In noting the arrest of a chemistry professor-cum-drug lord recently, China’s state-run media attempted to leverage off American popular culture in its reports. The innovation was novel, but audience reception appeared to be tepid.
On July 7, Xinhua News Agency reported the arrest of a chemistry professor from a “famous” university in the central China province of Wuhan on the suspicion of manufacturing and selling of methylone, a psychoactive drug commonly used as a substitute for ecstasy.
The local police gave the associate professor’s last name, Zhang, and said he decided to make abusive drugs for profit after discovering the huge demand for it during a stint as a visiting scholar in Australia, according to Xinhua.
