<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/05/super-rich-sissy-boys-celebs-all-targets-in-xis-bid-to-end-cultural-difference>
"Since the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) on 1 July,
political edicts have been flowing out of Beijing. President Xi Jinping
declared that China’s economy would now work to provide “common prosperity”.
Social media has read this as a rhetorical assault on the country’s
billionaires, who have become used to flaunting their wealth. There has been a
well-publicised crackdown on entrepreneurs in the technology sector, in part
because of the CCP’s increasing concern that figures such as Alibaba’s founder,
Jack Ma, were becoming more prominent than the party itself. New anti-trust
legislation may well break up some of the big companies that have dominated the
sphere, creating more, smaller companies that the CCP hopes will power
innovation through increased competition and also be easier to control
politically.
China’s ultra-rich are scrambling to make high-profile philanthropic donations
to shore up their reputations and avoid tax inspections, not least as China’s
equivalent of HMRC has powers to arrest suspected evaders and hold them
incommunicado for months. Technology billionaires are one target, but movie
stars are another. Actress Zheng Shuang has been told she faces a $46m (£33m)
bill for unpaid taxes and almost all the millions of online mentions of her
fellow performer Vicki Zhao Wei have been wiped from China’s internet.
Meanwhile, the censors have cracked down on what they term a “wild” online
celebrity fan culture devoted to those same movie stars. For years, China’s
online celebrity world has been a mixture of talent contests and increasingly
vicious gossip that makes the debates around Love Island seem pretty tame. Much
of this rumour mill seems to act as an alternative to political debate; it’s
forbidden to criticise top party leaders online, but ranking movie stars as
heroes or zeroes was fine – until now. The authorities have even named a source
of corruption – China’s “sissy boys”. This term, as sneeringly contemptuous in
Chinese as in English, refers to the growing trend of young male stars using
makeup and skin products to appear more feminised than the macho norms of
traditional Chinese masculinity."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
