Hangzhou Asian Games postponement trends at No 1 on Weibo, as users stay hopeful – ‘a good meal is not afraid of being late’

Topic quickly rockets to the top of the trending charts on China’s Twitter-like social media platform

‘The beauty of Hangzhou is there, unchanged for thousands of years. The Asian Games will still come,’ says one user

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A man takes photos of mascots of the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province on May 6, 2022. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:13pm, 6 May 2022

The postponement of the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou quickly rocketed to the top of the trending charts on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform on Friday afternoon.

A total of 482 gold medals were set to be handed out in September, but the 19th Asiad will now be moved to another date, which will be announced later.

The postponement came amid concerns over the spreading Omicron variant of Covid-19 in China, less than three months after Beijing hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Reaction on Weibo was mixed, with the topic attracting millions of searches and reactions within half an hour of state media reporting the postponement.

Many users tried to stay positive, however, despite Covid-19 restrictions continuing to be tightened amid an outbreak of Omicron in China.

The Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, which is set to be main stadium of the 19th Asian Games. Photo: AFP

Popular social current affairs blogging account Xu Ji Observation, which has 3.282 million fans on the social media platform, said: “The beauty of Hangzhou is there, unchanged for thousands of years. The Asian Games will still come.