A Chinese woman has been arrested for allegedly pretending to be a man on social media and tricking her own friend into falling in love with her and sending her money.

Shanghai police recently announced that it had cracked one of the most bizarre online romance scams ever. The victim, a middle-aged woman, had been scammed for 12 years by someone posing as a well-known TV news anchor on social media and defrauded around 2 million yuan ($290,000) over that period of time. The craziest part of the story is that the scammer turned out to be a good female friend of the victim who had come up with the plan as payback for something the victim’s mother had said when they were very young.

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A Vietnamese man has become famous in his home province of An Giang for taking care of thousands of wild river fish who visit his house every day for food.

Muoi Phuc’s house in Long Kien, Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, is a popular attraction for both locals and tourists. People routinely stop by to watch the man feed a school of wild fish that visits him daily. When the 52-year-old man started feeding the fish, it was just a handful of pangasius, but over the last two years, their number grew at a steady pace, and now thousands of fish stop by his riverside home every day for a bite to eat. The fish are free to come and go as they please, and others have tried attracting them by throwing food into the river, but for some reason, they only stop at Muoi Phuc’s house.

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A Chinese woman recently sparked controversy online after claiming that she has spent the last 12 years of her life trying to raise enough money to ensure that her brother finds a bride.

It’s no secret that securing a bride in China is harder than in most other countries. One of the unexpected effects of the Asian country’s notorious one-child policy was gender inequality. For decades, many couples, especially in rural regions, aimed for boys, turning to sex-selective abortion and even infanticide to make sure that their only child was a boy. Males were strong enough to work and more likely to be successful enough to look after their elderly parents later on in life. Only that created a serious gender inequality in China, with more bachelors for every single woman, which makes it very difficult for men to secure a bride. So in some cases, their families offer them financial support, to increase their chances of finding a suitable bride.

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An entrepreneur in Can Tho, Vietnam’s fourth-largest city, has been getting a lot of attention for his unique home, which is gilded both inside and out.

Mr. Nguyen Van Trung is a Vietnamese businessman who reportedly made his fortune in the real-estate business. After visiting many countries around the world, he decided to return to his home city and build a house with a real touristic appeal, and after speaking with a home decorator he decided to go for a gold theme. To say that he went a little overboard with the gilding would be an understatement, as you can clearly see in the photos below. From the walls to the furniture and the various decorations, everything looks like it’s made of gold or at least gold-plated.

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A bankrupt former millionaire in China has been making news headlines for his plan to pay a debt of 46 million yuan ($6.4 million) by selling grilled sausages at a street food stall.

Not too long ago, Tang Jian, a restauranteur in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, was considered one of the most successful businessmen in all of Zhejiang Province. By the age of 36, he already owned a chain of restaurants and had amassed an enviable fortune. But in 2005, Tang decided to invest a sizeable portion of his money into a completely new industry and things started going horribly wrong for him. Now at 52, the former millionaire finds himself over $6 million in debt, but he is working hard to repay every single cent by selling grilled sausages on the street.

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A Japanese mother has come under fire for having her 9-year-old daughter undergo double eyelid surgery in order to become more beautiful.

In Japan, plastic surgery is legal for anyone under the age of 18, as long as they have the consent of their parents or a legal guardian, and according to a recent report by VICE Asia, some parents are actually encouraging their children to undergo cosmetic procedures in order to enhance their physical appearance. In a recent episode of its “Deadly Beauty” series, the online magazine featured Rucchi and Micchi, a Japanese mother-daughter duo whose YouTube channel focuses on makeup and plastic surgery. In order to help her 9-year-old daughter become more beautiful, Rucchi had her undergo a blepharoplasty operation, aka double eyelid surgery.

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A Chinese man recently went viral on social media after he was photographed lighting up and smoking several tobacco cigarettes while running a marathon.

At this point, I think everyone can agree that smoking tobacco isn’t the healthiest thing you can do. But it’s one thing to light up in the comfort of your own home while enjoying a cup of coffee, or on a cigarette break at work, and quite another while running a 42-kilometer marathon. So when photos of a man in his 50’s casually smoking while taking part in the Xin’anjiang Marathon last week went viral, everyone was curious to know his story.

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A 61-year-old farmer from Indonesia has been dubbed the country’s ‘Playboy King’ after it was revealed that he plans to marry for the 88th time.

Kaan is a rice farmer from West Java, in Indonesia, with a very interesting story. He claims to have been married a total of 87 times during his lifetime and that he is getting ready for his 88th wedding, with one of his ex-wives. The Playboy King, as Indonesian news media dubbed Kaan, rose to fame after telling his story to a YouTuber whose video quickly went viral, attracting the attention of several news outlets who tracked the man down and visited his home in Cipeundeuy Village. Although he originally refused to give any more interviews, the constant visits of news reporters eventually changed his mind.

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A Chinese man recently made international news headlines for collecting his lottery winnings in disguise in order to keep his identity a secret from his own family.

Identified only by the pseudonym Li, the Chinese man reportedly bought 40 lottery tickets from somewhere in China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, with all of them containing the same seven numbers. His gamble paid off big time, as he was able to pocket a whopping 220 million yuan (5.48 million yuan per ticket). That’s around $30 million, life-changing money, not just for him but for his entire family. But instead of celebrating the win with his wife and kids, Li reportedly played it cool, preferring to keep the good news a secret from them.

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Devised by a Tokyo hair salon during the Covid-19 pandemic to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the ‘Silent Cut’ service is becoming increasingly popular in Japan.

As a way of curbing the spread of the coronavirus during the Covid-19 pandemic, authorities in Japan started promoting “no conversation” or “less conversation” policies in schools, shops and supermarkets. Less talking meant fewer risks of spreading the virus via saliva droplets, so everyone understood and complied, but the two policies seemed incompatible with businesses like hair salons and barber shops, where conversation is basically part of the service. However, one Tokyo salon decided to implement the ‘silent cut’ service and it proved so popular that others quickly followed suit and kept it even after pandemic-related restrictions were lifted.

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A 19-year-old man and a 56-year-old grandmother-of-three in Thailand have been making international news headlines after getting engaged to be married.

Wuthichai Chantaraj, 19, met his fiance, Janla Namuangrak, 56, almost 10 years ago, when the woman moved next to his family home in the Akat Amnuay district of Thailand’s Sakhon Nakhon province. Their first real interaction occurred when Janla asked the 10-year-old boy to help her move some potted plants, and from that day on Wuthichai would often drop by the divorced woman’s house to play and help her with chores. The two describe their early relationship as a friendship, but when Wuthichai turned 17, he started developing feelings for Janla, and they eventually became a couple. They only announced their romance to their families at the start of this year, and their love story has been making headlines in Thailand ever since.

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A boat tour organizer in Thailand has been getting a lot of attention because of his original-yet-controversial business idea – fishing trips in the company of nude ladies.

I’ve always found fishing quite boring – hot take, I know – but one Thai entrepreneur in Chon Buri recently came up with an intriguing way of spicing up the experience and thus getting a leg up on the competition. The mysterious person or outfit behind the controversial endeavor advertised on social media with a series of lewd photos showing two men apparently fishing on a boat next to two completely naked women posing for the camera with their legs spread open. That’s one way to get people’s attention…

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Thousands of people in China are taking up “crocodile crawling” classes, a weird type of back relief exercise inspired by the movement of a crocodile.

Multiple news outlets in China have been reporting on a new health trend with dozens of people joining large groups and moving around on all fours. Viral videos shot in large cities like Xiangshan and Changsha show long lines of people all dressed the same and wearing industrial gloves to protect their hands as they slowly move around on their hands and feet. The movement is supposed to strengthen back muscles and relieve back pain if practiced regularly, for a long enough period of time.

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Twin sisters Chie and Chika Yoshikawa are famous in their home country of Japan for turning to plastic surgery repeatedly to attain their desired looks.

Comparing photos of Chie and Chika Yoshikawa from their early twenties and now – at age 34 – you could swear they were completely different people. It’s fair to say that makeup plays a big part in their transformation for Instagram and Twitter pics, but there is no question that the shape of their eyes, their nose, and even their faces are noticeably different. The two sisters have reportedly invested around 40 million yen ($275,000) in cosmetic procedures, ranging from filler injections and face lifts to multiple nose jobs and double eyelid surgery. Nut despite putting up with pain and long recovery times, the two sisters have no regrets and have embraced their roles as plastic surgery ambassadors.

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Photos and videos of people walking futuristic robot dogs instead of actual canines have been going viral in China lately, signaling a trend among the younger generations.

Robotic dogs inspired by the impressive creations of Boston Dynamics have been available on Chinese shopping platforms for a while now, but they’ve only recently started actually becoming popular. Although they are sometimes being described as soulless machines that can never compare to real dogs who love their owners unconditionally, there is no denying the advantages of robot pets, and judging by the increasing number of people spotted walking their robot dogs in China lately, they may one day rival the animals they emulate.

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