Guangbiao Chen, the Chinese Billionaire with an amazing business card, recently did an ice bucket challenge. Online in China, some folks are saying it was faked—something Chen denies.
You might remember Chen as the moneybags who sold cans of air with his face on it and helped a charity stunt that promised to give money to New York's homeless. He loves a good publicity stunt.
In an 11-minute long video, Chen sits in a recycling bin as numerous bucket of water and then ice are dumped on his head. The video claims Chen sat in the bucket for thirty minutes. (Obviously, this is what the video 11-minute video claims.)
Chen says the water won't be wasted but used for cooking meals for employees. Lovely.
As pointed out on major Chinese site Tencent (via ShanghaiIst), however, some commenters are claiming that the ice cubes aren't real—that they are apparently acrylic. The rationale is that these ice cubes do not appear to sink.
After the ice cubes, what appear to be real ice chips are dumped into the recycling bin with Chen. Online in China, ShanghaiIst explains that the theory is that warm water was poured in first, making the ice chips bearable. Still, that looks cold!
Next, Chen reclines on a slab of ice and has another slab put on his legs and mid-section, making an ice sandwich. Then, some dude smashes it with a hammer. After that, Chen throws a slab of ice on the ground, all in the name of ALS.
Finally, there are two boxes of money—the amount, however, was unspecified.
One expert Tencent interviewed stated that surviving a stunt like this would depend on things like not only the water (and ice temperature), but also the amount of ice water Chen was submerged in.
Chen has denied that the charity stunt was fake and said he used to practice kung-fu at a Shaolin Temple. He's no regular guy! Apparently!
All this attention for ALS is great—but I can't help but feel the attention has become more on the meme and less on the disease. Whatever helps secure research funds, I guess.
You can watch Chen's ice bucket challenge in the YouTube link below.
Guangbiao Chen's Ice Bucket Challenge [YouTube]
Chen Guangbiao accused of using fake ice cubes in ALS Ice Bucket Challenge [ShanghaiIst]
陈光标否认"冰桶挑战"用假冰 系员工用模具自制 [Tencent]
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