A Chinese reality show starring 33 male celebrities titled Call Me By Fire (披荆斩棘的哥哥) has become an instant hit after its premiere on Mango TV last week.

The show is considered the male version of the hit variety show Sisters Who Make Waves (乘风破浪的姐姐, read more here) but with different rules. The contestants, ranging from age 27 to 57, are all in the entertainment industry; the group includes pianists, singers, dancers, actors, hosts, and rappers.

List of contestants, Mango TV.

They are required to perform individually and in a team for the first episode’s performances. Chinese viewers were surprised to see some of the high-quality performances, which then went viral on social media.

Li Chengxuan (@李承铉 a.k.a. Nathan Lee), who was previously mostly known for being the husband of Chinese actress Qi Wei (戚薇), rapped in a low voice and wowed the audience. The hashtag about his first stage performance on the show garnered more than 120 million views ( #李承铉天上飞舞台#). A video of his performance can be found here.

Li is a former member of the South Korean boy band TAKE. In 2014, the Korean-American pop star married Qi, who later gave birth to their first daughter Lucky. When Qi went back to focusing on her career, Li decided to be a stay-at-home dad.

Just like some of the other show contestants, Li also appeared on the talk show Definition (定义), where he spoke to the female journalist Yi Lijing about his life as a full-time father. In that show, he expressed how he used to think being a full-time parent would be easy. “It takes a lot of time and energy to take care of the baby and the family, but as a result, it always looks like you haven’t done anything all day.”

He describes how he experienced a time of depression during which he tried his best to be a good parent but sometimes just could not control his temper. Li explains how he would regret these moments of anger and then would cry at night when his daughter was asleep.  (Interview video here.)

Li’s experiences as a full-time parent struck a chord among Chinese netizens, especially among stay-at-home moms. The hashtag “Li Chengxuan Was Depressed for Over a Year As a Full-Time Dad” (#李承铉当全职爸爸抑郁了一年多#) received more than 600 million views on Weibo. Under the hashtag, commenters shared their experiences and struggles in being full-time parents.

One netizen wrote: “This is so true. We do so much when taking care of our children, but other people often feel like it’s nothing. When you lose your temper in front of the kid, you feel terrible inside and start to question yourself about why you failed to control yourself, and then you make another promise not to lose your temper anymore.”

Another Weibo user wrote: “See, when a mom looking after her kids feels depressed, it is not because she is weak and sensitive! It is because the job itself will make any human being depressed.”

Li later responded on his Weibo account, saying he just did his part as a parent, and this is what any new mom or new dad will face. That post also received thousands of comments and over 285,000 likes.

So far, the hashtag of the Call me By Fire TV show has received a staggering 4.4 billion views on Weibo (#披荆斩棘的哥哥#).

Image via Sina News.

The show’s performances and Li sharing his struggles as a stay-at-home dad are not the only reasons for the show’s massive success on Chinese social media. Some other related issues also made the show gain more attention.

Even before Call Me By Fire aired, the show already made headlines when the 55-year-old Taiwanese singer Terry Lin Zhixuan (林志炫) reportedly fell off the stage while filming.

Later, one of the contestants left the show after some social media drama. Chinese singer Huo Zun (霍尊) announced his withdrawal from the show after his ex-girlfriend accused him of being a cheater and leaking some WeChat conversation screenshots to prove that he actually disliked the show.

The remaining 32 contestants will enter the real ‘elimination stages’ in the following episodes. The show and highlight clips can be viewed on the Mango TV official site here.

By Wendy Huang
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Many people are tired of being forced to log long hours, but are also worried about how a national crackdown on ‘996’ working culture could impact their workload and income.

In late August of 2021, China’s Ministry of Human Resources & Social Security (人社部) and the Supreme People’s Court issued a joint clarification on the country’s legal standards of working hours and overtime pay.

Their message was clear: the practices of ‘996’ (working 9am-9pm, six days per week) and ‘007’ (working 24 hours seven days per week, referring to a flexible working system worse than 996) are illegal, and employers are obliged to obey the national working-time regime.

On Weibo, China’s state broadcaster CCTV published a 10-minute long video illustrating the 10 typical cases of overtime work laid out by the ministry and the top court. The moment was marked as the first time for the state-owned broadcaster to publicly comment on overtime work practices.

The Weibo post pointed out that “striving for success is not a shield companies can use to evade legal responsibilities,” and made it clear that employees have the right to “say no to forced overtime.”

The topics of overtime work and China’s 996 work culture generated many discussions on Weibo, with the hashtag “Ministry of Human Resources & Social Security and the Supreme Court Clarify 996 and 007 Are Illegal” (#人社部最高法明确996和007都违法#) generating over 420 million views on the social media platform.

 
“Without implementation and enforcement, the law is useless”
 

The current labor law in China bars employees from working more than 44 hours a week, and any overtime work must be paid.

Although the 996 practice is technically prohibited by law, many companies still enforce the hours informally.

Many employees revealed online that, although the 996 practice is legally prohibited, they were nevertheless being assigned job tasks that exceeded the prescribed working hours.

“Just finished work,” one Weibo user (@介也没嘛) posted with this picture, showing it’s nearing 11PM.

“I wonder if the workload will decrease after all. If it doesn’t change, it means people will now have to work voluntarily,” one Weibo user commented.

People also indicated that, since the start of the pandemic, remote work has become a new norm. Many companies have moved from office to working at home, making it harder to draw the line between regular working hours and overtime hours.

“What really matters is whether working from home includes overtime hours,” one Weibo user wrote. Many netizens complained that their companies wouldn’t explicitly stipulate a 996 schedule; instead, most of them disguise the overtime hours as ‘voluntary’ work.

Many commenters say it takes more comprehensive legislation and tougher law enforcement to really solve the issue of overtime work.

“These regulations are good, but they are basically impossible to implement. Even if they ban ‘996’ and ‘007’ there is no way to regulate the so-called ‘voluntary work,’” one Weibo user wrote.

Some people said that their companies have various performance assessments and that they feared that refusing to work more hours would make them lose their competitive advantage: “The burn-out (内卷 nèijuǎn, ‘involution’) is severe. It is too difficult for us. I have only one day off during the week and I’m so tired,” one person commented.

 
“We don’t need those who comfortably work 8 hours”
 

China’s 996 work culture has been championed by tech leaders and denounced by workers for years, and it has become an unwritten standard – not just in the tech sector but also in other industries.

While working long hours has been ingrained in Chinese workplace culture since the early days of the country’s internet boom, it later also started to represent ‘a road to success’ for Chinese tech entrepreneurs.

Many Chinese netizens blame Alibaba’s Jack Ma for praising the ‘996’ work system. In 2019, Ma called the 12-hour working day a “huge blessing,” causing much controversy online. During his talk at Kyiv International Economic Forum, Ma said: “(..) ‘996 is the spirit that I encourage Alibaba people to follow. If you want to have a bright future, (..) if you want to be successful, you have to work hard.”

On another occasion, the tech mogul reportedly said: “If you join Alibaba, you should get ready to work 12 hours a day, otherwise why do you come to Alibaba? We don’t need those who comfortably work 8 hours.”

Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba Group described 996 as a ‘blessing’.

However, after the shocking death of one Chinese delivery man working for food delivery platform Ele.me and the widespread discussions about the ‘996 ICU’ project – which called on tech workers to add names and evidence of excessive hours to a ‘blacklist,’ – the 996 work culture has come under increased scrutiny.

Some people argue that the overtime culture is draining employees and creating an unhealthy work-life balance; others argue that they work for themselves and believe that putting in extra hours will eventually translate to individual success.

While economic growth has slowed down during the pandemic, most companies are persisting with long working hours because they are under pressure to achieve results.

According to an online survey conducted by an influential tech blogging account (@IT观察猿), more than one-third of participants claimed to have one day off per week, and more than one quarter claimed they didn’t have any weekend days off.

 
“The workload is the same, but the income has reduced”
 

Starting from August 1st, ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the popular short-form video app TikTok, dropped its ‘big and small week’ (大小周) – a schedule that previously required employees to work six days in a row every other week.

ByteDance is not the only Chinese tech company that has begun to cut back on its long working hours. More and more companies have decided to drop grueling work schedules.

Kuaishou, another Chinese short-form video app company, stopped scheduling weekend work in July. Since early June, Tencent – China’s largest game publisher – has encouraged people to clock out at 6 pm every Wednesday.

Although these changes seem to signal a positive development, there are also many people who do not support the new measures. When Bytedance announced the changes to its working schedule, news came out that one-third of the employees did not support the decision (#字节跳动1/3员工不支持取消周末加班#).

Those relying on overtime pay said abolishing overtime work will cut their take-home pay by around 20%. Indeed, the first pay-out after the new implementation at Bytedance showed an overall drop of 17% in employees’ wages.

“The workload is the same, but the income has reduced,” one Weibo commenter complained.

One trending discussion on Weibo focused on the question “Do companies need to make up for employees’ financial loss after the abolition of weekend work?” Many comments revealed the situation faced by thousands of struggling workers who value free time but value their income more.

Many on Weibo still wonder whether a company that abolishes ‘996’ will come up with an alternative to compensate those employees who will otherwise inevitably lose vital income.

By Yunyi Wang
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Five years after being caught with drugs, Chinese singer Song Dongye went on Weibo to share his grievances on still being ‘canceled’ and asking for another chance to restart his career. Instead, he got criticized and blocked.

Chinese folk singer Song Dongye (宋冬野) has become a major topic on Chinese social media site Weibo this week after he posted a lengthy statement on his account airing his grievances regarding how he was shut out from China’s entertainment world after being caught with drugs.

In Song’s Weibo post of October 11 titled “I Need to Say Something” (“我需要说一些话”), the singer complained that one of his performances was canceled and that he has not been able to perform since he was detained for drug use five years ago.

The Beijing singer was scheduled to hold a concert in Chengdu on October 16th, but local authorities eventually canceled the show after receiving reports about Song being a drug addict.

According to Song, it is not the first time that one of his concerts is suddenly canceled for no apparent reason. In his post, the Beijing artist shared how disappointed he is that yet another performance was called off, even though it was previously approved and was organized in compliance with all strict regulations.

It seems that Song Dongye just cannot get rid of his tainted reputation.

Song Dongye

The 34-year-old Song Dongye started his career as a musician in 2009 and signed with the Modern Sky record label in 2012. One of his biggest hits is the 2013 song ‘Miss Dong’ (董小姐) (link), after which Song’s career further flourished.

Things went sour in 2016, when Song was arrested for smoking marijuana in Beijing after someone allegedly tipped off the police. Not long after news on his arrest made the rounds, Song himself posted a statement on his Weibo account on October 25th of 2016, apologizing to everyone for violating the law and promising to better himself.

Song is not the first Chinese celebrity to have been caught with drugs. There is an entire list of celebrities who were caught doing drugs, especially in the 2014-2016 years – including names such as Jaycee Chan, Kai Ko, and Zhang Mo.

In Song’s most recent Weibo post, the solo artist explains how his former drug abuse deeply affected him and his family, and that he has never touched drugs again since his ten-day prison sentence five years ago in 2016.

Song Donye’s lengthy Weibo post of October 11, in which he shared his grievances regarding still being ‘canceled’ five years after being arrested for drug use.

Despite the fact that Song complied with court orders and became an anti-drug advocate, he apparently is still not able to perform – even though the prescribed three-year ban on performing (in accordance with regulations provided by the Ministry of Culture) has officially ended two years ago.

The musician writes that he feels wronged. As a former drug abuser, he feels it was right for him to be punished, but he also says that drug users are actually the victims, claiming that drug trafficking is the real crime. Song argues that it is very difficult to be in the entertainment industry and that it is not easy to say no to drugs when you are down, depressed, and pressured.

In his Weibo post, the artist actually suggests he has been victimized in two ways: firstly, as a depressed artist lured into taking drugs, and second, as a canceled celebrity who keeps on being shut out from China’s entertainment circles.

“I can’t understand it, I’m confused,” Song writes: “I’ve violated the law, but I’ve been punished! I’ve been detained and then I also received five years of verbal abuse! I’ve been educated! I understand! I never messed up again! I got up again, and I changed! I became a better person! Is that still not enough for me to be able to make a living? Why? I’m not doing anything but playing some small offline gigs in order to get by! I’m just a singer-songwriter! What else do you want me to do? (..) Shouldn’t society give people who have broken the law another chance?”

Song concludes his post by saying that, regardless of the challenges he is facing, he will not give up on his work.

Song’s Post Backfires

Soon after Song Dongye posted his short essay on Weibo, thousands of reactions started flooding in. Many netizens did not feel sorry for the artist, but instead blamed him for “playing the victim.”

The issue triggered a major discussion on Chinese social media on whether or not artists with a bad reputation should be allowed back into the limelight.

A recent article by What’s on Weibo on 25 ‘tainted celebrities’ in China (25 ‘Tainted Celebrities’: What Happens When Chinese Entertainers Get Canceled?) shows that Chinese entertainers who previously got ‘canceled’ generally do not return to the big stage, either because they have simply fallen out of favor with most people or because they are being shunned and sidelined in the entertainment industry (or a combination of both).

Many people felt that Song Dongye was being a hypocrite, not just because they felt he was excusing his former drug use by saying drug traffickers are the real offenders, but also because Song allegedly did do multiple commercial shows over the past five years and has been actively setting up new businesses since his 2016 arrest.

For official media accounts, in the meantime, this apparently seemed to be a good moment to highlight their anti-drug informational posts.

State newspaper People’s Daily posted a series of photographs on October 12th featuring police officers who got injured while doing their work combating drug trafficking and drug use, stating that over thirty staff members of the law enforcement against drugs were killed since 2017.

The post’s message was clear: these Chinese officers in drug law enforcement were unable to get a second chance in life – why would Song, as a drug abuser, be allowed to get another chance to restart his career as a performer?

That idea resonated with many, who wrote: “We should have a zero-tolerance policy [towards drugs]. We can’t ever revive these police officers!”

Another image circulated on social media with the tagline “taking drugs and selling drugs is the same crime,” showing a musician offering money for drugs and a law enforcement officer being shot on the job (image below).

On that same day, Song’s Weibo account was temporarily suspended. The hashtag “Song Dongye’s Weibo Suspended” (#宋冬野微博被禁言#) received over 620 million views in the days following the ban.

Many people on Weibo share the view that those who chose to take illegal drugs for their own pleasure can never be a public figure again, earning money from commercial appearances.

Others wrote that Song should have never posted his essay at all since it only caused him to be labeled as a ‘tainted celebrity’ again, even though many people had already forgotten about his former drug use. They think that Song’s real problem hindering his future career now is not his 2016 offense, but his 2021 Weibo post.

Song Dongye’s post did not just affect him, it indirectly also affected other Chinese ‘tainted celebrities.’

A planned concert by Chinese singer Li Daimo (李代沫), a previous contestant of The Voice of China (中国好声音), was also canceled this week following the Song Dongye controversy.

Li Daimo continued his music career after his 2014 drug offense.

Li Daimo was arrested in 2014 for possession of drugs and was later sentenced to a fine and nine months in prison. After being released from prison, Li resumed his music career. Although his tainted past was still sometimes discussed on social media, he was one of the few artists who seemed to have made some sort of a comeback to the entertainment industry after such a major controversy.

The Song Dongye situation, however, also made people (and authorities) reflect on Li’s current career.

Over the past year, Chinese celebrities have become a target of authorities and state media have consistently been reporting on the importance of Chinese stars setting a good example for their fans.

But amid all controversy, there are also people who come to Song’s defense: “If an artist has been punished for three years, we should give people the opportunity to reappear. It might [even] be more beneficial to the anti-drug campaign.”

“I really like his songs,” one person wrote about Song: “But he did drugs, and I can’t forgive him for that.”

At this time, it is not clear when or if Song Dongye will be allowed to post on his Weibo account again. Although his Weibo page is still there, it currently says: “This account has temporarily been suspended for violating Weibo guidelines.” It is not clarified which specific guidelines Song violated with his post.

By Manya Koetse

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Chinese war movie The Battle at Lake Changjin became a social media sensation this fall. Why did this particular movie become so successful in Chinese cinemas and on social media?

 
This is the “WE…WEI…WHAT?” column by Manya Koetse, original publication in German by Goethe Institut China, visit Yi Magazin: WE…WEI…WHAT? Manya Koetse erklärt das chinesische Internet.
 

It’s the biggest Chinese movie of the moment: The Battle at Lake Changjin (长津湖). The war epic dominated all top trending lists on Chinese social media during the Golden Week holiday this year, and it became an unprecedented box office hit after it premiered on September 30, just one day before the celebration of the National Day of the People’s Republic of China.

The blockbuster, literally titled ‘Changjin Lake’ in Chinese, even became the highest-grossing film anywhere in the world during the first weekend of October, beating the much-anticipated James Bond movie No Time to Die.

Three weeks after its premiere, the movie grossed over 5 billion yuan ($792 million) and smashed 24 records in Chinese film history, including becoming the first Chinese film ever to break 400 million yuan at the daily box office for six consecutive days. The Battle at Lake Changjin is set to become the nation’s highest-grossing film ever.

Everything about Changjin Lake is big, from its unparalleled budget to all-star cast and production team. Written by Lan Xiaolong (兰晓龙) and Huang Jianxin (黄欣), the three-hour film is directed by famous film directors Chen Kaige (陈凯哥), Tsui Hark (徐克) and Dante Lam (林超贤), and features big names including Chinese actors Wu Jing (吴京) and Jackson Yee (易烊千玺). The production involved as many as 7000 crew members and 70,000 extras over 200 days of filming.

The movie is by no means China’s first big movie focused on the history of war. Why this movie has become such a major hit has to do with a combination of several factors. Here, we’ll explore how the film’s specific topic and narrative, the timing of its premiere and online media dynamics contributed to Changjin Lake’s unprecedented success and the social media craze surrounding it.

Changjin Lake: “The Motherland Will Never Forget”

Three bright red characters are prominently featured on the movie poster for The Battle at Lake Changjin: 长 津 湖 Chang Jin Hu (Changjin Lake), Chinese for what is also known as Chosin, the man-made lake located in the northeast of the Korean peninsula where one of the most important and harrowing battles of the Korean War (1950-1953) took place.

Below the title, the poster shows six smiling soldiers sitting on an American tank, in the background, the remains of battle are visible in between the snow-covered mountains under white sky.

The official movie poster for The Battle at Lake Changjin.

The movie tagline, also displayed on the poster in red characters, says: “The motherland will never forget” (“祖国不会忘义“). But what is it exactly that China will “never forget”?

It was November 27 of 1950 when the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir began. The Korean War had started just five months before, on June 25, when North Korea invaded South Korea. The American-led U.N. forces, commanded by Douglas MacArthur, came to support South Korea. By early October, they had crossed over the 38th Parallel in an attempt to occupy North Korea and soon neared the Chinese border.

The government of the newly-established People’s Republic of China, led by Mao Zedong, ordered the Chinese People’s Volunteers Force (CPVF) to join North Korea in the war, referred to as ‘the War to Resist America and Aid Korea’ (抗美援朝战争). For multiple reasons, the U.N. advance into North Korea posed a threat to the brand-new communist regime, and Mao eventually sent approximately 260,000 “volunteers” to the Korean front in October of 1950.¹

The movie Changjin Lake provides a Chinese perspective on the start of the Korean War and the lead-up and unfolding of the battle of Chosin Reservoir, a massive ground attack of the Chinese 9th Army Group against American forces, preventing them from driving Kim Il-Sung and his government out of North Korea.

The film specifically follows the Wu brothers, company commander Wu Qianli (Wu Jing) and the young volunteer soldier Wu Wanli (Jackson Yee), and their fellow soldiers fighting side by side in extreme conditions.

Through elaborate and spectacular battle scenes, Changjin Lake shows the violent confrontations and brutal sufferings during the battle, that went on for seventeen days. Some 150,000 Chinese soldiers encircled and attacked the U.N. forces from the surrounding hills at the Chosin area.

Tens of thousands of lives were lost on both the Chinese and American side in the bitter cold and fierce fighting. From the start of the attack to December 14th, nearly 30,000 Chinese men died of frostbite at the site of the battle and the surrounding snowcapped mountains, where temperatures would drop 20-30 degrees below zero.²

The Chosin battle and the Korean War are generally not as well-known in the U.S. and Europe as they are in China. In America, the Korean War is even referred to as the “Forgotten War”, even though it played a major role in the international community and shaped the world as we know it today.

The Changjin Lake movie is the living proof of how the Korean War and the Chosin battle are anything but forgotten in China. The Chinese attack at Chosin is remembered as a glorious victory and strategic success for turning around the war situation in Korea and leading to a withdrawal of most of the UN forces by late 1950. The battle set the stage for the ceasefire that eventually ended the war in 1953.

The epilogue of Changjin Lake also explains how the battle “completely tipped the scales of the Korean War” and “set a perfect example for annihilating a U.S. reinforced regime,” calling Chosin “the greatest setback in the history of the Marine Corps.”

The movie’s narrative and script recurringly underline why this particular historical event should not be forgotten by the Chinese people. In one of the film’s earlier scenes, Mao Zedong (played by Tang Guoqiang, the actor who has played Mao over a dozen times) talks to military leader Peng Dehuai in the days leading up to China’s decision to send out troops to North Korea:

“[Our] country is newly established and thousands of things are waiting to be done. If it’s for our current situation, I really don’t want to fight this war. But if it’s for the future, and the peaceful development of our country over a few decades or a century, we must fight this war. The foreigners look down on us. Pride can only be earned on the battlefield.”   

It is a scene that is telling for the narrative the movie conveys about the Chosin battle and the war at large, during which the Chinese troops were severely underestimated by the well-equipped U.N. forces.

After the ‘Century of Humiliation,’ the time from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s during which China was attacked, weakened, and torn by foreign forces, the Korean War and Chosin battle showed that the military strength of the People’s Republic of China was a new force to be reckoned with. By showing this strength, China did not just save the North Korean regime but also defended its own borders and the nation’s prestige.

The determination and fighting spirit of the Chinese soldiers at Chosin as depicted in the movie – one impressive scene shows dozens of soldiers frozen into “ice sculptures” while still in battle posture – strikes a chord with Chinese audiences.

Promotional image for Changjin Lake, showing the two brothers Commander Wu Qianli (right, played by Wu Jing) and Wu Wanli (played by Jackson Yee).

At one point in the movie before the battle begins, a member of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army says: “If we don’t fight this battle, it will be our next generation who will fight it.”³ It is a line that is brought up by many netizens on Chinese social media.

“I was very moved after I watched the film, and this phrase just stayed with me,” one Weibo commenter writes: “They sacrificed their blood to bring us peace, and I salute them.”

Another Weibo user shares the phrase, along with a photo of cinema tickets for Changjin Lake, writing: “I am grateful for the blood that was shed by countless revolutionary martyrs for the stable lives we now have. National peace and stability are not easy to gain. We should cherish every day.”

When the narrative of the movie and China’s role in the Korean War was questioned by former journalist Luo Changpin (罗昌平) on his Weibo account in October of this year,  he was arrested for defaming national heroes and martyrs. Luo allegedly mocked Chinese soldiers by saying they “never doubted the ‘wise decisions’ of their higher-ups.”

A hashtag related to the news of his arrest (#罗昌平被批捕#) garnered over 350 million views on Weibo, with many netizens condemning Luo’s criticism and applauding his detainment.

“I hope they give him frozen potatoes to eat,” one popular comment said, referring to the Chinese soldiers in North Korea who had nothing else to eat. Many felt that there was just one punishment that would be appropriate for him: “They should send him to Chosin, the weather is cold up there.”

Relevant Timing: “The Chinese Are Not to Be Messed With”

The specific timing for The Battle at Lake Changjin to premiere in Chinese theatres is noteworthy and has helped in boosting its success.

Firstly, the movie was released during the National Holiday, the seven-day holiday period starting 1 October that has become the most important movie season in China and annually sees the launch of the biggest domestically produced movies. Changjin Lake’s premiere coincided with China’s Martyr’s Day on September 30, which commemorates Chinese national heroes who sacrificed life to protect the motherland.

The Chinese epic was also launched as part of the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China. This anniversary has played a major role in China’s popular culture over the past year, with various movies and TV series being launched dedicated to the hundred years of history since the Communist Party was founded in 1921.

Perhaps more importantly, the popularity of The Battle at Lake Changjin comes at a time of escalating political tensions between the U.S. and China, accompanied by a rise of Chinese nationalism.

Chinese state outlet Global Times recently emphasized how ticket sales of the Changjin Lake movie were boosted amid China-US tensions, quoting Chinese film critic Xiao Fuqiu, who said that the popularity of Changjin Lake “fits the national sentiment in the constant rivalry between China and the US.”

Exploring how the launch of the movie and its success relates to anti-American sentiments in China leads to somewhat of a chicken and egg situation. Was the hit movie launched because of the current geopolitical climate, or are Chinese audiences more receptive to the theme because of it? The answer is probably somewhere in the middle, and one conclusion doesn’t exclude the other.

Chinese Korean War propaganda poster, via Chineseposter.net.

In 2019, during the initial phases of the US-China trade war, CCTV 6, the movie channel of China’s main state television broadcaster, surprised Chinese audiences by changing their schedule and playing ‘anti-American’ Korean War movies for three nights in a row. The move showed that there is an apparent urgency for Chinese popular films to draw attention to events that are deemed of historic importance in today’s political climate.

The day before the launch of Changjin Lake, various Chinese media included a quote by one of the movie’s writers, Huang Jianxin, in saying that the film is supposed to convey that “the Chinese are not to be messed with.”⁴

After it became clear just how much the movie had raised at the box office, English-language Chinese state media Global Times seemed to gloat about the success, writing that “the movie pushed the patriotic sentiment of people across the country to a peak amid the tense China-US competition and China’s effective control of the epidemic.”

The Social Media Era of Chinese Blockbusters

Just twenty days after the premier of Changjin Lake, a hashtag dedicated to the film hit a staggering 2.2 billion views on Weibo (#电影长津湖#). Besides this hashtag, there are countless other hashtags, online discussions, and fan groups dedicated to the movie on Chinese social platforms from Weibo and Zhihu to Bilibili, TikTok, and Douban.

The premier of Changjin comes at a time when China’s commercial cinema is increasingly thriving. Over the past few years, several locally-made films have become major hits in China – not just in the cinemas, but also on social media.

One of the highest-grossing films in mainland China of the past years is the patriotic “Rambo-style” action blockbuster Wolf Warrior II (战狼2, 2017), which also features Wu Jing as the hero star. The film tells the story of a special forces soldier who battles foreign mercenaries and helps Chinese and African citizens during a local war in Africa. The film became a social media sensation in 2017 and broke box office records.

Movie poster for Wolf Warrior II.

The Battle at Lake Changjin is similar to Wolf Warrior II in various ways: they’re both Hollywood-style commercial entertainment blockbusters that are set overseas, incorporate official narratives, and are immensely patriotic, speaking to the growing nationalist sentiments among Chinese moviegoers and netizens. Both movies were huge topics on Chinese social media, with online fan groups and discussions snowballing their popularity.⁵

In “The Era of Baokuan Films: How Chinese Social Media Creates Box Office Successes” (2021), author Xiao Yang argues that there is an emergence of a group of movies in China that become major hits (‘baokuan’ 爆款) through the Internet and social media, relying on online marketing strategies and netizens’ involvement in the film’s promotion.

Rather than just passive movie watchers, the social media era has made Chinese audiences more active in interacting with domestic movies, producing their own content, including opinions, feedback, and memes.⁶ The success of major Chinese movies such as The Wandering Earth (流浪地球2019), Ne Zha (哪吒之魔童降世 2019) or Dying to Survive (我不是药神2018) could partly be attributed to the interplay between social media and film engagement.

One example of the new dynamics between Chinese movies and the online environment is the 2021 hit movie Hi, Mom (你好,李焕英), which features the story of a daughter who travels back in time and meets her own mother as a young woman and befriends her. The movie led to an online trend in China of netizens sharing stories and photos of their mothers when they were young, triggering online discussions on what they would tell their mums if they could go back in time.

Although the movie and its online marketing strategy initially sparked the trend, the social media responses further added to the success of the film. In this way, film audiences also become marketers of the movies they are interacting with.

In this social media age, Chinese movies also have their own official accounts to promote their movie and define their online presence. The Changjin Lake movie has its own account on Weibo and on TikTok, and the film started its online marketing campaign as early as October of 2020, a year before its premiere.

The official online presence of Chinese movies also means they can interact with fans and other accounts. On October 20 of 2021, just when it became known that Changjin Lake had grossed over 5 billion yuan, the account of the super-popular Chinese fantasy adventure blockbuster Ne Zha congratulated Changjin Lake via social media on its new ranking in the Chinese box office record charts, emphasizing that the movies were standing “side by side” in the progress of Chinese cinema.

The hit movie Ne Zha congratulates Changjin Lake for its box-office success.

This interaction between two of the biggest Chinese movies of the past years in China garnered a lot of attention on Weibo, where people applauded both films. A hashtag dedicated to Na Zhe congratulating Changjin Lake (#哪吒给长津湖的贺图#) was viewed over 170 million times. “I love you both! Together we will further promote Chinese cinema,” one popular comment on Weibo said.

Engaging with Changjin: Eating Frozen Potatoes to Show Solidarity

Over the past weeks, netizens interacted with Changjin Lake in various ways, starting discussion groups, fan clubs, and sharing experiences of going to see the movie.

Considering that The Battle at Lake Changjin was made with government support and guidance,⁷ it is perhaps unsurprising to see that Chinese state media have also been actively promoting the movie on social media in various ways. Since long before the premiere of Changjin Lake, state media outlets including People’s Daily and Xinhua have consistently been featuring news relating to the movie through their channels.

The official Study Xi, Strong Country app, a Chinese app where users can score points by learning Xi Jinping Thought, issued a service where points could be exchanged for Changjin Lake movie tickets.

Besides the direct promotion of the movie itself, Chinese media outlets have also come up with other initiatives related to the movie. CCTV posted various videos on social media featuring Chinese veteran volunteer soldiers. One video was dedicated to a 93-year-old Korean War veteran Li Changyan, who is described as “the real Wu Qianli,” launching the Weibo hashtag “Wu Qianli from the Movie Really Exists” (#电影中的伍千里真实存在#).

“Wu Qianli from the movie really exists,” a short video portraying the 93-year-old Commander Li Changyan.

These kinds of initiatives further strengthened the online presence and hype of the Changjin Lake movie, inviting more interaction between the movie, the media, and netizens.

Besides the online discussions and art works dedicated to the film, there were also social media users who, inspired by the scenes of the soldiers on the battlefield, prepared frozen potatoes to try for themselves. Some local cinemas even distributed frozen potatoes to audiences before the movie.

The trend was sparked by one young woman from Yunnan, who decided to film herself while eating frozen potatoes after watching Changjin Lake. Applauded as a gesture of solidarity, the move went viral and saw over 590 million views on Weibo alone (#女孩看完长津湖回家尝冻土豆#). Since then, many people on Weibo and TikTok have posted videos of themselves eating frozen potatoes to honor the Chinese soldiers.

Trends such as these helped build hype around the movie, making the movie even more popular for its popularity.⁸ Showing personal engagement with the film, countless social media users in China are posting photos of their movie tickets.

See my ticket! Netizens showing others on social media that they went to see the movie.

Others also share selfies at the cinema with official Changjin Lake merchandise, which includes memorabilia such as big drinking cups, toy figures, or a military vehicle that is actually a popcorn box.

Moviegoers sharing photos of the official merchandise they got when watching Changjin Lake.

Whether it’s on social media, at the box office, or in Chinese official media, The Battle at Lake Changjin definitely is the biggest movie of the year and has come to represent much more than just the film alone.

“The mighty martyrs of the People’s Volunteer Army will never be forgotten,” is the last sentence featured in Changjin Lake before the movie ends. Several videos on social media show how some moviegoers in local theaters across China stand up and salute the cinema screen after the film has ended – 21^st century Chinese moviegoers have never been more dedicated to watching a film.

Various videos circulating on social media show Chinese moviegoers saluting after the ending of the Changjin Lake movie.

For some on social media, the hype surrounding the epic war movie has led to a fear of missing out. With so many internet users sharing a photo of their cinema visit on social media throughout October, one Weibo user posted an image with her movie ticket on October 23, writing: “I feel like I’m the last person in China to go and see this movie.”

Watch the trailer for The Battle at Lake Changjin here.

By Manya Koetse
Follow @whatsonweibo

¹ For more on this, see: Li, Xiaobing. 2020. Attack at Chosin: The Chinese Second Offensive in Korea. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, page 29-31.
² Li, Attack at Chosin, page 16, 32.
³ Chinese: “如果这一仗我们不打，就会是我们的下一代打”
⁴ “让大家看到：中国人是不好惹的”
⁵ For more on this see: Berry, Chris. 2018. “Wolf Warrior 2 : Imagining the Chinese Century.” Film Quarterly 72(2): 38-44.
⁶ Xiao Yang. 2021. “The Era of Baokuan Films: How Chinese Social Media Creates Box Office Successes.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas 15(1), page 108.
⁷ Wang Jiequn, director of the Beijing Municipal Film Administration and part of the Communist Party’s propaganda office in Beijing, reportedly said at a news conference in September of 2021 that the authorities had “organized and planned” the production together with the film’s makers, Bona Film Group and Bayi Film Studio (See: Myers, Steven Lee & Amy Chang Chien. 2021. “For China’s Holidays, a Big-Budget Blockbuster Relives an American Defeat.” The New York Times, October 8 [10.21.21]
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/world/asia/battle-lake-changjin.html).
⁸ Xiao Yang (2021) refers to the “Matthew effect”: popular products get more popular (116).

Featured image by Ama for Yi Magazin.

This text was written for Goethe-Institut China under a CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0-DE license (Creative Commons) as part of a monthly column in collaboration with What’s On Weibo.

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A pet dog was killed by anti-epidemic workers in Shangrao this week while its owner was undergoing quarantine at a nearby hotel. Chinese netizens are outraged, not only about the dog being killed during extreme efforts to contain Covid19, but also about the seemingly cold response of local authorities after it happened.

This weekend, a case in which a pet dog was killed by epidemic prevention workers in the city of Shangrao has sparked outrage on Chinese social media.

The incident occurred in the Golden Phoenix Garden community (金凤花园小区) in the Xinzhou district of Shangrao, a medium-sized prefecture-level city located in the northeast of Jiangxi province. Due to a new confirmed case of Covid19, the community is undergoing a lockdown and its residents are being quarantined while apartments are being disinfected.

On November 12, one of the community residents named Mrs. Fu (傅) shared on Weibo how her pet dog was presumably killed by anti-epidemic workers while she was undergoing quarantine at a local hotel that did not allow pets. She shared security footage recorded inside her residence from Friday around 16:45, showing how two epidemic workers enter her apartment and then begin to beat her pet dog on the head with iron bars.

The story and video sparked anger online, and the official response to the incident only added fuel to the fire.

On Saturday, November 13, Shangrao’s Xinzou district released a statement via its official Weibo channel (@信州发布). The statement, posted as late as 23:37, explained that residents of the community were supposed to leave their doors open while being quarantined, but that the door of this particular resident was closed. Anti-epidemic staff then received police assistance in entering the house to disinfect it, which is when they discovered the dog was at the home. The notice writes that the workers then proceeded to deal with the dog through “harmless disposal” (the literal words “无害化处理” could also be translated as ‘handling [something] to be made harmless’).

The statement also says that the worker has since been removed from his post and has apologized.

Very similar wording can be found in an article addressing the controversy in the English-language version of Chinese state media outlet Global Times, where the incident is described as a staffer who “culled a pet dog during anti-epidemic mission,” and that the staffer “gave harmless disposal on a pet dog without having fully communicated with the pet owner.”

Other reports in Chinese media about the incidents received criticism from netizens for emphasizing anti-epidemic policies and the otherwise “humane” treatment of animals.

“Don’t you think you’re laughable? You have some nerve to report on this like this,” one top comment said.

By now, the incident has attracted the attention of thousands of netizens using various hashtags, with one of them gaining over 170 million on views on Weibo, becoming one of the top trending topics on Sunday (#居民在外隔离期间家中小狗被扑杀#, #上饶正调查隔离人员宠物狗被扑杀#, #上饶回应隔离宠物狗疑似被扑杀#).

“The government of Shangrao leaves me speechless,” one Weibo user (@爱吃火锅的邓邓) writes: “This dog was not even confirmed of having Covid19. Nevertheless, they just beat him to death. How can you be so cruel?!”

In September of this year, three pet cats that tested positive for Covid19 were put down in the Chinese city of Harbin. That incident also led to a social media backlash at what some viewed as overkill in local efforts to contain the virus. This case, however, is still different because the dog involved was allegedly killed before even getting tested for Covid19.

“You just ‘dispose’ of the dog and that’s it? The dog’s life is over! We don’t even know how many dogs were killed like this,” others responded.

“Prying open people’s doors, killing people’s pets, and then pressuring people to delete their posts on the matter, forcing them to settle (..), – Shangrao government is really putting itself on display here,” one commenter said, referring to online rumors that Mrs. Fu was pressured by authorities into deleting her social media post – she posted about being threatened herself.

The dog owner claims she is being threatened and pressured into deleting her social media post.

The dog owner also claims that at least one other cat and dog by residents living in the same community have also been “disposed of.” At the time of writing, this claim has not been confirmed by official sources.

Meanwhile, a poster showing a cat saying “I can’t transmit covid19, please don’t abandon or hurt me” is circulating on social media. The Shanghai Center for Disease Prevention and Control reportedly stated it is unlikely for small pets to get Covid19, and that they therefore should not need to be screened.

I can’t transmit covid19, please don’t abandon or hurt me.”

The terms “harmless disposal” (无害化处置) and “culling” (扑杀) that have been used by some Chinese state media and local authorities in describing the Shangrao incident are also circulating online, with many people expressing disbelief in the seemingly cold and careless way in which the unnecessary killing of pets is being portrayed.

Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin also posted about the issue, writing: “In my opinion, even from the perspective of crisis communication, this was certainly not a successful notice. It is not surprising to see it trigger controversies online.”

At the same time, Hu also called on people not to condemn China’s zero-covid19 approach over this controversy, writing: “We cannot deny the overall hard work of the grassroots pandemic prevention workers because of a specific case.”

By Manya Koetse

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Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai (彭帅) has ‘reappeared’ on Chinese social media for the first time her post of November 2nd (link) sent shockwaves across social media before it was taken offline.

Although her Weibo account has no new posts and searches for her name still do not come up with any recent content, Peng attended the Junior Tennis Challenge Grand Finals event while keeping a relatively low profile. Photos of Peng Shuai attending the Beijing event were shared by various accounts, including that of China Open (@中网ChinaOpen).

The Junior Tennis Finals are meant to cultivate Chinese tennis talent.

The event that Peng attended is the Diamond Cup Junior Tennis Challenge, which is meant for the 6-12 age group.

Peng’s appearance is noteworthy; over the past two weeks, international concerns have grown over the whereabouts of the Chinese tennis star. Famous tennis players including Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams used the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai in joining the calls to locate the “missing” Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai.

Peng had not been seen or heard from publicly she described the affair she allegedly had with former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli (张高丽) in her November 2nd Weibo post, in which she also claimed that Zhang once forced her into having sex.

While the issue was completely silenced in Chinese (social) media, the English-language state media outlet CGTN did address the commotion on Twitter on November 17, when they shared a screenshot of an email allegedly sent by Peng to WTA Chairman Steve Simon, saying she was not missing and not unsafe.

While many people still raised their concerns on Twitter and a White House spokesperson even said the Biden administration was ‘deeply concerned’ about the reports alleging that Peng Shuai had gone missing, photos of Peng Shuai in her home showed up on Friday (November 19th), posted on Twitter by Chinese journalist
Shen Shiwei (沈诗伟) claiming the tennis star posted them on her WeChat moments.

Peng Shuai’s WeChat moments just posted three latest photos and said “Happy weekend”.
Her friend shared the three photos and the screenshot of Peng’s WeChat moments. pic.twitter.com/tut8CEH6gu

— Shen Shiwei沈诗伟 (@shen_shiwei) November 19, 2021

One day later, a video was also shared on Twitter by Shen, showing Peng having dinner and having conversations in which it was clearly indicated that the date was November 20, 2021.

Peng Shuai had a dinner with her friends. pic.twitter.com/rhZUvYlIxa

— Shen Shiwei沈诗伟 (@shen_shiwei) November 20, 2021

Later, news came out that Peng also attended the Junior Tennis Finals during the weekend. After the email, the home pics, and the dinner, this was the fourth time news of Peng’s whereabouts made its rounds on Twitter, but it was the very first time in 19 days that she ‘reappeared’ in mainland China’s online media spheres.

“A familiar face came to the Diamond Cup,” one comment said, with others writing “long time no see” and “she showed her face!”

“She lost a lot of weight,” others said, not explicitly mentioning Peng Shuai’s name.

Some commenters just expressed they were happy to see the tennis champion “doing well” and being “safe and sound.”

By Manya Koetse

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Chinese underworld kingpin Zhao Fuqiang turned his Shanghai “Little Red Mansion” into a hell on earth for dozens of women who were forced into a life of sex work within his organized crime network. The story has now gone viral on Chinese social media.

At number 632 on the intersection of Xuchang Road (许昌路) and Huimin Road (惠民路) in Shanghai’s Yangpu District, there is a six-story building that is locally known as the ‘Little Red Mansion.’

The Red Mansion has everything to do with Zhao Fuqiang (赵富强), a man who made headlines in September of 2020 when he appeared before a Shanghai court in relation to gang-related crimes.

Zhao Fuqiang and 37 other defendants were found guilty of leading and participating in organized crime, rape, prostitution, fraud, bribery and corruption. The court found that Zhao had been active as a criminal underworld leader since 2004. During this time, he recruited women and forced them to engage in prostitution for his organization.

The Shanghai Second Intermediate Court gave Zhao the death penalty, while the other 37 defendants were given various sentences, ranging from 30 months to 20 years of imprisonment. One higher government official in Yangpu District by the name of Lu Yan (卢焱) was sentenced to 17 years in prison for taking bribes and serving as an umbrella for Zhao and other criminals.

Zhao Fuqiang

Zhao was the owner of the Red Mansion. Throughout the years, Zhao, who is originally from Taixing in Jiangsu, was able to earn a fortune through his large and powerful business and government network. He ventured into the restaurant industry with his Huichi Huihe (汇吃汇喝) company and ran businesses in Shanghai, Beijing, and Taixing.

The Red Mansion case went trending on Chinese social media this week after China Business Journal (中国经营报) published about it on December 3rd. One article is titled “Uncovering the Secrets of the ‘Little Red House’ – Its Inside Story Is Unimaginable” (“‘小红楼’秘闻被揭开 内情令人难以想象“). The other in-depth article by reporter Cheng Wei (程维) is titled “Exploring the ‘Red House’ in Shanghai” (“探秘上海”红楼”“).

Cheng’s article is a detailed description of the building and its layout, with many photos showing the extravagant rooms and peculiar layout design. Although the reporter gives enough information for readers to get a hint of what was going on in the building before 2020, the other article gives more insights on what actually took place there.

The original title of that article was “In 19 Years, He Turned the Dilapidated “Little Red House” Into Hell on Earth for Victimized Women” (“19年时间他将一座破旧的“小红楼”，打造成迫害女性的无间地狱”). It was published on December 1st by 10PM Reading (@10点阅读) on the Netease news platform, but has since been deleted, although it is still available on some other platforms.

From ‘Hairsalon’ to Mansion

The main article explains how Zhao Fuqiang, originally a small-town tailor, first arrived in Shanghai in 2000 in search of the big money and that he became active within the world of organized prostitution. His own wife, who studied dance, allegedly first became a prostitute before he recruited a bigger group of young female migrant workers through his wife’s network.

The author claims that Zhao used threats and physical violence to get these young, rural women to work for him. After being raped, beaten, and scared into thinking that nude photos of them would be sent to family and friends, these women ended up having sex for money in one of Zhao’s two newly established Shanghai ‘hair salons,’ where men would pay 150 yuan ($23) per visit. The women would never see a dime of the money they earned for Zhao.

With the money Zhao earned through his ‘hair salon’ business, he ventured out into the world of subletting shops in the city. Through the help of his dubious yet powerful network, Zhao got his hands on over 1000 shops which he was able to sublet without ever making a big investment. In a timeframe of nearly two decades, Zhao probably made around one billion yuan ($156 million) from this.

Since his business was anything but legal, Zhao needed a safety net to protect him. Higher officials and big business figures could not be seen visiting one of his ‘hair salons,’ so he needed a more secure place to welcome his guests.

At the six-story so-called Little Red Mansion in Shanghai’s Yangpu district, Zhao would invite high-level governmental and business people. The security cameras within the building recorded them, potentially serving as blackmail material.

The place that once was the ‘Red Mansion.’

The article tells the story of one of the girls who was recruited to work at the Red Mansion. Chen Qian (陈倩) was a fresh graduate, studied in the U.S., and she first came to Zhao after seeing an appealing recruitment ad in the media that offered a high salary for a job at Zhao’s restaurant company.

After it became clear to Chen that her job would actually involve having sex with Zhao’s clients, there was no way for her to escape in a heavily secured environment. When the young woman finally had an opportunity to leave the premises to go to a bank in 2017, she asked the staff to alert the police to tell them about her situation and that of the other women who were held captive as sex slaves by Zhao.

It did not end well for Chen, since the police doubted her story. Zhao, who brought Chen’s mother to the police station, was able to convince the local authorities that it was just a matter of domestic dispute, and Chen was later put on house arrest without access to her phone, and she was beaten for her attempted escape.

To make matters worse, Zhao had also thought of an additional way to exploit the women he controlled: egg donation. Chen was one of the women who reportedly was forced to have a surgical procedure to sell her eggs to (illegal) fertility agencies in order for Zhao to make more money.

In Chen’s case, the procedures for egg retrieval at the clinic caused an abnormal build-up of fluid in the abdomen, and she eventually became infertile because of it.

The Red House Prison

A dance teacher by the name of Cui Qian (崔茜) was another victim of Zhao. Like Chen, she was also forced to donate her eggs, leaving her depressed and anxious. Having a Shanghai household registration, she was eventually forced to marry Zhao in order for him to officially become a Shanghai resident.

Women like Cui and Chen were not just imprisoned by the actual walls of the Red Mansion; Zhao made sure that their social circumstances would make it virtually impossible for them to leave by also recruiting their family members as helpers or cleaning staff. The Red House was not just where they all worked, it was all where they all lived.

When Cui filed for divorce in 2019, and again filing a report against Zhao for rape – an earlier report in 2018 was ignored by authorities – things finally started rolling. In front of the court, Cui Qian told about Zhao’s practices of bribery and forced prostitution, along with naming a number of people within higher-level positions as accomplices.

Cui’s actions led to Zhao’s downfall. Later that year, in 2019, he would finally be arrested after nearly two decades of running his illegal businesses.

However, the tragedy does not end with Zhao’s arrest. Besides the trauma experienced by his victims, the women in the Red House also gave birth to babies who allegedly were left without official registration, making it impossible for them to attend school or receive healthcare.

Exploring the Mansion

In the article by reporter Cheng Wei, we can see what the Red Mansion looked like after it was abandoned in 2019.

The author describes how the building, which once was a hotel and a teahouse, was somewhat of a mystery to locals, who had no idea what was going on there.

The Red Mansion after its closure in 2019.

The reporter describes how the first few floors of the building were basically all storage rooms, while some floors (such as 2nd floor) also had beds and rooms which looked like migrant workers’ lodging.

The building’s fifth floor had some basic guests rooms, some more luxurious than the others, just like any regular Shanghai hotel.

The sixth floor is the building’s most luxurious one, where the reporter saw upscale guest suites and a reception hall that one would expect to see in a palace.

Some of the rooms even had iPhone and iPad boxes and manuals in the bedside drawers, suggesting that guests would even find these kinds of complementary devices in their rooms besides the lavish bathrooms and closets filled with lingerie.

One of the rooms in the abandoned building, image by Cheng Wei.

The sixth floor was also home to the so-called “Fourteen Beauties Suite,” the largest room with seven bunk-beds, accessible through a hidden door (which looks like a regular mirror).

The mirror in this room is actually a door. From the other side, there’s also a concealed door leading to a closet which then leads to the women’s dorm. Photo by Cheng Wei.

On the same floor, there is also a dressing room and bathroom with enough space for up to 4-7 people.

According to the reporter, all closets in the suites have women’s clothings, from lingerie to role playing outfits and stockings.

The main rooms and corridors are equipped with digital combination door locks, so that people can’t enter any floor or room without knowing the required codes.

Besides discovering concealed doors, the reporter also found some left-behind documents, including time schedules for women’s training classes (dancing, performance) and books relating to female self-cultivation and etiquette.

Online Anger

On Weibo, the Red Mansion story has blown up and is also being censored. The hashtags used by China Business Journal in its post have also been taken offline. Meanwhile, hundreds of netizens are still putting together the pieces on what happened at the Red Mansion.

“I’m reading and screenshotting at the same time,” one Weibo user writes:

“I initially just thought this obviously was a prostitution case, but then I came to find out it was not just that..There are too many questions about officials shielding one another, the social grievances, and so on. Thinking your back was leaning against a big tree, only to find out it actually is a man-eating tiger. I’m slowly starting to understand what it means to speak out. This issue will probably be forgotten once again within a short while, but the memories of one person are also the memories of millions!”

“How many Red Mansions are there out there?” some other commenters wonder，with others writing: “How on earth is it possible that this place was able to exist for such a long time?!”

Many people are angered because Zhao allegedly was able to continue for so long through the help of people working for local authorities.

Others are also angry because the topic is being censored online, saying that the women who were victimized by Zhao are being silenced once again.

“When I first read this, I thought it was something that happened long ago,” one commenter writes: “But this is all so recent!” Others also write that they are shocked that this could happen in downtown Shanghai right in front of everyone, without anyone knowing.

Although many say that Zhao deserves nothing but the death penalty, which he already was given, they also call for more transparency regarding the local authorities who made it possible for him to run his ‘business’ for nearly two decades.

“These people can’t be punished enough,” some say.

“This is just too dark,” another Weibo user writes, suggesting that some of the secrets behind the ‘Little Red Mansion’ might just be too dark to ever come to light.

By Manya Koetse

With contributions by Miranda Barnes.

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Along with several other celebrities, Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan has been a hot topic in the media this year ever since photos of him taken at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine went viral online. Not only does Zhang not deserve his recent blacklisted status, Jessica J. argues in this op-ed contribution for What’s on Weibo, he is also a victim of online fake news propagation and cyberbullying. 

Those following Chinese entertainment news may have read about the string of celebrity crackdowns and cancellations this year, including big names like pop star Kris Wu, actress Zheng Shuang, and actor Zhang Zhehan.

However, Zhang Zhehan’s inclusion among Chinese ‘blacklisted artists‘ is raising some eyebrows and has also drawn the attention of Li Xuezheng, the Vice Chairman of the China TV Artists Association and Director of the Golden Shield Television Center.

Among those ‘canceled’ artists, Kris Wu was arrested on suspicion of rape, Zheng Shuang was fined for tax evasion – but Zhang Zhehan did not violate any laws and, according to Li, “was not officially banned or deemed immoral by government bodies” (Drama Panda).

Instead, Zhang was swiftly canceled when old vacation photos of him near the Yasukuni Shrine surfaced in August 2021, despite apologizing quickly for not knowing the significance of the buildings in the area.

[For context, read: Chinese Actor Zhang Zhehan Under Fire for Yasukuni and Nogi Shrine Photos – Ed.]

One of the photos featuring Zhang Zhehan, causing controversy in 2021.

After digging a little deeper, it becomes apparent that there is much more nuance to Zhang’s incident than can be captured in a single sentence such as “Zhang visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine” or “Zhang posed for photos at the Yasukuni Shrine.”

Yasukuni Shrine is a Cherry Blossom Destination

The Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is notorious for enshrining “1,068 convicted war criminals, 14 of whom are A-Class (convicted of having been involved in the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of the war).” The shrine is of great significance when it comes to Sino-Japanese history, as many of Japan’s war dead enshrined at Yasukuni committed atrocities against the Chinese, including during the ‘Nanjing Massacre‘ which started in December 1937 and came to be known as the most notorious Japanese atrocity of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

However, what many people think of as the Yasukuni Shrine only concerns the shrine’s religious structures, including the prayer and worship halls. These are the places where Japanese prime ministers go to pay respects to this day, resulting in recurring controversies.

The Honden Main Shrine, where nearly 2,5 million Japanese war dead are enshrined as ‘divinities,’ is usually inaccessible to the general public. No photography is allowed at the courtyard of the Haiden Main Hall, which is where people pay their respects.

Yasukuni Shrine Main Prayer Hall.

Outside of these structures, the Yasukuni Shrine grounds include an open park area famous for its cherry blossoms. In fact, it houses a “benchmark” cherry tree, which Japan’s Meteorological Agency uses to officially announce the start of the cherry season (NBC News). It’s important to note that Zhang’s photos were taken in this prime cherry blossom viewing area, and not inside the shrine itself.

When searching for “Yasukuni Shrine Cherry Blossoms” on Google, one will find many travel guides and blogs showcasing the lively atmosphere and the sea of people that come to visit during the blossom season. As recently as March 2021 (Phoenix News), Chinese media have included the area around the Yasukuni Shrine as a popular cherry blossom viewing destination. See examples from China Daily, People’s Daily, and China News. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV even covered the benchmark tree in March 2018, the same year that Zhang’s photos were taken.

Many articles that came out around August this year claimed that Zhang “posed in front of the Yasukuni Shrine” (see examples from Radii, Business of Fashion). This is false because the building in Zhang’s photo is actually labeled “斎馆” (Saikan) and is an administrative or office building on the park grounds.

The building behind Zhang Zhehan is actually an administrative building.

The cherry blossoms are clearly the main focus in all of Zhang’s photos. In 2018, there were over 31.19 million international tourists to Japan, including over 8 million Chinese visitors. Each year Japan attracts almost 3 million visitors during cherry blossom season alone.

Zhang was just one among thousands of Chinese tourists coming to view Japan’s famous cherry blossoms. If this is considered an act that hurts national sentiments, then what about the millions of other Chinese citizens that came for the same reason, not to mention the Chinese media that recommended this place as a tourist destination?

Signs of Coordinated Smear Campaign

The three-year-old photos of Zhang surfaced on August 13, a sensitive date leading up to the August 15th Victory over Japan Day, the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II.* In addition to the timing, other accusations against Zhang, including those around a wedding he attended in Japan, rest on blatant misinformation and falsified Baidu entries. (*The Chinese Victory over Japan is commemorated on September 3rd when the signing of the surrender document occurred. )

To a lesser extent than the cherry blossom photos, Zhang was also condemned for attending a friend’s wedding at the Nogi Shrine in 2019 and taking a photo with controversial figure Dewi Sukarno, one of the wives of the former Indonesian President Sukarno.

Netizens soon noticed that the Baidu entry for Nogi Shrine was created the night before on August 12. Similarly, Baidu entries for Mrs. Dewi and Nogi Maresuke, the general whom Nogi Shrine is named after, were both edited on early August 13.

Photos of Zhang at his friend’s wedding at the Nogi Shrine.

Chinese state media outlet Global Times wrote that “there were also photos of Zhang attending a wedding ceremony at Nogi Shrine, another infamous shrine that honors imperial Japanese military officers who invaded China during World War II.”

While it is true the Nogi Shrine honors Japanese general Nogi Maresuke, he died in 1912, well before the events of WWII. So where did this blatantly false information come from?

It is also worth noting that the popular Japanese idol group Nogizaka46, who held a coming-of-age ceremony at the Nogi Shrine, performed several concerts in China without issue.

Numerous other rumors, though not published by reputable media, circulated broadly on social media sites including international platforms such as Youtube and Twitter.

Almost all of them have been debunked as misinformation or complete fabrications. For example, Zhang starred in a short film titled Brother, where his character’s mentally challenged older brother raises his hand when he gets a nosebleed. Zhang took a series of photos interacting with his co-star, but the photo of this gesture was taken out of context to accuse Zhang of making Nazi gestures.

The middle image in the top row was used to accuse Zhang of making Nazi gestures. His comment is a quote from the show, and his co-star responded similarly.

The nosebleed gesture from Brother.

Netizens have also noticed that over 800 marketing accounts posted at almost the same time asking for Zhang’s works to be taken offline (Weibo search), and that so-called water armies (paid commenters) heavily manipulated the direction of social commentary and sentiments (a netizen’s data analysis).

Based on all of this information, it can be reasonably concluded that Zhang was the target of a coordinated smear campaign.

Consequences of Misinformation and Cyber Violence

Within a time span of less than a week, Zhang lost all sponsorship deals and his career suffered a massive blow.

Shows featuring Zhang, including Word of Honor and Demon Girl, were taken offline from Chinese platforms Youku and Le.com. His scenes were erased from the critically acclaimed Nirvana in Fire. His songs “Gu Meng” and “Tian Ya Ke” from Word of Honor could no longer be streamed on various platforms and variety shows featuring him either removed the episodes including Zhang, or he was simply blurred out.

In addition, Zhang faced mass silencing, erasure, and defamation on all Chinese social media platforms:

• Zhang’s accounts on all social media platforms were closed.
• His face still cannot be shown on Bilibili, Douban, and other platforms (videos featuring Zhang will be deleted).
• All positive content on Zhang has been deleted or has been made unsearchable on video site Bilibili. Searching for Zhang’s name on this platform will only show videos condemning him.
• Many netizens still refer to Zhang as a “traitor” or a “spy.”
• Before Li Xuezheng spoke up for Zhang, anyone attempting to clarify Zhang’s situation often found their posts deleted or their accounts closed.
• Li posted on December 5th that Zhang doesn’t even have the right to his own name: “There are only two people in the world who can’t buy things on the internet. One is notorious fascist Hitler, the other is our Zhang Zhehan.”

Since Zhang was included on the performers’ blacklist issued by the Chinese Association of Performing Arts (CAPA), Li Xuezheng has been investigating potential corruption within the industry-led organization. In doing so, Li Xuezheng is also providing a platform for Zhang and his family to speak out for the first time since they’ve been silenced.

Li recently posted a letter from Zhang’s mother, garnering over one million likes within a day. In the letter, Zhang’s mother described the harrowing experience her son and her family have gone through over the past few months.

She wrote:

“Not only have the dreams and achievements he [Zhang] has worked for for more than ten years been crushed, but the entire internet is also filled with one-sided rumors and slander. His positive actions, his love for the Party and the country are erased, and his works have all been de-platformed. My son told me that he did not enter the Yasukuni Shrine, he did not visit it, let alone pay any respects. The information spread on the internet is false… We never got a chance to clarify. We feel completely powerless and hopeless.”

This part, in particular, was difficult to read:

“The little nephew he loves is only four years old and dares not look at him, saying that his uncle is a bad person. When my son heard this, he went to his room and cried… He is really a strong person ordinarily, but at this moment he was broken.”

Zhang Zhehan was canceled in August over misinformation that cannot stand up to scrutiny, yet numerous reputable media entities continue to spread misinformation without further investigation.

As a consequence, Zhang’s works were de-platformed, his presence erased, his voice silenced, and even the right to use his own name is lost, all without any legal backing. In a country governed in accordance with law, a person should be considered innocent until proven guilty. But it’s been over four months now, and despite having committed no crime at all, Zhang is still being punished every day without rescission.

By Jessica J.

Jessica J. (alias) is the initiator of the Teddyfoxfluff blog which collects and translates Weibo posts relating to the Zhang Zhehan controversy. To read more, visit her blog here.

For more about Zhang Zhehan on What’s on Weibo, see our overview here. 

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The famous actress and dancer Tong Liya (佟丽娅, 1983) has had an eventful year. After hosting the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 2020, she performed at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in February of 2021 and in May she announced that after seven years of marriage, she finalized her divorce with actor and director Chen Sicheng (陈思诚).

Tong Liya is of Xibe ethnicity and was born in Xinjiang. The former beauty pageant and award-winning actress is known for her roles in many films and TV series, such as those in The Queens and Beijing Love Story. She also starred in the 2021 Chinese historical film 1921, which focuses on the founding of the Communist Party of China.

This month, online rumors about Tong flooded the internet, alleging that she was recently remarried to Shen Haixiong (慎海雄, 1967), the deputy minister of the Party’s Central Propaganda Department and the President of the CMG (China Media Group), which includes CCTV, China National Radio, and China Radio International.

Some of the rumors included those claiming the actress was previously Shen’s mistress, or netizens connecting Tong Liya’s relations with such an influential and powerful person to her role at the previous CCTV Spring Gala Festival.

But these rumors did not stay online for long, and the quick censorship itself became somewhat of a spectacle. As reported by China Digital Times, the topic ‘Tong Liya’s Remarriage’ (‘佟丽娅再婚’) was completely taken offline.

Following the rumors and censorship, it first was announced that Tong reported the online rumors about her to the police, with the hashtag “Tong Liya Reports the Case to Authorities” (#佟丽娅报案#) receiving over 310 million clicks. On December 23rd, the hashtag “Beijing Police is Handling Tong Liya’s Report” (#北京警方受理佟丽娅报案#) went viral online, attracting over 1.7 billion (!) views on Weibo within three days.

The Beijing Haidian police statement on Weibo is as follows:

“In response to the recent rumors on the Internet, the public security authorities have accepted Tong Liya’s report, and the case is now under investigation. The internet is not a place beyond the law, and illegal acts such as starting rumors and provoking trouble will be investigated and punished according to the law.”

The statement led to some confused responses among netizens who wanted to know more about what was actually reported and what it is the police are exactly ‘investigating.’

On Twitter, Vice reporter Viola Zhou wrote that the censorship “angered many young people,” some of whom lost their social media accounts for discussing Tong Liya’s second marriage: “It’s now prompting a mass pushback against the potential abuse of censorship power.”

So Beijing police said the rumor was false, but the full censorship used to stop it has angered many young people, some of whom lost their WeChat/Weibo accounts for talking about it. It’s now prompting a mass pushback against the potential abuse of censorship power. pic.twitter.com/EfGnVrRItt

— Viola Zhou (@violazhouyi) December 22, 2021

In an attempt to circumvent censorship, and perhaps also ridicule it, some netizens even resorted to morse code to write about Tong Liya.

One Weibo post about the issue by Legal Daily received over 3000 comments, yet none were displayed at the time of writing.

The case is allegedly still being investigated by Beijing authorities.

By Manya Koetse

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With contributions by Miranda Barnes.

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What were the most discussed topics on Weibo of 2021? Here is an overview of top stories on Chinese social media from A to Z: a look back at the biggest trends on Chinese social media in 2021.

 
This is the “WE…WEI…WHAT?” column by Manya Koetse, original publication in German by Goethe Institut China, visit Yi Magazin: WE…WEI…WHAT? Manya Koetse erklärt das chinesische Internet.
 

The year 2021 has been quite a tumultuous one on Chinese social media. It was not just Covid19 that was among the biggest trends once again, it was also a year in which the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party, heightening tensions with the U.S., and national disasters such as the floods in Henan played a major role. But besides all the big topics, there were many smaller topics that became the biggest.

To give you more insight into the topics that went trending this year and which were most discussed by Chinese netizens, we have compiled this list of Weibo trends for you, from A-Z.

A is for: Alaska Talks

The U.S.-China strategic talks in Anchorage were a big topic of discussion on Chinese social media in March of 2021. It was the first major face-to-face U.S.-China meeting of the Biden administration, and due to the sometimes-angry words exchanged between the two sides, some called the Alaska talks a “diplomatic clash.”

While international media focused on the meeting and what their outcome meant for Sino-American relations and the foreign strategies of China and the U.S., many Weibo users instead focused on interpreter Zhang Jing (张京) who fiercely took notes while top diplomats Wang Yi (王毅) and Yang Jiechi (杨洁篪) were talking and flawlessly managed to translate their lengthy speeches.

Another moment that went viral online was when Yang Jiechi remarked he had instant noodles for lunch. Chinese state media outlet CGTN published a short video showing the Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Yang right before entering a session of the high-level talks, with Wang asking Yang “Have you had lunch?”, and Yang then answering: “Yes, instant noodles.”

‘Noodle gate’ went trending as a sign of American lack of etiquette: no formal dinner was arranged for the Chinese diplomats, and even with Covid19 restrictions, many netizens thought the Americans could and should have done more to accommodate their Chinese guests.

B is for: Battle at Lake Changjin

The Chinese blockbuster Battle at Lake Changjin that hit cinemas in the fall of 2021 became one of China’s highest-grossing films ever, breaking all kinds of box office records. The movie provides a Chinese perspective on the start of the Korean War (1950-1953) and the unfolding of the battle of Chosin Reservoir, a massive ground attack of the Chinese 9th Army Group against American forces.

The movie was a major topic on Chinese social media this year, not just because of its unparalleled budget, all-star cast, and production team, but also because its specific narrative of China’s ‘glorious victory’ at Chosin resonates with many Chinese in a time of growing nationalism and heightening international tensions.

Many social media users showed how emotionally engaged they were in the film by sharing their watching experience and posting photos and videos of their cinema visit. Some netizens even consumed frozen potatoes while watching the film as a sign of solidarity for the Chinese soldiers at the front for whom frozen potatoes were all they had to eat. Other filmgoers even saluted to the screen to honor those who lost their lives during the battle.

Read more about this topic here in English or in German.

C is for: Call me By Fire

The all-male reality show Call Me By Fire (披荆斩棘的哥哥) was one of this year’s hit shows, with one Weibo hashtag dedicated to the show receiving a staggering 12 billion views.

Call Me By Fire featured 33 male celebrities, and the show received a lot of attention for various reasons. Participant Li Chengxuan (李承铉/ Nathan Lee) triggered discussions by speaking up about being a full-time father and suffering from depression. The 55-year-old Taiwanese singer Terry Lin Zhixuan (林志炫) was also a contestant and fell off the stage while filming. Another celebrity on the show, Chinese singer Huo Zun (霍尊), withdrew after his ex-girlfriend accused him of being a cheater and leaked WeChat conversation screenshots to prove that he actually disliked the show.

The Cantonese-speaking celebrities who were on the show also caused a social media sensation, contributing to an increased social media interest in the Greater Bay Area.

D is for: Dearest

The Chinese film Dearest (亲爱的) from 2014 received attention in 2021 again after a real-life development took place in the story that was the main inspiration behind the film.

Dearest is centered around a divorced couple in Shenzhen dealing with the disappearance of their son. The movie is partly based on the true story of Sun Zhuo, who was abducted in 2007 at the age of 4. His parents never gave up hope they would see him again and sacrificed everything to be able to fund their search efforts.

After a years-long search, Sun was finally found in 2021 due to the help of authorities and face recognition technology that helped trace the person suspected of abducting him. But in a perhaps unexpected twist, Sun stated that he would prefer to stay with his adoptive parents, who had raised him for over 10 years.

The story triggered many online discussions and raised more awareness on the issue of abducted children in China in times of the country’s one-child policy. Sun’s father spoke to the media saying: “For 2022, my biggest wish is that all the abducted children can finally be found.”

E is for EDG Championship

People all over China were overexcited to see China’s Edward Gaming (EDG) team win the League of Legends World Championship (Worlds 2021) title in November of 2021. With the hashtag “EDG Wins Championship” (#EDG夺冠#) getting over 3,7 billion views on Weibo, many netizens saw the success of the Chinese e-sports team as one of the highlights of the year.

After the victory of Invictus Gaming in 2018, EDG is the second Chinese team to win the world championship tournament of League of Legends (LoL, 英雄联盟), an online multiplayer video game in which two teams strategically compete by gaining more strength through the accumulation of items and experience over the course of the game to destroy the other team’s base. EDG managed to beat their notoriously strong South-Korean opponents in the exciting finale.

Chinese students who had promised to run around naked if the EDG team would win did so on the night of November 7.

Videos showing Chinese college dorms going crazy over the championship circulated all over social media. Some students in Xianyang got so carried away by the team’s miraculous win that they went as far as replacing the national flag in front of their college with the EDG team flag. Others also went a bit too far in celebrating their win; since they promised their friends that they would do things such as run around the school naked or have a sip of toilet water if China would win the World Championship, the most bizarre scenes unfolded across Chinese campuses.

F is for Floods in 2021

Various regions across China saw torrential rainfall and devastating flooding in 2021. Some of the most disastrous floods took place in Henan province in July, where Zhengzhou city and surrounding towns and villages faced the strongest rainfall ever recorded.

Amid the floods, some terrible scenes went trending on Chinese social media, such as the critical situation that unfolded in Zhengzhou Metro Line 5, where some 500 passengers got trapped inside trains with water reaching up to their necks. Rescuers arrived at the scene to help people escape, but 14 people did not make it out alive.

In Henan alone, the floods left more than 300 dead. Besides Henan, Hubei province, Sichuan, Shanxi, Hebei, and other areas were also struck by heavy rains and flooding. In Shanxi, more than 1.76 million people were affected by severe flooding.

For more about the role social media played in times of China’s flood disaster, read our article here in English or in German.

G is for Gansu Marathon

What was supposed to be an exciting ultramarathon race turned into a terrible tragedy in May of 2021 in Gansu’s Baiyin, where 21 runners died on a mountainous high-altitude track under extreme weather conditions.

The May 22 long-distance race started in the morning with 172 participating runners. Although all the runners had to have recent experience in running such a long race, they were not prepared when they encountered hail, freezing rain and strong winds during the afternoon. Many runners were just dressed in shorts and t-shirts, and the insulation blankets that they carried were insufficient to protect them from the sudden drop of temperature in the mountains. Although 700 people were involved in a rescue operation, 21 people did not make it out alive.

Runners who were freezing on the mountain shared photos on social media as the disaster played out in real-time on that terrible day.

The Gansu Marathon was a major topic on Chinese social media in 2021, not just because of the tragedy itself but also because people wanted to know who was to blame: was it a man-made disaster, or a natural catastrophe?

As a bright spot in this terrible story, there were the local shepherds who rescued many runners on the mountain by carrying them inside their huts and offering them shelter and warmth. At the end of the year, Chinese media and netizens are still reflecting on the stories of those villagers who saved the lives of many runners that day.

H is for Hongxing Erke

Image via Ellemen.

Nobody could have expected that Chinese brand Hongxing Erke (鸿星尔克, a.k.a. Erke) would become one of the country’s most popular sportswear brands in 2021. After all, Erke was only known as a relatively low-profile brand that seemingly was not doing too well over the past few years, especially compared to the bigger international brands and domestic sportswear brands such as Lining or Anta.

This all changed in late July of 2021, when the domestic sportswear brand donated a staggering 50 million yuan ($7.7 million) for the Henan flood relief efforts. This attracted a lot of attention on Chinese social media since Erke was known as a relatively low-profile brand that seemingly was not making a lot of profit. After people found out that the company donated such a high amount of money to help the people in Henan despite its own losses, its online sales went through the roof; everyone wanted to support this generous ‘patriotic brand.’ While netizens rushed to the online shops selling Erke, the brand’s physical shops also ran out of products with so many people coming to buy their sportswear. One female sales assistant was moved to tears when the store suddenly filled up with so many customers.

The brand’s popularity only further grew when the company also donated one million yuan ($153,800) to help rebuild the Henan Museum after the floods. A picture posted by Henan Museum on its Weibo account showed that Erke put the donation in the name of “China’s netizens.”

Especially at a time when consumer nationalism and anti-American sentiments are growing – also negatively impacting the reputation of brands such as Nike – Erke has proved to be a big hit. The brand’s generosity, its nation-loving image, and the fact that it is “proudly made in China” have all helped build on its reputation and have made the sportswear ‘underdog’ the coolest brand of the year.

I is for Involution (内卷)

‘Involution’ (nèijuǎn 内卷) officially already was a top buzzword in Chinese media in 2020, but one scene from the Chinese TV drama A Love for Dilemma (小舍得) reignited online discussions on the concept again in 2021.

In the specific scene that went viral online, two male characters in the series discuss Chinese competitive society and its education system, saying it sometimes feels as if everyone is in a theatre watching a show together until one person stands up from their seat. This makes it necessary for other members of the audience to also stand up, until everybody is standing. The dialogue continues, with the two talking about how it does not stop at the people standing up. Because then there are those who will take it a step further and will stand on their seats to rise above the others. And then there are even those who will grab a ladder to stand higher than the rest. But they are still watching the same show and their situation has not changed at all – except for the fact that everybody is now more uncomfortable than they were before.

The dialogue from A Love for Dilemma in which the concept ‘Involution’ is explained.

The dialogue went viral for perfectly explaining ‘involution,’ the economic situation that occurs if, when the population grows, per capita wealth decreases. In China, this popular word has come to be used to represent the competitive circumstances in academic or professional settings where individuals are compelled to overwork because of the standard raised by their peers who appear to be even more hardworking, making life more difficult for everyone.

One viral image that captures the situation at hand is that of a Chinese college student who is working on his laptop while he is on the bicycle. In times of involution, there is always one person more competitive than the other!

J is for Justice for the People

Famous Chinese producer Li Xuezheng became a hot topic on Chinese social media in late 2021, when he publicly questioned the authority of China’s Association of Performing Arts (CAPA) in issuing a blacklist of online influencers and celebrities.

One of the names CAPA put on their so-called ‘warning list’ is that of Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan (张哲瀚), whose online photos from him visiting the area around the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Japan in 2018 got him into trouble in the summer of 2021.

Li Xuezheng’s main stance is that, although he says he supports the general initiative of making blacklists, he wants to know how, why, and if CAPA has the legal authority to ban Chinese celebrities from the industry. Li stresses that China is a law-based society and that these kinds of punitive measures should have a legal basis. His mission is therefore hashtagged “Justice for the People” on Weibo (#人民的公义# “public justice for the people”), which has since received over 5 billion views. Li, who says he’ll support actor Zhang Zhehan in filing a lawsuit, is praised by many as a courageous man who is not afraid to question authorities.

K is for Kris Wu

The Chinese-Canadian superstar Kris Wu, better known as Wu Yifan (吴亦凡), dominated Chinese social media in the summer of 2021, with news of his detainment over rape allegations leading to an explosion of comments on Weibo.

The 19-year-old student Meizhu Du (都美竹) was the first to accuse Wu of predatory behavior online, with at least 24 more women also coming forward claiming the celebrity showed inappropriate behavior and luring young women into sexual relationships. Although Wu denied all allegations, more than a dozen firms either cut ties or terminated contracts with him. As the scandal unfolded, various hashtags related to the story received billions of views on Weibo. Wu was formally arrested on suspicion of rape in mid-August 2021.

Although the Kris Wu scandal was somewhat of a social media earthquake already, his detainment was just the beginning of a summer filled with celebrity scandals.

L is for Li Ziqi

Li Ziqi, image via the Paper.

Li Ziqi (李子柒) is a Chinese internet celebrity who has been active as an online influencer and lifestyle vlogger since 2015, focusing on traditional Chinese foods, agriculture, tea, nature, and handicrafts. She has a Douyin channel with 55 million fans, a Youtube channel (16.5 million subscribers), and an e-commerce shop. Her videos are known for being very calm and soothing, showing Li preparing food in her hometown in Sichuan while birds are singing in the background, featuring beautiful scenes from nature and relaxing music.

Li was also called a “Chinese soft power ambassador” for having the most popular Chinese channel on YouTube, showing the beauty of China to the world. She was previously even named as one of the Top 10 Women of China and has become a cultural ambassador for Sichuan’s agriculture.

But Li’s regular content uploads were halted in the middle of 2021, when the social media star allegedly ended up in a legal battle with her company’s co-investors over shares and dividend payouts. Her Weibo has not been updated for months, neither has her Douyin or Youtube channel. The sudden video stop caused speculation and concern online – why was Li not posting anymore? Was she in trouble? Is she being silenced? Hopefully, 2022 will bring more answers and new Li videos about idyllic agricultural life.

M is for Meng Wanzhou

Nearly three years after the CFO of Huawei and daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei (任正非) was first detained in Canada during transit at Vancouver airport at the request of United States officials, Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) returned to China in 2021.

Meng Wangzhou was accused of fraud charges for violating US sanctions on Iran. Ever since late 2018, Chinese officials were demanding Meng’s release and called the arrest “a violation of a person’s human rights.” Meng was under house arrest in Vancouver while battling extradition to the United States.

Meng’s return home became a major topic on Chinese social media, where the Weibo hashtag “Meng Wanzhou About to Return to the Motherland” (#孟晚舟即将回到祖国#) received nearly three billion views, with thousands of netizens welcoming Meng back home.

While Meng returned to China, Canadian nationals Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who were both arrested in Beijing in December of 2018 on suspicion of espionage, also returned home to Canada. While Meng’s return triggered thousands of posts and comments on Weibo, the release of Kovrig and Spavor did not get nearly as much attention.

N is for Nine-Nine-Six (996) Working Culture

Working ‘996’ schedules, which means working from 9am to 9pm for six days per week, is a reality for many Chinese workers. In 2021, China’s strenuous 996 working culture became a major topic of discussion.

Earlier in 2021, tech giant Pinduoduo made headlines when two of its young employees passed away. The sudden death of a 22-year-old female employee was soon linked to the company’s overwork culture, and when a male employee committed suicide days later, more staff members started speaking out about Pinduoduo’s working culture, making 996 a hot topic.

In August of 2021, Chinese authorities issued a stern reminder to companies that 996 schedules are illegal, and tech companies such as Bytedance and Kuaishou also began to change their long working hours. Whether or not 2021 will go down in history as the year in which China’s 996 working culture ended, yet remains to be seen.

O is for the Olympics

The Olympics were a big topic on Chinese social media in 2021, not just because China’s hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics is nearing, but also because of China’s success at the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

While online discussions especially became intense and often funny on Weibo when it came down to competitions between China and Japan, there were also Chinese female athletes who suffered cyberbullying because of their performances during the Olympics.

For the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the term “closed-loop management” (闭环管理) was introduced this year to describe the ‘biosecure bubble’ that will be established for all participants of the Olympics. It basically means that participants will only be allowed to move between Games-related venues for their training, catering, accommodation, etc. They will do so through a dedicated Games transport system.

Although the Olympics were already a big topic in 2021, it will also definitely become one of the bigger topics for 2022.

P is for Peng Shuai

Peng Shuai (彭帅) is probably the biggest topic on Weibo that did not actually go trending this year, making her story a silent storm. In the night of November 2nd of 2021, a Weibo post by the 35-year-old Chinese tennis player sent shockwaves across social media.

In her lengthy post, the three-time Olympian describes details surrounding an alleged years-long affair she had with the married 75-year-old Zhang Gaoli (张高丽), who served as China’s senior Vice-Premier (2013-2018) and was also a member of China’s highest ruling council, the Politburo Standing Committee (2012-2017).

Although Peng’s post was only online for some thirty minutes before it was taken offline, screenshots already circulated on WeChat and beyond. When all discussions on the issue were censored, it triggered a wave of global concern about Peng’s wellbeing and whereabouts, which eventually also led to WTA announcing the suspension of all tournaments in China.

In December of 2021, Peng told a Lianhe Zaobao reporter at a Shanghai event that she has always been free and is not being monitored. Although Peng has appeared in public on multiple occasions, her name is still being censored on Chinese social media.

For a full translation of Peng’s post and a timeline of events, see our article here.

Q is for QR-based Society

Before the pandemic, QR codes were already used everywhere in China. QR codes are mainly used for mobile payments, but they are also often used for marketing purposes or to give people access to certain information or videos. Since the outbreak of Covid19, QR codes have become even more crucial in everyday life, since the Health QR Code System has become an important weapon in China’s fight against Covid19.

The first health code apps, developed by Alipay and WeChat, were launched in February 2020 to identify people’s risk of exposure to the virus and freedom of movement. The color-based code was soon assigned to some 900 million users in over 300 cities and became mandatory for those entering public spaces.

Health code apps work with three colors that are automatically generated based on the collected user’s data (including travel history, duration of time spent in risky areas, etc): green, yellow, and red. A green QR code allows an individual to travel within the city; a yellow one implies potential risks that require an at-home quarantine for 7-14 days; and a red code imposes a 14-day quarantine.

This year, “defending the green horse” (保住绿码) became a popular phrase on Chinese social media. The ‘green horse’ is a wordplay on ‘green QR code,’ which sounds the same (绿码). Since you can’t go anywhere if you’re not ‘riding’ that ‘green horse,’ netizens joke that defending the green horse is the most important task they have.

R is for Return Policy of Canada Goose

Canadian clothing brand Canada Goose caused major controversy on Chinese social media this year for its confusing and allegedly discriminatory return policy, which was found to be different in China than in other countries. Discussions on the issue flared up after the company reportedly refused to refund a customer in Shanghai for a damaged parka, stating that products sold at its retail stores in the mainland are non-refundable while Canada Goose allows a 30-day unconditional return outside of the mainland.

China’s Consumer Rights Protection Law stipulates that consumers should be allowed to return an item within seven days without giving a reason. Chinese netizens accused Canada Goose of double standards, not only for not even granting customers a seven-day period to return purchases, but also for making an exception to their worldwide 30-day return policy for mainland China.

The online anger over the Canadian fashion brand’s alleged discriminatory practices came in a year where foreign brands were already increasingly under fire due to international tensions and rising nationalism.

In response to the issue, Canada Goose changed its return policy in China and now promises free return and exchange services to mainland customers within 14 days after their purchase.

S is for Shanghai Red Mansion

The story of the ‘Shanghai Red Mansion’ caught the attention of thousands of netizens in late 2021, when a Chinese media outlet covered how dozens of women were forced into sex work inside a six-story building in the Yangpu district of Shanghai.

The Red Mansion has everything to do with Zhao Fuqiang (赵富强), a man who made headlines in September of 2020 when he appeared before a Shanghai court in relation to gang-related crimes. Zhao Fuqiang and 37 other defendants were found guilty of leading and participating in organized crime, rape, prostitution, fraud, bribery and corruption.

Zhao, who was given the death penalty in 2020, used threats and physical violence to get young, rural women to work for him. As an underworld kingpin, Zhao needed a safety net to protect him. At the so-called Little Red Mansion, Zhao would invite high-level governmental and businesspeople.

In December of 2021, China Business Journal (中国经营报) published an article detailing the the building and its layout, with many photos showing the extravagant rooms and peculiar layout design. Although the mansion has been closed since 2019, the shock was still big on social media, since the story did not come out until 2021.

The sentiment on social media was clear: if something big like this could happen in the busy center of Shanghai, with many officials being aware of it, what else is there that we don’t know?

For more on this story, check out our article here.

T is for Three-Child-Policy

2021 was the year in which Chinese authorities announced that all Chinese couples would now be allowed to have three children, with the topic immediately going trending online.

The last time the government announced a major shift in family planning policies was in 2015 with the end to the one-child policy. Although many people applauded the change, which allowed couples to have a second child, there were also those who thought financial burdens would hold people back from having a second child.

With the 2021 shift to a ‘three-child policy,’ many people also mentioned the economic burden that having more than two children would have on couples. A Weibo poll by Chinese state media outlet Xinhua asking, “Are You Ready for the Three Child Policy?” was ridiculed by some when nearly 30,000 people replied “I am not considering it [three kids] at all”, with only a few hundred people indicating a more positive stance on the policy. The poll was soon deleted.

Despite all the criticism and online jokes, there were also those who were genuinely happy that having three children would now be allowed for all couples. Recurring comments praised the freedom that comes with the loosening of family planning policies: “If you want to have more children, you can. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”

U is for Uploader Death Shocks Bilibili

There were some incidents in 2021 that showed how bloggers and online influencers can struggle with depression or other issues, also impacting those who follow them and creating more awareness on these issues.

One big story in 2021 involved the death of a so-called ‘uploader’ (called ‘UP’), a content creator, on the platform Bilibili. The blogger named ‘Mo Cha’ suffered from nasal tumors and other health problems. Although doctors advised that he needed to be hospitalized, he could not afford the treatment and surgery he needed. The impoverished young man also suffered from malnutrition, and often complained about his stomach hurting in online posts.

When it was verified that Mo Cha had died, social media saw an outpouring of expressions of sympathy and art dedicated to him.

Another big topic was that of a young Chinese woman who took her own life by drinking a bottle of pesticide during a live stream.

V is for Vaya

Viya is one of China’s most well-known and successful live streamers. In October of 2021, the ‘e-commerce queen’ made headlines when she managed to sell 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) in merchandise in just one live streaming session together with e-commerce superstar Lipstick King for a promotional event for Single’s Day.

In December of 2021, however, the successful online influencer made headlines for an entirely different reason, as it became known that she had been ordered to pay over 1.3 billion yuan ($210 million) in taxes, late payment fees, and other fines according to the Hangzhou Tax Administration Office.

Soon after this news came out, Viya’s livestreaming channels was suspended, and her social accounts on Weibo and video-sharing platform Douyin were also shut down.

W is for Wandering Elephants

A herd of wild Asian elephants that wandered hundreds of miles across southern China became a top trending topic on Chinese social media this year.

With much interest, netizens followed the journey of a herd of 16 elephants from their home in a wildlife reserve in mountainous southwest Yunnan province to the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming. Through drones that monitored and photographed the elephants, people enjoyed sharing the sometimes-heartwarming pictures of the wandering animals.

In September 2021, the elephants returned home after covering a total distance of 1,300 km.

X is for Xinjiang Cotton Ban

In March of 2021, the hashtag “I Support Xinjiang Cotton!” received over 6 billion views on Weibo after news came out that foreign brands including H&M, Nike and Adidas would no longer source cotton from Xinjiang over allegations of forced labor in the region. The move was part of a decision by the international NGO Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), which already announced it would cease all field-level activities in Xinjiang in late 2020.

The news was followed by a wave of social media boycott movements in China, with Chinese brand ambassadors cutting ties with international brands involved. Chinese e-commerce platforms Taobao, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Suning.com, and Meituan’s Dianping responded by removing H&M from their platforms.

Thousands of Chinese netizens supported Xinjiang cotton and those brands who still sourced their cotton from the region, with ‘patriotic’ brands on Taobao purposely starting to advertise their products as using “100% Xinjiang Cotton.”

Read more here.

Y is for Yuan Longping

Yuan Longping (袁隆平), also called the “Father of Hybrid Rice,” was a Chinese crop scientist who is famous for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s. As someone who experienced the horrors of famine himself, Yuan’s development of high-yield rice hybrids made him a national hero in China, and he was credited with saving countless lives.

Yuan (1930) passed away on May 22 of 2021, and he was mourned by thousands of netizens online. As a key player in the Green Revolution, Yuan is honored as of China’s most famous and important scientists.

I Always Had Two Dreams” “我一直有两个梦想” by digital artist Wuheqilin.

Chinese netizens posted many images and art pieces honoring Yuan. The artist Wuheqilin, most famous for political satire mocking Western powers, also made a patriotic artwork dedicated to Yuan.

Z is for Zheng Shuang Surrogacy Controversy

In a year that was filled with celebrity controversies, one of the biggest was that of Chinese award-winning actress Zheng Shuang (郑爽) who got caught up in major controversy together with her ex-partner Zhang Heng (张恒) when a social media storm erupted in January of 2021. That is when rumors surfaced on Weibo and Wechat that the celebrity couple had separated and that there was a dispute involving two of their children born in the US through a surrogacy arrangement. The topic soon became known as the Zheng Shuang ‘Surrogacy Gate’ (郑爽代孕门).

Similar to other celebrity breakups that occurred in China recently, a lot of the developments in the divorce played out on social media – Zheng’s ex-partner posted about the situation on Weibo and it became clear that Zheng Shuang allegedly left him stranded in the United States with the two babies, unable to bring them back to China with him since she supposedly did not cooperate with the necessary legal procedures.

The scandal was just the beginning of Zheng’s unfortunate 2021 year. In light of the controversy, various brands ended their partnership contracts with the actress, and Zheng’s professional career suffered a major blow when Huading Awards announced it would revoke Zheng’s honorary titles, including former awards for best actress and favorite TV star. The celebrity was also boycotted by China’s State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, and she was later ordered to pay a $46 million fine for tax fraud, before ending up on the blacklist of China’s Association of Performing Arts.

To read more about canceled celebrities check out our article here.

By Manya Koetse
Follow @whatsonweibo

Featured image by Ama for Yi Magazin.

This text was written for Goethe-Institut China under a CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0-DE license (Creative Commons) as part of a monthly column in collaboration with What’s On Weibo.

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Bloomberg recently reported that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is preparing to sell its 30% stake in social media platform Weibo. According to people familiar with the matter, Alibaba is negotiating with the state-owned Shanghai Media Group (SMG).

News about Alibaba planning to sell all of its Weibo shares has triggered some online discussions on the Chinese social media platform. Bloomberg was the first to report that the Chinese e-commerce and IT enterprise is talking to the state-owned Shanghai Media Group (SMG) to sell all of its 30% stake in Weibo.

According to Bloomberg, the move relates to regulators wanting to curb the influence of Chinese tech giants in the media sphere. The Bloomberg article claims that SMG, as one of China’s largest state-owned media and cultural conglomerates, stands a higher chance of gaining the approval of Chinese authorities than a private acquirer.

SMG is a large state-owned enterprise with over a dozen TV and radio stations, many newspapers and magazines, various drama & film production and distribution businesses, and more. The company has a major media influence, not only in Shanghai but throughout the country.

According to Weibo’s 2020 annual reports, New Wave held a 45% stake in Weibo, followed by Alibaba with its 30%. New Wave is the holding company by Weibo chairman Charles Chao.

“Weibo will change into another channel for SMG,” some Weibo users predict, with others also sharing their fear that Weibo would become more and more like a platform for official media (“微博现在越来越官方化”).

“This would be a big milestone in the crumbling of Alibaba’s media empire,” another commenter wrote. Some wonder if the developments have more to do with Weibo as a platform, or with Alibaba and its media influence.

In March of 2021, the Wall Street Journal already reported that the Chinese government asked the Alibaba Group to dispose of its media assets due to concerns over the company’s influence in the sensitive media sphere.

“When Alibaba exits and state-owned capital enters, Weibo is expected to magnificently transform into a ‘state-owned enterprise’,” another Weibo user wrote.

Although some commenters worry that Weibo will change for the worse and that there will be more censorship, others see a sunnier future for the social media platform: “It would be good for Weibo to be ‘state-owned’ so that it won’t be controlled by capital to influence public opinion anymore.”

Chinese tech site 36kr also reported about the issue on January 1st, but neither Weibo nor Alibaba or SGM have officially responded yet.

By Manya Koetse

Follow @whatsonweibo

With contributions by Miranda Barnes.

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©2021 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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News about Dutch Olympic athletes being advised by the country’s Olympic Committee not to bring their own smartphone or laptops to the Winter Olympics in China has become a much-discussed topic on Chinese social media.

On January 11, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported that NOCNSF, the umbrella organisation for sports in the Netherlands, issued a warning to partipating Dutch athletes that they should not bring their personal smartphones, tablets, or laptops with them to the Beijing Olympics to avoid Chinese espionage.

NOCNSF spokesman Geert Slot said cybersecurity was part of the risk assessment made but declined to further comment on specific measures. In the article, the advice is described as a “precautionary move” related to concerns over potential cybersecurity safety issues in China.

The Dutch CEO of security company Zerocopter, Erik Ploegmakers, calls the move a “very wise” one, referring to the difficulties of using a VPN within China and mentioning how all online traffic would flow via Chinese internet infrastructure, saying that “China is able to view and manipulate all internet traffic, ‘so you basically carry your past information with you,’ including old messages, training schedules, medical data, contact details, and photos.”

On Chinese social media site Weibo, Global Times commentator Hu Xijin (@胡锡进) commented on the Dutch ‘precautions.’ Until recently, Hu was also the editor-in-chief and party secretary of the state media outlet, and he has over 24 million followers on his Weibo account. He writes:

“According to Dutch media reports, the Dutch Olympic Committee has called on Dutch athletes participating in next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing to leave their mobile phones and laptops at home to avoid having their personal information intercepted by Chinese surveillance systems. Last month, the Australian newsgroup quoted a Canberra security expert as saying foreign athletes’ movements and communication in China would all be monitored around the clock.

This cracks me up. These people are participating in the Winter Olympics as if they’re entering a cave with wolves and tigers. They’ve watched too many movies. Is this is how they look at China, which the IOC entrusted to serve athletes from all around the world? They must think they’re all that. Athletes are just common people once they’re off the field, what kind of intelligence value do they have? Even if a western athlete wanted to ‘defect’ and would shout out “I have information for you!”, the Chinese would probably still ask them to leave.

This entire issue reflects the degree to which Western public opinion has demonized China. It has eroded people’s common sense. How can China have the manpower and resources to build such a gigantic surveillance system? To do what? Western people are looking at China through an American lens. The Winter Olympics are mirroring the ghostly appearance of some Western extremist powers.

Ordinary Chinese people have a good impression of the Netherlands and welcome Dutch athletes to Beijing. The extremists should stop pouring cold water over the warm mutual friendship between the Dutch and Chinese people.”

Hu’s post received over 7000 likes and hundreds of comments.

“Do people from around the world think we’re like North Korea or something?” one person responded. Another commenter wrote: “They’d better not come. All of our snowflakes are equipped with small 5G chips, they will be monitored as long as they participate, it’s mainly to see if they’ll pick up things to eat from the floor, to see what they do when it rains, and to check if their urine and stool is showing any irregularities and stuff.”

In other Weibo posts, users said: “I wonder what the Dutch and the Belgian people have to hide?”

The Belgian Interfederal Olympic Committee has also recommended that all Belgian athletes traveling to the Beijing Olympics leave personal laptops and smartphones at home.

The nationalistic blogger GuyanMuchan (@孤烟暮蝉), who has over 6 million Weibo fans, also responded to the issue, writing: “Ridiculous, this is just shameless. As an athlete, what kind of classified information do you have that China would steal from you? Are you all spies with a second identity?”

This is not the first time Dutch people are advised not to bring their regular smartphones or laptops with them to China. In 2018, before a Cabinet delegation went on a trade mission to China, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign affairs also advised travelers to only bring devices without personal data to China. The same advice was also issued for those traveling to Russia, Iran, or Turkey.

By Manya Koetse

Follow @whatsonweibo

With contributions by Miranda Barnes.

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

©2021 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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While being quarantined due to Covid19, he is going viral on Chinese social media. “The hardest-working Chinese man in contact tracing” has touched the hearts of many netizens, leading to public questions about the disappearance of his son – a story without a happy ending.

On January 18, one person tested positive for Covid19 in Chaoyang District, Beijing. That person, who was asymptomatic, was one of the three reported cases of Covid19 detected in the Chinese capital on Tuesday.

The patient’s contact tracing records showed that from January 1st of this year to January 18, in a time frame of 18 days, he went to many districts in Beijing and worked odd jobs all around the clock at more than twenty different construction sites throughout the city. This earned him the title of “the hardest-working Chinese man in contact tracing” (“流调中最辛苦的中国人”).

Yue went all around the city working odd jobs all around the clock.

In China News Weekly (中国新闻周刊), reporter Chao Xiang (赵翔) interviewed the Chaoyang Covid patient and provided more information about him. That article, titled “A Conversation with the ‘Hardest-Working Chinese in Contact Tracing Records'” (“对话”流调中最辛苦的中国人””) soon went viral on Chinese social media. (Pekingnology did a full translation on the article here).

Who is this hard-working and industrious man? It is the 44-year-old Mr. Yue, a migrant worker from Shandong’s Weihai who rents a tiny room in Shigezhuang for 700 yuan ($110) per month. Just as he was about to start his train journey from Beijing South Station to go home to his wife and youngest son in Weihai, anti-epidemic workers alerted him that he had tested positive for Covid19 and got him off the train.

While was immediately quarantined at a designated hospital in Beijing, his recent movements and personal story soon became a major item of discussion on WeChat and Weibo after a press conference and media release detailed his recent whereabouts (#北京朝阳无症状感染者轨迹公布#).

Although Yue formerly worked as a sailor, he is now a manual laborer in construction in Beijing. He started working in the city in search of his eldest son, who went missing at the age of 19 and who previously worked as a kitchen helper in Beijing.

Yue Yuetong (岳跃仝)

Yue’s son, Yue Yuetong (岳跃仝), allegedly complained about a stomach ache when he was working at a food factory in Rongcheng, Weihai, in the summer of 2020. He was supposed to take a bus home, but he never got on that bus and never returned home again. Besides Beijing and Rongcheng, Mr. Yue went to a least ten other cities looking for his son, always believing that he could not have gone very far and that it was possible to find him.

Authorities allegedly were not very helpful in setting up a thorough search for the then 19-year-old. Yue told China News Weekly that it took weeks before the family could officially register Yue Yuetong as a missing person. Mr. Yue also claimed that the police did not trace his phone records and video surveillance in the initial days after he went missing due to privacy reasons.

Yue tells China News Weekly (translation by Pekingnology):

“I also asked in the hospital morgues. On October 12th, 2021, they [not clear who] saw me were petitioning, and told me that a corpse was of my eldest son, and asked me to go to Rongcheng Second Hospital to identify the corpse. I saw that man, whose face was hard to see but fat and round. My son is 1.74 meters tall, thin, and has a long face. I don’t think that was my son. I asked to test the bones of the body, but they weren’t willing to do that. They initially said the test would be done at Weihai Public Security Bureau which would take dozens of days. Later, it was said that the forensic doctor was on a business trip. After half a month, they/he [unclear] called me and said don’t bother them/him anymore.

My wife couldn’t stop crying when she heard that our eldest son was dead. I don’t believe that corpse was my son.

When this dead body was first discovered, I asked the police station, and they said it was not my eldest son. As soon as I began petitioning, they said it was my eldest son in order to close the case.”

All the money Yue earns has gone towards the search for his son and towards his parents who suffer from multiple health problems. The medicine and medical costs for his bedridden paralyzed father and for his mother, who recently broke her arm, are not covered by insurance and Yue does all he can to cover these for them. His wife makes a meager income and his youngest son, who is only 12, is attending junior high school.

Despite his tough life, Yue told China News Weekly he does not feel sorry for himself.

There are multiple reasons why Yue’s story struck a chord with Chinese netizens. One of the reasons is that although his story stands out, he is not the only one facing such difficulties in China today. In that regard, the responses to Yue’s story bear some resemblance to the reactions dominating social media after the publications of the essay by Fan Yusu, a female migrant worker living in Beijing.

Her story about her life and struggles with work, marriage and family became a viral hit in 2017 (read more here). At the time, commenters wrote “We are all Fan Yusu,” suggesting that Fan’s account was just one voice among thousands of migrant workers dealing with similar problems and struggles.

“Yue is not the only hard-working Chinese person,” one commenter wrote, with another person writing: “I might work even more than him.”

Numerous netizens said Yue’s story made them tear up due to his dignity and resilience, something that many people admire him for – especially at a time of Covid19.

There were also many who hoped that Yue, who received so much attention over his peculiar contact tracing records, could use his sudden, unexpected fame to his advantage to get the help of the public and police to finally find his son. The calls to conduct a massive search for Yue’s son also came with criticism for how the case was apparently handled by authorities back in 2020 and 2021.

The hashtag “Yue Yuetong Come Home” (#岳跃仝请回家#) soon went trending on Chinese social media, together with the hashtag “The Internet Helps Searching for Yue Yuetong” (#全网帮忙寻找岳跃仝#).

The missing person flyer for Yue Yuetong from 2020.

Meanwhile, the police in Rongcheng responded to the public’s questions and comments on January 20th, saying they would re-investigate to “understand” the case.

On January 21st, Weihai authorities issued a statement regarding the story. The statement explains that the Rongcheng City Public Security Bureau was notified on the evening of August 12 of 2020 by Li, Yue’s wife, that her son had gone missing earlier that day after he left work.

The police claim that their team investigated the case and tracked Yue Yuetong’s last known movements and retrieved surveillance details. After their search efforts did not result in any leads, they classified Yuetong as a missing person.

On August 26 of 2020, two weeks after Yue Yueyong went missing, the Rongcheng authorities learned of a deceased person and found a man’s body. After his DNA was compared to the DNA from Yuetong’s parents, the authorities confirmed that the remains belonged to Yue Yuetong. They also said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

According to the statement, Yue Yuetong’s parents refused to believe that the deceased man was their son. Despite repeated attempts made by the local police to communicate to the family that their ongoing requests to find their missing son were in vain, the family did not want to accept the facts. The remains have been transferred to a funeral home.

One Weibo commenter wrote: “So to summarize this, they already knew their son was dead around ten days after he went missing, but they could not accept it and traveled the entire country to look for him…I’m speechless. What a tragedy.”

“So, their son was actually already gone two years ago.. but they couldn’t identify him because he’d bee in the water and the parents did not want to believe it despite the DNA results. They kept searching for two year. How sad!”

Other people criticized the police for not apologizing to the family about the circumstances surrounding the investigation into their son’s disappearance, and also express their hope that Mr. Yue can receive psychological help at the Beijing hospital where he is still being treated for Covid.

Ironically, it was his bad luck of catching Covid19 and his remarkable contact tracing records that triggered the public’s interest and finally put an end to the long and costly search for his son.

Despite the official statement, there are still lingering questions left unanswered. Why did the police allow Mr. Yue and his wife to continue searching for their son for so long if they already knew he was dead? Why was Mr. Yue so convinced that the body that was found was not his son? How and why did Yue Yuetong die? Many of these questions might never be answered. One thing that the majority of those discussing this topic agree on is that they wish Mr. Yue a speedy recovery, hoping that he will be able to find some peace of mind after struggling for so long.

By Manya Koetse, with contributions by Miranda Barnes

Follow @whatsonweibo

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

©2022 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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As we are leaving the Year of the Ox and entering Year of the Tiger, it’s time for the 40th edition of the Spring Festival Gala! Watch the Gala together with What’s on Weibo here and follow our liveblog to keep up with what’s happening on screen and on social media (this liveblog has now closed, read the overview below!)

Aanother year has flown by and despite many changes, we can always count on China’s annual Spring Festival Gala. This 40th edition of the festival is the third one to take place in the Covid era.

The Gala will broadcasted on TV and live-streamed via various channels on January 31st, 20.00 pm China Standard Time. So turn on your TV and tune into CCTV, live stream from Weibo, watch on YouTube, or head to the CCTV website. We will be live-blogging on this page here and you can scroll & watch at the same time from this page.

Very Brief Introduction to the Spring Festival Gala

China’s Spring Festival Gala (中国中央电视台春节联欢晚会), commonly abbreviated to chūnwǎn (春晚), is the annual TV gala celebrating the start of the new year. Broadcasted since 1983, it is not just the biggest live televised event in China, it is even among the most-watched shows in the world. The show reached a record 1.27 billion viewers around the globe in 2021.

Previously known as the ‘CCTV Gala,’ it is officially presented as the ‘CMG Spring Festival Gala’ since 2020: it is hosted by China Media Group (CMG), the predominant state media company founded in 2018 that holds China Central Television, China National Radio, and China Radio International.

The Gala is an important Chinese media moment and significant cultural event organized and produced by the state-run broadcaster, overseen by the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), and aired across dozens of channels. It shows the very best of China’s mainstream entertainment and Party propaganda and is a mix of traditional culture, (digital) commerce, and politics. It is an opportunity for the Party to communicate official ideology, it is also a chance to present the nation’s top performers.¹

Since recent years, it has also become a platform to showcase China’s innovative digital technologies. In 2015 the show first featured the exchange of virtual hongbao, red envelopes with money, which WeChat users could obtain while shaking their phones during specific moments in the show. Such marketing strategies have drawn in much younger viewer audiences than before. In 2021, the Gala explicitly presented itself as a “tech innovation event” by using 8K ultra high-tech definition video and AI+VR studio technologies and super high definition cloud communication technology to coordinate performances on stage.

The show lasts a total of four hours, from 8pm to 1am Beijing time, and usually has around 30-40 different acts, from dance to singing and acrobatics. The acts that are both most-loved and most-dreaded are the comic sketches (小品) and crosstalk (相声); they are usually the funniest, but also convey the most political messages.

As viewer ratings of the Gala in the 21st century have skyrocketed, so has the critique on the show – which seems to be growing year on year. According to many viewers, the spectacle generally is often “way too political” with its display of communist nostalgia, including the performance of different revolutionary songs such as “Without the Communist Party, There is No New China” (没有共产党就没有新中国).

For this same reason, the sentence “There’ll never be a worst, just worse than last year” (“央视春晚，没有最烂，只有更烂”) has become a well-known idiom connected to the Gala.

If you want to know more about the previous editions, we also live-blogged
– 2021: The Chunwan Liveblog: Watching the 2021 CMG Spring Festival Gala
– 2020: CCTV New Year’s Gala 2020
– 2019: The CCTV Spring Festival Gala 2019 Live Blog
– 2018: CCTV Spring Festival Gala 2018 (Live Blog)
– 2017: CCTV New Year’s Gala 2017 Live Blog
– 2016: CCTV’s New Year’s Gala 2016 Liveblog

Liveblog CMG Spring Festival Gala 2022

Underneath here you will see our liveblog being updated. Leave the page open and you’ll see the new posts coming in, there should be a ‘ping’ too with every update.

Update: this liveblog is now closed, check below for an overview of the entire show.

By Manya Koetse, together with Miranda Barnes

Follow @whatsonweibo

¹ For more on the political and socio-cultural meaning of the Gala, see Gao Yuan, 2012, “Construction of National Identity Through Media Ritual: A Case Study of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala,” Master’s Thesis, Uppsala University, Media & Communication Studies;
Yuan Yan, 2017, “Casting an ‘Outsider’ in the Ritual Center: Two Decades of Performances of ‘Rural Migrants’ in CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala,” Global Media and China 2 (2): 169-182.

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

©2022 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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It’s February 4th, the date that Beijing has been counting down for. At 20:00 o’clock China time, the much-anticipated Opening Ceremony will take place at the National Stadium in the Chinese capital.

The anticipation is noticeable in Chinese media and on Chinese social media, where Beijing 2022 mascots ‘Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ‘Shuey Rhon Rhon’ pop up everywhere. Various top hashtags on Weibo are related to the opening ceremony. So what can we expect today? Here’s what we know.

The Opening Ceremony is taking place at the National Stadium, better known as the ‘Bird’s Nest’ (鸟巢). The much-acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou (张艺谋, 1951) is in charge as the very first director to helm the ceremonies for both a winter and a summer Olympics.

Zhang, known for famous movies such as Red Sorghum and Raise the Red Lantern, has been preparing for the opening and closing ceremony since 2019. Although the program for tonight has not been disclosed, we do know that it will certainly be very colorful, as all of Zhang’s works use vibrant colors to support the narrative and bring another layer of meaning to it.

The ceremony will be different from 2008 one in multiple ways. Zhang himself recently stated in an interview that the Beijing Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony marked the rise of China’s national status on the international stage. The impressive spectacle showcased Chinese ancient culture, tradition, and history.

Zhang Yimou in an interview with CCTV (screenshot by Whatsonweibo).

This time, there is a clear focus on the “we”; the official slogan for the Olympics is also “Together for a Shared Future.” It is highly likely that the ceremony will have a narrative throughout its performances emphasizing Chinese cultural confidence and its leadership role in the global community.

Another theme of tonight’s show will be spring and new beginnings as China is celebrating the Spring Festival.

A third theme will be Chinese digitalization and innovation. Over recent years, big events organized in China, such as the Spring Festival Gala, have consistently used the opportunity to showcase the country’s latest digital innovations. Tonight’s show will also use 5G-enabled AR and VR, cloud, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

Xi Jinping will attend the ceremony together with President Putin of Russia, Cambodia’s King Norosom Sihamoni, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and many others.

Another way in which the opening ceremony is different from the one in 2008, is that it will be shorter (around 100 minutes instead of four hours) and that it will not involve as many performers. The 2008 ceremony cast consisted of some 15,000 performers, which now will be around 3000 performers. The shorter time and the smaller cast relate to covid19 prevention measures, but also have to do with the cold weather.

Noteworthy is the average age of the cast. Although there will be people performing from all age groups, the youngest performer being 5 years old and the oldest performers being in their seventies, approximately 95% of the performers are adolescents.

There is said to be a very special way of lighting the torch at the Beijing ceremony. The Olympic Torch, which was carried by martial artist Jackie Chan on February 3rd at the Great Wall of China, will end its journey at the Beijing National Stadium after moving through later moving through Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou.

Various channels across the world, including BBC and NBC, are broadcasting the ceremony. Watch the ceremony live here on CCTV.

If anyone is wondering about the order in which the countries are appearing at the ceremony #Beijing2022WinterOlympics , it's based on the stroke order of the first character of the country.

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) February 4, 2022

By Manya Koetse

Follow @whatsonweibo

PS If you need a VPN at this time, Express VPN is currently doing a Winter Olympics special, offering 3 extra months free with the purchase of a 12-month plan. Check here.

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The moment a Dutch journalist was dragged away by a Chinese security guard during a live broadcast made international headlines, triggering foreign criticism over media oppression in China. But Chinese media outlets and social media users criticize the Dutch reporters for refusing to cooperate with security and painting China in a negative light.

A Dutch reporter made international headlines this week after he was dragged away by security guards during a live news broadcast for NOS, the Dutch state broadcaster, about the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

The incident happened on Friday, February 4th (link to video). Journalist Sjoerd den Daas was doing a live broadcast outside Beijing’s National Stadium for NOS (Dutch Broadcasting Foundation) covering the Olympics when he was pushed away from the camera by a local security volunteer.

The moment the guard steps up to Den Daas and his cameraman, he says: “Let’s move, brothers” (“咱们往前走哥儿们”). Den Daas then says: “Wait, I’m in the middle of a broadcast.” The guard continues to say: “You’re not allowed to stay in this spot,” and pulls Den Daas away. As the guard made it impossible for Den Daas to continue, the broadcaster cut away from the shot and returned to the studio anchor.

The NOS broadcaster later posted about the issue on Twitter, writing:

“Our correspondent @sjoerddendaas was pulled away from the camera by security guards at 12.00 pm live in the NOS News Bulletin. Unfortunately, this is increasingly becoming a daily reality for journalists in China. He is fine and was able to finish his story a few minutes later.”

The editor-in-chief of NOS News, Marcel Gelauf, stated that the incident is “a painful example of the current state of press freedom in China. Don’t touch journalists.”

On Twitter, some suggested that the reporters were forcibly removed by Chinese officials because the background of the broadcast wasn’t “flattering enough.” Author Andy Ngo said that “the incident illustrates the tight control Beijing has on journalists.”

On February 5th, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) also responded¹ to the incident, calling it an “isolated event” which “will not affect foreign media’s reporting at the Beijing Games.”

“Deliberately Provocative”

After the incident, various Chinese media condemned the reporter and the Dutch broadcaster. The nationalistic Chinese online media outlet Guancha News (观察者网) posted a video of the incident on Weibo, writing:

“‘Look at the sweat on my head.’ Last night at 8 pm, when the entire world was following the opening ceremony of the Olympics, a Beijing security guard was working hard, politely asking a Dutch reporter who had entered a temporarily restricted area to leave. But this reporter not only failed to show his identity papers, but he was also disrespectful to the security staff and even made a “performance” all by himself. The Dutch news outlet NOS, for which the journalist works, also issued an online post smearing the Chinese security personnel for “interfering” with the journalist’s work. So, we must expose their faces!“

In the Gengzhi Ge (耿直哥) column², the Chinese-language state newspaper Global Times criticized the NOS for reiterating Western media clichés about Chinese interference with journalists when writing that these kinds of events are a “daily reality for journalists in China.”

They also said the Dutch media was being “deliberately provocative”³ by entering a “controlled area,” with the Dutch journalist and cameraman allegedly failing to show their ID when confronted by security staff and further “inflaming the situation.”

The Global Times claims that the intersection where the Dutch media was standing during their live broadcast was already marked as a limited access area since February 3rd, and was only accessible to vehicles and pedestrians with special documents for the opening ceremony.

Global Times writes that the area where the Dutch crew was filming was marked as a restricted access area.

A map marking the area where the Dutch reporter was standing during the incident as a temporarily controlled area.

When the Dutch media continued to report without showing proof that they were allowed to operate in this controlled area, the security staff reportedly went up to them and asked them to leave. The reporter then went on to do his live broadcast, which is the moment that went viral. As the guard tells the reporters that they need to move and tells them they can’t be in this spot, he also can be heard saying “Look at my sweaty head!” (“瞅我这一脑袋汗”), as the guard indeed seems to break out in a sweat and starts pulling the reporter away to get him out of the restricted area. Den Daas then can be heard saying: “What are you doing?!”

According to Gengzhi Ge, the Dutch NOS reporter and camera crew can only be blamed for this incident themselves by accessing an area they should not have accessed without the right papers, failing to show their ID, not properly communicating, not following security orders and not showing respect to the local guards.

The author also argues that the very fact that the NOS themselves tweeted that their reporter was fine and was able to finish the interview just minutes later shows that the security staff was not interfering with their work at all, concluding: “For some arrogant and ignorant Western media, isn’t it easier to slander and discredit others rather than admitting they are at fault themselves?”

Popular law blogger Han Dongyan (@韩东言), who has over 2.2 million followers on Weibo, called the Dutch reporter a “drama queen,” with other Weibo users referring to Den Daas as a ‘pengci‘ – a term that literally means ‘porcelain bumping’ and refers to people who pretend to be injured or hurt for their own benefit.

“They just used this as an excuse to make a fuss,” other Weibo commenters say, also writing: “They’re discrediting China by misrepresenting the facts.”

Although several Weibo users labeled the journalist as ‘Dutch trash’, there were also those who praised his Chinese speaking skills.

On February 5th, Sjoerd den Daas posted about the incident on his Twitter account. According to the Dutch reporter, he did follow police orders regarding the area where they were allowed to film. He claims that, just after going live, he was “forcefully pulled out of the picture without any warning” and that the man who dragged him away, a plainclothes man wearing a “Public Safety Volunteer” badge, did not identify himself.

Den Daas writes that it was not properly explained to him what they had done wrong. They were able to continue their interview from a parking lot around the corner.

He also adds: “In recent weeks, we, like several foreign colleagues, have been hindered or stopped several times by the police while reporting on subjects related to the Games. Therefore, it’s hard to see last night’s incident as an isolated incident, as the IOC claims, although such interference rarely happens live on broadcast.”

By Manya Koetse

Follow @whatsonweibo

With contributions by Miranda Barnes.

¹Although the IOC spokesperson claimed they had been in touch with the NOS, the Dutch broadcaster said there had been no contact with the IOC at all.
² Gengzhi Ge (耿直哥), meaning “Honest Brother,” is a Global Times column by Gao Lei (高雷, 1985).
³ “无理取闹” wú lǐ qǔ nào: “vexatious,” “to make trouble without reason.”

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Chinese citizens in Kyiv say they are affected by rising anti-Chinese sentiments among Ukrainians who believe that China supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On February 24, shortly after news broke out that Russia had invaded Ukraine, the Chinese embassy issued a notice to Chinese citizens in Ukraine to place a clearly visible Chinese flag on their car if they planned to travel by car.

The idea that Chinese citizens in Ukraine should clearly identify themselves as Chinese as a safety precaution was further propagated by the Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily (in image below).

On February 25，however, the Chinese embassy seemingly changed its tune, as they posted on WeChat reminding Chinese citizens in Ukraine to be careful to reveal their identity. A hashtag page dedicated to the topic received over 820 million views on Weibo on Saturday (#在乌中国公民不要随意亮明身份#).

The sudden switch caused unrest and confusion on Weibo, where many wondered why the embassy initially seemed to suggest that the Chinese flag would offer a certain sense of security and why this apparently has changed.

“For the sake of your own conscience, for the sake of our compatriots in Ukraine, please mind what you say.”

Chinese state media outlets Global Times and People’s Daily published an interview with Chinese students living in Ukraine on Saturday. The article suggests that Chinese students in Kyev are affected by rising anti-Chinese sentiments among Ukrainians who believe that China supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The article claims that various Ukrainian media outlets and social media channels are spreading “fake news” about China backing Russia, leading to an increase in threats and insults directed at local Chinese citizens. One female Chinese student studying in Kyiv also shared a video of the local situation on Friday for state media outlet CGTN, saying she was also threatened (#中国在乌留学生遭恐吓跟踪#).

On February 26th, the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine issued another message urging Chinese citizens to maintain friendly relations with the Ukrainian people and to avoid disputes over “specific issues.” Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy is reportedly putting an evacuation plan into action for Chinese citizens in Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine.

The hashtag “Chinese Students Claim Some Ukrainian Media Are Spreading Fake News” (#中国留学生称部分乌媒正散布假消息#) had nearly 200 million views on Weibo on Saturday, with thousands of people commenting on the issue.

Most people express worry about the situation of the Chinese students and other Chinese citizens who are still in Ukraine. Some say that regardless of whether the news in Ukraine about China is false or not, nobody wants to be in a war and it is not right for common people to have to take the blame.

There are also people condemning Ukrainians, saying “China is neutral on the Russia-Ukraine conflict” and that this is just used as another excuse to discriminate against Chinese, claiming that Ukraine “has always been anti-Chinese” and “also supports Hong Kong independence.”

On Friday’s United Nations Security Council resolution, which condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called on Moscow to withdraw its troops, eleven member countries voted in favor of the resolution while China, together with India and the United Arab Emirates, abstained.

Many on social media stressed China’s neutrality and the image below was also shared on Weibo, writing: “Chinese ≠ Putin’s ally.”

Others point out that it is perhaps no surprise for Ukrainians to get angry when in fact many Chinese people on social media express that they actually do support the Russian invasion. There are also commenters who emphasize that Chinese netizens should be more careful when expressing their thoughts on the situation since their stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine could influence the safety of those Chinese who are still there.

One popular blogging account wrote:

“When society is in disorder, people go crazy. When facing a national disaster, the slightest whiff of trouble can trigger an explosion. No one wants to experience war, and no one wants their suffering to be ridiculed. Ukraine has already given guns to civilians, and at a moment that’s about life and death, it’s hard to say if people might go too far. They can’t come to China but they can target overseas Chinese in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine have to solve their conflict themselves, we don’t get mixed up in this. For the sake of your own conscience, for the sake of our compatriots in Ukraine, please mind what you say.”

On Saturday, one Chinese student studying in Kyiv shared videos from inside a bomb shelter, showing another perspective; the Chinese student could be seen interacting with Ukrainian children and cheering them up (hashtags #中国留学生镜头下的乌克兰防空洞# and #留学生镜头里的乌克兰#). The videos, shared online by various state media outlets, did not show tensions between Chinese and Ukrainian but people offering each other a sense of comfort at a time of crisis.

“The people are innocent,” a typical comment said: “But they are the ones who end up being hurt the most.”

By Manya Koetse

Follow @whatsonweibo

Featured image: https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404741232139305405

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On Monday, February 28th, the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine issued a message to Chinese citizens in Ukraine.

The full message, which was published on social media platform Weibo by the Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily, is as follows (translation by What’s on Weibo):

Chinese Embassy’s Appeal to All Citizens in Ukraine

“At present, with the war between Ukraine and Russia continuing and the battle situation being uncertain, the safety situation in Ukraine is deteriorating and some of our Chinese citizens in Ukraine are running into practical difficulties. In light of this, some Chinese citizens’ associations and individuals have already started to mobilize to do all they can to help compatriots in difficult situations. This kind of assistance has played a positive role in alleviating the difficulties faced by our compatriots.

The Embassy highly praises these voluntary actions and believes that they reflect the fine tradition of the Chinese people being united in struggle, helping those in distress, and helping each other out. Please continue to do so. In the current challenging situation, especially considering the serious disruption to the supply of stores and city traffic, the mutual assistance of compatriots is the most direct, the most effective, and the most warm-hearted. Over the past years, the Chinese nation has continuously been put to the test, especially during an unprecedented covid19 epidemic that has brought huge development challenges. It is by relying on this great spirit of the Chinese people that we, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, can overcome crises and challenges, and can welcome huge victories, which have led to the great glory of present-day China.

Fellow compatriots,

At present, the Chinese nation is more powerful and more united than ever before in history. We are marching with vigor on a new journey to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In this new era that is full of hope and youthful spirit, we must show the Chinese people’s style, no matter where we are, no matter under which conditions, we will let the image of the Chinese people shine brightly, and we always make others give China the thumbs up.

So please be sure to continue to help each other and stand united in struggle. Unity is strength, unity is the way out, and only through unity can we overcome the current difficult situation. Chinese people in China are divided into north and south, east and west, left and right, but outside of China, we are all Chinese and we should all be united. No one can be left behind!

– The Chinese Embassy in Ukraine“

Besides this message to Chinese citizens, the Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine also published a two-minute video in which he stressed that the embassy would never abandon its citizens.

Although many people praised the message that stressed unity and solidarity, there were also some critical voices who wondered why there is no mention of a concrete plan to evacuate Chinese citizens in Ukraine and why Chinese students in Kyiv and beyond were not evacuated earlier.

During a regular press conference earlier today. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said that the Ministry is working together with the embassy in Ukraine to explore all options to assist Chinese citizens in Ukraine to evacuate safely, but also stressed that the current situation is very challenging.

According to Chinese media quoting the Chinese Embassy, there are about 6000 Chinese citizens in Ukraine, including students and members of staff of Chinese companies, with the majority of them living in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odessa, and Sumy. Other reports, however (such as this recent one by Sohu), suggest that the latest statistics on the number of Chinese living in Ukraine are outdated and that, not even counting other Chinese citizens, there are already minimally 10,000 Chinese students studying in Ukraine.

By Manya Koetse

Follow @whatsonweibo

Featured image: https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404741232139305405

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As the Russian-Ukraine conflict shows no signs of de-escalation and over two million people have now fled Ukraine, there is a heightened international media focus on Chinese responses to the war.

While the developments in Ukraine are a major topic in Chinese newspapers, on its social media sites, and in its press briefings, the Russia-Ukrainian war – which is commonly referred to as Russia’s “special military operation” – is placed within a specific Chinese narrative.

Recent themes surrounding the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Chinese online media show how the war is framed by news outlets and bloggers when it comes to China’s role in it, shifting the narrative from Beijing’s responsibility to Washington’s irresponsibility.

Check out this article by What’s on Weibo editor @manyapan at the website of LeidenAsiaCentre (LAC), generating academic knowledge on modern East Asia.

Link: LAC Shorts: The Russia-Ukraine War in the Chinese Media.

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One hashtag stating that an American company has created Covid19 was top trending on Weibo this week. The trending topic and related media reports are triggering more anti-Americanism online, although there are also many netizens who are blaming Chinese official media for publishing misinformation.

Over the past two days, the hashtag “Research Confirms: The Novel Coronavirus Was Made by an American Company” (#研究证实新冠病毒是美国公司制造#) has been trending on Weibo. The topic became big after an article by the news blogging account Tao Wen (韬闻) circulated on WeChat and was also republished by Chinese state outlets Global Times (环球网) and China Daily (中国日报).

The article first claims that the Russian army recently found evidence that biological labs were set up in Ukraine to produce biological weapons and that the U.S. was using bats to study the coronavirus, before switching to the topic of Americans being responsible for creating Covid19. The article’s main source is The Exposé, a British blog that previously falsely claimed that Covid-19 vaccines cause ‘a form of AIDS’ or that ‘82% of pregnancies end in miscarriage’ after Covid vaccination.

Right now, the top trending topic on Weibo: Research confirms that #COVID19 was created by a U.S. company. State-affiliated Huanqiu posted an article that cites The Daily Expose, a UK conspiracy theory blog, as a source, whose claims were debunked by fact-checkers. @WhatsOnWeibo pic.twitter.com/L8ghhja2tA

— Chu Yang (@ChuYang_Journ) March 24, 2022

Both The Exposé and the Chinese article link back to a story published by The Daily Mail on March 3 of 2022 about the Covid virus containing a tiny chunk of DNA that allegedly matches the sequence patented by pharmaceutical company Moderna in 2016.

These articles all focus on a study that was first published in February by Ambati et al (2022) in Frontiers in Virology relating to the genetic makeup of SARS-Cov-2, which caused the COVID-19 pandemic. According to this study, there is a small portion (a 19-nucleotide sequence in a 30,000-nucleotides long genome) of the SARS-CoV-2 genome that shows a 100% reverse match in a proprietary sequence found in a United States patent that was filed on Feb. 4, 2016, under patent number 9,587,003. This leads back to a patent by ModernaTX, Inc. (US) that was filed for the purpose of the production of oncology-related proteins and peptides (link).

The study writes that “the reverse complement sequence present in SARS-CoV-2 may occur randomly but other possibilities must be considered,” with the authors describing the findings “highly unusual” and calling for “further investigations.”

In The Daily Mail, Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, responded to the study. Although he called it “interesting,” he also said that “sometimes these things happen fortuitously, sometimes it’s the result of convergent evolution (when organisms evolve independently to have similar traits to adapt to their environment).” He also commented that the findings do not contribute to the debate about whether Covid was engineered, adding: “I wouldn’t call it a smoking gun because it’s too small.”

According to the lengthy post published by The Exposé, an anonymous ‘concerned reader’ analyzes the study by Ambati et al and not only draws the conclusion that there is “100% biochemi proof that Covid19 was man made,” but also that evidence “100% confirms Moderna created Covid19.” These claims were also repeated in the article published by Global Times and China Daily on March 23, emphasizing that ‘British media’ published these findings and that even the media in Western countries are standing up against the U.S. government. The article writes that this ‘British media’ outlet is “The Daily Mail” (“每日邮报”), while sharing screenshots from the post by the questionable blog The Exposé.

“A clickbait article by an exaggerating blogger, but it still becomes a hot topic and everyone believes it”

The origins of Covid19 have been a political issue ever since early 2020 when speculation was first raised that the novel coronavirus may have emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan. A statement in The Lancet published in February of 2020 condemned any rumors on the virus origins, claiming that scientific research “overwhelmingly” concludes that Covid19 originated in wildlife, and peer-reviewed research from late 2021 further supported the theory that Covid19 originated at the seafood and wildlife market in Wuhan and did not come from a lab.

Chinese officials have repeatedly denied a possible leak from a Chinese laboratory and have emphasized their cooperation with international efforts to find the origins of the pandemic. In May of 2021, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that the U.S. was actually not genuinely interested in the scientific origin of the virus, but that its search for the origins of the novel coronavirus was merely about “political manipulation” and “blame-shifting” (read more here).

Nearly ten months later, however, it seems that Chinese officials are also starting to point more fingers and that state media outlets are mixing up science and speculation when it comes to presenting the latest research into the genetic makeup of SARS-Cov-2. Chinese media are also combining news stories related to speculations about the American responsibility for the pandemic and the supposed presence of American bio-labs in Ukraine, presenting them in a singular context (for example in this Weibo post).

These updated media narratives on the American role in the Ukraine conflict and the global Covid19 crisis add fuel to existing anti-American sentiments on Chinese social media.

“The world would be better off without the U.S.”, a typical comment says. “This is proof that the U.S. is the world’s tumor. We’ll only reach world peace once it collapses.”

“This makes me feel sick,” another commenter wrote, posting a (North Korean) anti-American propaganda poster. One other Weibo user (@elo_不太正常) posted a photoshopped image of the Statue of Liberty wearing a ‘corona’ crown and holding up a lethal potion.

At the same time, there are also many Chinese social media users who are pointing out that the “Research Confirms: The Novel Coronavirus Was Made by an American Company” hashtag and recent Chinese media reports have conflated some speculation with scientific facts, and have confused the British misinformation site The Exposé with the The Daily Mail (the URL of the first is ‘dailyexpose.uk’ while the latter is ‘dailymail.co.uk’).

Others also express worry about how fast disinformation can circulate online, especially when it is republished by the official media, which they also criticize: “The same media censoring news about the chained woman are now sensationalizing this news,” some say (for more on the chained woman, see here).

“Straightaway, you could see this was a clickbait article by a blogger who is exaggerating, but it still becomes a hot topic and everyone firmly believes it immediately,” one Weibo user writes, with another person saying: “Why is state media always forwarding other people’s writing?”

“Although the U.S. manipulates a lot, this media source is not one with authority, it has insufficient credibility,” other commenters write, as well as: “Is this source trustworthy? Please don’t incite feelings,” “This is just sensationalism.”

To read more about Covid19 and China, see our articles here.
To read more about ongoing tensions between China and the U.S., click here.

By Manya Koetse

Follow @whatsonweibo

References (other sources hyperlinked within text)

The Expose [‘by a concerned reader’]. 2022. “BREAKING: Official Biochemical and Statistical Evidence 100% confirms Moderna created Covid-19.” The Exposé, March 3 https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/03/03/evidence-confirms-moderna-created-covid-19/ [March 25, 2022].

Boyd, Connor. 2022. “Scientists claim Covid virus contains tiny chunk of DNA that ‘matches sequence patented by Moderna THREE YEARS before pandemic began.'” MailOnline, February 23 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10542309/Fresh-lab-leak-fears-study-finds-genetic-code-Covids-spike-protein-linked-Moderna-patent.html [March 25, 2022].

Ambati BK, Varshney A, Lundstrom K, Palú G, Uhal BD, Uversky VN and Brufsky AM (2022) MSH3 Homology and Potential Recombination Link to SARS-CoV-2 Furin Cleavage Site. Front. Virol. 2:834808. doi: 10.3389/fviro.2022.834808

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