Ren Rou Sou Sou

Chinese ren rou sou sou is term given to human flesh search engines or groups of netizens that expose injustices and corruption using the internet as a new and effective route for vigilantism in China. Most recently I was reading about ren rou sou sou exposing private information about the family of a Chinese child that defaced an ancient Egyptian artifact, carving his name on it, while they were on vacation touring in Egypt, and the child himself, now a teenager. The focus of the article I was reading seemed to be more about how the Chinese, who spend hundreds of billions in tourism dollars each year, are culturally insensitive, as this act of vandalism indicates. I’d even go so far as to consider the Chinese as taking over the role as the new “Ugly Americans Chinese,” just a thought. But back to ren rou sou sou…Other incidents exposed by the human flesh search engines include acts of animal cruelty and inappropriate behaviors by Chinese workers with some authority. Ren rou sou sou’s public shamings have resulted in job losses and have forced the exposed to make very public apologies. Ren rou sou sou summed up seems to be a kind of trial by group opinion and as such has in some instances in going after suspected wrong doers committed invasions of privacy on those of mistaken identity. Though we don’t have the ren rou sou sou phenomena here I am pretty sure I saw an inkling of this sort of thing on Face Book this morning when I read a notice accompanied by a photo of a person that was seen using credit cards stolen from a car that had been broken into in a rash of car burglaries in Kingsland and St. Marys. It wasn't exactly ren rou sou sou because viewers were admonished to contact the police department if they knew the identity of the person in the photo, and the perpetrator didn’t post his own video or photo, but still when you consider that nothing is completely private once you put it on line, well it’s just something to think about. The concept of ren rou sou sou has left me with more questions than answers.