A popular Chinese actor has caused a stir among Internet users in China after a blog post took aim at the political beliefs of several Taiwanese actors.
In a blog post dated Friday, actor Zhou Jie (周杰), best known for his role as Er Kang (爾康) in the hit series Princess Pearl (還珠格格), accused Taiwanese cast members of supporting Taiwanese independence and criticizing the conditions in rural Chinese locations.
Princess Pearl was produced by Taiwan’s China Television Co 10 years ago and at the time was lauded for using a Taiwanese-Chinese cast. The original run between 1998 and 2003 smashed TV broadcasting records.
Zhou’s criticism focused mainly on his Princess Pearl co-stars, Alec Su (蘇有朋), Banny Chen (陳志朋) and Ruby Lin (林心如). The three responded to the blog article on Monday calling it a personal attack intended to damage their careers.
Su and Chen have made a comeback in the Chinese market recently after they sang on Chinese state-run CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala last month. The two have reportedly asked Zhou to rescind his blog post or face a possible lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Lin’s publicist told reporters that Zhou’s account was “pure fiction” and that Lin was also considering legal action.
Zhou’s post, which states that the “whole world should recognize that there is only one China,” has already attracted more than 9,000 comments and has been read 805,000 times.
“I often heard [from the Taiwanese actors] about how disgusting our hospitals were, how much they disliked our people and how the [Chinese] were all country bumpkins,” Zhou wrote.
It was “outrageous” the actors would refer to Taiwan as their own country, he wrote, adding that a popular Taiwanese actor told him that “coming to China is like going overseas because Taiwan is an independent country.”
Some Chinese netizens responded to Zhou’s blog by calling for a boycott of Taiwanese TV shows while others questioned his motives for digging up the issue now.
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