Editor’s note for Friday, October 22, 2021
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn. Today: A hit song by Malaysian rapper Namewee and Australian singer Kimberley Chen makes fun of Chinese nationalist trolls; The meaning of Joe Biden's off-the-cuff comment that the U.S. would defend Taiwan.
Dear reader,
The most-streamed song in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau today, according to Kworb, with more than 12 million views on YouTube, is a saccharine-sounding but satirical ballad from Malaysian rapper Namewee (黃明志 Huáng Míngzhì) and Australian singer Kimberley Chen (陳芳語 Chén Fāngyǔ). Twelve million views is an order of magnitude bigger than the numbers most state-media videos generate on YouTube, despite the billions of dollars spent by CGTN and other government agencies to spread their message internationally.
Titled “Fragile — It Might Break Your Pinkie Heart” in English and “Glass Heart” in Chinese (玻璃心 bōlí xīn), the song mocks the Chinese government’s frequent mention of “hurting the feelings of the Chinese people” and the nationalist internet trolls, a.k.a. “little pinks” who scale the firewall to defend their motherland against foreign criticism.
Naturally, both Namewee and Kimberly Chen have been scrubbed from the Chinese internet. Chen responded with a short video of herself singing (in Chinese): “Sorry for hurting you. It doesn’t matter if I don’t have Weibo. I hear the sound of fragile hearts shattering. I still have Instagram. I still have Facebook.”
Also blocked from the Chinese internet: NBA player Enes Kanter, whose “Free Tibet” message, followed up today with another video about the Uyghurs, has resulted in the cancellation of screenings of matches of his Boston Celtics basketball team.
And so the splintering of the internet and even of global Chinese culture continues. Beijing’s propaganda organs increasingly demand attention and respect, but they are getting neither.
For a translation of the lyrics of “Fragile,” and much more, see The Right to Know & the Need to Lampoon by scholar Geremie Barmé.
Other breaking stories from China today:
“China’s foreign ministry urged the United States on Friday to avoid sending any wrong signals to proponents of Taiwanese independence, after President Joe Biden said the United States would come to the Chinese-claimed island’s defense,” reports Reuters.
Biden’s comments probably don’t mean very much in the grand scheme of things, despite the pearl clutching and hand wringing from worthies on both sides of the Pacific. For a clear-eyed take on the significance of the U.S. president’s off-the-cuff remarks, see this Twitter thread from former National Security Council China director Ryan Hass.
The Italian city of Brescia is going ahead with an exhibition by Chinese dissident artist Badiucao, despite a request from China’s embassy to cancel it, reports the South China Morning Post.
“China has warned Slovakia and the Czech Republic that nobody should harbor any illusions about the ‘necessary measures’ Beijing will take to defend its sovereignty, ahead of a visit to both European countries by Taiwan’s foreign minister,” according to the South China Morning Post.
—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief
