Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) recently caused uproar when she said on a Chinese state-run TV program that although she grew up in Taipei, she is “Cantonese,” and that she rarely had seafood in Taiwan, as seafood is a luxury “there.”
To prove that Yang’s remark could not be further from the truth, furious Taiwanese started posting pictures of seafood online and checking in on local restaurants’ social media pages.
However, Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen (張景森) said Taiwanese should not behave like China’s “little pinks” and should not launch vicious online attacks on celebrities in the style of Cultural Revolution “struggle sessions.”
Writer Ku Ling (苦苓) spoke up for Yang, saying that she was referring to her childhood, when her family could not afford seafood, and did not mean to say that seafood is a luxury in today’s Taiwan, urging Taiwanese not to behave like “little pinks.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Guei-min (李貴敏) parroted China’s stance, saying that Yang’s remarks were quoted out of context and the furor was a political scheme by Democratic Progressive Party supporters. She also attacked the Ministry of the Interior for commenting on artists’ remarks and described the incident as “funny as hell.”
When Taiwanese artists make pro-China remarks to gain access to the country’s vast market, it is a matter of morality and principle.
However, sycophantic behavior and giving untruthful accounts do little more than laud China and belittle Taiwan. Surely, Chang and Ku cannot be serious when comparing the behavior of China’s “little pinks” to Taiwanese Internet users posting satirical photographs online?
The term “little pink” describes jingoistic Chinese Internet users who vehemently defend the Chinese Communist Party, scrutinizing online posts and attacking whoever they deem had “insulted China” or “hurt the feelings of Chinese.”
It is this hypersensitivity that has led people to consider “little pinks” as the modern Red Guards.
In 2018, Italian luxury fashion brand Dolce and Gabbana provoked public outrage in China by posting a video depicting a Chinese woman attempting to eat pizza, spaghetti and cannoli with chopsticks. Racist comments made by Dolce and Gabbana cofounder Stefano Gabbana were also leaked, in which he called China a “country of crap” and called those who criticized the brand “ignorant dirty smelling mafia.”
Last year, singer Karen Mok (莫文蔚) posted a picture wearing a Dolce and Gabbana bathrobe on social media, causing a backlash in China. Her agency apologized and Mok removed the photo.
During the promotion for the action film Fast & Furious 9: The Fast Saga, actor John Cena said in an interview that “Taiwan is the first country that can watch F9,” also causing an online backlash in China. Cena quickly posted a video on Sina Weibo, saying in Mandarin: “I love and respect China and Chinese people. I’m very very sorry for my mistake.”
When retail giants H&M, Uniqlo, Nike and Adidas boycotted cotton from Xinjiang over the Chinese government’s human rights abuses against minorities in the region, the “little pinks” called for a boycott of the brands’ products. Taiwanese artists such as Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), Chen Li-nong (陳立農), Janine Chang (張鈞甯) and Greg Hsu (許光漢) terminated their contracts with the companies.
Posting a few pictures of seafood to satirize Yang does not come anywhere near bullying. Compared with the unreasonable behavior of Chinese Internet users, Taiwanese posting about the incident were gentle and kind.
Lin Han is a junior-high schoolteacher.
Translated by Rita Wang
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