8月13日 张哲瀚 扒坟造谣 封杀事件
It has been 50 days since 813-2021.
I have felt anger, frustration, helplessness, despair as a Zhang Zhe Han fan, and these feelings still cycle through my life as the days went by. Every time I see his video, his photo in my timeline, I feel a twinge of happiness, then comes the stab of pain.
While keeping my silence, I still kept up with what has been happening.
Platforms, without actual government mandate, continued to erase every trace of Zhang Zhe Han. They removed his works, his name from dramas, variety shows, drama merchandise.
Not one of them seemed to have any inclination to voice out any uncertainty regarding how his case had been handled. It was an open and shut case – this ‘3 day Trial by Netizens’.
Weibo had received accolades, for the swift removal of his official accounts, including his 工作室 – by Aug 15. Other celebrities with scandals or were under official police investigations – their accounts were only muted 禁言 or suspended 账号被封. I am unclear if Zhang’s account had been deleted permanently but I could not see it when I did a search.
ZZH and his agency had not been given any chance to speak up for themselves. Their voices were effectively silenced.
When using his name, weibo will remove or limit the viewing of your post ( 被夹).
It has been said by some people that if you typed his name in Wechat, it will get censored as well.
This coordinated smear campaign of nearly 20 ‘rumors package’ , some photoshopped, some taken out of context, was unleashed over those few days, to attack Zhang Zhe Han’s character.. He had many 热搜 topics, with moderate readership but they all somehow made it up to the hot search.
In this package, there had been a photograph with Dewi Sukarno, taken at his friend’s wedding in 2019. It was later discovered that someone had changed her Baidu page and modified her husband from Sukarno to Suharto just a day before 813 – and this would became another black mark against him, for ‘being friendly’ with the wife of an ‘anti-Chinese’ Indonesian president ( the 1998 riots had killed many Chinese ).
There were also images of him doing a ‘Nazi salute’, which fans knew it was a shout-out to his Brother co-star, but was spread to the masses to further malign his character.
Rumors were allowed to spin out of control, and some gossip accounts even claimed that he was friends with the son of the Japan Prime Minister (debunked). Nothing was spared, even his reading hobby was called into question.
But the ‘unforgivable’ slight that was reported all over the world as the main reason for his cancellation, has to be his ‘visit’ to the Yasukuni Shrine.
Global reports also use the word ‘visit‘, and ‘at‘ the shrine freely… asiaone even got the basic information wrong and stated that he went twice ( ” taken in 2018 and 2019″ ).
Not one single foreign news outlet, noticed or pointed out that the ‘shrine’ in his photo, was not the shrine itself. He had not gone in purposefully and posed in front of the main shrine like a certain singer had some years ago.
But to a casual reader, it certainly seemed like he did.
Zhang Zhe Han had not stepped into the main shrine grounds but was outside the shrine gardens taking photos of the sakura in bloom.
But none of this seemed to matter.
Investigative work by fans, have plotted his path on the ‘sakura corridor’ in 2018.
The ‘shrine’ in his photo ( numbered 7 ) was just a 斋官 ( administrative office ) of the shrine. Still, to a number of people, perhaps he should not even have been there. However, it has also been revealed that back in 2018, China-Japan relations was in a very good place, and that this sakura viewing spot had been recommended by no less than than six big China official media accounts. Zhang was just one of the millions of China tourists who went to that same area in that year.
Hence, should Zhang Zhe Han be judged now in retrospect?
参拜 Paying respects
参观 Visit
打卡 Taking photos for social media
Big 营销号 gossip accounts with large followings, launched their campaign of misinformation and whipped the public into a frenzy. They led attacks on his endorsement brands’ weibo accounts – leaving horrible comments. They freely used the term 参拜 which meant that Zhang had gone to the shrine to pay his respects to the war criminals – which the public believed and some were made unwitting accessories to this 网暴 incident. A government article had belately used the term 打卡 – but enough damage had been done by then.
To this day, some netizens thought Zhang was being politically insensitive and had just went there in 2021.
Some thought he went 3 times, on a yearly basis to ‘拜鬼’.
Some believed this particular site was far flung and needed 40 min to specially travel there – when it was easily accessible by tourists walking within the city area.
Some official media accounts also used the term 参拜 – they later deleted their post – without issuing any form of retraction or apology.
Most official media accounts, used the term 参观 – when he did not go into the shrine grounds.
A simple search now in October and we can still see accounts using 参拜 , without any repercussions.
“After assessment of the ethics committee of the CAPA, it said Zhang’s highly improper behavior not only harms national emotion but also brings bad influence on teenagers who follow him.”
(quote from The Global Times )
CAPA ( CHINA Association of Performing Arts ) whose statement calling for the industry boycott of Zhang Zhe Han, seemed to have been the main driving force for the industry to comply with the massive cancellation of Zhang’s projects.
However, this same NPO had earlier in FEB 2021, set down guidelines for Performing Artists and they also clearly stated that the initiative should begin in March 01 2021.
But this did not prevent them from condemning Zhang for photos taken a few years ago.
” 网络造谣诽谤 – 网络“挖坟”与“社死”
一个18年发出的微博照片，没人知道，并设置权限不让看到。现在说这个照片产生“影响” “
An old photo from 2018, which should not even be seen anymore, as ZZH had already set his weibo to limit to a 6 month viewing since last year, is now ‘dug out’ to expose him as a bad influence on today’s youth.
Some international gossip tabloids also picked up on the smear campaign ‘package’, filled with untrue rumors and they just repost everything for the view counts. Not one had been inclined to verify what was being ‘reported’. The news outlets only wanted their gossip fresh and served piping hot.
The world thought: this rather heavy-handed punishment was just how things were done now. And while some eyebrows were raised, nobody seemed to give a second thought if this punishment fit the ‘crime’. In China, no one dared to speak out or vouch for Zhang’s character, not even his boss – Vicki Zhao. And no wonder, because in less than two weeks on Aug 26, Zhao’s own projects and online presence would be scrubbed from platforms. She would disappear from the public eye for weeks to come. However, she has since re-emerged and her weibo account is still in good standing today.
Then “99” happened.
On Sep 9 when actors Gong J and Zhu YL were also reported to have visited other Japan shrines in the past, there was now a very different outcome.
Just a few weeks after the media storm that destroyed Zhang- this time, the nationalistic, loving ‘patriots’ of the general public, went mysteriously silent.
Zhang had been outside the Yasukuni shrine, Gong J passed by a shrine signpost in his Vlog, but Zhu YL had actually paid an entrance fee to enter the 平安神社.
Gong J followed the protocol as stipulated by Weibo and quelled the rumors by issuing a statement within hours. He got onto the hot search for a few hours regarding this incident but the matter was resolved without further incident.
Contrary to what foreign press had reported, Zhu YL was spared from any backlash. There has been no response from his agency or the actor himself, even now, weeks after his photos had been ‘exposed’. The only reaction, was that the actor limited his weibo settings to a 6-month content viewing.
His topic tag #朱一龙平安神社合照# was widely discussed, but despite reaching 6亿 in just a few days, it never once made the hot search. During this time, some tags with his name for his movie marketing, with much lower readership, ironically made the hot search.
His fans also executed what 清朗 rules had disallowed- organized mass reporting and blacklisting of countless weibo accounts of readers who were only discussing the societal impact of such smear campaigns – without consequence. For days, Weibo did not step in to stop the account which organised this offensive action.
His fans even pretended that they were Zhang’s fans, and tried to make it look like his fans were out to create trouble.
Not a single 营销号 gossip account descended to fan the flames.
No official media outlet mentioned this news, nor stepped in to control the actions of his fans.
Some official media accounts even took to deleting comments to silence any mention of this tag topic when it appeared beneath their other posts.
To the general public, this matter does not exist. No one can talk about it even on other platforms like wechat or QQ. After the topic tag was taken over by one of Zhu YL’s fan this week, more discussion posts and comments were deleted, now the readership has stopped at 6.4亿.
People had started to question in this tag: who and where was the ‘public sentiment’ which Zhang had ‘hurt badly’ back in August?
I am not interested in supporting the smear campaign of Zhu YL. As far as I am concerned, no one should be convicted of being unpatriotic for taking tourist photos, or liking anime etc
What I am interested in is, why the double standard? For one actor, his name is now censored like some unmentionable, but for another, his defamatory topic is censored across the board – practically untouchable.
Back in July, Zhang had just taken part in various high profile celebration events for the CCP’s 100th anniversary. He had been invited to sing a theme song for one of their movies – titled Red Boat – which is now obviously gone. He was even a highly praised guest for a live commentary during an Olympics Golf event.
Such a popular actor, highly in-demand, literally at the peak of his career, was pulled down to the depths after a coordinated online smear campaign. If someone like that can be destroyed in a few days, what then of an ordinary citizen?
People are not naive. They know that ‘the system’ can choose to protect its interests.
So who was behind this attack in August?
The general public is now starting to ask questions, especially given that their own daily lives have been impacted by this event – which did not stop at just the cancellation of a celebrity.
This incident of retrospective ‘grave digging’ has now become a social issue.
Some accounts from netizens of losing promotions or jobs over their own travel photos, exposed by their colleagues, has also arisen.
Some students reflected to their parents about how Zhang was used as a negative topic of discussion in class – his reputation is now branded as a bad influence, unpatriotic to China. It seems that even the question of whether Zhang is to be allowed to make a future comeback was set as an examination topic – what is the ‘right answer’ expected here?
Unlike Kris Wu, Zheng Shuang or Fan Bingbing, who were convicted of actual crimes, with proper proceedings, conducted with due diligence.
Here was a man, convicted and cancelled by ‘the general sentiment’. And now, even this ‘general sentiment’ is called into question – just what percentage of these reactions were from the infamous ‘water army’?
“按头认错”
Why did Zhang Zhe Han then apologise for his actions? Some may feel that his agency had been too quick to release the apology statement. But there was also harsh criticism that he had taken too long to respond. There were also a large number of his fan accounts who were putting the pressure on him to admit wrongdoing – as an international fan, I could only watch with incredulity at this display. While I understand that in the face of such waves of harsh attacks, any voices to defend him will be drowned out, and may even reflect on him badly as a celebrity with ‘brainwashed’ fans unwilling to ‘see the truth’. However, I can’t imagine being in his shoes and seeing that even his own fans repeating the litany of “错了就是错了” – any spirit of fighting back will be surely doused.
“政治敏感度是一方面，但是恶劣的一方面也必须指出，是挖坟跟一系列的捆绑谣言，放在当年他的照片并没有造成恶劣的社会影响，一开始对他评判的是补课也是对的，恶意关联历史造谣倒逼官媒的造谣营销号跟水军才是重点”
Political sensitivity is one factor, but the negative side has to be pointed out as well, is the ‘grave digging and rumor-mongering’ – and his old photos did not make any impact on society when they were posted back then. The initial comment by an official media ( *人民日报 which recanted their post after being themselves attacked by ‘netizens’ ) for self-reflection and further study was right, and the most important aspect to take note of, was the ill-intent of the gossip accounts and water armies who had twisted nationalist feelings for their own ends.
*added detail – not in the actual chinese text
Slowly but surely, there are now more non-biased comments such as the above, sounding off online- but how many will actually get to see it? In addition of people still being cautious of backlash and being the next victims of 网暴 – no prominent figures have yet to comment openly regarding Zhang’s plight.
A 71 year old author who commented with her understanding of history regarding Dewi Sukarno, was overwhelmed by the attention her post had garnered, and swiftly deleted her original post.
Is this ‘trial by netizens’ fair and does it undermine the rights of citizens? When a person undergoes such a massive smear campaign, who can be held responsible?
Surely not the victim?
How does one stand against their accusers when these accounts are faceless, can delete their posts and disappear at anytime? Why does it seem that the onus of proving one’s innocence, now falls to the victim who has been silenced.
When one’s reputation is being allowed to be torn to tatters, who is responsible for the losses for the emotional and financial toll?
Most of ZZH’s fandom has now retreated ‘under the sea’ – some media have been reporting that Zhang’s fans had ‘abandoned’ him, as further proof of his guilt. But our hands are tied- when anything is spoken in Zhang’s favor, it either gets censored by weibo or misconstrued as 洗白 ‘mindless defense’ of our bias.
The gossip and rumors have not ceased, Zhang Zhe Han is now referred online as 瀚奸，拜鬼 , 精日 … All these are gleefully repeated by some, emboldened in their anonymity, because who needs to take responsibility for their words? His family and friends have also become the targets of these antis, who seem unsatisfied and continued to drag his name, determined that he should never get a chance to return to the spotlight.
As a fandom, we are advised not to speak up, to maintain our silence.
As international fans, we are at an even more awkward position since our comments on another country’s politics or justice system will likely be met with defensive disdain – seen as unwanted foreign interference on their own affairs.
For the most part, staying silent is preferred to heated words- which may easily become twisted and used further damage Zhang Zhe Han’s image to his people.
But this defamation of his character based on dated photos, cannot, and should not be silently borne. Even if Zhang never makes a comeback to the entertainment world, who would want to live a life under the weight of being labelled as an unpatriotic traitor? If he is no longer able to remain in China, no doubt words like ‘exiled’ will be used, and this mark will follow him wherever he goes.
There are now voices from different walks of society who have taken notice of this incident, but will they be heard? If we cannot say anything as a fandom, then please, don’t step on the efforts of others who can perhaps bring about some positive change. These people may not be Zhang Zhe Han’s fans and their interest in this matter maybe self-serving, but positive discussion about this incident is better than none. In fact, by virtue of not being ZZH’s fans, their words will probably actually carry more weight to the general public.
Please DO NOT ENGAGE in any provoked or instigated negative comments, on public or in private chats – trust no one. Especially now, during their National holidays from Oct 1-7.
Why am I posting this today? With an on-going pandemic, who can be sure where we will be in a few day’s time, let alone an entire week? My post is for international fans who may want to know what is happening, so why wait. But I reiterate, pls do not engage.
It’s really not our place, except to wait.
I just hope that, at least the wider world out here, will take the time to look beyond the sensational headlines, and think about what exactly has happened to Zhang Zhe Han.
Zhang Zhehan 