No Beta 07: Smarter Emotions

Week of 11th of April

Hi there. Welcome to Active Faults.

This week, fanquan is talking about…

On Weibo, trending at #2: 朴彩英双眼皮

BLACKPINK’s Rose double eyelids

No surprises here as neiyu comments (read: criticises) on a female celebrity’s facial features suspecting surgical alterations. I’ve included this entry as a case study to highlight a more important update to Weibo hot searches: its new “Smart Search” feature, 微博智搜, that analyses public discussions and sentiments regarding specific topics using “intelligent technology” (智能技术). Its outputs include a bar chart of six 大众情绪, emotions of the masses that stand out the most, described using labels such as happy, moderate, anger, surprise, confusion, hopeful and more. There’s also a word cloud and a summary of “prominent viewpoints”, 典型观点, that reads even more robotically than Chat GPT. 

This is horrible news for the data fans, especially those who regulate the comments surrounding their celebrities. They now have to manipulate their words to reflect a positive emotion. No hate and all celebrations all around. 

On Weibo, trending at #6: CP粉悬着的心终于死了

Sword of Damocles drops on Couple Fans

This week’s hit show is Lin Gengxin and Zhao Liying’s period drama, The Legend of Shen Li (与凤行) which aired its last episode today. Widely regarded as having crazy on-screen chemistry, this is the third series this pair shot together. They have long been close friends with many, many shippers who wanted them to date. Throughout the airing of the show, they’ve been “selling” their intimacy (read more about this concept here) and actively marketed their closeness, flirting in live streams and interviews. 

And in came the dating news of Lin that shattered the illusion completely this week. Outrage ensues where fans comment: “You have a girlfriend and you still sold, saying ambiguous things and putting up an act - today the finale releases and this is so bad for the show as well as the audiences”. In other words, at least keep the bubble floating until the tape stops rolling.