Throwback Thursday takes a look back into Beijing's past, using our nine-year-strong blog archives as the source for a glance at the weird and wonderful of yesteryear.
We love challenges. Be it a silly internet fad or drenching yourself in ice water for good cause, they serve as fun distractions from the daily grind. Six years ago, the crew at the Beijinger livened up dreary January with a series of challenges to be performed, tallied, and written about.
The first challenge that editors geared themselves up for was speed gloving. While once we would have been incredulously asking how and why is that a thing, last week's sub-zero temperatures mean we would rather just be masters of this trade. At the end of the day, who wouldn't want to be crowned "World's Fastest Glover". The challenge is to put gloves on the hands of 10 people in the fastest time. Simple enough. After the challenge was performed, the Beijinger's team wondered if they'd done something wrong as they were able to beat the World record with a not-too-strenuous effort.
At the end of the month, when money is tight and we're counting down to payday, the team then treated themselves to a rice eating competition. Seems familiar to the core, but on that day, the participants where to pick up rice using chopsticks grain by grain. Reportedly, the previous world record belonged to Rob Beaton of the US, who, on Nov 12, 2008, had eaten whole 23 grains of rice in one minute.
According to the after-challenge tally chart, the Beijinger's assistant dining editor ate 30 grains of rice in a minute. We wonder if anyone has registered that as the new world record, for a challenge like this begs to be championed from China. However, it turned out that one of the important rules of the challenge was overlooked, and the editors did not boil the rice, while the challenge instructs one to boil rice before eating. A for effort though.
Seems like beating Guinness World Records is an addictive activity, and the column titled "The Challenge" continued for a few months, with tasks like leapfrogging, pencil balancing, and jumping jacks.
The ubiquity of challenges on China's internet suggests that the Beijinger's staff aren't the only ones getting excited about setting records. Some of the more popular ones made it into international media, with titles like "Most Ridiculous China's Internet Challenges."
Some of the most radical challenges involved showing off an A4-sized waist or being able to wrap a banknote around your wrist. These challenges might be a bit tricky for your average Northern European woman, who are generally built of slightly sturdier stuff than their Chinese counterparts.
Images: the Beijinger, Elite Readers, Zinc Insurance