HONG KONG – Viewers of some of China’s most popular online variety shows were recently greeted by a curious face: a blur of pixels obscuring the brands on sneakers and T-shirts worn by contestants.
As far as viewers could see, the censored clothing showed no hints of obscenity or obscenity. The problem rather lies with the foreign brands that made it.
Since the end of March, streaming platforms in China have been diligently censoring the logos and symbols of brands such as Adidas that adorn participants who adorn dance, singing, and stand-up comedy routines. The phenomenon followed a feud between the government and international companies that said they would avoid cotton produced in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, where authorities are accused of a wide-ranging campaign of repression against ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs . .
While the anger in China against Western brands was palpable and persistent on social media, the look of artists changed into fast-moving stains of censored shoes and clothing, Chinese viewers barely, though unintentionally, provided comic relief amid a fierce global dispute. It also exposed the unexpected political threads facing apolitical entertainment platforms, as the government continues to arm the Chinese consumer in its political disputes with the West.
Most brands were not observable, but some could be identified. Chinese brands do not seem to be vague. It is not clear whether Chinese government officials explicitly ordered the brands to be embezzled. But experts said video streaming sites appear to be under pressure or forced to distance themselves publicly from Western brands.
Ying Zhu, a media expert in New York and Hong Kong, suggested that censorship is a response to state patriotism and grassroots fatherhood, especially as the opinions of nationalist viewers become more prominent and vocal.
“The pressure is from bottom to bottom,” Professor Zhu said. ‘It is not necessary for the state to instruct the companies to find out. The nationalist sentiment runs high and powerful, and it drowns out all other voices. ”
The censorship campaign can be traced back to a dispute that erupted last month, when Swedish clothing giant H&M was suddenly scrubbed from Chinese online shopping stores. The move came after the Communist Youth League and state-run media re-emerged a statement H&M made months ago expressing its concern about forced labor in Xinjiang.
Other Western clothing brands have also said that they will avoid using Xinjiang cotton, and one after another, many Chinese celebrities have severed ties with them. Since then, the loyalty test has apparently spread to streaming programs.
Fang Kecheng, an assistant professor of journalism at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who studies media and politics, said he believes the platforms probably censored the brands to prevent a backlash from viewers.
“If someone is not happy with the brands appearing in the shows, they could launch a campaign on social media that attacks the producers, which could attract the government’s attention and eventually lead to punishment,” he said on Thursday. -pos said.
As the blur spread across clothing brands, it led to a few brackets on shows. The video platform iQiyi has announced that it will delay the release of an episode of ‘Youth With You 3’, a reality show for prospective pop gods. It did not disclose the reason, but Internet users suspect it had something to do with Adidas, which provided T-shirts and sneakers for the contestants to wear as a sort of team uniform.
Some internet users made mocking predictions about what the upcoming episode would look like, and copied photos to make the contestants spin vertically so that their Adidas T-shirts would read ‘Sabiba’ instead.
When the episode streamed two days later, rectangles in pixels obscured the T-shirts and sports jackets of dozens of dancers and the distinctive triple stripes on their Adidas sneakers. Internet users remarked remarkably that none of the shirts were spared except for the contestant who was wearing his shirt backwards. Lots of sympathy with video editors for their lost sleep and labor dimming the T-shirts.
Other performances carried out similar blurring in post-production. Participants in another reality show for entertainers, “Sisters Who Waves Waves”, practiced wagon wheels in sneakers that faded into indescribable ambiguities. So many shoes have been erased in the stand-up comedy series, “Roast,” that when a group gathers on a stage, the space between the floor and their long hem looks like a mist.
A representative of Tencent Video, which hosts ‘Roast’, declined to comment on why some brands were censored. The streaming platforms iQiyi and Mango TV, which host ‘Youth With You 3’ and ‘Sisters Who Waves Make’ respectively, did not respond to requests for comment. Adidas did not respond to questions via email.
The fading or washing on the screen is hardly new in China. The earrings of male pop stars were brushed to hide earrings that are considered too slight. A temporary drama with décolletage that is characteristic of the Tang Dynasty was taken off the air in 2015, only to be replaced with a version that cut out many of the costumes and zoomed uncomfortably on the talking heads of the artists. Soccer players were ordered to cover arm tattoos with long sleeves.
The on-screen censorship illustrates the difficult line that the online video platforms, which are regulated by the National Radio and Television Administration, must enter.
“The fading is probably the censorship of the platforms to be safe as a pity,” said Haifeng Huang, an associate professor of political science at the University of California at Merced, and a scholar of authoritarianism and public opinion in China.
“But it does imply the power of the state and the nationalist segment of society, which is probably also the message the audience is getting: these big platforms need to censor themselves, even without explicitly telling it.”
The fading deliveries also show how the platforms seem willing to sacrifice the quality of the viewing experience to avoid political outbursts, even if it does not become the measure of audience jokes.
“In a social environment where censorship is commonplace, people are desensitized and even treated as another form of entertainment,” Professor Huang said.
Albee Zhang and Joy Dong contributed research.