Last week footage of an orgy in a hotel room went viral on Chinese social media. (There's a sentence you don't get to write every day!) The videos were posted on the popular Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, and although China has tried to scrub it from the Internet, it's like playing whack-a-mole. You shut down one upload, another one pops up.
Speaking of popping up, the orgy. According to The Shanghaist, the videos show at least six naked men and women dancing, grinding, laughing and basically living life to the fullest. Allegedly, the people involved are flight attendants for China Eastern Airlines. (Well, I know what airline I'm flying from now on.) Rumors say it took place at a hotel in Madrid. I know it's disappointing this orgy didn't happen on an airplane, because it would bring a whole new meaning to the word 'cockpit.'
In a written statement, China Eastern Airlines denies that the people in the video are employees. They suggest that the video was shot in Africa, and produced by someone deliberately trying to damage their reputation. (What? Seems like it would only improve their reputation to me.) I don't know what airline would go to the trouble to throw an orgy just to smear a competitor, but if that's the case, that is some pretty creative marketing.
China has been censoring every mention of this incident on the Internet, so if you are reading this article, you are probably not in China. The website FreeWeibo monitors and distributes content that has been censored by Chinese authorities. The most censored term at the moment is "Eastern airlines 6p," followed by "Eastern Airlines" and "China Eastern." (I assume "orgy" was already censored.) But that's not all - China has also blocked the terms "migration" and "boarding a plane." That's pretty extreme. There are 376 million Weibo users. Will all references to airplanes on the Internet be censored for them?
China desperately wants to wipe this incident from our memories, but ironically their efforts have just given the story more publicity. It's a good example of The Streisand Effect, "the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely." It's named after the singer Barbara Streisand, who tried to suppress photos of her house in Malibu in 2003. Instead, she ending up drawing more attention to it.
But you know what? I support this flight attendant orgy. China recently started giving citizens 'reputation ratings,' making a nightmarish Black Mirror episode a reality. Can you blame them for wanting to cut loose? I mean, the government's censorship is so extreme that last month they blocked Weibo users from saying "I disagree." Reportedly they did this because of the Communist Party's proposal to let President Xi Jinping rule more than two terms. Sometimes you just have to rebel.
In a related story, airline passengers have fist fight because one wouldn't stop farting...
