lost two girlfriends, both due to his inability to afford an apartment. In a country adores numbers, the new four must-haves for a decent marriage is apartment, automobile, stable job and parents-in-law both deceased (just kidding, but this joke is quite popular online now). The shoe-thrower apparently prepared for the action in advance. He carried with him a pair of worn shoes, and later walked out with a high head in his own shoes.

You have to give Mr. Ren credit for his presidential humor. Mr. Ren later in his blog declared he wouldn’t pursue any lawsuit to destroy a young man’s life. While debating on the legality of throwing shoes, netizens again clutched this opportunity to say something about the ever-increasing housing prices. BTW, Mr. Ren was elected as Top 10 Most-Watched People on Youku last year for his controversial quotes on housing prices. You may refer to this post this post .

Within three days, this video garnered 1.5 million video views, over 37,000 thumbs up, and close to 4,000 comments! What new Youku sensation this is! Of course the music was added on during post production, but isn’t it perfect for this Xi’an policeman’s dance? As much as we love him, I do wonder how I can drive under his traffic directing. I simply can’t get enough of watching him! What moves busy working Chinese is his attitude. Work hard and be happy, be happy and work hard. (工作着并快乐着，快乐着并工作着) Cheers to everyone who has to work.

Uploaded on: April 29, 2010
Total Views: 1,059,954
Thumbs Up vs Thumbs Down: 6,233 vs 946
Comments: 2,706

From a Youku paike on the same day, April 29, when the tragedy happened. Reports said a 47-year-old man went into a kindergarten and began stabbing children, teachers, and guards there with a knife. So far there are 31 confirmed injured. You can see blood on the road, but further information is still to be released. April is the month of death, so Elliot once wrote. Several similar tragedies happened in China in this April. (Kaiser notes: As I edit this, there was yet another instance of a school attack, in Shandong Weifang.)

Uploaded on: April 28, 10
Total Views: 828,863
Thumbs Up vs Thumbs Down: 3800 vs 4419
Comments: 1,731

Mommy Cat gave birth to three puppies and four kittens? The reporter did interview vets and professors, and many, including Youku users, believe that Mommy Cat adopted three abandoned little puppies during her own delivery. No matter what, see the lovely comparisons between baby cats and dogs.

Uploaded on: April 25, 2010
Total Views: 751,521
Thumbs Up vs Thumbs Down: 3,057 vs 259
Comments: 776

Uploaded from one Youku user on the sand storm in Gansu Province.

Uploaded on: April 27, 2010
Total Views: 706,965
Thumbs Up vs Thumbs Down: 8,588 vs 1,896
Comments: 2,730

One security guard for a bank car quarreled with a pedestrian and killed him with a shot. This video again was from a Youku user about the after-the-event scene. The shooter got the gun, the dead body, and tried hard to locate the bullet. The accident took place in Qitaihe City, Helongjiang Province.

Uploaded on: April 29, 2010
Total Views: 596,119
Thumbs Up vs Thumbs Down: 6,696 vs 1,013
Comments: 1,761

Another school tragedy in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province on April 28, 2010. A man in his forties run into an elementary school and cut 18 students and one teacher with a knife. More details to be announced by local police. This video is more a slide show.