https://www.scmp.com/rss/521377/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com SCMP Editorial SCMP Editorial Teenage sports star Quan Hongchan became a national hero and China’s “diving queen” through her extraordinary medal-winning feats. She is adored by millions of fans, but like so many top performers, the 19-year-old has also been a target of online abuse. This is not surprising, given the often toxic nature of the mainland’s fan culture. That does not, however, make it acceptable. Quan, who won her first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021 when only 14, has been targeted as a result of gaining... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/comment/article/3348915/chinas-sports-stars-show-bravery-face-toxic-fan-culture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/comment/article/3348915/chinas-sports-stars-show-bravery-face-toxic-fan-culture?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:45:08 +0000 dpa dpa Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Berlin on Sunday to protest against online sexual violence and express solidarity with victims, amid heightened attention after a German celebrity came forward with allegations against a former partner. A newly formed group named Feminist Fight Club! called for protesters to assemble at the Brandenburg Gate amid a controversy over pornographic deepfakes in Germany. People held banners that read “Human rights online too” and “Turn the shame... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3347509/thousands-rally-berlin-against-online-sexual-violence-pornographic-deepfakes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3347509/thousands-rally-berlin-against-online-sexual-violence-pornographic-deepfakes?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:34:24 +0000 Sumnima Kandangwa Sumnima Kandangwa The internet is at a very Chinese time of its life – and content creator Marcelo Wang is doing his part by teaching popular online phrases such as “gurl periodt” and “slay bestie” in Mandarin to some of your favourite celebrities like Rihanna, Rosalía and Paris Hilton. Here’s the lowdown on social media influencer Marcelo Wang – who was just spotted at Milan Fashion Week – and his rise to fame. He splits his time between Portugal and China Before he rose to TikTok stardom, Marcelo Wang was a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/people/icons-influencers/article/3346703/meet-marcelo-wang-whos-teaching-rihanna-and-more-stars-how-say-phrases-mandarin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/people/icons-influencers/article/3346703/meet-marcelo-wang-whos-teaching-rihanna-and-more-stars-how-say-phrases-mandarin?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:00:11 +0000 Sumnima Kandangwa Sumnima Kandangwa Social media influencer and “incel-ibrity” Clavicular is grabbing headlines after making his runway debut at New York Fashion Week for American fashion designer Elena Velez’s namesake brand – and getting involved in an altercation at a New York City nightclub the same week. Born Braden Peters, the American streamer is better known by his online handle Clavicular, a nickname that comes from the 20-year-old’s obsession with the proportions of his clavicle and “looksmaxxing”, an internet subculture... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/people/icons-influencers/article/3343725/meet-clavicular-looksmaxxing-influencer-who-just-made-his-new-york-fashion-week-debut?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/people/icons-influencers/article/3343725/meet-clavicular-looksmaxxing-influencer-who-just-made-his-new-york-fashion-week-debut?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Feb 2026 22:00:21 +0000 Jane Cai Jane Cai After a months-long war of words between an online influencer and a restaurant chain owner, a Communist Party mouthpiece has taken the unusual step of direct intervention – underlining China’s desire to rein in internet celebrities and social media platforms. Since Sunday, People’s Daily has published four commentaries about the restaurant chain Xibei, which says it expects to lose 500 million yuan (US$71.8 million) following an influencer’s online complaints about pre-made dishes. “This is... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3341119/xibei-vs-influencer-why-beijing-called-time-chinese-restaurant-food-feud?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3341119/xibei-vs-influencer-why-beijing-called-time-chinese-restaurant-food-feud?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Jan 2026 04:00:13 +0000 Sumnima Kandangwa Sumnima Kandangwa While Justin and Hailey Bieber are no strangers to dominating headlines with endless speculation about their marriage – from Justin’s mental health struggles to rumours about a divorce – the internet has pointed out a new supposed red flag threatening their relationship: the “swag gap”. Coined and popularised on TikTok, the “swag gap” references relationships where one partner is stylish, polished and overall has “swag”, while the other looks like they raided a laundry hamper in the dark. The... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/fashion/celebrity-style/article/3337973/what-relationship-swag-gap-hailey-and-justin-bieber-selena-gomez-and-benny-blanco?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/fashion/celebrity-style/article/3337973/what-relationship-swag-gap-hailey-and-justin-bieber-selena-gomez-and-benny-blanco?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Jan 2026 10:00:16 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse A Sydney man said he had received death threats and was “terrified” to leave his home on Monday after his photo was widely shared online as the gunman responsible for the Bondi Beach shooting. A father and son duo opened fire on a Jewish festival at Australia’s best-known beach on Sunday evening, killing 15 people, including a child, and wounding 42 more. Authorities have condemned the attack as an act of terrorism, although they have not named the two shooters. Police said one, aged 50, was... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3336491/terrified-australia-man-same-name-misidentified-sydneys-bondi-gunman?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3336491/terrified-australia-man-same-name-misidentified-sydneys-bondi-gunman?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Dec 2025 09:33:55 +0000 Syed Munir Khasru Syed Munir Khasru On December 10, Australia began enforcing the world’s strictest social media age rule: platforms must now verify that users are aged 16 or above, or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$33 million), a bold experiment in returning oversight of childhood from Silicon Valley to democratically elected institutions. The relevant law, passed by the Australian parliament last year, represents more than protectionism or moral panic. It is a deliberate experiment in rebalancing the roles of state,... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3335735/australias-social-media-ban-offers-path-between-excess-and-inaction?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3335735/australias-social-media-ban-offers-path-between-excess-and-inaction?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Dec 2025 21:30:08 +0000 Phoebe Zhang Phoebe Zhang After weeks of standing in front of a boiling pot, the “chicken steak guy” couldn’t take it any more. Last week, he said in a video posted to his personal Douyin account that he would take a day off. He had grown extremely tired, not only from frying chicken nonstop, but also from the demands of his zealous fans. One news report said that during the week-long National Holiday, cornered by people asking for a picture, he exclaimed, “There’s no air, I’m suffocating.” The “chicken steak guy” had... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3329075/chinas-overnight-social-media-stars-are-discovering-flip-side-fame?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3329075/chinas-overnight-social-media-stars-are-discovering-flip-side-fame?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Oct 2025 01:30:09 +0000 Sumnima Kandangwa Sumnima Kandangwa Every year since 2019, Caitlin Covington has heralded the beginning of cosy season with annual Pinterest-perfect photoshoots and videos in front of idyllic backdrops, where she is dressed in autumnal knitwear paired with skinny jeans and a pair of ankle boots. Often, she’s also sporting meticulously styled barrel curls and holding the ultimate autumn drink: a steaming cup of Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte. For the past six years, Covington – a 35-year-old mother of two – has been the unofficial... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/lifestyle/leisure/article/3328794/what-christian-girl-autumn-meet-caitlin-covington-queen-season?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/lifestyle/leisure/article/3328794/what-christian-girl-autumn-meet-caitlin-covington-queen-season?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Oct 2025 22:00:24 +0000 Bloomberg Bloomberg Xiaohongshu’s valuation surged 19 per cent to US$31 billion in just three months during recent transactions via a major fund, underscoring the intense investor demand for a Chinese equivalent to Instagram. The valuation came to light through portfolio documents distributed by a GSR Ventures Management vehicle, which logged shares of the fund changing hands in the first half of 2025. Xiaohongshu comprised 92 per cent of the fund’s total assets as of June’s end, a slight rise from the previous... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3324261/value-instagram-style-xiaohongshu-soars-19-3-months-us31-billion-gsrs-books?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3324261/value-instagram-style-xiaohongshu-soars-19-3-months-us31-billion-gsrs-books?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Sep 2025 02:13:58 +0000 Adam Au,Felicia Feiran Chen Adam Au,Felicia Feiran Chen The deepfake scandal at the University of Hong Kong – hundreds of non-consensual, sexually explicit composites reportedly found on a student’s laptop – feels like a sequel to a much older story from 2008, when intimate photographs copied from actor Edison Chen’s computer were leaked on the internet. Then, the harm was privacy invasion: real images, created in private, thrust into public view. Now, the harm arrives through fabricated images: generated by artificial intelligence (AI) with enough... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3322562/deepfake-porn-scandal-hong-kong-exposes-need-update-laws?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3322562/deepfake-porn-scandal-hong-kong-exposes-need-update-laws?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Aug 2025 08:30:09 +0000 Sumnima Kandangwa Sumnima Kandangwa On August 8, a two-year-old hairless English-French bulldog mix named Petunia waddled across the stage at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Santa Rosa, California, to claim the US$5,000 top prize at this year’s World’s Ugliest Dog Contest. Petunia’s wrinkly skin and pug-like face might not be conventionally cute but, like the nine other competing dogs, they still sparked a familiar reaction: the uncontrollable urge to scoop her up like a baby. This strange affection has a name: ugly cute. One of its... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3321861/what-makes-labubu-so-lovable-psychology-behind-ugly-cute-appeal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3321861/what-makes-labubu-so-lovable-psychology-behind-ugly-cute-appeal?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Aug 2025 10:15:07 +0000 Sumnima Kandangwa Sumnima Kandangwa An 11-year-old boy stands at the bow of a boat, sunglasses on, face unreadable. As the boat cuts swiftly across the water, he dances rhythmically, arms slicing through the air in slow, deliberate motion. He’s effortless. He’s unbothered. He’s aura farming. Among Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s ever-evolving slang (think “skibidi” and “huzz”), aura farming is the latest phrase to go viral. What does it mean? It’s about the optics of cool: being seen doing something that looks casual, mysterious and... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3321096/what-aura-farming-gen-zs-viral-obsession-looking-cool?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3321096/what-aura-farming-gen-zs-viral-obsession-looking-cool?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Aug 2025 10:00:39 +0000 Danielle Popov Danielle Popov Social media giant ByteDance, owner of TikTok and its Chinese sibling Douyin, says the median service length of existing employees was 2.9 years, while their average tenure was three years, the Beijing-based company disclosed at an internal meeting. According to two sources briefed on Thursday’s town hall meeting that was led by co-founder, chairman and CEO Liang Rubo, about half of the firm’s 120,000 employees have spent more than three years there. The median service length of former employees... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3320488/tiktok-owner-bytedance-finds-median-service-length-employees-about-3-years?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3320488/tiktok-owner-bytedance-finds-median-service-length-employees-about-3-years?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Aug 2025 23:00:09 +0000 Associated Press Associated Press Astronomer – the company whose CEO resigned after being caught on a KissCam at a Coldplay rock concert embracing a woman who was not his wife – is trying to move on from the drama with someone who knows the band pretty well. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who was married to Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin for 13 years, announced on Friday on social media that she has been hired by Astronomer as a spokeswoman. Astronomer, a tech company based in New York, found itself in an uncomfortable spotlight... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3319717/firm-coldplay-drama-hires-chris-martins-ex-wife-gwyneth-paltrow-answer-questions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3319717/firm-coldplay-drama-hires-chris-martins-ex-wife-gwyneth-paltrow-answer-questions?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Jul 2025 17:41:35 +0000 Associated Press Associated Press When the “kiss cam” at a Coldplay concert on July 16 landed on a couple who tried – but failed – to duck out of the spotlight, the internet immediately got to work. In hours, the clip was just about everywhere. Endless memes, parody videos and photos of the pair’s shocked faces filled social media feeds. Online sleuths rushed to identify who was on camera. US tech company Astronomer eventually confirmed that its CEO and chief people officer were in fact the couple in the video – and announced... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3319495/what-coldplay-kiss-cam-scandal-says-about-privacy-us-all-today?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3319495/what-coldplay-kiss-cam-scandal-says-about-privacy-us-all-today?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Jul 2025 20:15:08 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse The CEO of an American tech company resigned Saturday after a video of him embracing an alleged colleague at a Coldplay concert went viral and fuelled relentless memes. “Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” New York-based Astronomer said in a statement shared on LinkedIn. “Andy Byron has tendered his resignation,” the firm said, after previously launching an investigation. During a Coldplay concert in... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3318883/us-tech-ceo-viral-coldplay-concert-video-resigns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3318883/us-tech-ceo-viral-coldplay-concert-video-resigns?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Jul 2025 23:06:00 +0000 Associated Press Associated Press It started out as a routine bit of fun at a Coldplay concert: lead singer Chris Martin asked the cameras to scan the crowd for his “Jumbotron Song”, when he sings a few lines about the people the camera lands on. At a concert at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts on Wednesday, a man wearing a birthday sash was up first. Two people in banana costumes were highlighted. But in between, something else ensued. For several seconds, a couple was shown on the big screen. They were cuddling and smiling,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3318832/coldplays-jumbotron-captures-what-exactly-internet-has-its-theories?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3318832/coldplays-jumbotron-captures-what-exactly-internet-has-its-theories?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Jul 2025 23:52:28 +0000 Sumnima Kandangwa Sumnima Kandangwa Last month’s papal conclave may have drawn global attention, but elsewhere, another vote stirred near-religious fervour: Sanrio’s annual popularity contest. Millions of fans cast ballots not for a pope, but for the crown of cutest Sanrio pup. On one side, the reigning champ for five straight years: Cinnamoroll. On the other: Pompompurin. Online, the passion can verge on the unhinged. “I swear to f***ing God if you troglodytes let that greedy f***ing capitalist Dog win for the seventh year in a... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3315476/cinnamoroll-vs-pompompurin-whos-winning-2025-sanrio-character-ranking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3315476/cinnamoroll-vs-pompompurin-whos-winning-2025-sanrio-character-ranking?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Jun 2025 09:00:15 +0000