China’s hosting of the Winter Olympics has been overshadowed by the way it has been pulled apart and analysed on their exclusive social media platform Weibo.
Two female athletes both American-born but representing China competed last week and the response between them couldn’t have been more different.
One, Eileen Gu won gold in the Women’s Big Air freestyle skiing event, becoming China’s poster girl and so-called “Ice Princess.” The other, figure skater Zhu Yi fell in several of her events. Yi was then trolled online so badly, Chinese government censors were forced to step in.
“What the netizens are saying in relation to Zhu Yi’s performance doesn’t really subscribe to that Olympic spirit, which was what China was really hoping to promote prior to the start of the Games.”
– Jennifer Hsu, Chinese culture and media researcher
Jennifer Hsu, is a research fellow at the Lowy Institute studying Chinese culture and media. She joins us on today’s Briefing as ask – Was the difference in responses just because one performed well and the other performed badly or is there way more to it?
Listen to the full story below!