Surround and watch

围观 (wéi guān): surround and watch

This is a relatively new internet term. It is used to draw attention to a person or persons who have done or said something unusual.

Examples of its use are:

In the comment page of a microblog, someone might write, “surround and watch the louzhu (person who started the thread).”

In a news article someone might write about hundreds who “surrounded and watched” a street fight.

围观 can also mean “public scrutiny” as in this sentence from a news article: “What’s important was that public scrutiny was effective. They could no longer view it as being immaterial—they had to respond to the public scrutiny” (重要的是，围观起作用了，他们不能再视围观为无物，他们必须回应围观).

For more (in Chinese) see, "Scrutiny is Power: How 'Surrounding and Watching' Has Changed China" (关注就是力量--围观改变中国).

网络新兴用语。若某人做出非常醒目的行为就有可能招致围观. 也有指中国人的围观特别事物的癖好。 常用于BBS,例句:围观楼主.

surround and watch

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A picture posted on the internet, joking that people were being too harsh to the person who wrote the initial post. "People are cruelly and inhumanely surrounding and watching the louzhu (person who started the thread of comments)."

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From a news article on Sina.com. Thousands "surround and watch" as a high school student selects a boyfriend. (She had posted the day earlier an open invitation on the school's bulletin board for people to audition to be her boyfriend. "Stand at the bottom of the school between 12:30 and 12:50. Call my name and if I find you to be appropriate I will come down and greet you.")