Recycled condoms, heroic animals, and QAnon comes to Asia: the region's most bizarre stories from 2020
It's been an unusual year, mostly due to the once-in-a-lifetime disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It's not a surprise in that case that 2020 brought its share of bizarre news. Here are the weirdest stories from a weird year.
CATS DRESSED TO IMPRESS
After quitting his job as a schoolteacher, Indonesian tailor Fredi Lugina Priadi tried his hand at a number of businesses - including running a motorbike repair shop - before stumbling upon feline fashions, an idea from one of his cat-loving cousins. The 39-year-old now supplies outfits to picky pet owners looking to dress their cats in everything from superhero outfits for figures like Thor and Superman to cosplay characters, nurse uniforms and even traditional Islamic wear. Since setting up his online business three years ago, he now generates up to 3 million rupiah (US$210) a month, provided he sells four pieces per day.
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QANON COMES TO ASIA
The spread of the QAnon conspiracy theory throughout the US was bizarre enough - but then it somehow took root in Asia as well. Like its US counterpart, Japan's QAnon community centres on an unsubstantiated belief that US President Donald Trump is battling to save the world from a cabal of paedophiles, including Democrats and "deep state" agents. QAnon also found supporters in Australia, sometimes manifesting alongside alternative health therapies and scepticism about the long-awaited coronavirus vaccines. Wellness influencers such as celebrity chef Pete Evans have amplified such messages to their millions of followers.
The coronavirus pandemic threw the Indian wedding industry into chaos. Photo: AP alt=The coronavirus pandemic threw the Indian wedding industry into chaos. Photo: AP
LAST-MINUTE WEDDING
India's lucrative wedding industry has been thrown into disarray by the coronavirus pandemic but one bride and groom went the extra mile to ensure their nuptials went ahead, although not quite as planned. The couple in northern India decided to get married at a Covid-19 care centre, donning protective suits for the ceremony, after the bride tested positive on their wedding day. Photos shared by health authorities quickly went viral on social media. They show the couple, the priest and three close relatives wearing personal protective equipment as the pair said their vows in a traditional Hindu ceremony around a sacred fire.
JAPANESE IDOLS SING ABOUT FIRE SAFETY
PHILIPPINE POLICEMAN KILLED BY FIGHTING COCK
In October, a Philippine police officer was killed during a raid on an illegal cockfight after a rooster's blade sliced his femoral artery. Cockfighting is a popular blood sport in the archipelago, where money is bet on the outcome of a fight - often to the death - between two colourful birds armed with bladed spurs. The freak accident in the central province of Northern Samar happened when Lieutenant Christian Bolok picked up a fighting cock as he gathered evidence of the unlawful event. "This is the first time in my 25 years as a policeman that I lost a man due to a fighting cock's spur," provincial police chief Colonel Arnel Apud said.
VIETNAMESE MAN'S LONG LOCKS
Coronavirus lockdowns caused many men across the world to grow their hair longer than usual, but none compare with Vietnam's Nguyen Van Chien, who has gone almost 80 years without a trim. The 92-year-old from the southern Mekong Delta region is the proud owner of 5-metre-long dreadlocks, owing to his belief in a faith that prescribes leaving untouched what a person is born with. "I believe if I cut my hair I will die. I dare not to change anything, not even combing it," Chien said in his village about 80km west of Ho Chi Minh City. "I only nurture it, cover it in a scarf to keep it dry and clean and looking nice."
Nguyen Van Chien shows off his 5-metre-long hair. Photo: Reuters alt=Nguyen Van Chien shows off his 5-metre-long hair. Photo: Reuters
PRAISE FOR HEROIC ANIMALS
A cat in the Japanese city of Toyama was honoured in June by local police for helping in the rescue of an elderly man who had fallen into an irrigation channel. Koko was spotted staring into the canal and acting strangely. When neighbours followed the cat's gaze, they discovered a man lying on his back in six inches of water. Meanwhile, a rat for the first time won a British charity's top civilian award for animal bravery, receiving the honour for searching out unexploded landmines in Cambodia. Magawa, a giant African pouched rat, has found 39 landmines and 28 items of unexploded ordinance in the past seven years, according to the charity.
PORN SAFETY CAMPAIGN GOES VIRAL
A New Zealand government advert showing two pornography actors turning up at a boy's home in June helped the country's new online safety campaign go viral. The "Keep It Real Online" video shows two naked actors being greeted by the child's mother before the youngster wanders into the hallway with a laptop and reacts in shock at the sight of the pair. A New Zealand government spokeswoman said the advert was part of a wider campaign to help parents deal with online dangers including grooming, bullying and pornography. "In the first week and a half of the campaign, the ads have been viewed online a total of 11 million times," she said.
SEXUAL FANTASY GOES WRONG
One Australian man's sexual fantasy went horribly wrong after a knife-toting man was hired to break into his house, tie him up and stroke him with a broom - but the intruder entered the wrong house. Fortunately, they were cleared of intimidation in May. The role-play scenario, which was organised on Facebook, involved Sydney man Terrence Leroy and an associate arriving at the other participant's home carrying machetes. After realising the stranger was not the willing participant, one of the pair apologised and shook the man's hand before leaving. Under the arrangement, Leroy stood to earn A$5,000 (US$3,323).
BHUTAN REVERSES TOBACCO BAN
The remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, known for embracing gross national happiness and outlawing television until 1999, has reversed a ban on the sale of tobacco, blaming the coronavirus. Smoking is considered a sin in the mostly Buddhist country, where a tobacco control law was first passed in 1729 and the plant is believed to have grown from the blood of a demoness. The country of about 750,000 banned the sale, manufacture and distribution of tobacco in 2010 but allowed smokers to import controlled amounts of tobacco products after paying hefty duties and taxes - sparking a thriving black market for cigarettes smuggled over the border from India.
Japanese photographer Koji Ishii taking pictures of a lost globe hung on a wire fence in Tokyo. Photo: AFP alt=Japanese photographer Koji Ishii taking pictures of a lost globe hung on a wire fence in Tokyo. Photo: AFP
JAPANESE MAN'S OBSESSION WITH LOST GLOVES
Koji Ishii cannot help himself: whenever he sees a lost glove on the streets of his hometown Tokyo, he just has to stop and document it. For more than 15 years, the 39-year-old has photographed and meticulously recorded details about thousands of lone gloves on the streets of the Japanese capital and beyond. It's a passion, but also, something like a "curse", he claims. "I live with the constant fear that there might be a glove right around the corner," he said. "I can only describe it as a curse." A thriving subculture has popped up documenting lost gloves, including social media accounts such as Instagram's Long Lost Gloves and Lost Glove Sightings.
RECYCLED CONDOMS CONFISCATED
Vietnamese police in September confiscated an estimated 345,000 used condoms that had been cleaned and resold as new, state media reported. Following a tip from a local resident, market inspectors raided a factory near Ho Chi Minh City in the southern province of Binh Duong over the weekend and found used condoms being repacked for sale at the market. Police said the bags weighed more than 360kg, equivalent to at least 345,000 condoms. A market inspector said the owner of the factory, a 34-year-old woman, confessed that they bought the used condoms from a man in the province.
METEORITE 'MILLIONAIRE'
When a meteorite crashed into Indonesian man Josua Hutagalung's house in August, he made the most of an unfortunate situation by selling the 2.2kg rock for 214 million rupiah (US$15,090). Events took a turn for the worse, though, when the value of the rock was misreported as closer to 2.6 billion rupiah (US$1.7 million). "Currently there are no meteorites of such value, and of course no collector will pay that price," said a spokeswoman for the agency hired by Hutagalung, who was forced to go into hiding due to all the extra attention caused by his wildly exaggerated new wealth.
Which stories mattered most to you in 2020? Find out with our Year In Review 2020 retrospective.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
