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Twitter users call for Mulan boycott over actress’s anti-Hong Kong protest meme
Mulan lead actress Liu Yifei reposted a meme endorsing Hong Kong police accused of violence
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
It seems every day there’s a new call from patriotic Weibo users to boycott a brand or product that’s seemingly not conforming to the Chinese government’s policies on Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Now there’s a new call to boycott… except it’s not coming from Weibo users in China. It’s coming from outside China, on Twitter.
On Friday, users on Twitter started the hashtag #BoycottMulan -- not because of anything specific in the upcoming Disney film, which hasn’t come out yet, but because of a Weibo post by lead actress Liu Yifei.
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On Wednesday evening, Liu shared a People’s Daily Weibo post that included the hashtag “I support Hong Kong Police” and a meme that reads “I support Hong Kong police; you can beat me now.” The picture included in English, “What a shame for Hong Kong.” Liu shared the post and added the same hashtag.
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The meme is a reference to a Global Times reporter who reportedly said the same thing to protesters at Hong Kong’s airport before being beaten by them. The treatment of the reporter for the state-owned tabloid bolstered nationalist sentiment in the mainland, and the meme went viral. But outside China, it wasn’t seen in such a friendly light.
Liu’s post, which has been shared almost 700,000 times on Weibo, triggered a wave of angry comments on Twitter.
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