Lost in Translation? UBS's "Chinese Pig" Comment Stirs Controversy
"Chinese pig" – much ado about nothing or an insulting remark?
What's on Weibo Team
A report by the UBS titled "Very Normal Inflation" caused controversy on Chinese social media on Thursday for containing the term "Chinese pig."
The UBS, a Swiss multinational investment bank, published the article on consumer price inflation on June 12. The author, economist Paul Donovan, wrote: "Chinese consumer prices rose. This was mainly due to sick pigs. Does it matter? It matters if you are a Chinese pig." The same text also appeared in a podcast on inflation in China.
Global Times (环球时报), a Chinese and English language media outlet under the People's Daily newspaper, lashed out against the USB for its "insulting" and "discrimatory" remarks.
Many netizens agreed with the Global Times, and see the "Chinese pig" remark as a joke with a double meaning, assuming that Donovan was both talking about pigs in China, as well as insulting Chinese people.
Some people suggest that if Donovan did not intend to make a pun, he could have written "it matters if it is a pig in China" instead. They argue that UBS and Donovan could have avoided using the term to begin with, and intentionally wrote it up like this to insult Chinese people.
There are also social media users who come to Donovan's defense. Author Deborah Chen (陈叠) writes on Weibo that she has known Paul for a long time and that she knows him as a straightforward and humorous commentator. "There is just one kind of translation for 'pigs of China' (中国的猪) and 'Chinese pigs' (中国猪) in English," she says: "If you look at the context, you'll see he's talking about farm animals, and is not humiliating the people of the nation."
On Weibo, multiple people called the reactions to the article "overly sensitive."
A commenter nicknamed "Taxpayer0211809" wrote: "The way I understood is just that China's consumer prices have inflated and that this is because of the swine fever. Is this thing important? It is important if you are a pig in China, or if you like eating pork, for the rest of the world there won't be a big influence."
Shortly after the controversy erupted, the UBS and Donovan sent their apologies, which were also published by Global Times:
But some Chinese web users did not accept those apologies. One Chinese author wrote there was nothing "innocent" about the remarks made.
The article in question has since been removed from the USB website.
Also read: Bulgari's Noteworthy New China Marketing Campaign on a Happy 'Jew' Year of the Pig (Zhu)
By Manya Koetse and Miranda Barnes
Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash
Related Topics:china and the worldChina international relationsremarkable china newsWeibo trending
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What is Chinese New Year without the CCTV Spring Gala? What's on Weibo reports the must-knows of the 2020 'Chunwan.'
Chinese social media is dominated by two topics today: the CCTV New Year Gala (Chunwan) and the outbreak of the coronavirus. Watch the livestream of the CCTV Gala here, and we will keep you updated with tonight's highlights and must-knows as we will add more information to this post throughout the night.
As the Year of the Rat is just around the corner, millions of people in China and beyond are starting the countdown to the Chinese New Year by watching the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, commonly abbreviated in Chinese as Chunwan (春晚).
The role of social media in watching the event has become increasingly important throughout the years, with topics relating to the Chunwan becoming trending days before.
Making fun of the show and criticizing it is part of the viewer's experience, although the hashtag used for these kinds of online discussions (such as "Spring Festival Gala Roast" #春晚吐槽#) are sometimes blocked.
The Gala starts at 20.00 China Central Time on January 24. Follow live on Youtube here, or see CCTV livestreaming here.
About the CCTV New Year's Gala
Since its very first airing in 1983, the Spring Festival Gala has captured an audience of millions. In 2010, the live Gala had a viewership of 730 million; in 2014, it had reached a viewership of 900 million, and in 2019, over a billion people watched the Gala on TV and online, making the show much bigger in terms of viewership than, for example, the Super Bowl.
The show lasts a total of four hours, and has around 30 different acts, from dance to singing and acrobatics. The acts that are both most-loved and most-dreaded are the comic sketches (小品) and crosstalk (相声); they are usually the funniest, but also convey the most political messages.
As viewer ratings of the CCTV Gala in the 21st century have skyrocketed, so has the critique on the show – which seems to be growing year-on-year.
According to many viewers, the spectacle generally is often "way too political" with its display of communist nostalgia, including the performance of different revolutionary songs such as "Without the Communist Party, There is No New China" (没有共产党就没有新中国).
To take a look at what was going on during the Spring Gala's previous shows, also see how What's on Weibo covered this event in 2016, in 2017, in 2018, and in 2019.
Check for some live updates below. (We might be quiet every now and then, but if you leave this page open you'll hear a ping when we add a new post).
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Despite the overall condemnation of Iran, there are also many pointing the fingers at the US, writing: "It's all because of America."
First published January 11th 2020, 15:45 CST
Shortly after Iran's military announced on Saturday that it shot down Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers on board, the topic has become the number one trending hashtag on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
In a statement by the military, Iran admitted that the Boeing 737 was flying "close to a sensitive military site" when it was "mistaken for a threat" and taken down with two missiles.
Among the passengers were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three British nationals.
Earlier this week, Iranian authorities denied that the crash of the Ukrainian jetliner in Tehran was caused by an Iranian missile.
The conflict between US and Iran has been a much-discussed topic on Chinese social media, also because the embassies of both countries have been openly fighting about the issue on Weibo.
Although many Chinese netizens seemed to enjoy the political spectacle on Weibo over the past few days, with anti-American sentiments flaring up and memes making their rounds, today's news about the Iranian role in the Ukrainian passenger plane crash is condemned by thousands of commenters.
"Iran is shameless!", one popular comment says. "This is the outcome of a battle between two terrorists!"
"Regular people are paying the price for these political games," others write: "So many lives lost, this is the terror of war."
The Iranian Embassy in China also posted a translated statement by President Hassan Rouhani on its Weibo account, saying the missiles were fired "due to human error."
Despite the overall condemnation, there are also many commenters pointing the fingers at the US, writing: "It's all because of America."
Meanwhile, the American Embassy has not published anything about the issue on its Weibo account at time of writing.
The hashtag "Iran Admits to Unintentionally Shooting Down Ukrainian Plane" (#伊朗承认意外击落乌克兰客机#) gathered over 420 million views on Weibo by Saturday afternoon, Beijing time.
Chinese state media outlet CCTV has shared an infographic about the US-Iran conflict and the passenger jet news, writing they hope that these "flames of war" will never happen again.