Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
The Chinese Communist Party is a big fan of cancel culture.
I mean, communists basically invented it.
Thanks, Stalin. He invented cancel culture *and* Photoshop.
A convenient way to completely erase people from history.
The Chinese Communist Party is great at cancelling things.
They’ve cancelled ethnic minorities.
They’ve cancelled religious groups.
They’ve cancelled people for not being communist enough.
They’ve even cancelled people for being too communist.
We’re talking about a Party that has cancelled both the NBA and soymilk.
The NFL and coconut water better watch out.
But first, the Chinese regime has another target.
The Party is purging celebrities and celebrity fan culture.
This is not the first time that the Communist Party has tried to control pop culture.
Back in 2011, they banned time travel shows and movies for disrespecting history.
That’s ridiculous! Time travel shows don’t disrespect history.
Take my favorite time travel movie, Thermae Romae. It’s about a Roman architect who time travels to a
modern Japanese bathhouse and brings Japanese bathhouse technology back to ancient Rome.
How is that disrespecting history?! It simply...corrects history.
Back in 2014, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said “art
and culture should be made in the service of the people.”
And like in every communist country, when Xi Jinping says “the people”
he means “the communist party.”
The message was: Chinese pop culture needs to do whatever the Chinese Communist Party wants it to.
And Chinese celebrities definitely got the message.
They filmed propaganda clips quoting Xi Jinping and Mao Zedong.
They supported the Party in its fight against Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.
They rushed to defend Beijing’s Xinjiang policy.
A policy that includes slave labor and you know, genocide.
But none of that was enough,
once the Communist Party decided that celebrity culture itself was toxic.
Now, I’m not saying that China’s celebrity culture is healthy.
But having it be controlled by a genocidal regime does not necessarily make it healthier.
Celebrity fandoms are an influential and lucrative market. Chinese fans spend tons of money on
brands endorsed by their favorite celebrities. And celebrity fan clubs themselves are huge cash cows.
But this can be a problem, too.
“Competing fan clubs regularly clash on social media and trade online abuse
in ‘fandom wars’ over lists that rank popular celebrities or other points of fan contention.”
Fandom wars are no joke. As I discovered after writing my Thermae Romae/Harry
Potter crossover fanfic. You see, Harry time travels to ancient Rome to defeat Voldemort,
but it turns out that Voldemort’s final horcrux is actually hidden in a modern Japanese bath house.
But the real problem here is celebrity fan clubs are
overshadowing the Chinese Communist Party fan club.
Why isn’t anyone writing fanfic about Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with
Chinese Characteristics for a New Era? Hmmmmm?
What’s that, Shelley? Someone has?!
Nononononono. Stop. My eyes. If anything needs to be cancelled, it’s that book.
Let’s talk about something less disturbing. Like the Tiananmen Square massacre. After the Communist
Party ended the 1989 student democracy protests by shooting people in the streets, the Party made
a deal with the Chinese people. Just don’t get involved with politics, and you can get rich.
The problem is, in a communist country, everything involves politics. Especially getting rich.
And that’s something celebrities are finding out during this latest crackdown.
More after the break.
Welcome back. The Chinese Communist Party’s latest purge isn’t just about
cancelling celebrity culture. It’s also about cancelling celebrities themselves.
And literally disappearing them from the internet.
It’s the modern-day equivalent of this.
Sometimes it’s easy to figure out why celebrities have been canceled.
Like when Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu was arrested on rape charges last month,
it wasn’t a big surprise when his shows were deleted online.
Or when actress Zheng Shuang was hit with a 46 million dollar
fine for tax evasion while filming a TV drama.
“China’s state broadcasting regulator also pulled Zheng’s offending TV drama
and ordered producers not to hire her for future shows.”
Again, that’s pretty clear. If celebrities turn out to be criminals, it makes China look bad.
Plus Chinese authorities don’t want to miss out on that tax money.
But the most mysterious celebrity cancellation involves one of China’s biggest stars,
actress Zhao Wei , also known as Vicky Zhao.
Zhao got her big break starring in one of the most popular Chinese TV dramas of all time,
My Fair Princess. She played an orphan who becomes the adopted daughter of the Qianlong Emperor.
Which reminds me: I’m currently writing a Thermae Romae/Harry Potter/My Fair
Princess crossover fanfic, where Harry time travels to ancient Rome to defeat Voldemort,
but it turns out that Voldemort’s final horcrux is hidden in a modern Japanese bath house,
and then Harry becomes the adopted daughter of the Qianlong Emperor. It needs some work.
Anyway, Zhao Wei was erased from China’s internet last week. And no one knows why.
The order to cancel Zhao, who is also a billionaire businesswoman,
came from the Chinese Communist Party. But there was no explanation.
“China’s most popular video streaming platforms removed all films and TV series starring Zhao.
Movie information sites stripped Zhao’s name from films that credit her as a director or producer.
Twitter-like Weibo removed Zhao’s unofficial fan page.”
Imagine if Robert Downey Jr. was suddenly cancelled and then completely disappeared
from the internet, along with every movie he ever made.
There goes the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
That’s the kind of power the Chinese Communist Party has.
Speaking of Marvel, you know who should be really paying attention
to China’s crackdown on celebrity culture? Hollywood. I’ll explain after the break.
Welcome back.
I hope Hollywood executives are watching China Uncensored,
because their businesses could be in grave danger in China.
Hollywood is built on celebrity culture. And it’s spent more than a decade trying to appease
the Chinese Communist Party so Hollywood studios can get into the China market.
Here’s Disney’s former CEO Bob Iger meeting with Xi Jinping back in 2016.
Hollywood doesn’t mind removing Taiwan’s flag from Tom Cruise’s Top Gun jacket.
Or blacklisting Richard Gere because of his Free Tibet views.
But that might not be enough anymore.
Hollywood movies are already being squeezed out of China,
so China can promote domestic movies instead.
Yes, China took advantage of Hollywood’s investment and know-how to build up its own
domestic film industry, and then started shutting Hollywood out. Who could have seen this coming?
Me. I saw it coming.
And if I’m reading the signs right, Hollywood is about to be in a whole lot more trouble in China.
Because the Chinese regime’s celebrity purge isn’t just about controlling celebrity culture.
It’s about the Chinese Communist Party taking even more control over society.
And it’s a sign of a profound political change in China,
according to commentary published in Chinese state-run media.
According to that commentary, the Party’s actions are about “a return to the original
intentions of the Chinese Communist Party ... a return to the essence of socialism.”
Ah yes, the essence of socialism. Mao’s favorite cologne. “You’ll be starving to smell this good.”
And that’s not all.
“The capital market will no longer become a paradise for capitalists to get rich
overnight...The cultural market will no longer be a paradise for sissy stars,
and news and public opinion will no longer be in a position worshiping Western culture.”
So far we’ve seen the Chinese Communist Party crack down on capital markets,
and on celebrity culture, aka “sissy stars.” According to this commentary,
“news and public opinion” that “worship Western culture” are going to be targeted
next. That sounds to me like the Party is about to start completely rejecting the West.
I hope Wall Street, and Hollywood, and Western governments are paying attention.
Look, if the Chinese Communist Party decides to go after you, money won’t save you.
Just ask Jack Ma.
Fame won’t save you.
Just ask Zhao Wei.
Political correctness won’t save you.
Just ask Hollywood.
In this kind of authoritarian system, what chance do ordinary people have?
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from a member of China Uncensored’s 50-cent army, a fan
who supports the show on the crowdfunding website Patreon, or on the subscription platform Locals.
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Yes, Cartman18, you can. In case some of you watching this episode missed our video
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Thanks for your question, Cartman18, and for supporting China Uncensored on Locals.
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to learn more. The link is below. Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.