Celebrities supporting Hong Kong protests face blowback
PUBLISHED: 23 Oct 2014 23:31:33 | UPDATED: 24 Oct 2014 04:42:12
A protester protects himself from the storm at the main protest site at Admiralty as bad weather caused hours of rain on Wednesday. Photo: Getty Images
Julie Makinen
Will actors Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung and dozens of other celebrities who have spoken out in support of Hong Kong’s democracy protests face career blowback in mainland China for voicing their views?
Apple Daily and other Hong Kong-based publications that have supported the demonstrations reported this week that Chinese propaganda officials have drawn up a list of 47 stars and ordered state-owned Chinese media outlets to keep their names out of the press.
An employee at one state-run publication in Beijing said she was aware of the list but had no further details. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to talk to the media.
Reports of the blacklist come a week after Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a major speech saying he believes art should serve the people and socialism. Addressing a group of renowned authors, actors, scriptwriters and dancers in Beijing, he called on artists to produce more works that “disseminate contemporary Chinese values”.
Time will tell whether celebrities who have spoken out in support of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central movement will be officially shut out of mainland China. But some mainlanders are already calling on fans to take measures into their own hands and boycott the films, shows and songs of such artists.
On Wednesday, “Pro-Occupy Central artists get out of mainland China” was one of the hottest topics on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media service. More than 4.6 million users had commented on the subject.
Some said Hong Kong artists have been “too spoiled” by fans in China, whose entertainment market has exploded in recent years and dwarfs those of Hong Kong and Taiwan. “We should save our dignity and not offer them more work! They have said they didn’t need our money! We mainland have so many gorgeous actors, we don’t need to look at their faces and be scolded like idiots while they make money out of our pockets. We shouldn’t spoil them any more!” wrote one user.
Stars cast out by director
It’s not just on the mainland that pro-Occupy Central stars are taking heat.
Jing Wong, a Hong Kong film director, wrote on his Weibo page that he would no longer work with three artists who have strongly supported the protests: actors Anthony Wong and Chapman To and singer Denise Ho.
“I have never paid much attention to politics, I’m not even a voter. But my wife and I have decided to register to vote. Let’s vote to chase these traitors out, we cannot let them poison HK any more!” Mr Wong wrote, adding, “I respect that you have your own political opinions. But I do not agree with you. Your contacts will be deleted from my computers and cellphones.”
Denise Ho has appeared regularly at Occupy Central rallies. On Tuesday night, she addressed the crowd after student protest leaders held talks with government officials; the dialogue yielded no immediate breakthroughs.
“We should not be disappointed by the fact that talks with the officials still can’t bring us true democracy, but full of hope that we have such amazing students who fight for our future,” she said.
Ms Ho’s name was on supposed blacklist circulating this week. Others included actors Tony Leung and Nick Cheung, lyricist Albert Leung, singer-actress Karena Lam and singer Deserts Xuan. Chow Yun-fat earned the nickname “non-governmental chief executive” after he gave an interview to Apple Daily on October 1 criticising police for using tear gas against demonstrators.
Los Angeles Times
MCT
***
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
24102014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là ĐỒNG LÕA với TỘI ÁC
No comments:
Post a Comment