Chinese star’s ‘Tiananmen’ tank ice cream promotion backfires
A CHINESE online influencer promoting Viennetta ice cream was abruptly censored after live-streaming a dessert shaped like a tank on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Li Jiaqi displayed a plate of the British ice cream with cookies on the side resembling wheels and a chocolate ball and stick on top as a turret and gun before his live broadcast was cut, bewildering his 64 million followers.
All mentions of the events of June 4 1989, when the Chinese military suppressed student demonstrators calling for greater democracy, in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, remain banned in China.
The killing of possibly thousands of unarmed protesters is not taught in China’s classrooms and references are scrubbed from the internet, while those who try to commemorate the deaths are routinely harassed or detained.
Even subtle nods – such as alluding to “that event” – are considered taboo and quickly deleted online, contributing to a collective amnesia, especially among those born after 1989.
To a certain extent, the block backfired, as many of Mr Li’s young fans were confused by the censorship, posting online and wondering why.
“What on earth happened to Li Jiaqi? All of a sudden his livestream disappeared,” one person asked online.
A few hours later, Mr Li – known as the Lipstick King in China for selling cosmetics to young women – apologised to followers, asking for their patience and saying there had been a “technical glitch” and that his broadcast would resume at a later date.
It’s unclear what Mr Li, 29, who was born a few years after the massacre, knows of the events himself, and whether he understood why the promotion might have drawn the censors’ ire.
For the most part, Mr Li has been careful to toe the line, as political references – even accidental ones – have at times ruined the careers of prominent Chinese celebrities.
In Hong Kong, six people were arrested in Victoria Park, where for decades, crowds would gather to commemorate those who died – a ceremony that is now criminalised under a national security law that took effect last year.
Unilever, which owns the British firm Wall’s which makes Viennetta, did not immediately comment.