this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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You hadn't thought of it because it's completely made up. Xi started getting compared to Winnie the Pooh by Chinese citizens after a picture came out showing Xi and former US President Obama together in a similar pose to Pooh and Tigger. Used originally for rather light-hearted ribbing of Xi, the Chinese government decided to crack down on it hard, which has had a massive Streisand Effect with the comparison between Xi and Pooh becoming popular in the West because Xi has shown how sensitive he is to it.
There's no racial component to it at all. It's all about being critical of the absurd censorship of the current PRC's government.
i wonder why western redditors found a depiction of an asian president as a fat yellow bear and a black president as a character called Tigger so funny ๐ค definitely no racism here, no sir
defending that racism is so transparently in bad faith holy shit
That's a pretty bold statement to make. Have you seen the west?
Wow, look at this racism denial from the same person who was criticizing Tankies for genocide denial.
"The meme was started by a Chinese person, therefore it can't be racist" is just a new veneer on "black rappers use the n-word in music, therefore it's not racist if I use it."
except winnie the pooh isn't already a slur, and it kinda does matter the history of the usage of a term if you're trying to determine the intent and usage of it.
literally nobody used the winnie the pooh insult against him because of his race, it was always because he literally looks like the character, and then threw a fit and banned all mention or image of a worldwide-known and beloved fictional character. because he's an unstable tyrant.
Have you considered that the meme might have different impact coming from a Chinese person ribbing their leader than a white westerner echoing it? The former might be "light ribbing" but the later is racist. Who says a thing matters significantly on whether its ok to say. You know this very well because I'd hope you'd know that its not ok for white people to use the soft r n word even though many black people use it.
Deleting some memes from Weibo isn't a "hard" crackdown, westerners just want to pretend it is and for some reason still care ten years later.