YeinJee's Asian blog

Asian Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment

Unusual and weird

AKB48 idol shaves head for dating scandal

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Japanese pop group AKB48 member Minami Minegishi has taken the extreme to apologise for her dating scandal by shaving her head.

AKB48 Minami Minegishi head shaved

The 20-year-old was caught sleeping over at a man’s place by the paparazzi, which is strictly forbidden by the group’s management. As strange (and perhaps inhuman) as it sounds, the idol-no-dating rule is very common in East Asia, though there’s not many agencies that enforces the regulation as religiously as AKB48.

It’s said that she shaved her head on her own accord. Whether she’s told to do so or not it shows how much pressure she was in to try and get out of the trouble.

Although many people has said that the (self) punishment is too harsh, the act might actually save her AKB48 career as she was “merely” demoted to trainee status. There were others who were penalised heavier (expelled etc.) for lesser evidence.

Baby Suriname toads born from mom’s back

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NatGeo Wild video which shows a female Suriname sea toad giving birth to her offspring right out of holes in her back. Watch at your own discretion.

Definitely weirder than the toad migration and other amphibian stuff I’ve seen.

Phobia

BTW, learnt some new words. Trypophobia is a phobia of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps. While ranidaphobia is for fear of frogs and toads.

Kidnapped kids returned to BUYERS

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China baby traffickingChinese Police have returned 29 children they rescued from Yunnan, Sichuan and Shandong provinces to the people who bought them, because the children’s real parents could not be found.

According to the police, some women in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces sell their children to make a living. The price of a baby ranges between 5,000 yuan (US$771) and 6,000 yuan. When brokers sell the babies to buyers, the price will jump to 40,000 yuan for a boy and 20,000 for a girl.

According to regulations from the Ministry of Public Security, before locating their biological parents, rescued children must be sent to local welfare agencies. However, in reality, most of these agencies lack funds and staff to care for the rescued children. To prevent them from being homeless, local police sent the children back to the buyers.

A police officer also said that buyers who treated the children well won’t face criminal punishment. Sadly, the report failed to suggest (beside the title) that many of these children might be kidnapped and not “sold” by their birth parents.