No Beta 08: A Beautiful Mental State

Week of 23rd of April

Hi there. Welcome to Active Faults.

This week, fanquan is talking about…

On Weibo, trending at #1: 李闽轩回应

Li Minxuan responds

To be honest with you I didn’t know who this was until I clicked the hashtag. A social media influencer allegedly with over 5 million followers on Douyin has recently applied for China’s top performative arts school, Beijing Film Academy and attended its in-person exams. Other fellow test takers blew the whistle that she “cheated” and violated examination rules, namely by revealing her name in an anonymous acting segment and wearing the wrong attire to the venue. BFA has since revoked her application and she released a video to address the matter, vehemently and tearfully defending that she didn’t cheat on purpose. Netizens are less than sympathetic.

I’ve written earlier last year, in the Jackson Yee piece, that such outrage forms political protests and proxy wars. I still stand by that point: anger towards celebrity privilege is in reality discontentment towards poor governance that led to increased competition in educational opportunities, which are then so tightly intertwined with job prospects, salaries and therefore general well-being. Social policies punish the “weak” and install no fail-safes. If you fail Gaokao (or even secondary school entrance exams because that competition trickled down), you fail in life in general. Hence the lack of tolerance towards celebrity cheaters.

What’s new here is how influencers are now subjected to the same scrutiny. Maybe I should do an issue on 网红 and traditional celebrities?

On Weibo, trending at #5: 周星驰要上综艺了

Stephen Chow is going to a reality show

Looks like my prediction is coming true. Famed comedy director and actor of the 00s Stephen Chow will make an appearance in an upcoming stand-up comedy reality programme as a producer, alongside AF cameos like Yang Li. Judging by the cast, I have an inkling that the production crew of Li Dan could be behind the project, who put Yang Li as well as hundreds of other comedians’ names on the map and gave birth to China’s stand-up comedy scene with the immensely successful 脱口秀大会. Li’s company got into trouble last year as a handful of comedians under the label were involved in domestic violence scandals and made controversial remarks that put the show under the government's radar. Many suspect that they’ve effectively banned the series and nipped the stand-up comedy field altogether.

By bringing Stephen Chow into the arena, it looks as though a regulated revival is being permitted. Since censorship will be upped, they’re throwing him in to compensate. Let’s wait and see.