Letting your anger out

gzlaser

WHAT would you do if you felt you had been cheated by an advert, scammed by a house rental agency or ripped off by a company you work for as an intern?

Many students have recently chosen to \"expose\" such experiences on the Internet. Universities' BBS increasingly have a special \"exposure\" areas (shaihei qu). People who frequently post messages on these areas are referred to as \"exposers\" (shaike).

\"It's an outlet for my anger I can share my experiences and help others,\" said Xu Ke, a sophomore shaike at Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Xu was cheated by a company a month ago. He passed the interview to work as a part-time salesperson and was asked to hand in a 200-yuan deposit. A week later, when he was due to start his job, the company disappeared.

Many of the stories in the exposing area are about being cheated while hunting for a job, just like Xu. There are also stories about Internet scams (online shopping), IP card fraud, low- quality goods and poor service.

Yuan Xing, a psychology consultant at Zhejing University of Finance and Economics, sees the trend in a positive light. \"Some introverted students keep things to themselves if they run into problems like this. They feel foolish and fear they have 'lost face' because they have been cheated ,\" Yuan explains.

Professional websites such as www.beipian.com allow users to share their experiences and also play a video game to relieve their anger. They can hit the keyboard and punch a virtual person on the nose.

\"Though punching the virtual person makes me feel better, it's not the most important thing,\" said Xiao Chen (not his real name), a Fujian university student, whose story of being cheated by a pyramid sales company, is included in the case book at www.beipian.com. \"The point is, we won't let it happen again,\" Chen added.

The \"exposers\" have their own rules. When they expose stuff on BBS, blogs, and websites such as beipian.com, they use their net names instead of their real names.

\"A shaike should be responsible for what he said. But he doesn't want to make troubles for himself in case someone tries to take revenge,\" explained Chen.

Gu Jun, a sociology professor at Shanghai University, thinks that students should be careful when exposing what has happened to them.

However, \"How influential the news could be on the Internet is totally out of your control. The company will not care if you only talk with your friends, but they become a million times more sensitive when things go public,\" Gu explained. \"It's wise to report to relevant government departments.\"