Original article here.

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44,000 Tweets about Hamasaki Ayumi’s Divorce = Instant News Spreading Through Chinese Twitter
18 January 2012.

On 17 January 2012, singer Hamasaki Ayumi announced her decision to divorce actor Manuel Schwarz, who is currently residing in the US. This shocking news about the famous, influential pop princess spread almost instantaneously through all Chinese media networks.

Along with the announcement, Japan news publicized the official reason for the divorce, as given by Hamasaki, but Taiwanese media were quick to retaliate, “Hamasaki Ayumi’s divorce is really because of dissatisfaction at her husband releasing a nude photobook”. The messaging platform commonly known as “Chinese Twitter” also listed “Hamasaki Ayumi Divorce” as one of their Top 10 keyword searches until 1pm this afternoon. Tweets related to this keyword amounted to about 44,000, highlighting the relevance of this news to the populace.

There were many comments from users of “Chinese Twitter”, such as “She went through that real quick” and “Oh, she was married?” There were also negative opinions regarding the reason for divorce, such as “This reason is really stretching it” and “If this is the truth, it would be more believable if she announced it much earlier”.

Other general comments include:

“Celebrity divorces and breakdowns are just to generate publicity…? If they told the truth, the attention will be gone almost immediately”
“She is such a rich woman, so why did she marry that unattractive foreigner? I don’t get it”
“A Japanese man will still be a better choice, foreigners rush into marriages and divorces too much?”