After previously being blocked by Weibo earlier, controversial Malaysian rapper Namewee seemed to have dragged Australian-Chinese singer Kimberley Chen with him, after the latter was also revealed to have been blocked by the said Chinese social media platform for their recent shenanigan.
The whole issue sparked after the two released their Mandarin duet, “Fragile” on YouTube on Saturday 16 October, which seemed to be taking a dig at Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The music video, which has the two singers clad in all pink and being surrounded by pink cutesy items, is in contrast to the lyrics itself, in which the two sang about censorship in China, COVID-19, and even the mistreatment of the Uighurs. One of the lines in the song also read, “It’s illegal to breach the firewall, you’ll be missed if the Pooh discovered it”, which seemed to allude to Xi, who has been compared to Winnie the Pooh by netizens.
The song had since been blocked from all Chinese music sites including Douyin and Baidu, with Kimberley joining Namewee on being the Weibo pariah.
The singer had since taken to social media to address the issue, that is by singing a parody of the lyrics, which can be translated as “I’m sorry for hurting you. It’s okay to delete Weibo, Oh, I hear a sound. Fragile self-esteem has broken into pieces. It’s okay, I still have IG and (Facebook).”
She then thanked fans for their support and said, “Don’t be afraid to be yourself!”
On the other hand, Namewee seemed to be rejoicing in being blocked yet again, writing on Facebook, “When I said 100 sentences without mentioning you in a single word, and yet you feel like you were being scolded in every word.”
On the other hand, his management stated that the song is just the singers’ way of “expressing love for small animals.”
It is noted that this is not the first time that Namewee has angered Chinese netizens. He was previously blocked for jokingly writing tips for the Taliban rule in Afghanistan by using the examples of China leadership.
(Photo Source: Namewee Instagram, Kimberley Chen Instagram)