PREMIUM NEWSLETTER | ISSUE #22

This week’s newsletter:
◼︎ 1. Editor’s Note – Frogs in wells
◼︎ 2. What’s Been Trending – A closer look at the featured stories
◼︎ 3. What More to Know – Five bit-sized trends
◼︎ 4. What’s the Drama – Top TV to watch
◼︎ 5. What Lies Behind – Xinjiang as copy cat
◼︎ 6. What’s Noteworthy – Balloons up in the air
◼︎ 7. What’s Popular – Jia Ling’s back in the spotlight
◼︎ 8. What’s Memorable – Gu, the controversial snow princess
◼︎ 9. Weibo Word of the Week – “Southern Little Potatoes”

Dear Reader,

While the Taiwan elections have been making headlines in international media for the past two weeks, discussions about the topic haven’t been as buzzing on Chinese social media.

As voters across Taiwan headed to the polls to elect a new president, the world watched closely as the three-way race between Kuomintang’s Hou Yu-ih, Taiwan People’s Party’s Ko Wen-je, and Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party unfolded. Meanwhile, Weibo’s trending topic lists were predominantly filled with entertainment and travel news.

In the hours following the news that Lai Ching-te (赖清德) was elected to be Taiwan’s president, you could almost hear the crickets on the social media platform, where the only news accounts posting about the election’s outcome on Saturday evening were the Russian state-owned Ruptly and RT. Hashtags that had been active earlier in the day suddenly disappeared during the night, including the “Taiwan elections” (#台湾选举#) hashtag, and new ones like “Lai Ching-te wins the 2024 Taiwan regional leadership election” (#赖清德赢得2024年台湾地区领导人选举#).

Since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power in 2016, Chinese official media have described the ruling party as collaborating with “external forces” to seek independence and pursuing policies hostile to the mainland. Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, has stated that he is determined to safeguard Taiwan from threats and intimidation from Beijing and to maintain the cross-strait status quo.

“We can only wait for the mainland media to announce the results,” one prominent Taiwan-focused blogging account remarked on Saturday night, awaiting Chinese state media to come up with the ‘correct’ headlines and hashtags needed to facilitate further discussions on the platform.

By 22:45 Beijing time, about three hours after the election results made international headlines, Chinese official media channels such as Xinhua and Global Times finally reported about Lai’s win, citing spokesperson Chen Binhua of the Taiwan Affairs Office. He stated that the DPP win does not represent the Taiwanese mainstream; that Taiwan is a part of China; and that the island’s future reunification with the motherland will not be affected. Comment sections were switched off.

Some bloggers wondered why Weibo had seemingly blocked the election results from the hot search lists and why the topic was so controlled. After all, they said, isn’t this just about “the new governor of Taiwan province”? Some commenters jumped on other popular hashtags, mainly related to the super popular ‘Weibo Night’ event, to express views on the elections or how underreported they were. Weibo commenters also used phrases such as “poison frogs,” “Tai[wan] frogs,” or “the frog village has elected its new chief” to discuss the election results.

On Chinese social media, people from Taiwan are often referred to as frogs, inevitably leading to other frog-related phrases to talk about the island. The ‘Taiwan frog’ meme, which has become especially widespread during Tsai’s rule, is a reference to the well-known fable by philosopher Zhuangzi about a frog in a well who does not believe it when a turtle tells him that the world is bigger than the view from the well. The frog stubbornly denies the existence of the wider world and asserts that nothing lies beyond what he can see. The idiom ‘frog in the well’ (井底之蛙 jǐngdǐzhīwā) thus refers to people who are narrow-minded and who have a limited outlook on their life and surroundings.

The frog meme is used to describe Taiwanese who are thought to be confined to their island’s perspective and unable to see beyond it. It’s a play on words, as Tai-wan 台湾 and Tai-wa 台蛙 (= Tai-frog) sound similar. Mainlanders started calling Taiwanese ‘little frogs’ (蛙蛙) when they encountered Taiwanese commentators talking about the mainland as if it were underdeveloped and backward, seemingly unaware of China’s rapid progress over the past decades. A notable example is a Taiwanese TV host who, years ago, claimed that people in China couldn’t even afford boiled tea eggs and packaged pickled vegetables, sparking many jokes on Chinese social media.

Of course, there is some irony in Chinese netizens referring to Taiwanese as if they’re stuck in a well when Chinese narratives about Taiwan are so controlled and are mostly focused on cross-strait relations alone. On Sunday morning, the election result finally showed up in Weibo’s top trending lists with the hashtag “Taiwan is part of China, this basic fact won’t change” (#台湾是中国一部分的基本事实不会改变#). The hashtag had received over 260 million views by afternoon. Its main post by CCTV accumulated over 6329 replies. However, only 17 of them were visible, each and every single one reaffirming: “There is only one China.”

In this social media age, both in China and globally, it’s all too easy to find ourselves in echo chambers and filter bubbles, where we’re exposed only to voices that echo our existing beliefs — aren’t we all ‘frogs in the well’ at some point? Observing discussions about Taiwan on Western social media platforms, most commenters tend to narrow their focus to the elections, framing them as purely geopolitical. This perspective can create the impression that Taiwanese voters only express views that can be labeled as ‘pro-US,’ ‘anti-mainland,’ or ‘pro-China.’

“It’s not war with China that Taiwan’s young voters worry about, it’s jobs, housing, wages,” BBC’s Tessa Wong posted on X, where political scientist Sheena Chestnut Greitens added: “Important reminder: outside observers view Taiwan’s election primarily through the lens of geopolitical tensions and the threat of conflict, but many Taiwan voters also prioritize more bread-and-butter issues.”

Not everything is about great power struggles; not everything is about China vs the US; and not everything is a competition. This reminds me of something else I’d like to briefly share with you here. When The Guardian reached out to me a few weeks ago and asked if there was a topic I found particularly noteworthy in 2023 when it comes to China’s online environment, I immediately knew I wanted to write about the exploding popularity of ChatGPT, which also became a major topic of discussion across Chinese social media channels at that time: why was ChatGPT not “made in China”? You can read my debut piece for The Guardian, “In the Race for AI Supremacy, China and the US Are Traveling on Entirely Different Tracks,” through this link here.

Miranda Barnes and Ruixin Zhang contributed to this Weibo Watch newsletter, which I hope you find useful.

Best,
Manya

(PS You can also find me on Instagram and Threads nowadays but I’m still most active on X here.)

What’s Been Trending

1: A Snowball Effect | Harbin has been trending every 👏 single 👏 day 👏 on Chinese social media over the past two weeks. The hype surrounding the city and its Snow and Ice Festival is similar to the buzz surrounding Shandong’s Zibo in 2023, and it shows that Chinese tourism boards are seriously stepping up their game in the post-Covid travel era. But although the Harbin hype is the result of a well-coordinated marketing campaign that has been in the making for a year, there is also that special something, the organic buzz, that has snowballed the city’s success this season ✨ . Read all about it here 👇🏼

2: Show-Inspired Journeys | The Chinese TV series Meet Yourself has significantly boosted the popularity of Dali in Yunnan. The series’ success, coupled with the official funding behind it, not only underscores the impactful role of Chinese television dramas in tourism but also illustrates how Chinese travel destination promotional strategies are being reshaped in a competitive post-Covid era.

3: From Avant-Garde Writer to Scruffy Pup | On Chinese social media, Yu Hua has transcended his status as one of China’s most renowned contemporary writers. Surrounded by memes, online jokes, and fans born after 2000, he has emerged as a cultural icon for China’s younger generations. His rise as an online celebrity highlights that Chinese youth value relatability and likability over literary prestige.

What More to Know

Besides the bigger international news topics such as the Taiwan elections, Japan earthquake, Middle East crisis, or the Epstein list, these bite-sized topics also went trending on Chinese social media 👇

◼︎ 🌟 Weibo Night | As every year, Weibo Night, unsurprisingly, managed to become the no 1 entertainment topic of the week. It is the much-anticipated live-broadcasted ceremony that looks back on Sina Weibo’s hottest celebrities, entertainment productions, and happenings of the past year. Hosted by the Sina media company, the night has been a recurring event since 2003 – long before the Sina Weibo platform was launched. The night was initially known as the ‘Sina Grand Ceremony’ (新浪网络盛典) until it turned into the ‘Weibo Night’ (微博之夜) in 2010. This year’s edition took place on January 13 – check in on What’s on Weibo later for the highlights. For last year’s list of winners, check here. (Weibo Hashtag “Weibo Night” ##微博之夜##, billions of views, 970 million views on Friday alone and a staggering 7.6 billion views on Saturday!).

◼︎ 🍎 Homeless Chinese PhD graduate in NYC | The story of a Chinese academic who turned from a “genius student” in physics at Fudan University to a homeless man in the US has gone viral recently. The man named Sun (孙) first attracted attention due a Chinese vlogger spotting him sleeping on the streets in New York. After graduating, doing his PhD in the US and obtaining a green card, the man dealt with mental issues and started wandering the streets for 16 years. With help coming from all directions, the 54-year-old Sun is now off the streets and will possibly get help in returning to his family in China (Weibo hashtag “Homeless Fudan Doctor Gets In Touch with Hometown” ##复旦流浪博士已与家乡取得联系##, 180 million views; “Family Members Already Know Fudan Doctor Who Stayed in US Is Wandering NY Streets” #家属已知复旦留美博士流浪纽约街头#, 290 million views).

◼︎ 💍 One-third of 30-Something Urbanites Are Single | Some remarkable social trends found in China’s 2023 Population and Employment Statistics Yearbook (中国人口和就业统计年鉴2023) have recently triggered online discussions. According to the statistics, the unmarried rate among the 30-year-old population in China’s urban areas now exceeds 30%. Experts explain that this is mostly related to Chinese younger generations postponing marriage due to spending longer time in education and also because of the relatively high cost of living. At the same time, China’s rural areas have also seen a staggering decrease in marriage rates (in 25-29 age group over 47% is unmarried), which can mostly be explained due to a gender imbalance in marriageable age groups. (Weibo hashtags “30% of 30-Somethings in Chinese Cities are Single” #全国城市30岁人群未婚率超30%#, 27+ million views; “Late Marriage Trend Has Spread from Cities to Villages” #晚婚已从城市蔓延到农村#, hashtag page taken offline).

◼︎ 🍣 Fukushima Food Poisoning | Lots of Japan news went trending on Chinese social media this month, from the devastating earthquake along Japan’s western coast to the Japan Airlines jet collision. Smaller Japan news that went trending this week is a collective food poisoning incident that took place in Fukushima earlier this month. Among many guests who stayed and dined at a local Fukushima hotel, 101 people fell ill after eating raw fish. Last year, Japan also saw several other large-scale food poisoning incidents. This Fukushima incident especially went trending on Chinese social media within the context of the release of treated radioactive water from the ruined Fukushima nuclear plant, which became one of the biggest social media topics in 2023. Although unrelated, netizens link the food poisoning incident to the dangers of radioactive water (Weibo hashtag “100 people in Japan’s Fukushima Get Food Poisoning from Eating Raw Fish” ##日本福岛百人因吃生鱼片食物中毒##, 160 million views).

◼︎ 🐼 Yaya’s Weight Gain | Panda Yaya became one of the most discussed pandas of 2023. This female panda resided in the Memphis Zoo in the United States for most of her life and attracted significant attention on Chinese social media platforms after netizens expressed concern about her seemingly thin and unhealthy appearance. When the beloved panda finally returned to Beijing after two decades, her arrival became a true social media spectacle. Now, living in the Beijing Zoo, Yaya is often spotted enjoying her bamboo dinners and she clearly gained a lot of weight, much to the delight of netizens who see this as a sign that the panda is doing much better in China than in the US. (Weibo hashtag “Yaya Became A-Letter Chubby Panda”” ##丫丫胖成了A字熊##, 120 million views).

What’s the Drama

We’re introducing this new short Weibo Watch segment to keep you in the loop about some of the most-discussed TV dramas and series in China, as they’re a significant part of China’s online environment. While the South Korean TV drama Death’s Game (#死期将至#), of which Part 2 was released on Jan 5, has been popular on Chinese social media recently, it’s Wong Kar-wai’s Blossoms Shanghai (繁花) that is among the top trending Chinese TV dramas at the moment. The series first started airing on CCTV-8 and Tencent Video on December 27.

Adapted from Jin Yucheng’s award-winning novel, Blossoms Shanghai is set in 1990s Shanghai and tells the story of the young man A Bao (played by the ‘Weibo King’ Hu Ge 胡歌) who aims to become a successful businessman and self-made millionaire during China’s booming economic reform period. The series portrays a sharp contrast between the man’s troubled past and the city’s vibrant present. Noteworthy:

▶️ This is the first TV drama produced by Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-Wai, internationally acclaimed for movies such as Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love.
▶️ Particularly noteworthy is the inclusion of the now 91-year-old renowned Chinese actor You Benchang (游本昌), famous for his iconic role as the legendary monk Ji Gong in the 1980s. Despite his age, the actor spent entire days on set with his much younger colleagues, enduring ten-hour working days.
▶️ Due to the success of the series, locations featured in it are experiencing an influx of visitors, especially Shanghai’s Huanghe Road (黄河路). Shanghai’s Fairmont Peace Hotel on Nanjing East Road, also featured in Blossoms Shanghai, has even introduced a new menu featuring various dishes that also come up in the series.

An international/subtitled online release is expected soon, but if you’re in China, you can watch via Tencent here.

What Lies Behind

Similar to Zibo in 2023, it’s the city of Harbin that has successfully generated a significant social media buzz this season, attracting hordes of winter tourists. On the other side of Northern China, Xinjiang Province is also eager to step into the spotlight.

While the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival celebrated its official opening ceremony on January 5th, Xinjiang’s Ili Prefecture hosted an event to promote its first Tianma Ice and Snow Tourism Festival. The Snow Festival, scheduled to open on January 14th at Zhaosu County’s Wetland Park, will feature various winter activities and ice & snow sculpture exhibitions. By incorporating folk culture elements and highlighting its numerous ski resorts, local authorities aim to position Xinjiang as the third trending tourist destination after Zibo and Harbin.

However, the ‘online buzz’ surrounding Xinjiang hasn’t unfolded exactly as they had hoped. Local Xinjiang residents began expressing their opinions on social media, including on promotional videos on Douyin, cautioning tourists about high prices. For example, they pointed out that their popular spicy fried chicken dish (辣子鸡) could cost over 200 RMB (US$28), more than double the price elsewhere in China. A well-known Xinjiang vlogger suggested that budget-conscious tourists might find visiting the region in the summer more economical, while others criticized Xinjiang for the overcharging of tourists. Following the flood of online comments, the Xinjiang Culture and Tourism Department (新疆文旅) closed several Douyin comment sections.

Xinjiang’s efforts to go viral as a tourist destination show that it takes more than official propaganda to create a buzz – people are looking for genuineness, value, and that one special thing that makes it all worthwhile. During the summer of 2023, Xinjiang actually had an initial strong moment of domestic tourism recovery. After the pandemic years and strict zero Covid policies, many Chinese travelers were eager to experience something new and prioritized unique locations over a low budget. Now that the initial travel craze phase has passed, travelers are back to focusing on getting value for money and won’t accept being overcharged.

One definite upside of this marketing fail is that Chinese netizens very much appreciate how local Xinjiang residents gave travelers the heads up about the status quo. One commenter said, “After reading all the comments, I find Xinjiangers are so honest and lovely; this made me want to go visit! Maybe next time, they [local authorities] should promote their people instead.”