China, the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, is slowly bouncing back to life. Many factories and public places have resumed work recently in the country after months of strict lockdown. In a bid to celebrate the much-awaited reopening, a furniture factory, ‘Yueya’ in the city of Suzhou organized a ‘Kissing Contest’, reports NDTV.
The activity required participants to kiss each other through a plexiglass barrier. 10 couples took part in the contest wearing boiler suits, reports Times Now. Explaining the contest in detail, Mr. Ma, the owner of the factory said that the glass was placed in between the couples to ensure social distancing.
“Some of the participants were actually married couples who both work in the factory. This pandemic has made everyone very tense. They haven’t been able to relax, and that might cause mistakes in the production process. That’s why I arranged the kissing contest to make everyone happy,” Mr. Ma added.
“To avoid any accidents, we put a piece of plexiglass between everyone and disinfected it with alcohol several times,” he said.
Soon, pictures and videos of the contest were all over social media.
A furniture factory in E. China's Suzhou attracts people's attention as its employees celebrated resumption of work in a special way- kiss competition with a clear disinfected glass between each pair of participants. pic.twitter.com/G0CBiU4ioK
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) April 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/WBYeats1865/status/1251956825487847424?s=20
But the idea did not amuse the netizens at all. They openly slammed the factory for organizing such a bizarre competition amid the world health crisis and claimed that it also defies social distancing.
There is a glass in between, but they won’t change the glass and the next one just kissed on the same position of the previous one did! Is it the new way in spreading WuhanCoronaVirus?#CCPVirus #WuhanCoronaVirus
— Kenlam274🇭🇰 (@kenlam274) April 20, 2020
OMG, this is disgusting! How far can you go to prove yourself clean #Chinazi? it is just not fun. #WuhanCoronavius
— livinginmymind (@Holly0519) April 20, 2020
😐I just don’t know why China always does these stupid things that shows how foolish they are …
— Rodman Lok😷 (@LokRodman) April 20, 2020
both humiliating and risking at spreading virus, hope they sanitize before next one kiss the board
— FreeHK (@FreeHK29884349) April 19, 2020
Weird!
— James (@jamesdeclearagh) April 19, 2020
Well, many asymptomatic cases of coronavirus have been reported in different parts of the world. At such a crucial time. It isn’t safe to organize such a contest, no matter what precautionary measure you take. The first and foremost precaution that the world needs to take right now is ‘social distancing’.