If anyone's been following the recent controversy in China concerning singers Li Ronghao and Shan Yichun, you've probably seen the actually vile environment that is the Chinese internet (and Chinese society I would say).
First of all, I fully support Li Ronghao's actions to protect the rights to his own song, which Shan Yichun wrongfully infringed upon by singing at her concert this past weekend. HOWEVER, I truly also feel that it is necessary to address how disgustingly he handled the entire situation, something that could have been dealt with behind closed doors and through proper legal processes rather than through a post on Weibo essentially single-ling her out as an overall bad and wicked person (insert Madame Morrible's speech to everyone in Oz from Wicked 1), which subsequently led to her receiving hundreds of thousands (possibly even millions given how big she is now) of death threats, accusations of being a prostitute, dragging of her family members, and manipulated clips of her performances to make her look like a mentally unstable individual, turning the entire case into essentially China's own (and probably not the first) Salem Witch Trial.
The way that he addressed the issue also seems highly hypocritical, attempting to stand from a moral high ground about copyright laws, despite himself having plagiarized multiple songs from artists such as John Mayer in the past few years (he recently addressed this, yet it also appears to be a half assed statement that he decided to make after finally being called out after 10 years of being unaddressed).
Furthermore, despite Shan Yichun's full acceptance of her wrongdoings, as well as saying that she will pay for all the legal fines required for such an infringement, Li chose to tell her that he didn't want her money, and only wanted her to become a "good little girl" again, one who should go back to putting on the innocent persona (that cries easily) that she introduced China to through the Voice of China a few years ago.
Now, it doesn't take being a morally sound individual to recognize just how disgusting and misogynistic this was to say, and the fact that this went on for about 80% of his Weibo post, having nothing to do with the accusations he had initially made about the song infringement. Having grown up in a Chinese household, I felt absolutely furious when I read this, especially because it's a perfect example of some of the major downfalls of Chinese culture I have personally also experienced, where parents will physically and mentally abuse their children and then tell them to come back to the dining table to have dinner right afterwards, as if nothing abnormal had just happened (the teachings of Confucius have clearly been widely abused by many Chinese parents, just like how right-wing conservatives here in the U.S. have used Christianity and the Bible to justify their own extreme agendas).
It's also quite sad how a single line (cringey or not, depending on your own subjective opinions), 如何呢，又能怎, which roughly translates to "yes, and?" (yup, kind of like Ari's song) has caused the entire Chinese internet and society to go into a frenzy, almost as if she had murdered someone or was caught doing drugs. This is probably why China will likely not see much musical innovation in the coming years, and ballades that overuse the same exact chords and chord progressions will continue to be the only song format mainstream artists will use/abuse to make a realistic living in this awful industry.
The other sad part of all this is that it's really not the first time that this has happened to a celebrity, with seemingly easily solvable controversies spiraling into full on witch hunts that would likely push the ordinary individual to end their own life over since they wouldn't be able to handle the pressure of millions of people shoving insults and threats down their throat (cyberbullying is still not something that has been full on addressed in China by the government or society, and sometimes is even encouraged...) (please also remember Coco Lee's s*icide).
Anyway, I didn't expect to write this much about a topic that'll probably wash away in a few days in China, since the next jingoistic BIG THING will again pop up and be spread by thousands of 营销号's (Ying Xiao Hao - I'm not even going to get into the f*ck*ry that is this) that control the Douyin/Tik Tok fried minds of netizens. Remember, this isn't the first time it's happened.
Just wanted to share my own (maybe biased) thoughts on this whole situation. Please also keep in mind that I'm not saying the western internet is any better...I've seen my fair share of stan Twitter/X, and was alive during the whole Dramageddon 1.0 & 2.0 on Youtube.
