Chinese rappers support Black Lives Matter protests in the US – after slamming Hong Kong’s anti-government demonstrations
- Chinese hip-hop artists Vava and Higher Brothers took to social media to back the protests following the death of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis
- However, last year at the height of civil unrest in Hong Kong, both were just as vocal in their criticism of protesters in the city
A number of high-profile Chinese rappers who last year backed the police crackdown on Hong Kong protesters have this week expressed support for the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality in the United States.
The move by the celebrities comes after Chinese officials and state media trolled the US government over the protests and looting that have spread across the US in the past week following the death of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis, and after Washington issued threats over Beijing’s own attempts to quash unrest in Hong Kong.
Rapper Vava – one of the best-known hip-hop artists in China – posted a black square on her Instagram page as part of the “Blackout Tuesday” campaign along with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter.
However, during the height of the Hong Kong protests last year, she used Instagram to share a pro-police meme created by the Communist Party media outlet People’s Daily. It read: “I support Hong Kong police, you can hit me” in Chinese characters.
And the Higher Brothers hip-hop outfit from Sichuan province posted a black image on Instagram on Sunday featuring the text: “We will use our channels to invite conversation and support national and local organisations for change. All of us need to strive to be the change we want to see.”
But last August, as the Hong Kong protests intensified, two of the outfit’s four members used Instagram to share an image of the Chinese flag as part of a social media campaign to support the crackdown in Hong Kong and drum up nationalism in China.
The Higher Brothers have come under fire in the comments section on their post. One user wrote, “I will never forget what you said about Hong Kong protesters when the students faced police brutality”, and another posted, “If this isn’t irony then I don’t know what is”.
Instagram was blocked intermittently inside China when the 2014 protests broke out in Hong Kong, and is now banned altogether.
