The biggest live television event in the world is about to start. Spring Festival is here and that means it is time for the CCTV New Year’s Gala 2017: the special annual evening variety show that captures millions of viewers on Chinese New Year’s Eve. What’s on Weibo provides you with the ins & outs of the 2017 Gala and its social media frenzy, with updates before, during and after the show.
Are you ready for the Year of the Rooster? Like every year, the start of Chinese New Year is celebrated with Chunwan, the CCTV Spring Festival Night Gala (中国中央电视台春节联欢晚会), better known as CCTV New Year’s Gala.
With an average viewership of 700/800 million, or 90% audience share, the event is the world’s most-watched TV show. The four-hour long spectacle, that starts at 8 pm Chinese time, is a both an entertainment show and propaganda platform – it features China’s biggest stars and best performers while also including the current Party propaganda outlines.
Stay with us to watch the gala and to get to know its ins & outs (also see our liveblog of 2016).
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Sources on Chunwan
Kang, Liu. 2010. “Searching for a New Cultural Identity: China’s soft power and media culture today.” In Suijian Guo and Baogang Guo (eds), Thirty Years of China-U.S. Relations: Analytical Approaches and Contemporary Issues, 197-253. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Scocca, Tom. 2011. Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Future. New York: Riverhead Books.
Wang Ge. 2015. “Popular Spring Festival Gala language: Sociocultural Observations.” In Linda Tsung and Wei Wang, Contemporary Chinese Discourse and Social Practice in China, 185-200. Amsterdam/Philadelpia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Ying Zhu. 2012. Two Billion Eyes: The Story of China Central Television. New York: The New Press.
The CCTV New Year’s Gala aired on Friday night and triggered thousands of netizens to comment on its best and worst performances. What’s on Weibo gives you a summary of the show’s highlights and its low points.
This year’s CCTV New Year’s Gala (known as Chunwan) has come to an end. The show, that is both a much-anticipated and a much-dreaded one, became top trending topic on Weibo on Friday night. The hashtag ‘Chunwan’ (#春晚#) alone drew 56.5 million comments.
As every year, viewers commented on the best and the worst moments in the show. The ‘worst’ parts often relate to the political aspects of the show; the annual Gala is as much about entertainment as it is about political propaganda.
Whereas it was the ‘Chinese Dream’ that was last year‘s main theme, the major themes propagated throughout this edition were ‘National Unity’ and ‘Family Affinity’, something that became especially apparent in the different comical sketches that were focused on family relationships and the coming together of people of different (ethnic) backgrounds.
The Worst Message: The Woman as “Breeding Machine”
This year, many people could not appreciate the message constructed in the Gala’s sketches that emphasized the woman’s role as mother and wife, such as the narratives where a woman depended on her husband’s money or the one where a wife wanted to let her husband divorce her because she could not conceive children (in the sketch titled ‘Long Last Love’ 真情永驻).
Many felt the sketches propagated women to have children, some saying they depicted women as “breeding machines.”
“Every year watching Chunwan I always love the sketches and crosstalk the most, I would’ve never expected there would be a day that I would dread them the most. China is the country with the highest female employment rate in the world, and since long men are not the only breadwinners anymore. China would not have been able to create the miracle of its rapid economic development without the high employment rate of Chinese women participating in all areas of the economy. That China has become the world’s second-largest economy is also thanks to the contribution of Chinese women! But now there is this atmosphere of vigorous propagation for women to return home to have children, to depend on her husband, and to contribute by carrying on the family line. (..) But I hope that every clear-headed Chinese girl will make every effort to think for herself. No matter what people around you say, no matter what the media says, you are (..) an independent woman. Do not be swept away by the tide of feudal thinking. If you don’t save yourself, nobody will save you.”
The controversial sketch ‘Long Last Love’ where a woman wanted to divorce her husband for not being able to conceive children.
Others also expressed their thoughts on the representation of women in the show:
“There was a female Red Army soldier who had walked the Long March, there were female astronauts. But still, there is this idea of women leaning on their husbands for money or this sister who divorces her man for not being able to have a child. It really shows the existing problem. We are already with our head in space, but our feet are sucked into the swamp of feudalism.”
The day after the Gala, some netizens feel that the sexism in the New Year’s Eve show is so bad that they demand that CCTV apologizes to all Chinese women, with the hashtag “CCTV apologize to the nation’s women” making its rounds on Weibo (#央视向全国女性道歉#).
The Worst Performances: Jackie Chan and Dancing Pineapples
As for the dancing and singing performances; Jackie Chan’s much-anticipated appearance on the show turned out to be somewhat cringeworthy. The Hong Kong singer and kung fu star showed his love for China through a song that was simply titled “Nation” (国家).
In this act, the Hong Kong celebrity stood in front of an enormous Chinese flag together with students from the mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, as well as ethnic minorities. Although the use of sign language by all the performers was praiseworthy, the song came after a night that had already seen many big flags, many dancing minorities, and the message of China’s national unity was already – not so subtly – propagated at every possible opportunity.
Many netizens, however, did like the performance; some even claimed it was their “favorite act of the night.”
Another remarkable performance was that of the ‘Being Healthy Song’ (健康动起来) by singers Lay (张艺兴) and Boran Jing (井柏然), in which adult men were jumping around in tiger suits and others were dancing and swinging as pineapples and mushrooms.
The song act that was criticized most on social media, for as much as it was allowed, was the song Millenial Night (千年之约) by Han Hong (韩红), a singer and songwriter of mixed Tibetan and Han ethnicity.
The singer is very popular on Sina Weibo, where she has over 13 million followers. Despite her popularity, her lip-synced performance on Chunwan made her the target of many online jokes.
Also the train projected on the background screen during her song sometimes made it seem as if the singer was standing on the rails with the train coming at her, with netizens saying: “Get off the tracks, Han Hong!”
The Best: Scenes from Harbin and Shanghai
But the Gala of 2017 also had its highlights. This year’s Gala was innovative in its use of Virtual Reality (VR) techniques, for example, with viewers being able to watch the show in VR via various mobile apps.
Like the performance with the 540 dancing robots last year, the CCTV Gala seems to become a new platform to promote the image of China as a high-tech nation.
One performance that was popular and quite spectacular was that of Coco Lee and JJ Lin in Shanghai; a catchy pop song (that actually did not seem lip-synced) in Shanghai with motorists performing a bold stunt in a so-called “globe of death.”
The extreme motorcycle stunt show let a total of 8 motors spin through a huge metal ball with the iconic Pearl Tower in the background.
Another popular act was that of Mao Amin and Zhang Jie (毛阿敏 & 张杰) amidst a 3D projection full of colors and lights that was somewhat reminiscent of a scene from the Avatars.
The dreamy ‘Wind Dance’ also deserves a mention, with dancer Li Yanchao (李艳超) stealing the show with her beautiful appearance and graceful appearance. The background of this performance was probably even more Avatar-like than that of Mao Amin and Zhang Jie.
During this performance, dancer Li was accompanied by a group of at least 100 dancers.
The performance called “Snow Dream” (冰雪梦飞扬) from sub-venue Harbin also won the favor of many netizens who said it was their favorite act of the night. Performed by, among others, the Heilongjiang Acrobatics Troupe, the fragment showed dozens of acrobats ice-skating in costumes with led-lights in the middle of Harbin’s Snow World – a themepark completely made from ice and snow.
“It might not have been the place with the most celebrities,” some netizens said: “But the Harbin part was the most beautiful of all.”
Despite all criticism, it is fair to say the 2017 CCTV Gala was a success – it actually is the criticism that makes the evening, as it has become a New Year’s tradition to comment on the show and complain about it.
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 popular saying about the show throughout the years, and again, was one of the sentences uttered by many on Chinese social media again this year.
“But even if it is bad, we still need to see it,” one netizen concluded. With an audience of millions and thousands of people both praising and condemning the show, this year’s show really wasn’t that bad after all.
It is confusing even for Chinese netizens and journalists: why does Donald Trump have multiple names in Chinese? And which is the right one to use? What’s on Weibo explains.
Donald Trump has two most commonly used different names in Chinese: Tèlǎngpǔ (特朗普) and Chuānpǔ (川普). Both names have been used by Chinese mainstream media and netizens for years.
In the Chinese translation of Donald Trump’s autobiography The Art of the Deal (1987), the ‘Tèlǎngpǔ’ transliteration is used, whereas the translation of the George Ross book Trump-Style Negotiations (2008) uses ‘Chuānpǔ’ as the Chinese name for Trump.
Now that Trump as the US president is making headlines every day, more people are wondering why Trump has two Chinese names, and which one is the correct name to use. There are even discussions about the topic on Chinese social media.
Why are non-Chinese names translated?
Why are non-Chinese names actually translated into Chinese at all? With English and Chinese being such vastly different languages with entirely different phonetics and script, the majority of Chinese people will find it hard to pronounce a foreign name that is written in English/alphabet.
Writing an English name in Chinese characters does not just help Chinese speakers to pronounce it, it also makes it easier to remember. Most Chinese names usually consist of 2 or 3 characters; the first character being the surname, and the last character(s) being the given name. Writing a foreign name in 2 or 3 Chinese characters makes it easier for most Chinese speakers to grasp it.
Translating a name to better adapt to the culture in which it is used does not only happen with English names in China; you often see the same happening with Chinese names in foreign countries.
In that case, the first character (surname) is moved to the back, and the given name changed into an English one. Alibaba’s Ma Yun, for example, has become globally known as ‘Jack Ma.’ Film star Zhao Wei is called ‘Vicky Zhao’, and the popular actress Lin Yun is known as ‘Jelly Lin.’
The right way to translate a foreign name in Chinese
There are multiple ways to translate an English name to Chinese. Most commonly, a name is translated into Chinese characters that are phonetically similar to the English name, without necessarily being very meaningful. The transliteration of ‘Hillary’ (Clinton), for example, is ‘Xīlālǐ’ (希拉里).
Another option is to choose a name purely based on meaning rather than phonetics. One example is Elvis Presley, who is called ‘Cat King’ (Māo Wáng 猫王) in Chinese for his nickname “The Hillbilly Cat.”
The best option when translating a foreign name into Chinese, however, is to make sure it stays close to its original pronunciation while also using elegant characters. In other words; it is nice when a name’s translation makes sense both phonetically and semantically. Marilyn Monroe’s last name in Chinese is Mènglù (梦露), for example, which sounds like ‘Monroe’ and has the characters for ‘Dream Dew’ – a perfect transliteration for such a dreamy actress.
Even when the characters used for a foreign name in Chinese are not necessarily intended to convey a certain meaning, it is important that they do not have any negative connotations. Nobody wants a character in their name associated with divorce, disease or death – it is believed to bring bad luck.
Another thing is that it is good for foreign names in Chinese to maintain a ‘foreign flavor’ to it, to make it clear that the name is actually a transliteration. To give an example raised in this Nikkei article: President Reagan’s name is generally translated as Lǐgēn 里根 in Chinese – the characters being somewhat uncommon for a Chinese name.
The same name could also be written with the characters 李根, very common for a Chinese name, but then it would be difficult to know whether a media report is talking about Reagan the President or just a local Chinese person by the same name. Transliterations of foreign names, therefore, are often easily recognizable as foreign names on purpose.
Trump, Tèlǎngpǔ, and Chuānpǔ
In the case of Trump, his Chinese names are mainly chosen for phonetic reasons, with different sources using different characters.
The Chinese-language Nikkei newspaper dedicated an article to the matter of Trump’s various Chinese names, saying that although it may all seem trivial, it is actually quite confusing and unpractical for president Trump to have more than one name in Chinese.
The Chinese media in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and most overseas Chinese－language media, refer to Trump as ‘Chuānpǔ’ (川普). According to the World Journal, the biggest Chinese-language newspaper in the US, it is the only proper way to translate this name.
Then why, World Journal wonders, do most media from mainland China refer to him as ‘Te-rum-p’ (Tèlǎngpǔ)? Is it because Chinese state media simply do not know how ‘Trump’ is properly pronounced?
Not necessarily. The author of the Nikkei notes that while most Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Chinese-language American media use ‘Chuānpǔ’, most Chinese state media and Chinese-language UK media (such as BBC) all use ‘Tèlǎngpǔ.’
This relates to the fact that Chinese translations of foreign names try to stay as close as possible to the pronunciation of a name in its original language. It is also the reason why the name of the city ‘Paris’ is pronounced ‘Bālí’ (巴黎) in Mandarin Chinese, staying close to the French pronunciation, and ‘Amsterdam’ being ‘Āmǔsītèdān’ (阿姆斯特丹), which follows the city’s Dutch pronunciation.
While all Chinese media are actually correct in their transliteration of the name Trump, they stick to different ways of pronunciation. The ‘Tèlǎngpǔ’ 特朗普 translation stays closer to the British pronunciation of his name, while Chuānpǔ 川普 follows the American way of saying this name.
Although Chinese state media have followed the ‘BBC translation’ of the name, it would probably be better to stay close to the American pronunciation and stick to the Chuānpǔ 川普 translation. After all, Trump is American. The Nikkei author notes that if it would be about the Prime Minister of Britain, the Chinese translation would have to stay closer to the British pronunciation.
Chuángpù and Chuángpò?
On Chinese social media, President Trump even has more than two names. There are also netizens referring to him as 床鋪, 闯破 or 床破 (Chuángpù/Chuángpò); these are all transliterations that contain strange or negative characters, making the name unrefined and harsh-sounding on purpose to make the name ‘Trump’ look and sound bad.
Although there have been online discussions on the right transliteration for the name Trump, it is unlikely that there will be one official Chinese name for the US President in the near future. Many netizens simply use both versions of his name in one post to avoid confusion.
“Who cares if it is Tèlǎngpǔ or Chuānpǔ anyway?” one netizen says: “In this day and age, we all know who it is we are talking about.”
Chinese Party newspaper People’s Daily published an article on Friday that featured older couples struggling with infertility and called for a loosening of surrogacy bans. The article immediately stirred controversy among Chinese Weibo users.
January 2016 officially marked the end of China’s contentious one-child policy of 36 years that made it illegal for couples to give birth to more than one baby, implemented to slow the country’s population growth rate. Since the end of the policy, couples of which at least one of the pair is an only child are legally permitted to have a second child.
Unsurprisingly, 2016 saw the highest birth rate in a century. With 17.86 million of births in total, there was an increase of 7.9% in childbirths compared to the year before according to China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission.
“Doctors suggest to relax existing surrogacy bans while still preventing commercialization of the practice.”
However, the figure still falls short of government’s estimations for the population to reach 1.42 billion by 2020, and might be too low to balance the consequences of the aging society and the shrinking workforce. By 2050, 370 million people in China are expected to be aged 65+ – it is often called a “demographic crisis.”
When dropping the one child policy, Chinese authorities also halted a plan to ban surrogate motherhood. Since 2001, the Ministry of Health laid out rules that made it illegal for medical staff to offer surrogacy services, and in 2015 there were official plans to completely curb surrogate pregnancies.
The timing of the reversal of the surrogacy ban was ambiguous, especially because it was called “unprecedented” for the Chinese government to reverse a draft law after it has already been publicized.
On Friday, an article in Chinese state newspaper People’s Daily enraged Chinese netizens as it focused on the topic of second pregnancies in older couples and suggested a legalization of surrogacy to give couples more opportunities to have a (second) child.
It says:
“In the ninety million families that are qualified to have the second child in China, 60% of women are over 35 years old and 50% are over 40. The fertility rate is obviously going down because women are getting older, and the average age for a woman to have a last pregnancy is generally around the age of 40. Therefore, doctors suggest to relax existing surrogacy bans while still preventing commercialization of the practice.”
Surrogacy often comes up when there are fertility problems or other reasons; a surrogate mother can carry the baby for a couple through artificial insemination of the father’s sperm, or, if possible, through IVF.
“They have totally gone mad! Surrogacy was illegal and now it is being promoted to increase birth rates!”
Perhaps uncoincidentally, one of the most controversial sketches of the CCTC Chinese New Year Gala last week focused on an older couple of which the woman was not able to conceive. The sketch also mentions the possibility of IVF, and led to angry reactions on Weibo of women who felt like the government was pushing women to have children.
Friday’s People’s Daily article also immediately triggered thousands of comments on Chinese social media. On Weibo, there were over 14K comments within several hours.
The vast majority of commenters criticized the article and made sarcastic comments about it: “They have totally gone mad! Surrogacy was illegal and now it is being promoted to increase birth rates!”
“We as Chinese women are not being treated as human beings but as breeding machines!” some wrote.
There were also netizens that sharply pointed out the improbability of the suggestion that surrogacy could be legalized without making it commercial: “I’ve never heard of any voluntary surrogate mothers. Whoever is willing to provide this kind of service for free? What can you say to surrogate mums? ‘Sorry I need to borrow your womb?'”
There are also those who sarcastically wondered: “If we are struggling with infertility, can we expect that child trafficking will also be legal one day?”
“Our wombs do not belong to ourselves, but to the country and the Party.”
Many commenters worry about the future of birth intervention in China, writing: “When I want to have more babies, it is prohibited. And now they’ve [suddenly] worked out this unethical way to force us to give birth. This is another insane form of birth control – they may eventually start to fine couples who don’t give birth one day.”
China’s strict control over children births has been controversial in international society for a long time.
At present, only rich parents can afford to resort to alternative ways to have a child, such a IVF and using surrogate mothers or receiving high-quality medical treatment in foreign clinics.
China’s huge underground market in surrogacy has thus been rapidly growing with demands largely exceeding supplies. According to the article, the number of couples suffering from infertility in China is about 15 million, which means that whether surrogacy remains illegal or not, it will still be a booming sector with potential profits.
There have been radical changes in China’s child policies over the recent years: from “over-produced” children being deprived of official documentation for basic social services to the wide-publicizing encouragement of second babies’ births.
“Our wombs do not belong to ourselves, but to the country and the Party,” one female Weibo user sadly commented.
(Featured image: the slogan on the wall in rural China has been edited after the change of policy. Photo credit to CNR. “Better to let the blood flows like river, not allowing to give birth to one more/less.”)
The construction of a 150,000-square-meter Christian theme park in the capital of Hunan has sparked controversy on Chinese social media. Many netizens think a religious park does not belong in the home province of Mao Zedong – especially not when funded by the local government.
A so-called “Christian Theme Park” (教会主题公园) in Changsha has sparked controversy on Chinese social media. The park, located in the Changsha Xingsha Ecological Park, is called “the biggest Christian theme park in southern China” (中南地区最大的教会主题公园), but is likely the only one of its sort in the entire nation. It opened its doors during the Spring Festival.
According to the China Christian Daily, the park covers an area of approximately 150,000 square meters (15 hectares) and one of its highlights is the 80-meter high Xingsha Church. The park is also home to the Hunan Bible Institute.
On social media, from WeChat to Weibo, the opening of the park has triggered controversy. Changsha is the capital city of Mao Zedong’s home province Hunan, and the park is allegedly sponsored by the local government.
“Religion has grown too fast in recent years in China, which has led to friction and conflict.”
Chinese state tabloid Global Times criticized the project in a post on February 6, writing:
“No matter what you say, this Changsha park has triggered controversy that should be taken seriously by all authorities. Besides protecting historical religious buildings, we should be very cautious about new religiously themed buildings at tourist spots. Ask around if it is a good idea or not, look up the legislation and policies – don’t just rely on your own will and the local profits. It might lead to serious disputes.”
The Global Times also published an “opinion piece” by commentator Shan Renping (单仁平), who writes that “religious activities should take place at religious sites, and should not be extended to social settings,” and that “Christian activities should take place within the church, and not in public places.”
Shan Renping adds: “Overall, religion has grown too fast in recent years in China, which has led to friction and conflict. Local governments should no longer use public resources for the propaganda and promotion of a religion. Religion should neither be suppressed nor promoted, but should be dealt with in accordance with the law.”
“What on earth gave the Changsha government the right to use the taxpayers’ money for a Christian project?”
Although Christianity is one of China’s five state-approved religions, many netizens think the Christian theme park should be demolished. A Hunan TV report showed the park’s purpose as a tourist attraction and wedding photos location, but many netizens stress that China is a secular society and that the park’s construction in Changsha is not in line with the revolutionary history of the city.
In a popular WeChat article (link in Chinese) by an account called “Behind the Headlines”, the author also expresses his dismay at the fact that this Christian park, of all places, should be opened in the hometown of Mao, who was a convinced atheist.
Despite all the criticism, not all netizens think the park is a bad idea. “This is freedom of religion. If you don’t like it, don’t go there,” one netizen said.
One commenter complained that the widespread criticism was unfair, saying: “When there are mosques built, nobody dares to say anything, but when other religions make something, you open your mouths. It’s not right.”
There are also those who do not necessarily care about the religion, but do care about the money: “What on earth gave the Changsha government the right to use the taxpayers’ money for a Christian project? Should it not be a public park instead of a religious place?”
Within a timeframe of 17 years, bride prices in China’s rural areas have increased more than sixty-fold. For many unmarried men in relatively poor provinces such as Gansu, marriage has now become an unattainable goal.
You found the ideal future spouse, but you can’t afford to marry her – this is an increasingly common problem in China’s so-called ‘bare branch villages’ (光棍村), where thousands of unmarried men are in desperate search of a wife, but cannot come up with the staggering bride prices needed in order to marry the few eligible single village women.
The topic of the bride prices in ‘bare branch villages’ (光棍村) became trending on Weibo on February 15, as Chinese news outlet Kanka News reported the extreme marriage market situation in a village near Qingyang, Gansu.
According to the report, some village men had been unsuccessfully trying to find a wife for 18 years. But the shortage of women in their area and the year-on-year increase of bride prices have made their pursuit extremely difficult.
A 24-year-old man from the Jiao village in Gansu told Kanka News that in the 7 years he has been searching to find a wife, he only once reached the stage of actually negotiating the bride price. But when the bride’s family asked for 180.000 RMB (±26.000$) and he could only afford 120.000 (±17.400$), the marriage plans were canceled.
“Isn’t it time to rethink things when marriages are becoming similar to auctions?”, some commenters said on Weibo.
“It’s scary to think how many gender-based abortions took place in these villages years ago, and now there’s this problem,” other netizens responded.
Many Weibo users think that the difficulties facing young male villagers today is a direct result of what happened after the implementation of the One Child Policy and sex-selective abortions.
“This is what it means when they say what goes around, comes around,” some say.
With Trump as the new US president, and popularity of right-wing politicians rising in the Netherlands, France, and Germany, Weibo users are now following the new political trends in the West, with a recent focus on populist Dutch politician Geert Wilders. While Chinese state media write about the dangers of the “rise of the right,” many Chinese netizens express their appreciation of Wilders.
On Weibo, the topic ‘following the elections in the West’ has recently become increasingly popular. “The American elections have ended, and Trump is now running the country from Twitter. The French and German elections are coming up next,” – an account named “Following The Elections in the West” (hashtag: #关注西方大选#) says.
Besides the elections in Germany and France, the Dutch elections are also a topic of discussion. Dutch politician Wilders, called Wéi’ěrdésī (维尔德斯 or 威尔德斯) in Chinese, has become a recurring subject in the Chinese media, that represent the results of the Dutch elections as the precursor for the other elections of Continental Europe.
Geert Wilders is the leader of the Dutch right-wing Freedom Party (PVV), which is expected to win many votes in the upcoming elections in the Netherlands. With his plans to “de-islamize” the Netherlands and his anti-EU and anti-establishment stance, Wilders is winning over voters who feel alienated from the ruling political class.
ALL EYES ON EUROPE
“This Dutch man, who is crazier than Trump, wants to change Europe.”
“Why do we need to closely follow the Dutch elections?”, one Shanghai media source recently wrote on Weibo: “Because after the shock of the 2016 Trump election and Brexit, all eyes are now on Europe. And on the one hand we have Le Pen (勒庞), the leader of the right-wing National Front (FN), and on the other hand, we are now approaching the Dutch elections where we have the Dutch right-wing party of Wilders, who just might become the next prime minister.”
The heightened media attention for European politics with a current focus on the Netherlands and Wilders is noticeable in Chinese state media, with official media such as Global Times and Xinhua writing about it.
Dutch nationalist leader Geert Wilders.
In late February, Chinese state tabloid Global Times featured a column about Wilders, which was also shared on Chinese social media platforms Weibo, Baidu forum, and on WeChat. It is titled: “This Dutch man, who is crazier than Trump, wants to change Europe” (这个比特朗普还要疯的荷兰人要让欧洲变天了).
“These days, the whole western world is focused on the Netherlands like never before,” the article starts: “Because within a month the big elections will take place and the potential big winner is an unusual political party that opposes practically everything that mainstream European thinking stands for.”
The article quotes Wilders in saying: “The Islam is not a religion – it is an ideology that has sprung from a backward culture. And this ideology might be scarier than Nazism, as the Koran is even more violent and more anti-semitic than Mein Kampf , and it needs to be shut out.”
STRONG ANTI-ISLAM STANCE
“If Wilders’ Freedom Party really wins the Dutch elections it will be a worse nightmare for the EU and Europe than Brexit was.”
The Global Times article argues that if Wilders’ Freedom Party really wins the Dutch elections, “it will be a worse nightmare for the EU and Europe than Brexit was.”
One of the reasons mentioned why it would be “nightmarish” for Wilders to win, is because of the Freedom Party’s strong anti-Islam stance and its proposals to shut down mosques and stop serving halal food in the canteens of Dutch schools.
The Global Times explains this by writing: “They think that Islam is the greatest threat to Western civilization. [They think that] If you let Islam take root in Western countries, then Europe will be Islamized decades later, and Western civilization will be completely destroyed.”
The article continues: “Of course, their stance has greatly angered followers of Islam all across Europe, but when these religious people fight back, they actually precisely do what the Freedom Party expects. Like in 2009, when Geert Wilders came to England for an interview and over 40 Islamic people went to the streets carrying banners that said that ‘Islam will dominate the world.'”
The image as used in the Global Times when mentioning the protest by Muslims outside Geert Wilders press conference in central London in October 2009.
The article argues that Wilders “represents himself” as a “victim of Islamic violence” – as he cannot leave his house without bodyguards by his side – but that his provocative way of speaking has also led to him facing legal actions within the Netherlands. He was found guilty of inciting discrimination when he asked a roomful of Freedom Party supporters if they wanted to have “more or fewer Moroccans” in the country.
RISE OF THE RIGHT
“The Dutch Freedom Party is not alone, but is part of the rise of other far-right political parties across Europe: this is their year of patriotism.”
Besides his strong anti-Islam stance, another reason why the article says a win by Wilders would be disastrous to Europe, is because of his anti-EU position. This stance comes from the belief that the corrupt nature of the EU organizational structure and the incompetence of the ruling authorities in Brussels have led to the immigration crisis and the financial crisis in Europe.
The column points out that the Freedom Party has greatly gained in popularity in the Netherlands since its establishment in 2006. The Greek debt crisis, the refugee crisis, as well as last year’s Brexit and the election of Trump, have all contributed to its popularity.
The Global Times finally argues that the Dutch Freedom Party is not alone, but is part of the rise of other far-right political parties across Europe, such as the National Front in France. “This is their year of patriotism,” they write.
Geert Wilders, left, Frauke Petry, Harald Vilimsky, Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini at a meeting in 2017.
“The current mainstream media are worried and anxious about the rise of the right-wing forces, but they can only pray that the Europeans won’t be as stupid as the Americans,” the column concludes, also adding: “We the Chinese people just want to say that whatever American, UK, or even French, German, Dutch, or Russian drama, etc., there is, let’s not make this a drama that includes China.”
THE WILDERS EFFECT
“It is relevant to note that the Netherlands can be regarded as the leader of European political trends.”
Besides Global Times, Chinese media outlets Xinhua News and Sina recently also wrote about Wilders. China’s Sina News published an article on March 1st titled “Is Holland the first domino stone to collapse on the European continent?” (荷兰 欧盟倒下的第一张多米诺), and Xinhua‘s article is titled “The Dutch elections are nearing, will populism win?” (荷兰大选在即，民粹主义会得势吗).
Sina News (March 1st): “Will Holland be the first domino stone falling on the European continent?”
Both articles suggest that parties such as the Freedom Party win support because of their anti-immigration and anti-EU tendencies, but that voters of Wilders do not necessarily want him to actually lead the country: “People may vote for Wilders as a protest vote,” they write.
They emphasize the role of the Netherlands on the European continent: “It is relevant to note that the Netherlands can be regarded as the leader of European political trends,” Sina News says, looking back at political trends in the 1960s and 1990s.
Xinhua also brings up the so-called ‘Wilders Effect’ (威尔德斯效应). The ‘Wilders Effect’, also mentioned by Tom-Jan Meeus on Politico.eu, implies that the harsher Wilders is criticized (e.g. by the mainstream media or ruling politicians), the better his chances of winning are.
Even if Wilders comes out as the big winner in the upcoming elections, the chances of him forming a governing coalition are slim as few other parties are willing to govern alongside Wilders after the elections. However, it is precisely the rejection of Wilders that testifies to his accusations that “the political elites disregard the will of the people.”
Although Chinese state media emphasize the dangers of Wilders’ popularity and “the rise of the right,” Chinese responses on Weibo and other social media platforms reveal that many netizens seemingly support the far-right Dutch politician.
CHINESE NETIZENS RESPOND
“Supporters of Islam need to reflect on why it is that all over the world in developed nations people like Trump are receiving the support of the people.”
On Weibo, one Chinese blogger recently wrote about Wilders: “The populist Geert Wilders promises (..) to make the Netherlands ‘great again.’ His ‘Freedom Party’ (自由党) might win more seats than ever before. He is often called the “Dutch Trump”, as he is just as opposed to muslim immigration as the new American president. He also has no trust in the media and loves to send out tweets.”
The post continues: “This ‘Dutch Trump’ wants no more acceptance of immigrants or refugees from muslim countries, as Holland is becoming ‘Islamized’, [he wants to] prohibit the wearing of Islamic headscarves in public places (..), to let the Koran classify as a banned book, a closure of mosques and Islamic schools, the Netherlands should get out of the EU, criminals with a dual citizenship have to be deported, income taxes have to be reduced, people should receive pension at 65 (..).”
In response to this post and the state media articles, many netizens write that they agree with Wilders’ ideas about Islam and that it can be viewed as an ideology, saying: “Isn’t he right about this?”
One Weibo user (@乡梦天地) writes: “Is Islam still a ‘religion’? Perhaps it has deteriorated and has become an ideology that serves a religion. In a normal country, religion is often used as a way to serve the ruling class. But now, it seems that the ruling class is serving religion instead.”
Other Chinese commenters say that “the religion of Islam is an obstruction to the development of society.”
“I have been to Holland and the streets are very ‘green'”, one person says (‘green’ being slang to refer to ‘islam’). “Europe has reached a crucial moment of life or death, turning right is a final opportunity to save themselves,” one commenter (@传捷天下) writes.
Wilders cartoon (republished in Global Times).
“Supporters of Islam need to reflect on why it is that all over the world in developed nations people like Trump are receiving the support of the people,” another person responds.
Several netizens say: “There is nothing wrong (没毛病) with what [Wilders] says, it is the truth.”
One person even says: “It would be a blessing for the Netherlands if he were to be elected.”
People responding to the post on Weibo say they look forward to him winning the elections: “I support Wilders becoming the prime minister of Holland!”, one Guangdong-based English tutor writes.
WHAT’S THE FUSS?
“Europe is like a domino game. When one right-wing party comes up, others will follow. When one country leaves the EU, others will also leave the EU.”
But there are also netizens who worry about the rise in popularity of politicians such as Wilders: “Hasn’t the rise of populism already entered a point of no return?”
Like the Global Times column, they also see the rise of right-wing parties as a global trend rather than a European one (“全球右转是个趋势”). Some of them write that “the rise of the right” is a “dangerous trend.”
One France-based Weibo user (@欧洲行-私人订制) writes: “Europe is like a domino game. When one right-wing party comes up, others will follow. When one country leaves the EU, others will also leave the EU.”
But precisely this anti-EU stance is what many other netizens also appreciate in Wilders. When Wilders announced that a Dutch ‘Nexit’ referendum would follow after the Brexit, some Weibo commenters said: “Getting out of the EU might be the only way to save yourself,” although others said that organizing a referendum over such a crucial issue is “much too risky.”
There are also many commenters who do not understand what the fuss is all about: “Holland is such a small country,” a Baidu user writes. One Weibo commenter (@TOAac) also says: “So what, Holland? What will happen in Germany and France is what really matters.”
According to the latest polls, Geert Wilders has now fallen behind the conservative VVD party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the first time since November 2016. But until the results come out of the Dutch elections of March 15, nothing is sure.
“In the end, this all is a choice that has to be made by the Dutch voters,” one Baidu netizen concludes.
Chinese state tabloid Global Times published a peculiar headline on March 6 in response to a recent article by The Guardian on how following a Mediterranean diet could help reduce the risk of contracting an aggressive type of breast cancer. The Chinese headline “If Angelina Jolie had eaten this way, would she still have needed a surgery to have her breasts removed?” soon angered netizens.
A new study by Maaastricht University published in the International Journal of Cancer made headlines on March 6. Journalist Haroon Siddique featured the study in The Guardian, writing that following a Mediterranean diet (rich in nuts, fruits, fish, olive oil and vegetables) could help reduce the risk of contracting one of the agressive types of breast cancer by 40%.
The study found a strong connection between closely following a Mediterranean diet and a lowered risk for oestrogen-receptor-negative breast cancer among postmenopausal women.
The news was taken over by the state-run Chinese newspaper Global Times with a peculiar headline, saying: “If Angelina Jolie Had Eaten This Way, Would She Still Have Needed A Surgery To Have Her Breast Removed?” (“如果早这么吃，安吉丽娜•朱莉还需要做胸部切除手术吗”).
The headline soon triggered angry reactions, with a top comment saying: “What a disgusting headline this is!”
Although the article mentioned the Dutch research, it did not include any reference to Angelina Jolie.
The American actress Angelina Jolie publicly announced that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2013. Jolie explained her “medical choice” in the New York Times, saying that she had a sharp increase of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer due to the “faulty” gene BRCA1.
Following netizen’s critique on the article, Global Times removed the post from its Weibo page, and it is now no longer visible on Weibo. The article itself, however, is still online at the Global Times website.
In late 2016, the Cyberspace Administration of China launched a formal investigation into the “click bait” headlines of various Chinese media. Click bait, called ‘Headline Party’ (标题党) in Chinese, is content that is mainly written to attract visitors to click on a link, which is often misleading or withholds important information (also see this article: “What is Clickbait?“).
Chinese internet regulators stated that “click bait” stories are misleading the public opinion and harmful to a “healthy” internet environment. Namely news sites Sina, Sohu, Focus, NetEase, and Phoenix, were reportedly using click bait.
The state-run Global Times, that falls under the People’s Daily, was not mentioned, although it has been accused of using click bait headlines by Weibo users in the past.
They have a larger online following than Oprah Winfrey or Obama, yet you might not know their name. These are Chinese celebrities with the most fans on Sina Weibo. A top 10 overview by What’s on Weibo.
While American pop stars Justin Bieber and Katy Perry are the leaders of Twitter in terms of followers, there are celebrities with an equally large fanbase on China’s biggest social media platform Weibo – although these are names that are less well-known outside of China.
Many of the names in this updated list also appeared in our 2015 list of Weibo’s biggest celebrities, but some things have changed over the past 1,5 years. For one, Chinese actress Xiena has skyrocketed from the fourth to the first place, as she gained an astonishing 18 million (!) fans within a relatively short time frame.
The 28-year-old ‘AngelaBaby’ is new to the list. Although she already started her acting career back in 2007, she has become especially popular over the past few years, along with another newcomer to this top 10, Yang Mi.
One of the reasons why four big names have exited this list, including the super popular actress Fan Bingbing, is not necessarily that they are not popular anymore, but just that the numbers of followers for other popular stars on Weibo have increased so dramatically.
In 2015, our ‘number 10’ had 38 million fans on Weibo; now the last name in this list has an incredible 66 million followers.
These numbers show the heightened popularity of Sina Weibo as a social media platform over the past year. Having been predicted to be ‘on its way out’ some time ago, Weibo has actually seen a huge revival in in 2016.
What is noteworthy about this list is that it does not contain any ‘internet celebrities’ (网红 wanghong), meaning people who have become self-made online influencers through the internet, for which Weibo has become known over the past 1-2 years. One example is comedian Papi Jiang, who became famous by posting funny videos of herself. Nevertheless, the biggest Weibo stars are still the ‘traditional celebrities’ in the sense that they have made their big breakthrough through TV or cinema.
Many of them simply have become so big on Weibo because they were among the first celebrities to join the platform since its beginning in 2009. Big names in this list, including Yao Chen, Chen Kun, and Guo Degang, already had over 54 million followers on the platform in 2013.
Here we go with our updated list of Weibo’s biggest stars of 2017:
The absolute number one this list is the ‘Queen of Weibo’ Xie Na (1981), also nicknamed ‘Nana’ – an extremely popular Chinese singer, actress and designer. One of the reasons she has become so famous in mainland China is that she is the co-host of Happy Camp (快乐大本管), which is one of China’s most popular variety TV shows. She presents the show together with, amongst others, colleague He Jiong, who is the number two in this list.
Xie Na stars in many popular Chinese films and television series. She has also released several albums, founded a personal clothing line, and published two books.
Before getting married to Chinese singer Zhang Jie, Xie Na was in a 6-year relationship with her Happy Camp colleague Liu Ye.
Xiena made headlines in March 2017, becoming #1 trending topic on Weibo, when she announced she would go to Italy as an overseas student to study design.
He Jiong (1974) has been the host of China’s popular Happy CampTV show for over ten years. He is also a singer, actor, and used to be an Arabic teacher at Beijing’s Foreign Studies University. Chinese media have called He Jiong “a key figure in China’s entertainment industry.”
‘Happy Camp’ (快乐大本馆) is a prime time variety show aired by Hunan TV. It is one of China’s most popular TV shows in China. With a viewership of tens of millions, it often holds first place in China’s total viewing ratings.
Chen Kun, sometimes also known as Aloys Chen, is not only popular because of his acting work, but also for his looks – he is known to have a large gay fanbase. He is not shy about his looks, and likes to post a lot of photos of himself on his Weibo page.
‘Angelababy’ (nickname for Yang Ying, 1989) has practically become a household name in China over the past few years. The actress and model started her acting career in 2007 and has taken on many roles in different movies and TV dramas.
Angelababy especially made headlines when she married Chinese famous actor Huang Xiaoming in 2015 and took extravagant pre-wedding photos in Paris. In the same year, she also set off a firestorm of debate when she underwent a medical examination to prove that she did not have facial plastic surgery to defend herself in a court case against a beauty clinic.
Angelababy is one of China’s “New Four Dan Actresses” according to the 2013 Southern Metropolis Daily, meaning she is generally perceived as one of China’s most bankable actresses.
In our 2015 list of Weibo’s biggest celebrities, Yao Chen was ranking first with 78 million followers. Although she has gained two million fans since then, she has dropped a few places in this list.
Fujian-born Yao Chen (1979) is a Chinese actress and Weibo celebrity, who was mentioned as the 83rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine in 2014. Being the first-ever Chinese UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, she is also called ‘China’s answer to Angelina Jolie’ (Telegraph).
Yao Chen is not necessarily China’s number one actress, but she was one of the first celebrities to share her personal life on Weibo since 2009, and interact with her fans. On Weibo, she talks about her everyday life, family, news-related issues, work, and fashion. She posts personal pictures every day.
The combination of her popularity due to acting work, combined with her frequent Weibo updates and closeness to her fans, have made Yao Chen a huge Weibo celebrity.
Vicky Zhao (1976) is a Chinese film star, singer, entrepreneur and director. She is also known for her work as the face for various brands, which has added to her wealth: she was named the world’s wealthies working actress by Forbes in 2015.
Together with actresses Zhang Ziyi, Zhou Xun and Xu Jinglei, she belongs to China’s ‘Four Dan Actresses’ (四大花旦, the four greatest actresses of mainland China) from the early 2000s. In the list of the ‘New Four Dan actresses’, there is Angelababy, number 4 in this list, who ironically is now the wife of Zhao’s former partner.
Ruby Lin Xinru (1976) is the first Taiwanese name in this list. She is an actress, producer, and singer, who especially became famous because of her role in TV drama My Fair Princess (1998). Since then she has starred in many different TV series.
Ruby was recently married to actor Wallace Huo, who currently stars in popular Chinese TV dramaRuyi’s Royal Love in the Palace (如懿传). They just had their first baby.
The beautiful actress and singer Yang Mi (1986) gained fame and popularity through her various roles in Chinese hit tv dramas. Born in Beijing, Yang started her acting career at the age of 4.
She is currently starring in Eternal Love (三生三世十里桃花) and previously played in the tv hit The Interpreters (亲爱的翻译官). Yang is now seen as one of China’s biggest actresses. She recently became the brand ambassador for Estee Lauder (雅诗兰黛).
Guo Degang is a Chinese comedian (1973) and known for his ‘xiangsheng‘ (相声), a traditional Chinese comedic performance in the form of a dialogue between two performers. He is also known for appearing at China’s CCTV New Year’s Gala.
Throughout the years, Guo has become a trending topic on Sina Weibo multiple times, undoubtedly adding to his popularity on the social media platform.
One of Guo Degang’s Weibo posts caused controversyin 2013, when the comedian posted a poem about karma the day after Beijing TV director Wang Xiaodong passed away.
Guo Degang also caused a Weibo hype when he announced on Weibo in 2015 that he would venture into the wine business.
In 2016, the comedian had a public falling-out with his student Cao Yunjin, who accused him of exploiting his students. The huge public row attracted much attention, with many netizens supporting Guo in the ordeal.
Jimmy Lin (Lin Zhiying, 1974) is a famous Taiwanese actor and singer and race car driver. He is one of the top rally racers of China, but is also very successful in his showbiz career as actor and singer.
Over the past few years, Lin’s participation in the Chinese hit reality show Where Are We Going, Dad? has contributed to his success on Weibo.
For some time Lin dated Ruby Lin, number 7 on this list. Now he is married to model Kelly Chen with whom he has three children.
He regularly updates his Weibo profile, talking about his work, his personal life, and posting pictures of him with his race cars.
Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, is China’s “happiest city” of the year, according to a national poll by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. The outcome is the same as that of various years before. Although many experts think the results are biased, Weibo netizens are more concerned about something else.
According to a national large-scale survey, people in Lhasa, Tibet, were among the China’s happiest in 2016. This is the outcome of the annual “China Economic Life Survey” (中国经济生活大调查) by CCTV2.
China’s state broadcaster made a top 10 of China’s “happiest cities” based on multiple indicators, including family, marriage, health, social security, income, and more (People’s Daily).
The “China Economic Life Survey” program was broadcasted on CCTV2 on March 7.
Lhasa is among China’s happiest cities, according to the “China Economic Life Survey” program.
These were China’s happiest cities according to the list:
拉萨 1.Lhasa (Tibet Autonomous Region)
成都 2.Chengdu (Sichuan province)
长春 3.Changchun (Jilin province)
银川 4.Yinchuan (Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region)
天津 5.Tianjin (Municipality)
合肥 6.Hefei, Anhui Province
长沙 7.Changsha, Hunan province
武汉 8.Wuhan, Hubei province
海口 9.Haikou, Hainan province
石家庄 10.Shijiazhuang, Hebei province
According to the poll, 76.12% of the survey’s participants in Lhasa indicated they were overall content, with 59.18% of the participants indicating they were “happy”, and 16.94% indicating they were “very happy.”
The main factors determining happiness for the people in Lhasa were family relations (62.12%), marriage & emotional life（52.31%), and health (46.92%). With 36,15%, income was ranked less important.
“Are Tibetans happy? There’s no way of knowing.”
CCTV first started its annual ‘Happiness Index’ in 2007, and since Lhasa has come out as the happiest city over half a dozen times. This result has led to cynicism in English language media; Tibet does not exactly hold the reputation of the happiest place, and some say the survey is undoubtedly flawed in multiple ways, as there no mention of civil rights, or rights to religious freedom.
In 2009, historian Ian Buruma wrote: “The Chinese government says Tibetans are happy. But without a free press and the right to vote, there is no way of knowing this. Sporadic acts of collective violence, followed by equally violent oppression, suggest that many are not.”
Séagh Kehoe, researcher on Tibetan identity issues at University of Nottingham, takes a similar stance and told What’s on Weibo that this annual survey presenting Lhasa as the happiest city in China is “powerful propaganda, effectively erasing any notion among Han Chinese that Tibetans might be unhappy, frustrated or facing extreme oppression within their homeland.”
Kehoe says: “It reaffirms a very particular message about Han Chinese bringing both modernity and happiness to Tibet, and Tibetans being extremely grateful for ‘Big Brother Han’ guiding them out of a ‘backward’ past and into a ‘golden era.'”
“The so-called Lhasa people she interviewed were all Han Chinese, leaving the impression that Lhasa had already turned into a harmonious Han city.”
Tibet blogger and activist Woeser also responded to the survey in 2011, describing how she first reacted when she heard about Lhasa’s status as China’s happiest city: “I laughed and asked back, living under gunpoint day and night, being followed by snipers even when going to the temple to pray, how can there be any sense of happiness?”
In her column, she suggests that the outcome of the CCTV survey is not necessarily invalid, but that it is biased in that it represents the Han Chinese living in Tibet. About 2008 she writes:
“I still remember the journalist from Phoenix TV, Hong Kong, who was standing in the streets of Lhasa on the fifth day after March 14, boasting that life in the city had already returned to normal; yet the so-called Lhasa people she interviewed were in fact all Han Chinese, thus leaving the impression that Lhasa had already turned into a harmonious Han city. This journalist was obviously being very selective. She did not take notice of Tibetans living in Lhasa; instead she portrayed the Han Chinese she interviewed as indigenous Lhasa people. This is why I think that perhaps those “Lhasa people” who are the “happiest” according to the CCTV survey are not actually Tibetans.”
The number of Han Chinese, China’s dominant ethnic group, has been on the rise in Tibet since the last number of decades. Although Tibetans still account for 90% of the permanent population of the TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region), 22% of the inhabitant of capital Lhasa are now Han Chinese (Economist 2016).
“It is time for the Western politicians and media to change their way of thinking on Tibet.”
Chinese media, on the other hand, have a completely different view on the issue. In an article from 2009, state media outlet China Daily argues that it is time “for the Western politicians and media to change their way of thinking on Tibet.”
The author states that Western politicians and media simply “refuse to change their outlook” on Tibet, blindly sticking to the idea that China is “an oppressive and negative power” in the region. The fact that the Tibetan population has seen an enormous growth in earnings, levels of education, life expectancy, etc., seems to “mean nothing to some Western countries and people.”
On Weibo, many people seem unsurprised that Lhasa has topped China’s “happy cities” list again: “The people of Lhasa are indeed very happy,” a young woman from Sichuan (@叫我小严姐姐) says: “The government is investing a lot of money there.”
This year, the development of Tibet was again presented as a core issue when China’s premier Li Keqiang promised to intensify efforts in the region’s poverty alleviation at the National People’s Congress.
Another woman writes: “Yes, I am from Lhasa and I am indeed happy.”
Yet, many people do think the poll must be inaccurate because they are surprised that the city of Wuhan is included in the list. One commenter says: “That Wuhan is included is so weird. The prices are high and the wages are low there!”
“Is this some other Wuhan?! Because the Wuhan I know has been raising its prices while keeping the earnings low,” other commenters also say. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province. Despite the fact that many netizens express their dissatisfaction about the city, it ranked number 8 in the CCTV poll.
There are also people who take the matter about happiness in China’s cities more philosophical: “Happy people will be happy anywhere, unhappy people will still be unhappy even if they’re in a happy place,” one person says.
Another commenter writes: “If you’re happy or not is something only you know. As they say, happiness is like water, it can change temperature every day (幸福如饮水, 冷暖自知).”
Bo, Zhijue. 2010. China’s Elite Politics: Governance and Democratization. Singapore: World Scientific.
Buruma, Ian. 2011. “Are Tibetans happy? There’s no way of knowing” The Globe And Mail, April 9 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/are-tibetans-happy-theres-no-way-of-knowing/article4284229/ [13.3.17].
He, Rulong. 2009. “Changes some people don’t want to see in Tibet.” China Daily, Nov 4 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-04/11/content_7668187.htm [14.3.17].
Economist. 2016. “Tibet: The plateau, unpacified.” The Economist Sep 17 http://www.economist.com/news/china/21707220-tibetans-culture-changing-their-own-will-well-force-plateau-unpacified [13.3.17].
People’s Daily. 2017. “Lhasa tops China’s happiest cities in 2016: CCTV poll.” People’s Daily, March 9 http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0309/c90000-9188001.html [12.3.17].
Woeser. 2011. “CCTV Says Lhasa People Are ‘Happiest’ By Woeser.” High Peaks Pure Earth, February 2 http://highpeakspureearth.com/2011/cctv-says-lhasa-people-are-happiest-by-woeser/ [14.3.17].
The 27th edition of China’s consumer day show ‘CCTV 315 Night’ (315晚会) caused controversy on Chinese social media when it exposed the malpractices in various companies, from Muji stores to Nike shoes. Now that it appears the show itself is negligent with its facts and sources, it is again the talk of the day on Chinese social media. Is the pot calling the kettle black?
World Consumer Rights Day took place earlier this week, and became a trending topic on Sina Weibo (#微博315#) with the release of an annual consumer rights report and a special CCTV program dedicated to protecting consumer rights and uncovering malpractices by companies, called ‘3.15 Night’ (#315晚会#).
The CCTV ‘315 Night’ or ‘consumer day show’ is an annual TV show aired on March 15, focused on naming and shaming various brands and companies.
This year marked the show’s 27th anniversary. As the show featured somewhat more controversial items than it did in previous years, it became the most-discussed topic on Chinese social media on Wednesday and Thursday.
The program revealed several product-related issues that had China’s netizens both worried and skeptical, triggering thousands of shares and reactions across Weibo.
Products from the area of Japan’s Fukushima disaster
One of the program’s items focused on products from those regions in Japan affected by the nuclear crisis of 2011. After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the Chinese government introduced various laws to ensure consumer safety and prohibited the import of Japanese products from those areas in Japan affected by nuclear pollution.
But the Chinese TV show now revealed how, six years after the crisis, Japanese food products from the banned areas are allegedly sold in China by several large e-commerce platforms and stores, including Japanese chain store Muji.
According to the show, retailers hid the origin of the product by using different or vague new labels stating “made in Japan” rather than the specific area from which China has banned the imports of food.
New labels on top of the original ones to hide specific areas of production? Scene from the CCTV 315 Show.
The products included snacks, baby formula, rice, health food, and others, by brands such as Calbee.
News about the imported products led to much anger and commotion on Chinese social media. “Chinese people deceiving Chinese people! The Japanese people won’t eat it so you import it, you do anything for money!”, some angry commenters said.
China’s ‘Wiki’: Selling lies for money
Another scandal revealed by the 315 show concerns Hudong.com (互动百科), China’s homegrown wiki encyclopedia. The platform was accused of false advertising; the mere payment of 4800 RMB (±700$) allows the verification of any product on the site without any other requirements.
The show reported how a patient with liver cancer found a “magic” medicine on Hudong.com as a “verified product”, allegedly able to cure cancer within seven days. Through this kind of false advertising, especially vulnerable people are susceptible to getting fooled into purchasing fake medicine.
Afterward, Chinese media called Hudong “a trash website with the most misleading advertisement” (“互动百科成最大虚假广告垃圾站”).
The negative effects for companies after being featured on the annual consumer rights show cannot be underestimated; in 2015, Forbes called the show a “public relations nightmares for its victims.”
Air Cushion Nikes without the air cushion
The consumer day show also criticized the brand Nike, alleging that the U.S. company’s shoes advertisements are misleading consumers.
The Nike Hyperdunk shoes were promoted to contain the patented zoom air cushions, but were found to actually contain no ‘air cushion’ at all – despite their high price of 1499 RMB (US$220) per pair.
According to Shanghai Daily, over 60 disappointed buyers complained to Nike. The company has since offered them a full refund.
Pot calling kettle black?
The CCTV show’s Nike item again became a point of discussion on Chinese social media today when sport news platform Fastpass (快传体育) complained that the information and images used by CCTV were completely taken from their website, violating their copyright.
Many netizens were confused that the 315 show itself apparently had some malpractices, while its main purpose is to expose the malpractices of others.
“The show is not about ‘protecting consumer rights’ at all it is about knocking out companies in one punch.”
The copyright infringement was not the only point of critique on the show on Chinese social media. Various Chinese media also reported today that the show’s accusations on imported products from Japan’s “banned areas” were ungrounded, as the product package address highlighted during the show is only the place where companies are registered – not where their products are produced.
Furthermore, some netizens wondered why certain controversial products were left out this year: “The Samsung phones have batteries exploding one after the other, why did they not focus on that? Where is their integrity and credibility?”, one commenter wrote.
The fact that ‘Chinese wiki site’ hudong.com was harshly criticized by CCTV while Baidu Baike, its biggest competitor, was not, also annoyed netizens. In 2016, Baidu caused huge controversy for offering advertisement space to fraudulent doctors. These practices came to light when the 21-year-old cancer patient Wei Zexi paid 200,000 RMB (31,000US$) for a treatment promoted through Baidu, which later turned out to be ineffective and highly contested. He died shortly after and received much attention on social media, yet the controversy was not named by the CCTV consumer day show.
One Chinese journalist addressed the TV show on Weibo, writing:
“Some people have asked me what’s up with that 315 Muji report. I did not see the show last night as I was on the train. But even if I had seen it, I would have nothing positive to say about the show. Being a journalist for so many years, I can’t stand this show. It is not about ‘protecting consumer rights’ at all. It is about knocking out companies in one punch. Don’t ask me how I know this.”
“Perhaps it is not a smart move to throw stones while living in a glass house.”
Other commenters also said the show was “fishy”, with many wondering about the selection of the companies it targets, while others are left out. “If they already knew this,” one person said about the alleged imported goods from radiation-polluted areas, “then why would they wait until the night of the show to tell us about it?”
“The show always targets foreign goods, preferably from USA, Japan, and Korea – it not about the product, it is about ideology,” another person (@上善若水之山高) said.
It is not the first time the show has been critized, particularly for bashing foreign brands and products. In 2015, the South China Morning Post also wrote about 315: “(..) the show also had its own “quality problem” – former CCTV financial news channel director Guo Zhenxi, who oversaw 315 Gala, was detained (..) for allegedly taking bribes.”
Overall, many people on Chinese social media simply do not take the show seriously anymore. “Haha, I’ve been hearing all these reports about CCTV 315 on Japanese products these days,” one Weibo user wrote: “You can bash Japanese products all you want, the only thing is that Japanese products undergo very strict supervision and that it’s virtually impossible to bash them!”
It seems that the CCTV show, after running for 27 years, has lost its credibility among the people. Perhaps it is not a smart move to throw stones while living in a glass house; the more critical netizens of today’s online environment can see right through it.
The topic of children’s books in China recently made international headlines following a crackdown on foreign storybooks in the PRC. What’s on Weibo explores the status quo after the Taobao ban: has Peppa Pig really left the building? What is the current top 5 of popular children’s books in China?
Recently the children’s books market in China made international headlines when the South China Morning Post reported that an order from Beijing will drastically limit the number of foreign children’s picture books published in mainland China this year.
According to The Guardianand other sources, Chinese publishers received orders that foreign children book titles must be lowered or even halted to prevent an “ideology inflow” and to protect and promote children’s books written by Chinese authors. In the New York Times, Hannah Beech also called the crackdown an “ideological crusade.”
On March 3rd, days before the South China Morning Post reported the news, China’s largest e-commerce platform Taobao issued an official statement that, as of March 10th, it was halting resales of all books published overseas to “create a safe and secure online shopping environment.”
STATE MEDIA: ALL ABOUT CULTURE
“The Ministry of Culture hopes that Chinese children will be more in touch with cultural products that reflect Chinese values.”
Chinese media responded to the international news reports in mid-March, saying that they were “fabrications” by foreign media to make China look bad. On Wednesday, state tabloid Global Times published an article written by a Global Times commentator Shan Renping, writing:
“Recently a number of Western mainstream media have started a hype about China controlling the import of foreign children’s books, suggesting this is China’s way of reducing the influence of the outside world on China, and ridiculing that our “boycott of foreign forces starts with small children.”
According to the column, the imposed limit on foreign children’s books is not necessarily related to “ideology” or other political matters – as children’s books are allegedly “not much of an ideological field” – but that the reason is cultural.
In the past, the author writes, the ratio of imported children’s books versus Chinese ones was 9:1. While this gap between foreign and Chinese children’s books has already decreased, officials hope to further develop the local children’s books market.
Children’s book section at Beijing bookstore in 2015. Many of the books featured are translations of foreign publications.
As the article says: “The Ministry of Culture (..) [also] hopes that Chinese children, throughout the course of growing up, will be more in touch with cultural products that reflect Chinese values.”
Children’s books on sale in Beijing (2015) by a Dutch author.
But besides the cultural motives for limiting foreign publications in China, the Global Times column also hints that there might be economic motives involved, as it mentions the growing market of children’s books in China, and that storybooks play a leading role in the publishing industry.
Chinese edition of The Hungry Caterpillar.
In the Chinese Book Market 2016 report by the German Book Office Beijing, 21.9% of China’s online book trade is listed in the category of children’s books: a booming and growing market.
WEIBO RESPONSES
“When I think about the garbage we had to read when we were little, I really cannot even imagine that books like these will be banned.”
On Weibo, some netizens responded to the crackdown on foreign children’s books with great disappointment. Before March 10, some people also said they would quickly buy foreign books for their kids before the Taobao ban would be implemented.
It is probable that some comments about the ban have been censored; one Weibo user also indicates that a previous post about the limitations “has been deleted.”
“When you look at how kids read children’s books, what I find most surprising is how these foreign children’s books do not seem to have any meaning but just really fit in with children’s minds. I used to read a book to my children about a crocodile family; a daddy, mommy and little crocodile that eat bananas every day. One day, the little crocodile stopped and said he did not want to eat any more bananas, so his parents asked him what he wanted to eat. When he said he wanted to eat humans, his parents laughed. He then angrily left the house and on the street, he met a small child, and said: “I want to eat you.””
Chinese edition of “I’d Really Like to Eat a Child” by Sylviane Donnio (originally a French children’s book).
“The child just laughed out loud and together with his little friends took out some bananas and threw them at the small crocodile, and then laughingly ran away. Later, the little crocodile took the pile of bananas home, and ate them with his parents while wiping away his tears. What does this story explain and teach us? Nothing. But it corresponds with children’s desire to explore the outside world and try new things. My kids really liked it. (..) I really love these cute and fresh children’s books, and when I think about the garbage we had to read when we were little, I really cannot even imagine that books like these will be banned.”
The question is: will these books really be banned? Let’s first take a look at the current top-ranked lists of children’s picture books.
MOST POPULAR CHARTS
“Chinese children can enjoy Paw Patrol or Pippi Longstocking, along with those books themed around Chinese New Year or Chinese folklore.”
What children’s books rank highest in the popular book charts on Weibo after news of the PRC crackdown has come out?
#1.‘Chinese Year’ Original Picture Book Series (中国年原创图画书系列)
The top ranking children’s book at the time of writing is a book series called Chinese Year, which is written by author Cao Cong (alias Wuke Lili), a Renmin University graduate specialized in children’s psychology.
The books contents and illustrations are focused on Chinese family life and traditions. This particular story is about Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated.
2.Guess Who I Am? (猜猜我是谁)
This book is aimed at the youngest children (2-4 years old) as a little ‘hide and seek’ game with holes in it, allowing children to look through them and see different things. The book is published by the Chinese People’s Publishing House.
3.Fantastic Book (奇妙的书)
This is another made-in-China children’s book, published by Guangxi Normal University.
It is themed around many different animals. From alligators to penguins, they all look at life in a different way.
4.Paw Patrol (汪汪队立大功)
Who has not heard of Paw Patrol? This children’s book about a boy named Ryder who leads a pack of rescue dogs known as the PAW Patrol is derived from a Canadian animated television series, and is thus a foreign children’s book with no Chinese themes. The book is popular on Weibo, where it is rated 9.1 out of 10 stars.
5.The Princess Kite (公主的风筝)
Although the authors of this book are not all Chinese, the story does focus on ancient China and has a Chinese kite as its central subject – making it a truly Chinese story, published by the Chinese Yellow River Publishing & Media Group.
The top 5 of Weibo’s most popular children’s book of this moment seems representative of the ‘popular’ or ‘recommended’ lists of China’s biggest online bookstores such as Taobao or Dangdang, where there are still many foreign children’s books for sale, but where the originally Chinese children’s books seem to dominate the main lists of book suggestions.
Searching for ‘foreign children’s books’ was possible on all sites – including on Dangdang, Kongfz, JD.com, and also on Taobao – after March 10. There is a wide selection of foreign books available from these sites, from Little Rabbit Couldn’t Sleep to Peppa Pig.
Foreign children’s books still sold on Taobao.
Also in the category for older children (8-12), translations of books like Pippi Longstocking (长袜子皮皮) or Harry Potter (哈利·波特) are still freely available on Taobao.
Seeing that the announced Taobao ban has not really gone into effect, there is a probability that the ‘ban’ on foreign children’s books and the reported restrictions for publishing firms to publish any foreign picture books for children this year are more symbolical than substantive.
The Beijing Bookstore online: the shop features a Frozen Disney book in its header on the children’s book page.
The way things stand now, it seems that it is business as usual for children’s books in China. It is likely that foreign children’s books will not be completely banned from China in the near future. Instead, we can expect a heightened focus on Chinese books for children, especially those themed around Chinese stories and traditions.
To make final conclusions about the eventual effects of the announced regulations, however, we will have to wait another year. In the meantime, Chinese children can enjoy Paw Patrol or Pippi Longstocking, along with those books themed around Chinese New Year or Chinese folklore. Perhaps to the disappointment of some parents, Peppa Pig has not left the building (yet).
The fourth season of China’s most popular online talk show Qi Pa Shuo is well underway. Using trendy design and funny sound effects, the show is a fresh debate competition where Chinese celebrities and showbiz newcomers discuss contemporary social and cultural issues. Qi Pa Shuo is a new type of entertainment show especially liked by China’s post-1980s and post-1990s generations for various reasons.
Not a week goes by without Qi Pa Shuo (奇葩说), an online talk show competition created by iQiyi (爱奇艺), becoming the focus of discussion on Chinese social media sites. Although the show is already in its fourth season, it is now more popular than ever.
Qi Pa Shuo is a contemporary talk show concept that brings together a group of very diverse – often funny and extravagant – Chinese people to debate various topics and dilemma’s relating to, amongst others, love, marriage, family, career, and friendship.
Qi Pa Shuo was first aired in November of 2014 and still has staggering viewer ratings. The talk show is also big on Weibo, where its official page has over 1,1 million fans. Hashtags related to the show often become trending topics.
The panel of hosts/judges on Qi Pa Shuo, led by He Jiong, a key figure in China’s entertainment industry.
The huge success of the show lies in its marketing and concept as a purely online variety show that brings a somewhat sophisticated form of celebrity entertainment.
LET’S GET IT ONLINE: BOOMING ONLINE VIDEO MARKET
“Chinese tech giant Xiaomi paid a staggering 140 million rmb (±20 million US$) to be Qipashuo’s main sponsor.”
Qi Pa Shuo is an online talkshow, meaning that is created by Chinese online video portal iQiyi, where it is streamed twice a week. It is also online in the sense that the show interacts with topics that come from Chinese online social media.
Although China still has a flourishing television market, younger audiences now prefer online streaming to traditional TV channels. China has the largest online population in the world, and 88% of its internet users watch online videos, either on mobile or computer.
This percentage is higher when it comes to the younger online audiences, with 90.6% of the post-95s generation visiting video websites.
iQiyi (爱奇艺) is one of the biggest online video platforms of China. Sometimes referred to as “China’s Netflix”, iQiyi is an ad-supported video portal that offers high-definition licensed content to registered users. Apart from its online library with a myriad of movies from China and abroad, iQiyi also has its own production studio that produces films and other online content.
With the creation of Qi Pa Shuo, iQiyi has made a smart move. Since the majority of iQiyi users are born post-1980s, the program caters to the interests of that generation – not just in terms of content, but also in terms of style and fashion. The show already had 260 million views and then 300 million views in its first and second season.
The show is free to watch but is heavily sponsored; not a scene goes by without seeing product placement. Chinese tech giant Xiaomi reportedly paid a staggering 140 million rmb (±20 million US$) to be Qi Pa Shuo’s main sponsor for the fourth season. The Xiaomi brand name is visible in the show’s logo and practically everywhere else in the studio.
Qi Pa Shuo’s host He Jiong with branded content from sponsors on his desk.
Besides Xiaomi and Head & Shoulders shampoo, Chunzhen Yoghurt is also a prominent sponsor of the show, with packs of the products standing on all desks and tables.
As mentioned, the show is not just broadcasted online, it also interacts with online topics; the issues addressed in the show are selected from different online Chinese Quora-like Q&A forums such as Baidu Zhidao and Zhihu.
The most popular online topics related to love, lifestyle & career are selected to come on the show. In selecting the topics this way, the producers already know that they are of interest to a great number of netizens.
RIGHT TOPICS, RIGHT PEOPLE
“Is it a waste for women with a higher education to become a full-time housewife?”
Over the past few years, Qi Pa Shuo has seen a myriad of topics, including:
– “Is it okay to check your partner’s mobile phone?”
– “Should you have a stable career by 30 or should you chase your dreams?”
– “Can you get married without being in love?”
– “Is it a waste for women with a higher education to become a full-time housewife?”
– “Should you push your friends to return the money you borrowed them?”
– “Could you be a single mum?”
– “Should you help a school friend who is being bullied in fighting back or do you tell the teacher?”
– “Will you be happier with or without buying a house?”
Participants on the show, some being established names and others newcomers to Chinese showbiz, battle against each other in two teams in who is the best debater and who has the best Chinese speech skills. Celebrity judges or ‘mentors’ have to comment on the performance of the debaters, and debaters also have to try to convince the audience.
Qi Pa Shuo is called ‘Let’s Talk’ or ‘U Can You BiBi’ in English (the latter is a wordplay on Chinglish), but its Chinese title can be roughly translated as “Weirdo’s Say” or “Unusual Talk.” The term “Qi Pa” (奇葩) is often used to describe someone or something that is very odd or unusual. Participants on the show, both the newcomers and the well-known faces, are outspoken personalities with a special way of talking or unique fashion style.
By bringing together an eclectic group of big names and newbies, Qi Pa Shuo has the best of both worlds; it is a platform that attracts viewers because it features some of China’s most loved celebrities (host He Jiong, for example, has 83.8 million followers on Weibo), and it also keeps fans curious and attracted by introducing some new faces (Hu Tianya, Yan Rujing, Jiang Sida, etc.) – many of which have already become major celebrities themselves since the start of the show.
Presenter Shen Xia a.k.a. Dawang (1989) gained popularity after appearing on Qipashuo as a debater.
Although many of the topics discussed are frivolous and funny (“What would you do if you found an egg placed by an alien?”), the show has also seen some groundbreaking moments since it first aired.
Yan Rujing (1991) had her major breakthrough after becoming a Qi Pa Shuo debater.
In 2015, an episode on whether or not gays should come out to their parents moved many people to tears when celebrity mentor Kevin Tsai (Cai Kangyong/蔡康永) spoke openly about coming out as homosexual during his career as a Taiwanese TV host.
In an emotional speech, Tsai shared his difficult experiences of being openly gay in the showbusiness and said he hoped to convince people that “we’re not monsters.”
The show also made headlines in 2016 when internet celebrity Xi Ming a.k.a. Chao Xiaomi came on the show to talk about how it is to be gender fluid and not conform to a certain gender.
Chao Xiaomi came on the show in 2016 and discussed experiences as gender fluid individual (image via Time Out Beijing 2016).
Reactions on Chinese social media show just how alive the issues discussed in Qi Pa Shuo are, as topics adressed during the show often turn into heated discussions on Sina Weibo and other social media platforms, where netizens give their own viewpoint or discuss why they think their favorite debater is the best public speaker.
IMPROVING SPEECH SKILLS
“Communicating, convincing, negotiating, public speaking, debating – it is a basic skill we use in everyday life, but really mastering it is not easy.”
Recently, the success of Qi Pa Shuo is also often discussed in the Chinese media. According to an article by Rednet.com, one important reason why the talk show is such a hit is because young people in China are increasingly interested in debating and improving speech skills.
The Rednet article argues that Qi Pa Shuo is part of a broader talk show entertainment genre that is currently becoming more popular, showing that after online games and more superficial types of entertainment, there is now a new group of online audiences who want to see entertainment that is a bit more sophisticated and educational.
The growing interest in speech skills is also evident looking at the success of the podcasts and books on how to speak that sprang from the show, initiated by mentor Ma Dong and debater Ma Weiwei. Having good debating skills and general eloquence is seen as an asset for one’s career and social status.
Ma Weiwei (left) and Ma Dong.
“Because Qipashuo recommended this book, I simply just bought it to read it,” one netizen says on Weibo: “Who does not want to be able to speak like people such as Ma Dong or Ma Weiwei, so composed and self-assured. The book is pretty good, it teaches people how to speak well and how to say the right thing, it all makes sense. Communicating, convincing, negotiating, public speaking, debating – it is a basic skill we use in everyday life, but really mastering it is not easy.”
“How to Speak Well”, the book that have sprung from the Qi Pa Shuo programme.
On Weibo there are also vloggers like Baituola Junior (@拜托啦学妹) who take the topics as discussed in Qi Pa Shuo and make people on the streets discuss them.
These kinds of videos and trends show the rise of a generation that has a passion for speaking their mind and building strong arguments. Qi Pa Shuo further stimulates this drive by showing that anyone – girl or boy, young or old, gay or straight, goofy or trendy, celebrity or not – can be an effective and witty speaker if they put their mind to it.
With the big Beijing ‘One Belt, One Road’ Summit nearing, Chinese state media have sent out a “Sesame Street”-style propaganda video on Weibo, in which singing children praise the Belt and Road initiative. Many netizens think the video is “awkward.”
Chinese state media spread a promo video on Wednesday in which a group of children happily praise China’s “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) initiative in English, subtitled in Chinese. The clip comes days before the Beijing One Belt, One Road Summit (May 14-15), which will welcome leaders from around the world.
In the video, fifteen different children sing and dance to a Sesame Street-style song with cartoon graphics of various countries. According to the opening line, the children come from different countries along the Belt Road, also known as the Silk Road Economic Belt.
The title of the song is “The Road and Belt is How.” As noted by Sixth Tone, the word ‘how’ here alludes to the word ‘hao 好’, meaning ‘good’ in Chinese.
Mixed with laughter, the children sing:
The belt connects the land
The road moves on the sea
The promise that they hold
Is joint prosperity
We’re breaking barriers
We’re making history
The world we’re dreaming of starts with you and me
The future’s coming now, oh oh oh oh
The Belt and Road is how
We’ll share the goodness now
The Belt and Road is how
Officially announced by the Chines government in 2013, the Belt and Road is an economic initiative focused on connectivity and cooperation between China and the rest of Eurasia, meant to integrate the development strategies of dozens of countries.
The political video was made by Fuxing Road Studios (复兴路工作室), a company that often produces English-language propaganda videos on China’s policies, apparently seeking to appeal to both Chinese and Western audiences.
Quartz magazine wrote in 2015 that with its native English singers and slick productions, Fuxing Road Studios has covered numerous major China-related events, including state leaders’ overseas visits.
In 2015, Fuxing Road made headlines when it launched a curious video about the 13th Five-Year Plan in which American singers paid tribute to China’s latest policies (“Every five years in China, man / They make a new development plan (..) / It’s a huge deal, man! / Like how huge? / Huge!“).
The latest Belt and Road video was shared on Weibo by major state media outlets, including China Daily, People’s Daily, PLA Daily, Communist Youth League, China National Radio, and CCTV.
“What’s the purpose of this video? It’s awkward,” many Weibo commenters said. “It makes me feel like a kid again,” some write.
Many people commenting say they find the use of English in the video somewhat strange. “Why is it not in Chinese?,” a typical comment read: “I would have expected there to be at least a few sentences in Chinese.”
“The Road and Belt is How” is not the only ‘Belt and Road song.’ Another song was shared on social media today with a cartoon clip showing people of various countries dancing together. The video, issued by China News, has an English segment but is mainly sung in Chinese:
“Try to try to try to find good friends along the Silk Road / Saluting and shaking hands / We can be good friends / The Belt and Road oh oh / Over land over sea oh oh / It’s three years old oh oh / It joins the world oh oh.”
The Beijing ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) summit is about to take place, and the Belt and Road propaganda machine is running at full speed. Chinese state media spotlight children in promotional campaigns, and emphasize the idea of China as a harmonious global leader. Here is an overview of the various recent public promo videos backed by different state media outlets, including the latest one by People’s Daily.
As the ‘One Belt, One Road’ (aka OBOR or Silk Road Economic Belt) summit takes place in Beijing on May 14-15, the promotion of this enormous development strategy is in full swing. Chinese state media outlets China Daily, CCTV, and People’s Daily have all published their own OBOR promotion clips through Youku or Weibo.
All the latest promo clips on the Belt and Road strategy have clear characteristics in common. Besides that young people and children play a major role in them, they are all global focused; they use many languages and feature people of various backgrounds.
1. Communist Party: The Belt and Road is How
Over the past week, it was especially the Sesame Street-style video with children from various countries singing about the Belt and Road that made international headlines. It was the only promotion video that was posted on Chinese social media by a wide range of official media, including China Daily, People’s Daily, PLA Daily, Communist Youth League, China National Radio, Xinhua, and CCTV.
In the video, fifteen different children sing along in English to a catchy song with cartoon graphics. The political video was made by Fuxing Road Studios (复兴路工作室), a company that often produces English-language propaganda videos on China’s policies.
China’s English-language public communication videos are not necessarily only targeted at foreign audiences. The Belt and Road is How video was widely shared by official channels on Chinese social media, and was initially not even posted on YouTube. The use of an English song (providing Chinese subtitles) helps convey the idea of the Belt and Road as a very global initiative, both for Chinese and non-Chinese audiences.
Featuring a group of cute and diverse children in this clip also boosts the global image of the OBOR project, and stresses its unthreatening character. Although the Chinese government and state media have continuously represented the initiative as one of peaceful development that has no regional or military agenda, there are still international concerns over China’s strategic goals. The choice for such a “Sesame Street-style” promo video, in that sense, is quite telling; the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative couldn’t be represented in any cuter or more innocuous way.
Fuxing Road Studios has covered numerous major China-related events in the past, including state leaders’ overseas visits. Using pop songs and modern graphics, their videos target the younger, social-media generations. Although the company is secretive about its affiliation, The Wall Street Journalreported in 2016 that the production house is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s international department.
2. China Daily: Belt and Road Bedtime Stories
State newspaper China Daily recently launched its ‘Bedtime Stories’ campaign. It is a series of clips in which Erik Nilsson, assistant director at China Daily, tells his little daughter Lily stories about the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative before she goes to sleep.
These China Daily series are mainly aimed at English-speaking audiences; newspaper China Daily has pushed these videos through its official channel on YouTube, a platform that is inaccessible from mainland China. They were also posted on Weibo, but the videos made less of an impact on Chinese social media than they did on YouTube, where the last clip received over 63,000 views within 24 hours.
When China Daily introduced the first video of the bedtime series on its official Weibo account on May 9, it emphasized the video’s sentence “It is China’s idea. But it belongs to the world,” as a key sentence from the campaign. This sentence is crucial in the promotion of the idea behind the Belt and Road initiative, that emphasizes China as the harmonious leader that helps the whole world become a more prosperous place.
The concept of ‘bedtime stories’ gives China Daily the freedom to tell the story of the Belt and Road initiative in a very clear way through a father explaining the strategy to his daughter. This makes it easy for all people to understand, also for those who are not familiar with OBOR.
3. CCTV: Prosperous Together
China’s state broadcaster CCTV published its own promo video this week that shows, amongst others, children from around the world playing with miniature cars, boats, and trains that then turn into reality along the Silk Route belt (see video below). The video’s main theme is how OBOR connects the people of the world.
The clip, titled “Together Prosperous,” ends with the slogan: “Discuss Together, Build Together, Enjoy Together” (“共商, 共建, 共享”). It very much highlights the international impact of the One Road One Belt initiative – something that is given more weight through the use of dramatic music.
As in the other clips, this public communication video also gives prominence to the role of children from different countries. The point is not that these videos are targeted at kids, but that they are the perfect propaganda messengers: they represent the new future of China and the world.
4. People’s Daily: WE Make It Happen
On May 12, another video came out which shows students from eight different countries painting together and talking about their home and interests. They mostly speak in Mandarin Chinese, but some also speak in their native languages. The students come from Hungary, Kenya, Spain, Argentia, Russia, China, Kazakstan, and Thailand.
While the other students talk about soccer, food, and dance, the Russian and Chinese students bring out the video’s main message.
“Today, I drew a bridge,” the Russian student named Mikhail says: “It connects Russia and China. Two different countries, two different nations. They can get to know each other. Every person or every nation can act as a bridge.”
The Chinese student Yu then tells: “The kite was invented by ancient Chinese people. I think they had a dream. They wanted to know the outside world. A bigger world.” The students then put their paintings together, forming the word “WE”, followed by the message: “The Belt and Road – WE make it happen.”
The video is an initiative by Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily and was shared on Weibo by various media sources, including the Global Times.
Like the other videos, the focus is on how the Belt and Road strategy connects people of various nations. It is a new kind of public promo video, as Chinese public campaigns commonly always include references to the flag of China or other national symbols like the panda or the Forbidden City; something which does not comes up in this clip.
On China, netizens have responded in different ways to the various videos. Although many people said they think the Fuxing Road Studios clip is somewhat “awkward,” the other campaigns are more popular.
Especially the “WE make it happen” campaign seems to be liked by many netizens. Many people comment on the video with: “We like WE!”
“This is a successful promo video,” one person says: “It makes people feel proud.”
The CCTV promo video also received praise on Sina Weibo. “It’s very well done,” many said.
“When I finished watching, I felt like this is the best Chinese promo video I’ve seen thus far,” one Weibo user writes.
There are also those who wonder about the role of the USA, as America seems to play no role whatsoever in the various Belt and Road promo films. But there were also those who were not surprised about America’s invisiblity in the videos: “This is the ‘One Belt, One Road’,” one person commented: “And it is China that is leading the way.”
A Western ‘fake news’ controversy after the London Bridge attacks has become a trending topic on Sina Weibo. The Communist Youth League and many other Chinese media outlets reported about a ‘staged’ CNN item on Monday. “Chinese media are selective in what they report, Western media are creative in how they report”, some commenters say.
Several Western international media outlets have triggered wide controversy and outrage on Twitter and Facebook over their coverage after the London Bridge attacks.
On June 4th, social media users accused American broadcaster CNN of staging an anti-ISIS protest in London after Twitter user @markantro uploaded a video that shows how police and TV producers direct a group of Muslim women to stand in line with their protest signs behind TV anchor Becky Anderson.
“CNN creating the narrative #FakeNews,” the Twitterer said.
CNN caught staging news!
They even brought "peace group" printed out papers and props.
“CNN caught staging news! They even brought “peace group” printed out papers and props,” reporter Mike Cernovich wrote.
CNN later denied staging the protest, posting on Twitter: “This is nonsense. Police let demonstrators through the cordon to show their signs. CNN along with other media simply filmed them doing so.”
CNN’s response was also translated and published in Chinese media (Guancha.com).
The BBC was also widely criticized on Twitter for using the alleged “staged” CNN footage, and for not broadcasting footage that reportedly shows the attackers shouting “for Allah” during their stabbing rampage. On Saturday, BBC producer Julia Macfarlane wrote on Twitter that the BBC indeed had footage of the attackers shouting “this is for Allah.”
YouTuber and writer Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) wrote: “FAKE media. BBC refuses to air tape of terrorists saying “this is for Allah”. CNN stages Muslim anti-ISIS protest. We are being conned.”
“A clip that is going viral on the internet shows how the Western well-known media outlet CNN stages a video after the London terrorist attack. This was filmed and leaked online,” the Communist Youth League wrote.
“Trump was right after all.”
The ‘fake news’ controversy soon made its rounds on Weibo, with many saying: “Western mainstream media are just cooking up stories.” An image of BBC also using the ‘staged’ setting as news was shared by a Guancha.com columnist.
“CNN should get a prize for Best Production,” one person laughingly said.
“Chinese media are selective in what they report, Western media are creative in how they report,” another commenter said.
The Global Times account ‘This is America’ (@这里是美国) also reported the incident, including CNN’s denial of a ‘staged’ protest. They asked their followers if they thought CNN was creating ‘fake news.’
Some expressed that Chinese netizens are the right target group to ask this question: “We are specialists [in this].”
“This is a classical case of staging,” blogger @Sven_svi wrote: “The reporter chooses the camera frame, designates the area for the Muslims to stand in, and lets them show their signs against terrorism. By doing so, CNN is ‘creating’ its own news.”
“CNN probably stands for Chinese National News,” one person joked.
People also posted a photo of a person carrying a sign saying ‘CNN is ISIS.’ “The Americans have had enough,” they write.
“Trump was right after all,” an account named ‘Voice of Justice’ (@正义的呼声A) wrote: “American news is fake news.”
Trump ‘fake news’ photo posted by Guancha.com columnist in response to the CNN controversy.
A heightened focus on China’s role in solving the refugee crises on World Refugee Day has triggered waves of criticism on Chinese social media. The general sentiment: “Refugees are not welcome in China.”
The topic of World Refugee Day has unleashed thousands of comments on Chinese social media this week after the United Nations Refugee Agency raised awareness for refugees on Sina Weibo. Earlier this month, UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi visited Beijing and stated that China can play key role in solving refugee crises.
China became a member of the International Organization for Migration in June of 2016.
Chinese celebrity Yao Chen participated in a World Refugee Day event on Tuesday in Beijing, where the film Welcome to Refugeestan was screened. The popular actress is the Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Refugee Agency.
Yao Chen together with UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi.
With over 80 million fans on Weibo, Yao Chen is one of the most influential celebrities on Weibo. She is the first-ever Chinese UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and has been a strong voice for refugees over the last seven years.
“Because June 20 is #World Refugee Day#, the UNHCR has hosted a public welfare event in Beijing to pay tribute to the world’s 65.6 million people who are displaced and homeless, and to pay tribute to all those who support and care for the refugees. @NicholasRosellini @United Nations Development Program @YaoChen #westandtogetherwithrefugees#.“
The post soon attracted over 28,000 shares and 20,000 comments – many were negative about China’s role in solving the refugee crisis. The topic ‘Should China accept refugees?’ (中国要不要接收难民) eventually became one the week’s biggest topics on social media.
“Let the USA and Europe take in refugees, they started this war to begin with,” many said: “China will not take in refugees! We can give some money, but don’t come here!”
“Why should we pay our respects to people simply because they are refugees?”, one popular comment said: “How do we know if they are all virtuous people? Did they become terrific people because they became refugees? What kind of logic is this? What is the UNHRC teaching us?”
Hosting refugees is currently not a prominent issue on China’s current state agenda, and there is no national legislation for refugees in China. According to UN Refugee data, there were 317,923 “persons of concern” (refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless persons and others) in China in 2016 – a figure that is very small compared to the country’s native population.
Of this number 317,098 people are refugees from Vietnam – mostly ethnically Chinese. As for Syria, the data shows that China in 2016 had a mere 20 refugees from Syria and 35 Syrian asylum seekers. From Afghanistan, there were 20 asylum seekers. There were 102 refugees from Somalia and 5 from Iraq.
THREE VIEWS ON CHINA TAKING IN REFUGEES
“We didn’t have 30 years of One-Child Policy in order to let in other people now.”
The overall negative view on social media about China accepting refugees generally has three different perspectives.
Firstly, people on Weibo refer to the situation in Europe and say that taking in refugees will negatively impact a country’s society. They want to protect a stable Chinese society.
“We would not be so hateful [about refugees] if they were more well-behaved and had better morals. What became of Germany because of the refugees? They have led in wolves in sheep’s clothes. It’s not easy to create a stable Chinese society and we must treasure and protect it,” one netizen says.
They also say that China already has enough domestic issues with migrants and poverty.
Second, many refer to China’s One-Child Policy, that lasted from the late 1970s to 2015. The policy was implemented to reduce the growth rate of China’s population. If China would now take in large numbers of refugees, many say, then why could Chinese families not have more than one child for over three decades?
As one person writes: “China shouldn’t just let in refugees. We didn’t have 30 years of family planning [one-child policy] in order to let in other people now.”
A third perspective behind the negative comments on refugees coming to China is people’s anti-Islam stance.
“Many netizens have this logic,” one US-based Weibo female netizen writes: “Refugee = Middle Eastern refugee = Islam = Terrorism.”
“We’re not really against taking in refugees,” one man from Shanghai writes: “We’re against taking in islamic refugees.”
MOST WELCOMING TO REFUGEES?
“Your core mission should be to tell the world how China maintains peace.”
Many netizens turned their negative comments against Yao Chen. “Yao Chen should take in some refugee children herself and raise them together with her daughter. Does she dare?”, some said. Many blamed Yao Chen for standing up for international refugees while China has “enough issues” to deal with already.
“Yao Chen, as the Chinese UNHCR goodwill ambassador, your core mission should be to tell the world how China maintains peace, and how it contributes to taking in neighboring refugees,” others say.
One year ago, the issue of China taking in refugees also became a trending topic when Amnesty International published a global survey that ranked Chinese, German and British people as “most welcoming to refugees” among the 27 countries surveyed. Russia ranked as ‘least welcoming’ in the so-called ‘refugees welcome index.’
The survey triggered controversy on Weibo, where many people questioned how representative it was (also see our 2016 video about this topic).
The wave of criticism on Weibo shows that most netizens do not share the ‘refugees welcome’ sentiments portrayed in Amnesty’s survey.
“China shouldn’t receive ‘green’ [Muslim] refugees, we must refuse. We haven’t even sorted out our own problems with Chinese Muslims. I must ask: Why do Syrian and other war refugees do not go to Saudi Arabia and their other rich neighbours? That’s simply the best place for them to adapt seamlessly. But instead they do everything in their power to go to Europe, not Eastern Europe, but to Western Europe where the welfare and economy is good,” one netizen named Alex writes.
An editorial by Global Times editor Hu Xijin (胡锡进) of June 22 questions what all the fuss is about on Weibo: “Refugees from the Middle East don’t even want to come to China. Why should we worry about whether or not China should take in refugees?”
Although it is unlikely that China will take in large numbers of refugees from Africa or the Middle East in the near future, the government does play an active role in refugee aid by donating money to refugee camps and humanitarian assistance.
Not a day goes by without television dramas becoming a trending topic on Chinese social media. Some Chinese hit TV drama’s took over 17 years of preparation, others have over a billion views. This is an overview of the five dramas that are trending this summer by What’s on Weibo.
The popularity of Chinese television dramas continues to grow – not just within China, but also internationally.
Xinhua News recently featured a story about Vietnamese youth getting hooked on dramas from the PRC. But many people from other countries outside of China are also getting more addicted to Chinese television dramas. On various online video platforms, such as Viki.com, thousands of drama fans volunteer to subtitle dramas to make them accessible to people who don’t understand the language.
A continuing trend over the last decade is the huge popularity of Chinese costume dramas. What is noticeable is that TV dramas relating to the Sino-Japanese war, previously one of the most popular historical genres, now seem to have become less popular.
Based on the popularity charts on Weibo, Sohu TV, and Baidu, these are the five hottest Chinese TV drama this summer.
#1. Princess Agents 楚乔传
Drama origin: Mainland China
Genre: Historical drama, romance, action
Broadcast start: 27 December 2016, Hunan TV
Episodes: 58
Starring: Zhao Liying aka Zanilia Zhao 赵丽颖/ Lin Genxin aka Kenny Lin 林更新 / Dou Xiao aka Shawn Dou 窦骁 / Li Qin 李沁 / Wang Yanlin 王彦霖 / Niu Junfeng 牛骏峰
The recent popularity of Princess Agents in China is enormous. Not only is the series constantly in the top trending lists on Sina Weibo, it also received over 2 billion views on Youku alone this month.
Princess Agents (楚乔传 Chu Qiao Chuan) is adapted from a novel written by Xiao Xiang Donger (潇湘冬儿). The story takes place during the time of the Western Wei (535-557), a period of chaos, where ordinary citizens are kidnapped and turned into slaves.
One of these slaves is the young and rebellious girl Chu Qiao, played by the pretty Zanilia Zhao. The story starts with Chu Qiao, suffering from amnesia, finding herself in a group of young female slaves who are used for entertainment for the rich lords. Dropped on a field exposed to a group of wolves, they become hunting targets in a rich man’s game.
After a bloody battlefield, in which she puts up a fight against wolves and arrows, the fierce Chu Qiao is the only one to survive. She is brought into the powerful family of Yu Wenyue (Lin Gengxin) as a maid. Her sister already serves in this household, and Chu vows to rescue her sister and flee from the situation.
The story follows Chu throughout her brave journey to keep herself and the people she loves safe from harm, and to destroy the injustice that is taking place in the world around her. She will do anything to reach her goals – even if it means becoming a spy.
Princess Agents has everything fans of Chinese dramas usually like; it is a story full of love, action, and conspiracies, in a historical setting with lush costumes and a lavish set, along with plenty of special effects that make the scenes more spectacular.
On Weibo, the topic of Princess Agents has received over 4.8 billion views. Many netizens praise Zanilia Zhao for her acting skills, and the fact that a fierce woman has the main role in this drama is something that many drama lovers seem to appreciate.
Drama Origin: Mainland China, previously also released in Japan and South-Korea.
Genre: Human drama, comedy, food
Broadcast start: 12 June 2017 (network Beijing TV, Zhejiang TV)
Episodes: 40
Starring: Huang Lei 黄磊 / Zhao Youting aka Mark Chao 赵又廷 / Hai Qing 海清
Midnight Diner previously came out as a Japanese TV drama in 2009 (Shinya Shokudo), and later was remade in South-Korea. Now it is time for China’s adaptation of the drama, which revolves around the happenings at a special restaurant that is only open in between midnight and 7am. The restaurant owner, played by famous actor Huang Lei, does not like to talk much – but he does love to cook while his customers share their personal stories.
The series is a popular topic on Sina Weibo, where netizens have heated debates about it. They compare the drama to the previous adaptations, and share their own restaurant stories and recipes from the Midnight Diner kitchen.
Despite its popularity, the drama is also receiving a lot of criticism for its “exaggerated acting” and “awkward lines.” Many fans say that the restaurant owner in the Chinese version is making weird food choices and they also complain that the show is not ‘Chinese’ enough.
#3. Rush to the Dead Summer 夏至未至
Drama origin: Mainland China
Genre: Romance, Youth drama
Broadcast start: 11 June 2017
Episodes: 46
Starring: Chen Xuedong aka Cheney Chen 陈学冬 / Zheng Shuang 郑爽 / Bai Jingting 白敬亭 / Xia Zitong 夏梓桐 / Chai Biyun 柴碧云 / Pang Hangchen 庞瀚辰 / Wang Yuwen 王玉雯 / Chao Zhang 张超 / Zhengge Huizi 郑合惠子
Rush to the Dead Summer (夏至未至) is a TV drama based on the novel by Guo Jingming (郭敬明) that follows a group friends during a time span of ten years as they go from their highschool life and each start their own life in society.
Many fans have been waiting a long time for this TV drama to come out, as its airing was already announced in the summer of 2016. By now, its official Weibo account has well over 1.6 million followers.
The theme song of the TV drama (video above) is also very popular. The song, titled “First Memory” (最初的记忆) is by Taiwanese singer Lala Hsu.
#4. White Deer Plain 白鹿原
Drama origin: Mainland China
Genre: Contemporary historical drama
Broadcast start: May 10 2017, Anhui TV, Zhejiang TV
Episodes: 85
Starring: Zhang Jiayi, He Bing, Qin Hailu, Liu Peiqi, Li Hongtao, and more.
The preparation and production of White Deer Plain was certainly not rushed; it reportedly took 17 years before this TV drama finally went on air. The drama plot is based on the award-winning Chinese literary classic by Chen Zhongshi (陈忠实) of the same name from 1993.
This work’s success in China has previously been compared to that of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. White Deer Plain was previously also turned into a movie (2011).
The historic epic follows the stories of people from several generations living on the ‘White Deer Plain,’ or North China Plain in Shanxi province, during the first half of the 20th century. This tumultuous period sees the Republican Period, the Japanese invasion, and the early days of the People’s Republic of China.
The drama has received an 8.9 star review from netizens on Douban.
#5. The Legend of Dragon Pearl 龙珠传奇
Drama origin: Mainland China
Genre: Costume, romance, idol drama
Broadcast start: 5 May 2017, Anhui TV
Episodes: 90
Starring: Yang Zi aka Andy Yang 杨紫/ Qin Junjie 秦俊杰/Shu Chang aka Jennifer Shu 舒畅
The Legend of Dragon Pearl (龙珠传奇) is the second palace drama in this top 5, which shows that the genre of traditional drama, particularly costume drama, is still very popular – arguably even more popular than before.
This Chinese television drama tells the story of the unlikely romance between the Princess Zhu Yihuan (Yang Zi), a martial arts talent and the last princess of the Ming dynasty, and Emperor Kangxi (Qin Junjie), who is the young emperor of the Qing dynasty. Their love story is not without hurdles, because the Kangxi court is actually hated by Zhu’s family as the Ming dynasty, by the Han people, was overthrown by the Manchurians who established the Qing Dynasty.
This love story gets even sweeter when you know that main players Andy Yang (Yang Zi) and Qin Junjie are also a couple in real life.
On Youku, the drama has received a total of over 2.2 billion views by now. Many fans on Weibo share their favorite scenes and share their drawings and other art works based on this successful drama.
In a statement issued by Chinese state media on June 30, Chinese regulators have laid out new rules for online videos. The regulations say that audio-visual content that shows any “display of homosexuality” will no longer be allowed and will be removed from China’s video platforms. Recently, Chinese authorities have sharpened the regulations for online audio-visual content on sites such as Sina Weibo, where live-streaming was banned last week.
The China Netcasting Services Association (CNSA, 中国网络视听节目服务协会) has issued new rules that will further strengthen the regulations of online audio-visual content on Chinese platforms. The rules were released on the official CNSA website on June 30, and disseminated by official media outlets such as China News, Xinhua, Global Times, and others.
Chinese news outlet The Paperreported that one of the new regulations concerns the removal of online content that “displays homosexuality” (“展示同性恋等内容“).
Recently, Chinese authorities have sharpened online regulations. One June 22, regulators halted live streaming on various platforms including Sina Weibo, iFeng and ACFUN. The State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Televsion (SAPPRFT) issued a statement saying the ban came into effect because these sites were “not complying” with existing online regulations and for “promoting negative comments” (“宣扬负面言论的社会评论性节目”).
Weibo responded to the ban with new rules for posting online audiovisual content. According to Technode, users who do not hold a “proper license” may no longer upload audiovisual content, and users who stream movies, TV shows and similar programs will need to hold a permit for public broadcast.
The latest rules issued by Chinese regulators on June 30 concern online audiovisual programs such as online dramas, short clips, online films, cartoons, documentaries, and others.
The rules say that all online content “should adhere to the correct political direction, and strive to disseminate contemporary Chinese values” (“互联网视听节目服务相关单位应坚持正确的政治方向，努力传播体现当代中国价值观念”).
Any ‘programmes’ that are not in line with the regulations will reportedly be deleted. This includes any videos that “are harmful to the country’s image” or, in any way, “endanger national unity and social stability.”
The regulation specifies that “luxurious lifestyles” should not be promoted, and that any detailed manifestations of violence cannot be depicted.
About sexuality, the rules state that online audio-visual content should not “display abnormal sexual behavior, such as incest, homosexuality, sexual perversions, sexual assault, and other sexual violence.” It also specifies that “unhealthy love and marriage situations”, including extramarital affairs or one-night stands, or promiscuity should not be promoted.
The new rules put homosexuality together with incest and sexual perversion as ‘abnormal sexual behaviour’.
On Sina Weibo, netizens respond to the new rules, saying: “Why is homosexuality considered ‘abnormal’?” and “Is this a joke? Are you turning homosexuality into a disease again?”
“I don’t support the politically correct stupid LGBT supporters,” one person says: “But isn’t it a bit feudal to call homosexuality ‘abnormal sexual behaviour’?”
The LGBT Weibo account “Gay Voice” (@同志之声 “Comrade’s Voice”) responded to the latest regulations with the following statement through their official Weibo page:
“This afternoon, the China Netcasting Services Association convened in Beijing with the members of council to consider and adopt the “General Rules for Examining Audiovisual Programs” (网络视听节目内容审核通则), and publish them. In these general regulations, “homosexuality” is described as “abnormal sexual relations and behavior.” This has caused great uproar amongst people in the entertainment industry and among LGBT supporters. Since April 2001, China has already removed homosexuality from the “Standard for Classifying Mental Disorders.” In China, homosexuality is now regarded as a normal sexual orientation, and homosexual relationships and sexual behaviors are just as normal as heterosexual relationships and sexual behaviors, and should not be treated differently. The false information in these regulations has already caused harm to Chinese homosexuals – who are already subjected to prejudice and discrimination. We, as the Gay Voice, along with other LGBT organizations, hereby want to correct the error in these regulations, and hope that the relevant authorities will correct it. We have the legal right to defend ourselves.”
Since Chinese online regulators listed homosexuality as an “abnormal sexual behavior,” discussions about gay rights and emancipation have been dominating Weibo. Now, for the first time this week, a branch of the Communist Youth League has spoken out on Weibo in support of China’s LGBT community.
Over the past few days, discussions about homosexuality are all over Chinese social media. On Friday, the China Netcasting Services Association (CNSA, 中国网络视听节目服务协会) issued new criteria to strengthen regulations over online audio-visual content on Chinese platforms.
One of the new regulations regarded the removal of online content that “displays homosexuality” (“展示同性恋等内容”), grouping homosexuality together with incest and sexual perversity as an “abnormal sexual behavior.”
The new rules sparked outrage among Chinese netizens throughout Friday and Saturday. Thousands of people spoke out against the new rules on Weibo. LGBT account The Gay Voice (@同志之声) stressed that homosexuality is a normal sexual orientation, and that homosexual relationships and sexual behaviors should not be treated differently from heterosexual relationships.
China’s famous sexologist and respected sociologist Li Yinhe (@李银河) also attacked the new rules on her Weibo account.
Fujian Communist Youth League: “Remove your prejudice, you can do it!”
Late Saturday evening, the official account of the Communist Youth League of Fujian (@共青团福建省委) posted the following message:
“Homosexuality is not a mental illness. In 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from their list of mental disorders. It has been acknowledged by the international medical world that homosexuality is not a disorder. In 2006, the Declaration of Montreal has proposed the observation of May 17 as the International Day Against Homophobia. They called attention to homophobia, discrimination of gay people and unfair treatment. Remove your prejudice, you can do it!”
The post soon attracted over 17000 comments, and more than 11000 shares on Weibo. It was also shared by the Weibo account of The Gay Voice (@同志之声).
The Communist Youth League is a youth movement run by the Communist Party for those between the ages of fourteen and twenty-eight. Many of the members of the Communist Youth League are university students, who hope to join the party one day.
Many netizens seemed surprised by the the post, saying: “You’re the first to speak out,” or calling the Communist Youth League their favorite ‘official’ account.
“It’s late a night, but I think I see some light.”
“Thank you, Fujian Youth League! This moved me to tears. When I first saw the news I felt so awful, and then I saw that the post by Li Yinhe was removed and I started to feel pessimistic about our society, but now that I read this voice from the Communist Youth League, it really touches my heart!”
“I am gay myself, and I have a partner. We’ve been together for 8 years. I would never deceive a woman by marrying her. That would harm her, and it would harm me. I want to stay together with my partner forever, through thick and thin. I hope people can show some tolerance, so that my partner and I may find our way in life, without discrimination.”
“Don’t forget you are the Communist Youth League!”
But not everybody seemed to be happy with the Youth League’s statement. One popular blogger wrote:
“Being gay is not a mental illness, but it is not normal. Although the World Health Organization has removed homosexuality from the category of mental illnesses, it does not mean that it is regular – that is a fallacy, which many gay organizations hold on to with their life. And now, the Communist Youth League in Fujian Province has also posted a CCTV post from 4 years ago to go with the trend, but you shouldn’t harm young people to become a trending topic. Don’t forget you are the Communist Youth League!”
This post received over 3000 comments, mostly from people who disagree. “You are the one who is abnormal,” many said.
Dozens of people on Weibo praise the Communist Youth League. “I never though I would say this,” one person said: “But I am proud of the Communist Youth League.”
