China World
Is China Resisting the West? (Asia Carousel Live Event)
Where will the rise of China take the country in the 21st century? Will China confirm to the Western world order, or will it create a new world order? What is the ‘China dream’ (中国梦)? These questions will be addressed at today’s Asia Carousel at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
China Insight
Mbappé, Mao, and the Joke That Shall Not Be Named
Mbappé’s favorite Mao meme sparked major backlash in China. More on what the controversy reveals about political red lines, online humor, and censorship.
RESOU 热搜 | What’s Trending in China, Explained
Here, I briefly unpack the stories making waves on Chinese social media and share what stands out to me. Don’t miss an update: become a subscriber to Eye on Digital China today.
Oh oh oh, Mbappé, all those goals, yet you lost so many points on Chinese social media over the past 48 hours.
Following his 100th goal for Real Madrid during El Clásico and finishing second on Ballon d’Or night, French football player Mbappé is all the talk on Chinese social media — not for his achievements, but for what is seen as crossing a major red line in an online interview.
On Tuesday night, a text came in from Ruixin: “I am wide awake tonight and somehow witnessed live how the footballer Kylian Mbappé was getting blocked and totally canceled on Chinese social media for his comments about Mao Zedong over the past, like, three hours 😅”
I quickly grabbed my phone and saw the flood of Mbappé posts rapidly coming in, and it was clear that people were very cross with him.
Although it was already clear that this might not blow over any time soon, by early Wednesday morning it became painfully clear how the controversy had snowballed. Dongpeng Beverage Group (东鹏), one of the many Chinese companies that signed the famous sportsman as its brand ambassador, publicly stated that it was cutting all commercial ties with Mbappé. Soon, others followed.
Dongpeng Beverage Group (东鹏): the first in a string of companies to cut ties with French footballer Kylian Mbappé.
Mbappé’s fall from grace in China has been sudden and spectacular, like a major avalanche of backlash that unfolded in one night, and it can all be traced back to one segment of an interview the footballer previously did on a French YouTube show (The Bridge) that resurfaced online — initially through Reddit and X, and then on Chinese social media apps, like football platform Dongqiudi (懂球帝).
In that segment, when asked about his favorite meme, Mbappé replied that one of the memes he finds funniest is:
🗣️ “the one where they put my face on some guy, a Chinese dictator. That really makes me laugh, I use it with my friends all the time.”
The interview segment where Mbappé shares his favorite meme: his face photoshopped onto the face of a “Chinese dictator.”
The show, created by Mbappé’s Real Madrid teammate Aurélien Tchouaméni, added the image Mbappé referred to: his face photoshopped on a Mao propaganda visual. It’s part of a series of memes that emerged in 2024 in which Mbappé’s face is edited onto the faces of dictators.1
Chapter Dive
The French Protests, Viewed from China: Five Narratives on Chinese Social Media
From the decline of Europe to historical karma: these 5 narratives reveal how Chinese social media discusses the recent unrest in France.
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Mbappé, Mao & the Backlash on Chinese Social Media
Mbappé, Mao, and the Joke That Shall Not Be Named
The French Protests, Viewed from China: Five Narratives on Chinese Social Media
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Diandian GUO
June 9, 2016 at 2:47 pm
Since when “resisting the west” equals “developing into a worrisome regime”? Such linkage actually deems “not resisting the west” as moral and the opposite immoral.
I am against authoritarianism, whether it means direct intrusion in individual lives, or the monopoly over defining “authoritarianism” and its moral implications.
I always believe the presumption that “China has a big state and small society” is almost a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. The more scholars and media emphasize the “big state” of China, the less chance for the social forces to be discovered, nurtured and released. Even if when social forces are studied, they are studied with semi-autonomy: the public is only active when confronting and resisting the state, as if pure public initiation is non-existent or impossible. The more we look this way, the more we believe that China has a hopeless big state which suppresses an equally hopeless society.
It is not that there exists no autonomy in Chinese society. But they are often dismissed or ignored. What is needed is that more study be done on those initiatives from society, which are not necessarily taken to de-construct, but to construct from ground up. That way, we could avoid endless condemnation that is unlikely to cause change, and find some hope that can lead to some solutions.