ANGER greeted the Monday announcement that the 100-day-long Chinese woman’s dream of copying Kyle MacDonald’s swap of a pin for a house had in fact been a stunt — leaving netizens wondering where truth now really exists in this razzle world.
The news broke in the early hours, 2:44 a.m., when a story “No Fairy Tale in China — I Produced ‘Pin for House’” was publicized on Sina and Tianya Web sites by a netizen called “Lier.” He said the so-called “pin for house” barter had been totally produced by him, including the heroine Ai Qingqing (real name Wang Xiaoguang) and all the bartered objects.
“I, here, say sorry to the media involved. I didn’t deliberately cheat and hurt you. I was only a part of the Web show,” Lier said in the story.
“Pin for house” dates back to the story of Canadian MacDonald who last year managed to swap a pin for a house.
On Oct. 15, a Beijing girl named Wang Xiaoguang announced in her blog (using the name of Ai Qing-qing) that she wanted to realize her own fairy tale of bartering a pin all the way up to a house.
Like MacDonald, she made sure that everything she did was publicized on popular Internet forums as well as her personal blog.
She traded up to a photograph, then a jade Buddha, then a mobile phone, and upwards to a pearl necklace, a digital camera, valuable stamps, two bottles of wine worth 8,000 yuan (US$1,000), then an expensive pipa, CD, a celebrity’s mirror and movie poster.
But then on the 100th day (Jan. 25), Wang held a press conference to bring her scheme to an end. She claimed that she had failed in her bid to swap up to a house, but had instead ended up with a recording contract worth millions of yuan.
“I can say everything you read in Ai Qingqing’s blog was written by me and all of the bartered stuff was planned. All you are talking about, truth or lies, bravery or promotion, was part of my 100-day Web show,” said Lier in the story.
He said at the beginning of 2006, he had contacted E.E. Media about producing a Web parody by using a Super Girl, but was turned down. Later he decided to do his own and chose Wang Xiaoguang, a Super Girl loser.
Wang was then given the name of Ai Qingqing and a series of Web communication tools, including blog, e-mail account and QQ.
On the first day of bartering, Ai swapped a mobile phone with a foreigner, which attracted the media’s attention. As Ai bartered more and more, including Hong Kong actress Irene Wan’s mirror, the media, including the South China Morning Post and The Independent, were attracted to the “Chinese Web fairy tale.”
But as the cunning publicity stunt was revealed and Ai’s story garnered so much interest on the Internet, Lier couldn’t wait backstage any longer.
“I planned the whole thing and invested several tens of thousands of yuan into the barter but I got nothing back. From today, I’ll tell the truth. Even if I am criticized, I still want to say what really happened,” he wrote in the story.
Actually, during the bartering, smart netizens noticed something inauthentic and insincere. They believed it was likely to be a commercial campaign to publicize something. From the disclosure of Wang Xiaoguang’s experience of being a Super Girl contestant to her final barter of a recording contract, netizens realized the 100-day barter had actually been a promotion.
One unacceptable thing is that when Wang was interviewed by Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV, presenter Xu Gehui asked Wang to swap her 8,000-yuan wine for a girl’s drawing because the girl’s grandfather liked drinking. Wang said no. Even with the offer of a house from author Zheng Yuanjie, another guest on the show, Wang still said no.
Whether Lier’s disclosure is another promotion planned by the two liars or not is unimportant now. With domestic and overseas media getting in a frenzy over the 100-day “pin for house” stunt, who did think of checking the truth? In these days of Internet razzle, it’s not just a question of being cheated but about who we are to believe in future.
(Cao Zhen)
