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, divorce becomes difficult, sanitation workers fined for dust, a convenience store publishes lewd ads, a criminal miscalculates, and there’s an engagement photo mix-up:

Divorce difficulties

A mandatory “cool-off” period for divorcing couples has become law as part of China’s New Civil Code, despite widespread opposition from the public and several lawmakers who are concerned this will infringe on individual freedoms and endanger spouses in cases of domestic abuse. The new law, which will be enacted on January 1, 2021, will require spouses to wait 30 days before their application for divorce is granted, supposedly to deter “impulsive actions” as divorce rates in the country climb.

Kicking up dust

A CCTV news segment revealed that sanitation workers in Xi’an face fines if more than 5 grams of dust are found per square meter of sidewalk. Inspectors are shown to put a square of tape on the pavement and gingerly collect the dust for weighing. A worker told journalists that nearly every one of his colleagues has been fined before.

Kids out of water

Since students are prohibited from using the campus pool because of Covid-19 infection worries, a school in Chengdu has been giving swimming lessons by having pupils practicing their stroke technique on land and breathing into a bucket of water.

Not for families

Family Mart, a convenience store chain, apologized for posting a lewd advertisement on WeChat for ice cream with the title “Celebs’ Steamy Scenes Leaked” (多网红激情画面流出). In March, the chain published a similar post titled “Baby, Open Your Mouth” to advertise sandwiches.

Criminal miscalculation

A burglary suspect surnamed Wang has been detained in Dunhua, Jilin province for making off with 120,000 RMB’s worth of stolen jewelry from a home, including jade necklaces, bracelets, and rings…which he sold off in bulk to the owner of a flea market stall for 120 RMB.

Delicious major

Students at the Liuzhou Vocational and Technical College in Guangxi will have the option of enrolling in the college’s new school dedicated to the study of luosifen rice noodles, and choose from seven majors related to the pungent local snack including food inspection technology, advertising, design and manufacturing, and equipment maintenance and management.

Master of mimicry

In response to Nanjing neighborhood complaints of the incessant beeping of police electric motorbikes, local authorities investigated and caught the culprit—a black-collared starling, a bird with a knack for imitating sounds.

Blast from the past

A bride-to-be in Wuhan received an unpleasant surprise from her engagement photographers: pictures of herself with her former fiance, which she shot at the same studio before the engagement was broken off four years ago. The studio apologized for the mix-up, which has reportedly generated conflicts as the new husband-to-be hadn’t known about the former engagement.

Licensed for a day

To celebrate getting his driver’s license, a man in Shaanxi province surnamed Zhao decided to go have a drink, and was caught drunk driving on his way home—thus losing his license a mere day after he got it.

Violent hospitality
Angry that his friend, Mr. Chen, managed to win their tussle over who pays for their dinner, a Mr. Shen in Huainan, Anhui province, punched Chen in the face and then offered to pay his hospital bill.

Cover image from VCG