After last year’s “getting some soy sauce” and “doing push-ups,” Web users in China have found a new catchphrase for 2009: “playing hidden cat,” or what the English-speaking world calls “hide and seek。” (In Chinese, “playing hidden cat” is 躲猫猫， pronounced “duo maomao。”)

　　The story behind this new phrase comes from Jinning in southwest China’s Yunnan province, where a 24-year-old prisoner died from a severe brain injury four days after being sent to the hospital. Local police said the brain injury occurred when the prisoner “bumped into a wall after being kicked by another prisoner while playing hidden cat。” (Report in Chinese。)

　　According to the local Chinese-language media reports, the deceased young man, Li Qiaoming, was arrested on Feb. 8 for illegal logging activity and sent to a detention center. He was due home to get married on Feb. 16, but never returned。

　　The dead man’s family does not accept the cause of death given by the local police. Li’s father told the local press that he went to the detention house and asked to meet his son several times, but was rejected. The detention center and local police in Puning did not answer questions。

　　Since Li’s death, the phrase “playing hidden cat” has spread all over the China’s Internet, with Web users scouring the Internet for more information on this case and challenging the outcome。

　　“The detention center must have video cameras installed… [we should] strongly call for the local police to publish the videos from the day of Li’s injury. We want to see for ourselves how he actually got hurt,” wrote a Web user from Guangdong on Netease.com。

　　On the Web site of chat service QQ.com, over 40,000 comments have been left so far. “I thought he had killed himself by bumping into a wall, but it turned out to be the ‘hidden cat’ game that killed him. [It’s] totally beyond my imagination!” wrote one person from Suzhou city。

　　“I play hidden cat with my four-year-old son every day…it seems we must not play this from now on,” said another。

　　Major Web portal Sohu.com carried out a survey that has drawn 20,000 votes. Nearly 3,000 people agreed that the new phrase is “so funny” and more than 1,000 “hope similar cases won’t happen again”; 7410 web users voted for “speechless, it’s super awkward” while 8,217 people say “I most want to know the truth。”

　　Some have already started playing with the new Internet vocabulary. One person made up a story with all the catch phrases: “I got up in the morning and did several push-ups. Then I was sent to get some soy sauce by my family. After that, I played hidden cat with my little friends…”

　　Apart from the angry voices, some bloggers are calling for the authorities to step in and investigate the case. Many compare the case to the Weng’an incident that took place following a local teenage girl’s death in Guizhou last June, where crowds stormed the local government and police buildings after rumors spread that police had covered up the girl’s rape and murder of the girl。

　　“Common sense makes it hard for the public to accept that a healthy young man died from playing a game…A trust-worthy third party must step in and dig out the truth for the public,” reads one online commentary。