Hello Nanjing - The premier expat social network for pleasant living in Nanjing Jiangsu, China

Naked Nanjing tomfoolery leads to 500,000 downloads of graduation photos

• 

Details

Parent Category: I ♥ Nanjing

Category: City news

Created on Saturday, 16 June 2012 22:54

Published on Saturday, 16 June 2012 22:54

Written by Sun Wukong

Hits: 1568

Preparation for the high school graduation test that is the bane of most Chinese teenage existences will no longer dominate the lives of graduating students. The exam, also known as the Gaokao, was held at locations all over the country last week. Classes are over. Diplomas are being handed out. There is but one thing left for students to do: celebrate.

On June 6th, just a few days before graduation from a local Nanjing high school, a group of male students got together for one such celebration. According to one of the students in the group, the circle of friends studied together in their school’s art and design department. Last Wednesday, the festivities began with dinner at a local restaurant. At around 10 pm, after enjoying an evening of food and drink together, the students returned to their dormitory. With alcohol in their blood and the melancholy of parting in their hearts, it was suggested that the group take a few photos together.

The resulting snapshots show the 10 students in a stairwell in their school dorm. The students lined up in a row with one person on each stair. For reasons that were not explained, all 10 are naked. Shirtless, and with pants dropped to their knees, the students are depicted in the photos strategically covering themselves with one hand and extending the middle finger on their other hands.

Had the story ended there, no one in our fair city would have been any the wiser that these photos existed. The souvenirs of this final night out among friend could have remained a secret, buried in a hidden folder somewhere on each of 10 different hard drives. However, later on that same evening, one of the group members had what he probably thought was a brilliantly hilarious idea. At midnight, he, identified only as “little Wu”, uploaded the group’s naked photos to Ren Ren Wang, a Chinese website that is similar to Facebook. He apparently thought nothing of it, as he left the pictures posted for two days without realizing the attention they were receiving.

On June 8th, little Wu got a phone call from one of his school administrators. The photos had been brought to the school’s attention after a few group members had been recognized and named in captions by other Ren Ren Wang users. The administrator instructed Wu to delete the photo album immediately. Little Wu followed the instructions, but by that time it was already too little too late. The photos had been downloaded 500,000 times. They can now be found posted all over the world wide web.

According to a school administrator surnamed Chen, the students did not receive their diplomas at the graduation ceremony the school held on June 9th. It is unclear as to whether or not the school intends to give the 10 students their diplomas or not. However, the students may have cause for hope. The administrator told a reporter that the school does not have a single rule on the books that even remotely covers this kind of behavior.

We here at Hello Nanjing would like to wish these 10 students a happy graduation. We shopped around and tried to get you guys the gift that you really want, your dignity back, but it would require destroying the Internet. Your present instead, we hope, will be a nice big loophole, a way out, and your diploma.