Censorship of Winnie-the-Pooh in China

Last updated
Internet memes such as this that compare Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh have been censored in China. Lam and Xi = Piglet and Pooh.jpg
Internet memes such as this that compare Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh have been censored in China.

Beginning in July 2017, the government of China has been censoring imagery of the anthropomorphic teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, particularly Disney's version of the character. [1] The censorship is believed to be a result of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping being compared to the character in internet memes, which the Chinese government perceived as a disrespectful mockery of Xi. Despite the censorship, there is no general ban on books and toys depicting Winnie-the-Pooh in China; two Winnie-the-Pooh-themed rides still operate in Shanghai Disneyland. [2] [3]

Contents

Background

Censorship in China

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses extensive censorship. For instance, the Chinese government has censored topics regarding the Cultural Revolution and CCP chairman Mao Zedong, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and Taiwan. [4]

The Chinese government's censorship, which was initially limited to the mainland, is now spreading to other regions, such as Taiwan. For instance, in 2017 Taiwanese universities were asked to refrain from discussing sensitive issues in class, including unification/independence or "One China, One Taiwan". Due to the financial benefits of fee-paying mainland students, over 80 of 157 universities agreed to the demands, which compromised their academic independence. [4]

Comparisons between Xi Jinping and Winnie the Pooh

Chinese Internet users have frequently compared Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh: the comparisons serve to satirize Xi's publicly projected image. Xi attempts to portray himself as serious, whereas Winnie-the-Pooh is a comedic cartoon character for children. [5]

Comparisons between the cartoon character and Xi Jinping date back to 2013, when the Chinese leader visited Barack Obama in the United States. An image of the two leaders walking was immediately compared to that of the bear and his friend Tigger. The humorous tone on social media that day was repeated on other occasions with other leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who Internet users saw as a reasonable resemblance to Eeyore, the sad donkey that is also part of Winnie-the-Pooh's adventures. Very reluctant to permit any humorous comment about Xi, authorities ended up condemning the bear when some political activists and dissidents used it to express their discontent. [6]

The Chinese government has blocked images and mentions of Winnie the Pooh on social media because Internet users have been using the character to mock CCP general secretary Xi Jinping. [ citation needed ] This is part of a larger effort to restrict bloggers from getting around censorship in China. [ citation needed ] Notably, the 2018 film Christopher Robin was banned in China due to said comparisons. [7] The government is not only concerned with avoiding the ridicule of its leaders but also with preventing the character from becoming an online euphemism for the Communist Party's general secretary. [5]

Cultural impact

In October 2019, Pooh was featured in the South Park episode "Band in China" because of his alleged resemblance with Xi. In the episode, Pooh is brutally killed by Randy Marsh. South Park was banned in China as a result of the episode. [8] [9]

On March 21, 2023, movie distributor VII Pillars Entertainment announced on Facebook that Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey , originally scheduled to be released on March 23, would be cancelled for release in the Hong Kong and Macau regions. This move is suspected to be influenced by the amendment of Hong Kong's film censorship regulations in 2021, which prohibits the public screening of movies that are deemed "potentially harmful to national security". However, VII Pillars Entertainment did not provide any explanation for the decision. [10]

On 8 April 2023, the Taiwanese Air Force released an image of a Taiwanese pilot. The pilot was wearing a shoulder patch depicting a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh. The badge was designed by Alec Hsu in 2022. After the photo went viral, Mr. Hsu ordered more patches due to its popularity with civilians and the military alike. "I wanted to boost the morale of our troops through designing this patch," he told the media. The patch is not an official part of the Taiwanese Air Force's uniform however the military "will maintain an open attitude" to things that raise morale. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

China censors both the publishing and viewing of online material. Many controversial events are censored from news coverage, preventing many Chinese citizens from knowing about the actions of their government, and severely restricting freedom of the press. China's censorship includes the complete blockage of various websites, apps, video games, inspiring the policy's nickname, the "Great Firewall of China", which blocks websites. Methods used to block websites and pages include DNS spoofing, blocking access to IP addresses, analyzing and filtering URLs, packet inspection, and resetting connections.

The mass media in the People's Republic of China primarily consists of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since the start of the 21st century, the Internet has also emerged as an important form of mass media and is under the direct supervision and control of the Chinese government and ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Media in China is strictly controlled and censored by the CCP, with the main agency that oversees the nation's media being the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP. The largest media organizations, including the China Media Group, the People's Daily, and the Xinhua News Agency, are all controlled by the CCP.

Winnie or Winny may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xi Jinping</span> General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party since 2012, President of China since 2013

Xi Jinping is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus the paramount leader of China, since 2012. Xi has also been the president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013. He belongs to the fifth generation of Chinese leadership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (attraction)</span> Dark ride at Disney theme parks

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a dark ride based upon the 1977 film of the same name, itself based on the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The attraction exists in slightly different forms at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland Park. Pooh's Hunny Hunt, located in Tokyo Disneyland, is an enhanced "E-ticket class" attraction, featuring full audio animatronics and a trackless ride system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winnie the Pooh (Disney character)</span> Fictional teddy bear created by A. A. Milne

Winnie the Pooh is a fictional bear and the main character in Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise, based on the character Winnie-the-Pooh created by English author A. A. Milne and English artist and book illustrator E. H. Shepard, being one of the most popular characters adapted for film and television by The Walt Disney Company. Disney first received certain licensing rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, characters, and trademarks from Stephen Slesinger, Inc. and the estate of A. A. Milne in 1961. Winnie the Pooh is one of the most popular characters adapted for film and one of Disney's most popular characters, especially in terms of merchandising.

Censorship in the People's Republic of China is mandated by the PRC's ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is one of the strictest censorship regimes in the world. The government censors content for mainly political reasons, such as curtailing political opposition, and censoring events unfavorable to the CCP, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, pro-democracy movements in China, the persecution of Uyghurs in China, human rights in Tibet, Falun Gong, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Xi Jinping became the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, censorship has been "significantly stepped up".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winnie-the-Pooh</span> Fictional character created by A. A. Milne

Winnie-the-Pooh is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name in a children's story commissioned by London's Evening News for Christmas Eve 1925. The character is inspired by a stuffed toy that Milne had bought for his son Christopher Robin in Harrods department store, and a bear they had viewed at London Zoo.

Neican are internal reports of limited circulation prepared for the high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Book censorship in China</span> History and commonness of book censorship in China

Book censorship in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is mandated by the PRC's ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and is currently widespread in China. Enforcement is strict and sometimes inconsistent. Punishment for violations can be arbitrary many times leading to long sentences for crimes against censorship laws.

The 24th anniversary of Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 took place in China and internationally around 4 June 2013. The protests commemorated victims of the Chinese Communist Party crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Activities included the state of alert within mainland China, and the traditional marches and candlelight vigils that took place in Hong Kong and Macau on 4 June 2013 which have taken place every year prior to that since 1990. The two former colonies are the only places on Chinese soil where the 1989 crushing of China's pro-democracy movement can be commemorated.

Rhyzodiastes xii, known alternatively as the Daddy Xi beetle, is a species of ground beetle that attracted media attention in 2016, when an entomologist named it after the paramount leader of China, Xi Jinping, who is the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China.

Events from the year 2017 in China.

<i>Devotion</i> (video game) 2019 survival horror video game

Devotion is a first-person psychological horror video game developed by Red Candle Games. It is set in Taiwan in the 1980s, with a majority of the game happening in an apartment complex in Taipei. The game also incorporates elements based on Taiwanese culture and folk religion. The game was released on February 19, 2019, but was removed from Steam shortly afterwards on February 26, after a controversial Easter egg referencing Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, was found in the game. The game was re-released on March 15, 2021 on Red Candle Games' own digital store.

"Band in China" is the second episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series South Park. The 299th episode overall of the series, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on October 2, 2019. The episode parodies media censorship in China, and the manner in which the American entertainment industry purposefully compromises its productions to avoid it.

Chinese censorship abroad refers to extraterritorial censorship by the government of the People's Republic of China, i.e. censorship that is conducted beyond China's own borders. The censorship can be applied to both Chinese expatriates and foreign groups. Sensitive topics that have been censored include the political status of Taiwan, human rights in Tibet, Xinjiang internment camps, the persecution of Uyghurs in China, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China, the PRC government's COVID-19 pandemic response, the persecution of Falun Gong, and more general issues related to human rights and democracy in China.

Freedom of the press in China refers to the journalism standards and its freedom and censorship exercised by the government of China. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China guarantees "freedom of speech [and] of the press" which the government, in practice, routinely violates with total impunity, according to Reporters Without Borders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party</span> 2022 Chinese Communist Party conference

The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), commonly referred to as Èrshí Dà, was held in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing from 16 to 22 October 2022. The National Congress is the highest organ of the party, and is stipulated to be held every five years. The conference had 2,296 delegates and 83 specially invited delegates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Beijing Sitong Bridge protest</span> 2022 protest in China

The Beijing Sitong Bridge protest was a protest taken place on October 13, 2022, in Haidian, Beijing, China.

References

  1. ↑ McDonell, Stephan (17 July 2017). "Why China censors banned Winnie the Pooh". BBC. BBC. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  2. ↑ Westcott, Ben; Jiang, Steven (2018-08-08). "Taiwan mocks Beijing over new Winnie the Pooh film". CNN. Retrieved 2023-09-13.
  3. ↑ "How Banned Is Winnie the Pooh in China, Really?". MEL Magazine. 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2023-09-13.
  4. 1 2 Wong, Matthew Y. H.; Kwong, Ying-Ho (2019). "Academic Censorship in China: The Case of The China Quarterly". PS: Political Science & Politics. 52 (2): 287–292. doi: 10.1017/S1049096518002093 . S2CID   159158268.
  5. 1 2 McDonell, Stephen (17 July 2017). "Why China censors banned Winnie-the-Pooh". BBC . Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  6. ↑ Fontdeglòria, Xavier (8 August 2018). "Ursinho Pooh é censurado na China pelas comparações com Xi Jinping" [Winnie the Pooh is censored in China for comparisons with Xi Jinping]. EL PAÍS Brasil (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 23 March 2023. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  7. ↑ Stewart, Emily (4 August 2018). "Christopher Robin, denied Chinese release, is the latest victim in China's war on Winnie the Pooh". Vox. Voxmedia. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  8. ↑ Parker, Ryan; Brzeski, Patrick (7 October 2019). "'South Park' Scrubbed From Chinese Internet After Critical Episode". The Hollywood Reporter . Archived from the original on 10 October 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  9. ↑ Brito, Christopher (2019-10-08). ""South Park" creators offer fake apology to China after reported ban". www.cbsnews.com. Archived from the original on 2019-10-11. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  10. ↑ "Winnie the Pooh horror film will not be shown in Hong Kong or Macau". BBC News. 2023-03-21. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  11. ↑ Wu, Sarah; Yew, Lun Tian (2023-04-10). "A punch in the face for Xi caricature: Taiwan air force badge goes viral". Reuters . Archived from the original on 2023-04-10. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.