Friday, January 22, 2016

Huang An's Weibo Posts Disappear

As noted previously on this blog, on January 15, 2016, the singer Huang An (黃安) posted an announcement on his verified Sina Weibo account that Zhou Ziyu had apologized and "admitted that there is only one China." A translation of the post and additional background is available here.

On January 20, 2016, Hu Xijin, editor of the state sponsored Global Times, published an editorial using the pen name Shan Renping (单仁平) entitled “Teenage Singer’s Apology Manipulated by Forces Seeking Confrontation” (周子瑜“道歉”风波,大陆网民错几许). Some excerpts:
The fallout from Taiwan K-pop star Chou Tzu-yu's apology is still fermenting. The 16-year-old singer, who waved the Republic of China's flag on a South Korean TV show, was accused of being in favor of Taiwan independence by Huang An, a formerly well-known TV host from Taiwan. Chou's fans claimed online Chou was not a Chinese and that Taiwan was a country. These comments have triggered viral criticism from the Chinese mainland against Chou and her company, JYP Entertainment.
. . . .
Chou's scandal is essentially an entertainment matter - online public opinion giving a lesson to a singer who is regarded as having touched the political bottom line. Things would be over if Chou and her company took remedial actions. Yet, Chou's way of apology has become a political bomb. It is likely that JYP Entertainment or the apology was manipulated by politicians from the very beginning.
. . . .
Above all, mainlanders have not expressed sufficient patriotic feelings. China needs to accumulate more experience in playing the card of public opinion. For any nation, patriotism is a tool for social governance, which we should not be skeptical about.

周子瑜“道歉”事件仍在发酵。这名台湾新出道的16岁艺人上周被黄安举报早前在韩国举“中华民国”的青天白日旗,疑似她的粉丝团表示“子瑜是台湾人,并不是中国人,台湾本来就是一个国家”,遭到大陆网民的批评。由于其签约的韩国JYP公司处理失当,引起大陆网民进一步愤慨。网上指责周子瑜和JYP公司的声音响成一片。
. . . .
这本来就是一个娱乐事件,一名初出道的艺人被认为踩了政治线,网上舆论教训她一顿,她和公司低调些,或者采取恰当补救措施,也就过去了。但她的道歉方式变成了更重的政治炸弹,JYP或者是傻到家的娱乐公司,或者这场道歉从一开始就受到了政治操纵,融进了阴谋。
. . . .
总体看,大陆爱国民意释放得不是太多,而是不足。国家对外打“民意牌”的经验也需不断积累。民意、尤其是爱国民意在任何国家都是社会治理的正资源。我们切莫因具体争议而怀疑这一点。
These screenshots show that, days after Huang An published his Weibo post gloating over Zhou Ziyu's apology, all of his Weibo posts were gone.

Huang An's now-empty Weibo page is here - http://weibo.com/huangan.

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