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Celebrities scrubbed from the Chinese internet: Victims of China’s social revolution?

Last week, any mention of Zhao, a Chinese actress who shot to fame for her role as Xiao Yanzi in hit TV series My Fair Princess , was scrubbed from the entire Chinese internet. Zhao’s whereabouts has since been unknown. To get more latest entertainment news, you can visit shine news official website.

Meanwhile, Chinese pop culture icon Gao, who is among a group of verified Weibo personalities with a large following known as the “Big Vs” (大V), was also targeted. Traces of his songs and other work have been removed from the internet. His Xiaosong Library in Beijing has also been temporarily closed since 28 August. The Chinese Academy of History under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences published a lengthy article that same day, harshly criticising Gao as smuggling in “historical nihilism” under the guise of interpreting history.

The article also listed the “seven deadly sins” of Gao: 1) white-washing historical figures He Yingqin and Chiang Kai-shek and referring to them as firmly belonging to the anti-Japanese camp; 2) falsely claiming that the Mukden incident happened because of warlord Zhang Xueliang and denying the justice of the Xi’an Incident; 3) visiting the Yasukuni Shrine and evoking the “dead soul” of Japanese militarism; 4) defaming historical figure Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) as a “big Japanese pirate passionately praising the US and flattering India because they are said to be “democratic”; 6) comparing the People’s Liberation Army to the the paramilitary organisation SS (Schutzstaffel) under Nazi Germany; and 7) making countless ridiculous remarks.

Gao, Zhao and Alibaba
Similarly involving historical issues, Zhao was also embroiled in controversy for wearing a dress featuring a Japanese military flag in 2001. But the more attention-grabbing similarity between Zhao and Gao is that they are both involved with Alibaba.
It was reported that Zhao and her husband Huang Youlong made their foray into the capital market in December 2014 and became the second-largest shareholder of Alibaba Pictures. Back then, because Zhao owned shares in Alibaba Pictures, the couple’s net worth skyrocketed by over HK$4 billion within a short period of time and they earned a net profit of HK$1 billion after a successful cash out. This investment was known as one of Zhao’s most successful performances as a female “stock god” in the entertainment industry. Apart from this, it was also alleged that Zhao holds shares in Ant Group under the name of her mother.

When the book Jinguan Ma Yun , A Closer Look at Ma Yun) was published in 2014, Zhao was one of the 12 co-authors of the book, demonstrating the close relationship she shares with Ma. However, Ma tried to dissociate himself from Zhao when he was interviewed by The Beijing News in 2017. He claimed that he had seen Zhao less than ten times, and five of those occasions were charity events. “I wonder why we are being linked to each other. This I do not understand,” he said.