S02 Episode 10: The Chad to Virgin Pipeline

How Hupu shelters rampant misogyny for profit: the contours of China’s basketball fandom + the great fanquan wars + college dorm LARPs + how to stop dudes who rock

In the house this week: Steven, Slowork, Emily, Krish, Tianyu, Yan, and Yi-Ling. Krish: Hello. Welcome to the second-to-last episode of Chaoyang Trap. This episode is about the basketball fandom app Hupu, a festering sore of a platform that has become the most reviled corner of the Chinese internet. Its user base—aggressively sexist, desperately horny—is like a Rat King mind-meld of 4chan, Gamergate and incel culture. Last year, we did a manthropology on the state of Chinese dudes, profiling three public figures who gave us a glimpse into how “masculinity” was being constructed in China.…

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