With Chinese fans growing less tolerant of celebrities who make comments that are not in line with Beijing, a leading entertainment agency in Japan has released a manual to help artists navigate the online minefields.
“The Manual For Entering the China Market” guides Japanese stars on how to avoid being “cancelled” in China, even providing lists of issues they should not mention on social media and sensitive dates that they should avoid when making major announcements.
But some experts have warned that the guide might still not be enough to guard against all the taboos, which are often vague and seem to expand as time goes on.
In the very first paragraph, the manual tackles the issue of Taiwan and the one-China principle. It also advises keeping social media posts free of talk about politics, history and territory, according to an article in Japanese magazine Shukan Bunshun in September.
The Yasukuni Shrine is also a taboo subject, according to the manual. The shrine is dedicated to Japan’s war dead, but is at the centre of an international controversy over its honouring of war criminals.
Wang Yan, a lecturer in digital sociology at Britain’s Lancaster University, said the manual was an obvious step as more celebrities fell foul of the extreme “ cancel culture” among Chinese fans.
Is cancel culture being cancelled? Just look at The Flash with Ezra Miller
Is cancel culture being cancelled? Just look at The Flash with Ezra Miller
“It’s understandable that the entertainment companies make such recommendations based on their commercial logic,” she said. “They certainly want to minimise the political risk and the business-related risk, while maximising the commercial value of celebrities.”
However, scholars also noted that the “patriotic and nationalistic” fans wanting to help safeguard the national interest were capable of humbling celebrities and brands when they posted things that insulted China.
The manual mentions one instance where a member of K-pop boy band BTS said Taiwan was the country he most wanted to visit. Fans deemed the remark crossed the line and harmed China’s territorial integrity.
It also names and shames Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, who apologised in 2014 after posting a photo of himself in front of the Yasukuni Shrine, causing uproar in China.
Another star to suffer the ire of nationalistic Chinese fans was Chou Tzu-yu, the Taiwanese member of Korean girl group Twice. She was attacked over a television appearance where she was seen waving the flag of Taiwan.
Chou lost endorsements in the wake of the controversy, and the star released a video apology in which she reiterated the one-China principle.
Chinese fans have changed over recent years from passive pop culture consumers to an influential force able to both grow their idols’ influence – or shred it.
A slogan first used in 2016 after Seoul announced the installation of a US-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system – “Adoring the idol should be inferior to safeguarding the interests of the country” – has now become the leading principle among fans when dealing with disrespectful comments by celebrities.
The growth of fan activism in China is something that has come about gradually, shaped by certain events, according to Zhuang Yuyi, an associate professor at the Xiamen University’s political science department.
He said the Xinjiang cotton controversy in 2021 was one such event which saw a shift in the way fans reacted. When brands at the time expressed concerns over allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang, there was backlash from Chinese netizens, with some online shops blocked and boycotted.
Zhuang said the manual would greatly help both artists and companies.
“The manual has made clear some of the unwritten and unofficial rules that every artist would follow when entering the China market,” he said.
“When performing overseas, it is necessary to respect the different history, customs and traditions of each country and avoid direct involvement in sensitive political or discriminatory issues.”
Zhuang also said the inclusion in the manual of dates when stars and companies should avoid making important announcements would help equip them with the cultural sensitivity they needed to survive.
The manual lists 18 such dates which are occasions of China’s “national humiliation”. It includes September 18, the anniversary of the 1931 Mukden incident marking the beginning of Japan’s invasion of China, as well as July 7, the date in 1937 when the Marco Polo Bridge incident led to the start of the second Sino-Japanese war.
A commemoration of the September 18 incident in Shenyang. Photo: Xinhua
It is not just foreign stars and brands that are caught up in online friction; domestic celebrities have also suffered the anger of Chinese fans when they have been caught making insensitive social media posts.
Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan had deals with more than 20 brands terminated and faced a domestic boycott in 2021 over three-year-old pictures of him posing at the Yasukuni Shrine.
Wang noted that having such political messages being part of the social domain would be beneficial to the Chinese government, with it potentially not needing to send out its own similar messages as frequently.
However, another researcher, who asked not to be named, said the manual should be taken with a pinch of salt, explaining that the market might eventually become a “minefield” with no one able to predict what the next contentious issue will be.
Wang agreed that the list of rules could continue to expand as people worried over potentially hurting others’ feelings.
“Issues like the ones mentioned in the manual are becoming a gold standard deciding whether you are a friend or a foe,” she said.
Xiamen University’s Zhang said with the growing entanglement of politics, entertainment and even sports, the manual helped set a boundary to avoid igniting unexpected tensions.
“If it can help moderate prickly relations, that is a good thing. If it doesn’t, then at least it won’t add fuel to the fire.”
