AVIATION ACCOUNTABILITY

AVIATION ACCOUNTABILITY Plane Engine Coin Tosser Fined RMB120,000 By Matthew Bossons

Remember that idiot that threw coins at a jet engine in Anhui province last year for good luck? Yah, so do we – him and the hundreds of the other bozos (a slight exaggeration) that decided that toss ing a piece of metal into a highly complex machine that transports people through the air is a good idea.

Anyway, we’ll get to the point: A 28-year-old man identified in legal docu ments by the alias ‘Liu Qiang’ has been fined a whopping RMB120,000 for tossing coins at an airplane’s jet engine at Anqing Tianzhushan Airport. The incident occurred on February 17, 2019, when Liu (whose ac tual surname is Lu) threw two RMB1 coins at the engine of flight 8L9960 to Kunming for good luck.

Prior to takeoff, the flight crew noticed a coin on the ground and asked if anyone had thrown coins into the plane’s engine, to which Liu answered that he had tossed two coins. The flight was then delayed while maintenance personnel hunted for the cur rency. One of the coins was then found in the plane’s left engine.

While the flight was originally scheduled to leave Anqing at 3.05pm, the plane was not able to leave the airport until 7.30am the following morning. The whole episode was presumably super annoying for passengers, who had to spend the night in Anqing, and very expensive for the airline, Lucky Air (or, as we’ve dubbed it, Unlucky Air).

In the immediate aftermath of Liu’s mis guided attempt to attain good luck, or bless the flight, or whatever it was he thought he was doing, he was detained by police for 10 days. Lucky Air also announced that it would take legal action against Liu, seeking damag

es estimated to be around RMB140,000. The airline’s quest for compensation reached its climax last month, when a court in Anhui province issued Liu a fine of RMB120,000 for his coin-throwing antics.

Liu pled guilty in the case, but did take the time to blame the airport for not inform ing him of the fact that passengers are not allowed to throw items into the plane’s en gines (errr – okay, Liu). The defendant also noted that flight 8L9960 was to be his first time traveling by air, and that he was igno rant of how aircraft operate.

As noted at the start of this piece, Liu is far from the first superstitious traveler to toss a coin at – or into – an airplane engine; there were at least 10 instances of people throwing coins at jet engines in the first half of 2019 alone.

THEBUZZ

RANDOM NUMBER

210 MILLION

Shannon Lee is seeking RMB210 million in compensation from Guangzhou-based fast-food chain Real Kung Fu (Zhen Gongfu) for us ing the likeness of her father – Bruce Lee – without permission or pay ment. Additionally, she is asking that Real Kung Fu immediately cease using her father’s likeness and make clear that the company has no rela tion to Bruce Lee.

Originally called ‘168 Steamed Fast Food Restaurant’ and ‘Seed Double Food,’ the chain rebranded as Real Kung Fu in 2004 after its founder sought the services of a veteran marketing firm. Since the rebranding, Real Kung Fu has used the image of a man who looks sus piciously like the late Bruce Lee for its logo.

DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?

Memi Becirovic

Jiangsu Dragons head coach, Slovenian Memi Becirovic, was ejected from a CBA game against the Liaoning Flying Leopards last month after he slapped a spectator in the face during the game. The man was standing courtside when the coach approached him and got into an altercation. The two were eventu ally separated by players and staff. The fan on the receiving end of the hit is believed to have gotten into a verbal spat with the coach’s wife, who was sitting courtside, according to Xinhua. Meanwhile, local media reports claimed that the fan had made an abu sive gesture towards Liaoning’s Lance Stephenson. The Dragons went on to lose 111-103 to the Flying Leopards, and Becirovic received an automatic one-match courtside ban, while the fan has been banned from CBA games for life.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“To come across a good boss requires luck – if you don’t have a kind boss, you might work strenuously for a year, and in the end may not get paid for it”

So wrote one Weibo user after news that a company in Dongguan gave two employees new lake-view apartments as a year-end bonus. The apartments, which are said to be worth around RMB2 million each, were given away as part of a 10-year plan to help out employees going through a tough time, according to Zhong Mingyu, the company’s chairman of the board. Additionally, the company allotted money for furnishings for both of the lucky employees (100-gallon turtle tanks a top priority, we’d imagine).

yunv wugua / yùnǚ wú guà /雨女无瓜 “none of your business”

Why are you always on your phone? Put it down and go play outside.

I am an influencer. It’s my job.

Playing with your phone all the time will not give you a good life.

Yunv wugua.

As we celebrate Chinese New Year, let us remember how time flies. If you saw the original Lion King at age 8, you are now in your 30s. Those that spent their college years watching Friends are now the wrong side of 40. The post-2000s generation is now in college or entering the workforce. As they gain internships in the glossy offices of global conglomerates, they are already taking over pop culture in China.

This post-2000’s generation, some times called Gen Z, has no idea who Marcel the monkey is, nor seen Simba in 2D form. They have their own pop culture and memes inspired by childhood memories and nostalgia. Yunv wugua is one of them. Literally meaning “rain girl has no melons,” it can be confusing to see when used in chats – who is rain girl and why doesn’t she have any melons?

The phrase comes from a 2000s kids’ TV show titled Babala the Fairies (芭芭 拉小魔仙), where a group of schoolgirls cast magical spells and turn into powerful warriors to defeat evil creatures (kinda like Sailor Moon with more clan members). It features an icy and aloof prince whose favorite phrase is “none of your business” (yunv wuguan). However, the laconic prince wears a clumsy plastic helmet that severely restricts his nasal passages. When he utters his catchphrase, it sounds like yunv wugua, aka “rain girl has no melons.” The prince, being a highly aspirational character, immediately made yunv wugua the most fashionable way of asking some one to butt out of your affairs. Kids across the nation adopted the phrase and began to confuse their parents with stern state ments of rain girls and melons. In the vein of “ok boomer,” yunv wu gua is today’s kids’ phrase of choice when older people tell them what to do. When their parents tell them that the way to a good life is to get a ‘real job,’ get married or have kids, “yunv wugua,” is what they’ll say back. They know those things can no long er guarantee a good life; they are facing a vastly different world than their parents, where social classes have solidified, power and wealth are entrenched and no amount of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps can make up for class differences anymore. So the phrase is their defense against judg ment from the older generation. In their world, rain girl has no melons. Mia Li