In a January 6th 2014 post to Foreign Policy's Tea Leaf Nation, Liz Carter describes a new online game where everyday Chinese netizens get to take out their frustrations by tasing corrupt officials.
Known as "打贪腐" (dǎ tān fǔ) or “Fight Corruption” and available on China's t.people.com site (operated by Weibo, courtesy of the party-run newspaper, People's Daily), the game encourages gamers to tase avatars of corrupt officials (be they big-time "tigers" or tiny "flies" - a not-so-subtle acknowledgement of the anti-corruption initiatives of new Chinese president Xi Jinping).
The player has a "flashlight" that can be moved with the mouse to shock the bad guys who pop up in the windows of a jailhouse - like a virtual game of whack-a-mole but with an ideological agenda.
"The game contains four types of corrupt bureaucrats: one, with hearts for eyes and a salivating mouth, is no doubt a nod to dirty officials' predilection for keeping mistresses. A second type flaunts cash, likely embezzled; a third type looks ready to pass along a bag of money; a fourth holds a red stamp, the kind used to approve contracts, which may indicate abuse of power. Players receive 100 points for every official successfully tased, and lose 100 for shocking police officers, who also appear in the prison windows to entice the trigger-happy."
If you want to get in on the action - here's a link. You may want to turn down the audio on your computer first (the Party's notion of mirth in music could drive you screaming from the room). If you feel up to it, all you have to do is click the orange and then the yellow buttons and then you can enjoy "earnestly resolving the unhealthy tendencies and corruption problems which happen all around the people."
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