简体中文
A revived push by China to cleanse cyberspace swept up a quickly rising Internet celebrity, highlighting efforts to temper the explosive popularity of online stars.
Papi Jiang, a 29-year-old graduate student in drama, surged to Chinese Internet fame with her lightning-fast, squeaky-voiced monologues riffing on relationships, beauty and other concerns of China’s urban young women.Her growing audience landed her12 million yuan ($1.9 million) in funding from a group of investors in March.
But on Monday, Papi Jiang’s videos were taken down from Youku, a Chinese video-streaming website similar to YouTube. The Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily, reported that her videos were pulled for their use of expletives, citing regulators as saying they must be cut before the videos could be reposted. Papi Jiang—a pseudonym that means “Little Puppy” in a mangled cross of English and Japanese—issued a public apology on Monday.
“I am a person who is open and willing to accept criticism,” she wrote on Chinese social-media platform Weibo, where she has 11.5 million followers. “Only by accepting criticism and promptly correcting my mistakes and insufficiencies can I move in a better direction.”
In an editorial on Wednesday, People’s Daily linked the Papi Jiang case to a renewed effort by China’s top leaders to control new-media outlets. China’s PresidentXi Jinpingsummoned leading tech executives and Internet regulators to Beijing on Tuesday to hear his directives on Internet overhauls. Mr. Xi called on them to build a “clean and healthy cyberspace,” among other goals.
People’s Daily cautioned in its editorial that new-media stars like Papi Jiang now had as much influence as traditional media outlets and required closer scrutiny.
The Papi Jiang case dovetails with recent efforts by China’s Internet regulators to rein in popular social-media personalities, saidKing-wa Fu,an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s journalism school.
Many previously censored online personalities had crossed into taboo political topics. Papi Jiang’s material is largely nonpolitical, though in at least one video she repeats, in her trademark high-pitched voice, remarks made by former PresidentJiang Zeminin a 2000 tirade against Hong Kong media.
Authorities have shut down the Weibo accounts of a string of online personalities since Mr. Xi came to power three years ago. This year,Weibo kicked offoutspoken former real-estate executiveRen Zhiqiang,who had 37.8 million followers, after he said the media’s loyalty should be with taxpayers rather than the Communist Party.
While Papi Jiang, whose real name isJiang Yilei,should be able to repost her videos after “expletives and vulgar content” are removed in line with guidelines from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the case highlights the challenging creative environment facing Chinese comedians. Papi Jiang’s videos include some swear words, but she is less foul-mouthed than many popular U.S. comedians.
An assistant to Ms. Jiang didn’t reply to an emailed request to comment, nor did a spokeswoman for one of her investors, ZhenFund.
A call to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television late Wednesday rang unanswered.
The popularity of Ms. Jiang and other Web celebrities that have emerged in the past few years in China stems in part from their sarcastic humor, saidZhang Yiwu,a Peking University professor who studies modern Chinese culture.
“Papi Jiang is popular with many young Chinese people, as she pokes fun at the topics that preoccupy them,” he said. “She has this humorous tone that is both self-loving and self-mocking.”
(THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
