海角大神

What is an environmentally responsible entertainer to do when he is given the ice bucket challenge in a country where water resources are scarce?

Douse himself in freezing horse urine.

The ice bucket challenge, which is a way of raising awareness of ALS and money for research, is now sweeping China. But as star DJ Yang Yue showed,聽the campaign has taken on distinctly Chinese characteristics.

The craze began in China two weeks ago when Liu Zuohu, the founder of a smartphone company, poured icy water over himself. Other high-tech entrepreneurs such as Terry Gou (whose Foxconn company makes most of Apple鈥檚 iPhones) and Robin Li (founder of Baidu, China's dominant search engine) were quick to follow the fad.

The campaign has also taken a curiously institutional turn. In other countries, individuals challenge other individuals to take the challenge and/or donate funds. Here, the state-run China Central Television network used its social media account to challenge the Ministry of Civil Affairs. It is not clear if anybody in either of these organizations actually got wet.

Journalists from the official Xinhua news agency did聽though, and they also had the cheek to challenge the Ministry of Public Security, which runs the police force. The cops weren鈥檛 having any of it: They announced on their microblog account that they聽鈥渞eally had no time to pour ice buckets over ourselves and show our bodies鈥� but swore they had donated to the cause.

The Chinese charity that is collecting money from the campaign, the China Dolls Center for Rare Disorders, said聽Sunday聽that it had raised $1.3 million in the past couple of weeks. Last year it raised just $77,000 in August.

鈥淚 hope that when the 鈥渋ce bucket fever鈥� passes, that attention will not fade,鈥� said Wang Yi鈥檕u, the founder of China Dolls.聽