Hazing: Chinese flight attendants must fit into overhead

At China Southern Airlines, worthy candidates must be no older than 24 and above average height.

At Hong Kong Airlines, they have to master kung fu.

And at Kunming Airlines, it now appears, they should be as compact as pieces of carry-on luggage.

A “Civil Aviation Tabloid” on Wechat, a popular social networking app in China, has released photos of female flight attendants lying uncomfortably in overhead bins. The initiation ritual, which has been in place for nearly five years, marks the employees’ first 30 to 50 hours of flight service.

Only women are subject to the treatment at the hands of their male colleagues, who force the female attendants into the compartments, sometimes even closing the lid on them, the article reports.

Those who tried to avoid participating in the bizarre practice were deemed uncooperative and arrogant. Some pictures show the young women’s faces buried in a corner of the bin; one features a male staffer flashing a peace sign as he poses beside an attendant covering her face with her hands.