I heard of Easan Chan when his song “Lone Brave Warrior” went viral after the man on the bridge protested against Xi’s COVID policy (see newsletter 98). The song was written for the Chinese version of the Netflix TV series Arcane, and it was very popular a year ago. I enjoyed listening to it when I had nothing interesting to listen: I would put the song on repeat and listen to it all day long.
Lately, Mr. Chan stirred up some political controversy during his live concert:
During the concert, Easan Chan was using a towel to wipe his sweat, a fan yelled that he wanted it. Chan first made a gesture to give it to him, then he withdrew, and said: “Go buy it in Muji.” Then added, “But I don’t know what cotton it is made of. ” Then he laughed. The audience laughed with him.
This left me with a very bad impression. I guess I will not listen to that song any more.
The reason is that Muji was famous for using cotton from Xinjiang, and Xinjiang is infamous for forced labour and genocide. The way Chan joked about it is very disappointing. And it turned out that in the past, he also announced that he supported Xinjiang cotton. But if he was under pressure to make that announcement, to continue to work in Hong Kong, many people think that it was forgivable. However, he was under no pressure to make fun of a very grave matter in his own concert. So, many people guessed that he is indeed supporting Xinjiang cotton.
One of his former fans discussed his feeling towards Chan:
Chan is like a friend with whom I grew up. So many things I experienced in life were reflected in his songs. But one day, we realized that this friend is on a totally opposite direction from us. After he announced that he supported Xinjiang cotton, I did not feel any hatred towards him. His songs were still on my playlist. But I never bothered to listen to them. Yesterday, he made it clear to us. He probably will never understand why so many people are disappointed in him. People who used to consider him a friend take some values very seriously, and he might never understand this.
I never heard of Jackson Wang until he became a subject on social media for his performance in London. According to Wikipedia, Wang was born in Hong Kong and received k-pop training in South Korea. He became famous after he joined Got7, which he later left. Now he has his own hip hop group. Wang was featured in the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list and ranked 10th in 2021.
Lately, in one of his concerts in London, Wang told his audience:
“If you travel to China one time, you will feel like, damn, this is a dope place. I guarantee, I don’t know that game they are trying to play, I don’t fucking know, aye, I am just an artist, I am an entertainer, I am a citizen, I am a person, I don’t know that shit, I don’t give a fuck. “
As the video went viral on Twitter, an accusation of rape was posted on Instagram by Malaysian Hip Hop artist Namewee
AsiaOne and 8 days gave a summary with screenshots, translation and some more:
On Monday (Jan 16), controversial Malaysian artiste Namewee posted three Instagram Stories (IGS) that sent shockwaves through showbiz and social media. He revealed his female friend suffered sexual assault by an idol whom he did not name.
“You forced yourself on a xiao mei mei (my friend), didn’t wear a condom and even ejaculated inside her. If your motherland arrests you, be prepared to pack your things and be roommates with ‘Toothpick’. Let’s see if you still love your motherland when that happens,” Namewee, whose real name is Wee Meng Chee, wrote in his first IGS.‘Xiao mei mei’ is Mandarin for a young girl, while ‘Toothpick’ is believed to be referring to Chinese-Canadian former pop star Kris Wu.
Kris, 32, was recently sentenced to 13 years jail by China courts for crimes including rape. He was given the nickname “Wu Toothpick” by his victim Du Meizhu, a reference to his sexual prowess.
The second paragraph of Namewee’s IGS was written in Cantonese and accused the celebrity of betraying the country he was born in for the sake of money.
Some people have taken it as a hint that the idol was born in Hong Kong with “motherland” referring to China.
Many people believe the alleged rapist is Jackson Wang, whose nick name among young Chinese is the “Patriotic boy”, as he often claims that he loves his motherland.
You might wonder who is Wang Sicong. To most Chinese, he is the “the people’s husband”, as the son of real estate tycoon and a very outspoken FuErDai (Second generation rich - 富二代). If you remember vaguely when Apple started its luxury line of Apple watch, a Chinese man showed off that his dog got two of them for each of its front legs, that was him:
Early last year (2022), Wang started a campaign on Weibo against Lianhuaqingwen, the miracle Chinese medicine that can “cure COVID”. He lost his Weibo account (with 40 million followers).
On Jan 12th 2023, the Shanghai police announced that they arrested a few people for beating up passengers on the street, among them, there was a Wang Moumou who was 34 years old. Some people in power leaked to the social media that it was actually Wang Sicong. There is a very small age discrepancy, but almost every Chinese believes that Wang Moumou is indeed Wang Sicong.
Internet is full of imagination, some claimed that Wang made a deal with the victim and agreed to pay him 2 million yuan. And jokes ensured:
How to make sure that you can make 2 million in 2023?
Step1: quit the stock market
Step2: find Wang Sicong Step3: get beaten by him.Wang just opened a chat room to discuss his experience of beating up people, for 6 yuan you can join the chat room. One million people joined. Wang made 4 million net.
The Three-Body Problem is the most famous Chinese Science Fiction book. Although many Chinese on social media (and many foreigners too) love this book, there is also a small group of people who absolutely despise it. I found the reasons (sexism, justification of social darwinism) they despise it persuasive, so I never bothered to read it.
But now, it is made into a TV series and is widely considered very faithful to the book by its fans. So, if you are curious you can watch it on YouTube (with English subtitle) on the official Tencent Video channel… rest of the episodes will be posted after their diffusion on Chinese TV.
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Bloomberg reported:
But behind the scenes, China has been rounding up protesters that authorities view as instigators of social unrest. Weiquanwang, a website that tracks human rights cases in China, said more than 100 demonstrators may have been detained, citing “various avenues” and other civil-society groups.
One young editor, Cao Zhixin, made a video pleading for help from outside world before her arrest was made public on Youtube. She said if you see this video, she has been arrested and disappeared. The YouTube video has the following description:
Cao Zhixin, graduated from Renmin University of China with a master’s degree, Editor of Peking University Press.
On the evening of November 27, 2022, Zhixin and five friends of her came to Beijing Liangma River,
They brought candles, flowers,
Notes and blank paper with poems written on them,
Mourning for the victims of the fire in Urumqi.
On November 30, the six were summoned and released 24 hours later.
Since December 18, they have been criminally detained one after another.
December 24, 2022, Christmas Eve
Among the six, Cao Zhixin was the last to be taken away by the police.
Before being taken away, she found that her other companions had lost contact,
Predicting the imminent arrest, the video was recorded.
This is a news everyone talks about inside China. It was expected 20 years ago:
Caption: the Shangdong province is setting the target of population control: to have zero growth in 2022.
Shangdong province is infamous for the brutality of forcing women to abort their fetus. The trauma of the one-child policy has affected millions of families. And now the Chinese government is reversing the policy and tries to get women to have 2 or 3 children, but it is not working as “easy” as forced abortion.
What is also worth noting is that 1961 was the last time China’s population had shrunk, and that was the result of the three years of famine, a consequence of Mao’s great leap forward movement.
Yes, the government decided that instead of insisting the death number to be 37 that no one believes, 60,000 sounds better. Many still don’t believe it.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported: in China, doctors say they are discouraged from citing COVID on death certificates. In our last newsletter, we told anecdotal evidences seen on China social media saying the same.