Viral Week is our weekly round-up of the weekend’s trending memes, humor, rumor, gossip, and everything else Chinese netizens are chatting about.

This week, Wuhan’s famous “lockdown curtains” become a museum exhibit, teachers encourage celebrity worship, kindergartens are forced to sell food during closure, and doctor gets flowery tribute:

Covid firings

Five officials have been fired for mismanagement of a new Covid-19 outbreak in the city of Jilin, including the deputy director of Jilin city’s health department and the director of the health department of the city of Shulan.

Shulan became a “high risk” area on May 9 when a new case was diagnosed in the northeastern city after 73 consecutive days without new infections in the entire province. The source of the infection is unknown.

Curtain call

A pair of billowing red curtains, which became famous when its owner was unable to return home and close the window during Wuhan’s lockdown, has been collected by Hubei Museum as part of a permanent exhibit on Covid-19.

School diners

Due to school closures during the Covid-19 outbreak, two private kindergartens in Jinan, Shandong province, and Baoding, Henan, began selling barbecue to make income, a move welcomed by the locals. Similarly, a kindergarten in Lijiang, Yunnan, sold baozi to subsidize the salary of its 70 staff members.

Lethal care

A nanny in Liyang, Jiangsu province, has been arrested on the charge of intentional homicide for allegedly smothering and killing an 83-year-old woman under her care.

Teacher fans

A teacher has been removed from her post after allegedly leading kindergarten students in a chant of appreciation for pop star Wang Junkai. In the video, filmed by the teacher, she asks “Who is your teacher’s boyfriend?” to which the children recite “Wang Junkai!”

More videos of teachers encouraging “celebrity worship” subsequently emerged and were criticized, including that of a Xiamen middle school teacher who encouraged her students to see actor Xiao Zhan as a “role model.”

Petal portrait

To honor medical workers, two college students from Dalian used cherry blossom petals to create a portrait of Zhong Nanshan, the respiratory disease expert who has been instrumental in China’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the SARS epidemic in 2003.

Nesting syndrome

After receiving complaints from a resident about bird droppings on his car, a Beijing property management company removed all bird’s nests from the complex, only to replace them with “artificial nests” following complaints from nature conservation groups the next day.

Last lecture

Determined to give comprehensive feedback for her graduating music students’ final performance, music professor Wang Fengyu at Datong University in Shaanxi province delivered her final lesson to each student—through a fence.

Rock art

A college student majoring in oil painting from Hunan has spent the last four months of university closure practicing on his own—creating a mural of hundreds of small “Picasso-like” portraits on a stone wall.

Twin trouble

A paternity test expert in Beijing has revealed a case where a father allegedly discovered that only one of his newborn twin sons were his, a one-in-a-million or one-in-ten-million occurrence that got netizens talking.

Future of journalism

The School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University announced it would no longer enroll undergraduate students, and would instead expand its postgraduate program.

Dancing farmer

Yunnan farmer Ma Jin has gone viral on social media for his impromptu dancing videos. The 51-year-old, who never had any dance training, is beloved for his agile movements and happy expression.
Cover Image from Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA