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Public Issues Beneath the Headlines | Sisyphus Express: In Depth
Sisyphus Express

🚘 In This Episode

Note: This episode was first published on March 31, 2025.
Welcome to Sisyphus Highway: In Depth.
In the previous episode, we discussed how media change affects the spread of rumor and how platform mechanisms alter an individual’s position within public opinion.
Here we continue examining the forces behind rumor, focusing on gender.
Many of the most widespread rumors about Barbie Hsu concerned marriage, property, and love: who took and who gave, who was a “gold digger,” and which former husband was “devoted.”Even when a woman possesses greater financial means and social resources, public opinion still often casts her as dependent, grasping, and morally indebted.
Meanwhile, romantic narratives of the “wife-chasing crematorium”—in which a man cruelly loses his partner and then desperately pursues her—continually reinterpret what has already happened:a man’s harm can be covered over by later regret and devotion, while the harm a woman suffered becomes proof that the love was real. Such narratives shape our understanding of relationships and perpetuate different standards for men and women.
Beginning with property disputes in intimate relationships and fantasies of romantic love, this episode discusses how rumors about women repeatedly gain belief and circulation through traditional gender narratives.
 

📍 Roadside Guide

- Why women are always cast as the ones “taking” property
- The “wife-chasing crematorium”: a millennium-old cultural fetish
- The “wife-burying crematorium”: how the “madwoman” narrative is completed
- Rethinking sexual rumors: silence is no longer the best defense
- What prevents women targeted by rumor from speaking for themselves?
- From reality to film and television, why can women trapped in sexual rumors only “prove their resolve through death”?
 

⛽️ Refueling Station

- The Death of an Entertainment Reporter (television drama)
- Xue Jing, The Empire of Rouge: Online Romance Novels and the Politics of Women’s Discourse (book)
- Dan Ariely, Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things (book)
Episode editor: 粒子
2026.07.30
Audio in Chinese

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Featured comments

12 comments
  • 夏飞花
    2026-07-30 23:35:54

    再一次听到J老师的哽咽和小康的不知所措，心疼又庆幸有这么好的二位，帮我重建对人类的信心。

  • g
    ghostm
    2026-08-01 09:31:22

    抱抱！很坚强很厉害

  • Jasmine_Lu
    2026-07-31 22:11:15

    抱抱J，抱抱小康

  • 138****2646
    2026-07-31 20:00:58

    虽然类似事件都是无脑站女方，但是主播第一集说了很久对大s的好感，那再评价wb和dy上的事件是不是利益相关了，而且听感也是偏向很强，部分证据却不足

  • 府婷
    2026-08-06 14:37:46

    全身起鸡皮疙瘩，每个女性或多或少都经历过黄谣，轻佻的语言挑衅。我们能做的很少，但是我们一定要有对发生事件认知，对，不要放弃！

  • aileen
    2026-07-31 13:23:32

    看不懂娱乐圈，这个节目是25年的，最近好像相关新闻又有不同的走向了。

  • 叁叁嘚酒
    2026-08-29 20:43:42

    呜呜呜呜呜呜呜抱抱

  • 朏朏的耳朵
    2026-08-16 10:43:42

    这一集好多感触，说得真好，听哭了。

  • 给你两巴掌
    2026-08-12 19:36:54

    说实话 如果是我 不管对方是谁 咱们就是一巴掌 该怎么干 等着应战吧

  • 大茶的行星
    2026-08-07 13:16:19

    足夠坦誠便有可能無堅不摧。

  • 啾啾久久
    2026-08-04 15:17:48

    我还是新传硕士，原来看汪小菲说床垫的事情还在外网和澳门的网友吵过架，他维护大s，说内陆gou没有协议精神，之后我们的争论真的深化成内陆和台湾了，我俩还骂得特别难听。我当时对大小s的负面情绪达到顶峰，后来知道她给一个妈妈捐款30万治病，天啊居然是这样的天使女孩，到现在都很后悔当时相信汪小菲和张兰带节奏。最疯狂的时候甚至想买张兰的自传😓

  • l
    lanhai2006
    2026-08-03 20:09:08

    想让女儿听听这期节目