The Emoticons Have It: Chinese Reactions to Kim Jong-il's Death
中国网民讨论金正日去世
China and North Korea may officially be as close as ※lips and teeth,§ as Mao Zedong famously said, but that hasn＊t kept Internet users in China from greeting news of the death of Kim Jong Il with mixed emotions.
Kim＊s death was the top trending topic on Sina Weibo, China＊s most active Twitter-like microblogging platform. It attracted more than a million posts by midday Monday according to statistics posted on a special topic page.
One indicator of how Chinese Internet users are taking Kim＊s death: the use of emoticons. While a number of the service＊s users have decorated their posts with candles and broken hearts to indicate mourning, at least as many have opted instead to festoon their feeds with thumbs up, victory symbols and animated faces in various states of laughter.
Among the laughing emoticons, many come attached to jokes referencing the film ※2012,§ in which China builds arks to save humankind＊s elite from an impending cataclysm.
※Kim Jong Il has gotten on the boat,§ quipped a Weibo user writing under the handle Chongqing Ocean. ※I＊m starting to believe 2012 is really going to happen,§
微博用户“重庆海洋”开玩笑说：“金正日登船去了，我越来越相信2012年真的要来了！”
Others accompany tongue-in-cheek posts noting that Kim＊s death comes closely on the heels of the death of Czech playwright and Velvet Revolution hero Vaclav Havel.
※Havel has made yet another contribution to mankind,§ wrote user Caijun Zhinan. ※He decided to take Kim Jong Il with him when he went.§
“彩筠之南”写道：“哈维尔为人类又做出一大贡献：领走了金正日！”
In a possible nod to Kim＊s alleged fondness for drink, normally voluble political blogger Wu Jiaxiang opted to simply post an animation of glasses clinking in celebration.
平时发帖颇多的政治博客作者吴稼祥干脆发了一个显示举杯欢庆的微博符号，可能暗指金正日爱喝酒的传言。
Journalist Fan Wei, meanwhile, has used emoticons to produce this chart predicting how each country would feel about Kim＊s demise (from left to right: North Korea, South Korea, Japan, the U.S., the UK, Russia, China, Others)
Among those posting candles, many worried about what Kim's death would mean for China, which has long worried that a collapse of the regime in Pyongyang could bring South Korean and U.S. troops perilously close to its border.
Writing on his Weibo account, Hu Xijin, editor of the nationalistic tabloid Global Times, predicted a diplomatic struggle. 'South Korea, Japan and the United States will do whatever they can to influence North Korea, even frighten her,' he wrote:
中国民族主义报纸《环球时报》总编辑胡锡进在自己的微博上预测将会出现外交争斗。他写道：
In this crucial moment, China can absolutely not back down. China has to strenuously protect the special Sino-North Korean relationship -- this has bearing on China's strategic interests in Northeast Asia. China has to help North Korea get on the right path toward prosperous development.
Commenting on reports of North Koreans mourning Kim on the streets, a number of Weibo users have noted similarities with the death of Mao in 1976. Among them was former Yahoo China President Xie Wen, who pointed out that Mao's death was followed quickly by the arrest of the Gang of Four -- an event that precipitated China's embrace of economic reforms. 'It's similar to the mood on the streets on Sept. 9, 1976,' Mr. Xie wrote. 'Who knew that four months later Mao's wife would be arrested?'
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