Trending in China: Weibo users’ delight at ‘handsome’ Hong Kong Winter Olympian, fall in love with Team Canada coat
- Hong Kong flag bearer sets hearts aflutter on social media, users also impressed with flawless Mandarin
- Other hot topics for discussion include the Canadian team’s uniform and a dancing athlete from Lebanon
The opening ceremony began with a dazzling display of fireworks, lights and song, but not everyone’s eyes were on the dancers and singers.
Chinese social media site, Weibo, took off as online users discussed some of the best looking uniforms and also best looking athletes.
Nathan Crumpton, American Samoa’s flag bearer, drew unsurprising attention after entering shirtless, but one of the hottest trends turned out to be Hong Kong’s own Sidney Chu, who turned heads for simply being handsome.
In total, five out of the top 10 searches were related to the opening ceremony.
1. Sidney Chu becomes an idol
Hong Kong’s handsome flag bearer – #香港旗手好看 in Chinese- became the second hottest trend on Weibo.
The hashtag had been used more than 2.34 million times and was climbing. Many users say “he looks so handsome” and “he is so cute!” while others compliment his ‘dongbei’ or ‘north-eastern’ Mandarin accent.
But one user was a bit more critical saying, “Everyone looks good with a face mask”, which received more than 2,000 likes. Nevertheless Chu has won over thousands of Chinese netizens.
2. Uniform madness
Chinese online users had their eyes on team uniforms as athletes marched inside Friday’s opening ceremony, with some outfits proving to be a hit online.
Team Canada’s opening ceremony uniform was very popular with Weibo users, with more than 3 million posts during the ceremony and reaching number 11 spot at the time.
Designed by Vancouver-based Lululemon Athletica, the entire collection is only available for sale in Canada, but we can imagine imitations may soon become available on Taobao, China’s largest e-commerce platform.
One user noted that the multilayered down jacket looked “really good” and was impressed by how it could be “broken down as needed”.
On Taobao, the third most popular search was “Winter Olympic Games China Team down jacket”, number six was “Canada’s team down jacket” and number eight “America’s team jacket”.
It looks like several winter parkas are going to be the true winner this Games.
3. Lost ‘children’, please return home soon
One scene during the opening ceremony drew speculation from Weibo users, with some suggesting that it symbolised a call for the reunification of Taiwan with mainland China.
Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan as a renegade Chinese province, which must be brought into its fold, by force if necessary
The opening ceremony featured a scene where a child performer was seen “separated” from the main group, where she was quickly reunited with her fellow dancers.
The moment was posted on the Weibo page of the Chinese Communist Youth League Central Committee with the caption “Lost children, please return home soon”, drawing more than 20,000 likes. Netizens in the comments section speculated the post as a reference to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, with some creating memes from the scene.
4. Lebanese athlete knows how to strut
Another hot trend that appeared on Saturday morning was from the Lebanese delegation.
Nino Fenianos, the 23-year-old skier, started to trend after users compared his spirited ceremony strut to Chinese actor Deng Chao.
Fenianos was feeling the Olympic spirit and couldn’t help but dance his way through the stadium. Hence came the birth of the hashtag “Winter Games’ Deng Chao”. The hashtag was posted more than 1.4 million times.
