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By TAMMI TAN https://www.todayonline.com/8days/nicholas-tse-renounces-canadian-citizenship-says-he-originally-chinese-cos-he-was-born China has been taking extreme measures to crack down on all kinds of supposedly undesirable fan and celebrity behaviour following the scandals of stars like Vicki Zhao, Kris Wu, and Zhang Zhehan. A recent report claimed that the authorities have now implemented a “restriction order” that will prohibit stars with foreign nationalities from working in the country. The list was said to include Hongkong singer-actor Nicholas Tse, 41, who has Canadian citizenship. Or should we say, “had”? On Sunday (Sep 5), Nic revealed on a CCTV talk show that he has already submitted an application to renounce his Canadian citizenship. “I’ve seen a lot of comments saying, ‘Aren’t you Canadian?’ Actually, I was born in Hongkong, so I am originally Chinese,” he said, adding that he believes he has the responsibility of “promoting the Chinese spirit and culture” to the world, be it through food, music, or movies. His announcement seems to have sat well with Weibo users, who praised him for his “strong sense of national pride” and for being “someone who loves his country”. On the other hand, there are remarks on other websites slamming Nic for his decision, accusing him of being a “bootlicker” and scoffing that the renminbi must be “so fragrant”. Some have also questioned his true intentions, pointing out that he’s only doing this after being in showbiz for so long and that it happens to coincide with the enactment of the “restriction order”. Elsewhere, netizens uncovered an old clip where Nic’s dad Patrick Tse, 84, reveals the reason Nic and his younger sister Jennifer Tse, 39, have Canadian citizenship. The former matinee idol explained that his family immigrated to Canada to avoid “spoiling the kids”, since they might receive special treatment as his children in Hongkong. As for what Patrick thinks of his son renouncing his Canadian citizenship, he told Hongkong media: “Whatever [Nicholas] wants to do, as a father, I will support him.” Nic’s manager, Emperor Entertainment Group’s Mani Fok, has responded to the news as well, saying that the company “respects” his “personal decision”. Nic, who got back together with Chinese pop diva Faye Wong in 2014, is certainly enjoying a successful career in the Mainland. In addition to having his own popular food travelogue show Chef Nic, his movies are performing well at the box office too, with his latest action flick Raging Fire reportedly raking in an impressive 1.1bil yuan (S$229mil).
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Street Dance of China makes a compelling argument that what the world needs now is a giant global dance-off. By Aja Romano https://www.vox.com/22630249/one-good-thing-street-dance-of-china-wang-yibo The best thing about falling down rabbit holes is that you never know where they’ll lead. Eighteen months ago, I had no idea I’d spend most of the pandemic falling in love with a Chinese show about street dancing — and that it would shift my worldview in the process. But that’s before I discovered Street Dance of China, a reality competition show where high-level dancers from all across China, and this season from all around the world, join teams and compete for the title of China’s best street dancer. It’s subtitled, and it runs long: Each season’s 12 episodes usually range from 90 to 120 minutes apiece, with last year’s finale broadcast live in a six-hour marathon. And its format is initially a bit confusing to anyone unfamiliar with typical street dance competitions. But despite these hurdles, I watched all 12 episodes of the show’s third season as they aired last year, then rewatched them again and again. I began watching SDC because the third season featured Wang Yibo, a multi-talented actor/dancer/idol I’ve followed since first watching his fantasy drama series The Untamed a year and a half ago. As it turned out, Yibo was a brilliant gateway drug to a whole new obsession. SDC not only gave me new appreciation for street dance as a culture and as an art form, but also introduced me to a whole new way of thinking about China. Like many white Americans, my main view of Chinese culture has historically been filtered through the framework of often-sinophobic US media, the occasional martial arts or arthouse film notwithstanding. Until I watched this show where Chinese pop culture put itself on elaborate display, I hadn’t fully realized how skewed the typical US media portrayal of China can be — especially the false idea that China is primarily isolationist, and that Chinese pop culture is disinterested in actively engaging with the rest of the world. To some extent, I owed that impression to the Chinese Communist Party, which has a habit of cracking down on external cultural influences if it feels they’re growing too pernicious. In recent years, for example, chilly receptions have greeted Korean pop culture, basketball, and hip-hop. In fact, a hip-hop media ban in China, which went into effect in 2018 after a controversial series of incidents involving high-profile Chinese rappers, inadvertently spawned Street Dance of China. With other forms of hip-hop culture banned, dancing was the only way for TV networks to satisfy their audiences’ growing interest in hip-hop. Street dance culture has been growing in China, so there’s a thriving competition scene and an incredible pool of talent to draw from. As such, SDC, which launched in 2018, offers a highly popular, highly positive alternative view of hip-hop: one that emphasizes its dancers’ artistry, sense of community, and multiculturalism. Thanks to its vibrance and sense of community, as well as the sheer joy of many of its dance routines, SDC was an ideal form of pandemic escapism. The show, like the umbrella of street dance itself, brings together a broad range of modern dance styles, from jazz and hip-hop to breaking, locking, and waacking. The format balances choreographed routines with spontaneous freestyle battles. The performances often fuse traditional narrative storytelling with fun, cross-genre experimentation, combining a love of Chinese culture with a broad multicultural mindset in the dance styles and song choices. Season three saw everything from homages to Chinese folklore and Bruce Lee to homages to Charlie Chaplin, Jim Carey, Sailor Moon, and tomb raiders. Dancers compete for places on four teams, each helmed by a celebrity captain, most of whom so far have been former K-pop idols with considerable dance experience. Season three featured Exo’s Zhang Yixing (Lay), Got7’s Jackson Wang, actor Wallace Chung, and Yibo, each competing against each other, often hilariously, to build their own teams and spare their dancers from weekly elimination. Their combined popularity drove the show to a massive ratings increase (the show announced in its season three finale that its ratings had nearly doubled over the season and that its revenue had increased by 65 percent), along with a considerable international fandom. As a part of that fandom, I came for the captains, but I stayed for the dancers, who by the finale had begun to seem less like competitors and more like an extended family (to them and to me). Fortunately for fans of last season, many of the competing dancers have returned for season four, which has expanded focus from merely pitting dancers against each other to bringing street dancers from around the world to join the competition, turning the show into a truly global event. If that sounds like a surprising direction for a Chinese reality show to take, it’s nothing compared to the quiet surprises every episode of SDC has held for me. Each week, the show welcomes dancers of color like Bouboo, a French immigrant who has become one of the show’s most popular stars; Chinese ethnic minorities such as Yi and Wa dancers; one fantastic deaf dancer; and dancers who are openly queer, although their sexuality is never acknowledged on the show. Even the age range of the dancers is diverse, with the season three finale seeing some of the show’s oldest competitors squaring off against some of the youngest. That’s not to say that there’s nothing problematic about this aggressively rosy depiction of Chinese culture as welcoming and inclusive. It is a deliberately selective view of a nation whose government’s human rights abuses are well known and well publicized. But SDC’s politics are mostly self-contained — a reminder that the CCP, after all, is not synonymous with China itself, and that China itself is not a monolith. The present tensions between our respective governments have arguably made it harder for Americans to recognize and respect Chinese culture as complex, nuanced, and containing multitudes. Meanwhile, each week, SDC resists the US’s dominant narrative of China as static and hostile, simply by bringing together a lot of highly talented people who love dancing. If you want to watch SDC, I recommend starting with season three, since it’s the most easily accessible and introduces you to most of the dancers who return in season four. Thanks to a team of dedicated fansubbers, full translated episodes are available to watch for free. The fansubs are generally superior to the officially released subtitles — but the show’s network, Youku, has also made the entire third season available on YouTube with English subtitles. Season four began airing in August, with Yixing and Yibo returning as team captains alongside Han Geng and his former Super Junior bandmate, Canadian prodigy Henry Lau. Because of its international focus, the season is more diverse than ever, with well-known dancers hailing from regions around the globe. Youku simulcasts episodes on YouTube, with English subs on the day of release. The new season, so far, has held lots of format changes and plenty of surprises. Even so, it still feels like the family reunion I didn’t know I needed. It’s a welcome reminder that even in the midst of an isolating pandemic, in many ways, the world is smaller than ever. Street Dance of China is streaming on YouTube.
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BY LEE WEI LIN https://www.8days.sg/entertainment/asian/vicki-zhao-china-blacklist-jack-ma-15401350 The mystery surrounding Vicki Zhao's apparent blacklist by the Chinese government grows more unsettling with each passing day. Since then, conflicting reports about the whereabouts of the 45-year-old actress-director — is she in her French vineyard with her husband or is she in Beijing with her parents? And where in the world is her 11-year-old daughter? — has only made netizens more curious to know what Vicki did to anger the Chinese government like that. Netizens have likened Vicki's disappearance to Fan Bingbing’s back in 2018. The actress was MIA for months after being accused of tax evasion, and there was speculation that she had either flown to the US to seek asylum or was jailed and tortured by the Chinese government. Yikes. It was later revealed that Bingbing had been under residential surveillance in Jiangsu. What makes Vicki’s case even more perturbing is that no charges have been brought against her yet. Apparently, according to a source, her case is so serious that the government is keeping mum about it until they have completed their investigations. The source also hinted that it’s “something worse than tax evasion”, adding that it’s “related to her close ties with Alibaba’s Jack Ma”. So what about her relationship with Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder of Alibaba Group, who ran afoul of the Chinese government following his criticism of China’s financial and banking systems? In 2014, Vicki and her husband Huang Youlong reportedly paid HK$3.1bil (S$536mil) to become the second largest shareholder of Alibaba Pictures Group. They were said to have made over HK$2.2bil (S$380mil) by selling a small portion of their shares. In 2015, Vicki and Youlong are said to have partnered with Jack on a private equity deal and husband and wife were said to have cashed out immediately after share prices went up 150 per cent in a single month. Vicki also reportedly bought HK$600mil (S$103mil) of shares in Alibaba’s financial service subsidiary, Ant Group, just last year, and she would have made a fortune had Ant gone public. The source seems to suggest that Vicki is being investigated for possible insider trading and market manipulation, both of which are serious crimes in China.
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BY TOH ZIYI https://www.8days.sg/entertainment/asian/jay-chou-accusations-plagiarised-infinite-julia-15400632 After Taiwanese singer Crowd Lu’s plagiarism controversy, is it now Jay Chou’s turn to be accused of being a copycat? Not if Jay has anything to do with it. On August 27, Jay posted a short video on his Instagram, revealing a 25-second instrumental teaser of his upcoming song. However, four days later, Korean netizens started accusing Jay of plagiarism. According to these netizens, Jay’s teaser is remarkably similar to the opening of K-pop boy band INFINITE’s song 'Julia'. 'Julia' was released in 2011 and was included in INFINITE’s Over The Top album. However, Jay has spoken out against the accusations. Teacher Chou speaks up Releasing a statement through his agency, Jay took on the role of “Teacher Chou” to school everyone on music chords. “The chord progression in this song has long been used in [my songs like] ‘Sunny Day’, ‘Qi Li Xiang’, and ‘Her Eyelashes’ and more. If the chord progression and the arrangement of the instruments are the same, then you’d find that the music is similar. Basically, the chord progressions in pop music are all roughly the same.” he said. FYI: 'Sunny Day' and 'Her Eyelashes' were both released in 2003 and 'Qi Li Xiang' in 2004. Jay added: “Creating a new melody using the same chord progression that everyone uses today is the key! Ge should be considered a trailblazer already, [I’ve] used the 6m-4-1-5 four-loop chord method since very early on, do you want me to list out a bunch of examples for you?” Ooh, burn.
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Will Kpop companies replace the chinese market with the US market?
5201314 replied to Moruk Laplamiz's topic in Random
Kpop hasn't been a thing in China for years now since Korean artists haven't been able to show their faces. A few digital sales on music platforms has never been a make or break situation in China, so no, it's not a game changer. -
What's happening to the cast of the OG My Fair Princess, the hit 1998 Chinese series that shot Vicki Zhao, Ruby Lin and Fan Bingbing to fame. BY TOH ZIYI https://www.8days.sg/entertainment/asian/ruby-lin-deregisters-film-studio-china-15397998 First there was Bingbing’s big, career-ending tax evasion scandal in 2018. Then yesterday (Aug 26), it was revealed that Vicki's name and work have been wiped clean from Chinese websites for reasons that still remain a mystery. Now, there are rumours that Ruby is in some sort of trouble too. It all started when the topic 'Ruby Lin's Movie & Film Work Studio Deregisters' made the top of Weibo's Trending Topics List. Since 2009, Ruby has produced her own dramas and films, like The Glamorous Imperial Concubine and more recently, The Arc of Life. But according to new reports, Ruby’s studio, which was set up in Hengdian, has cancelled its business registration license in China. The timing of the news coincides with Vicki's scandal which has led netizens to speculate that Ruby might have been dragged into something more serious. Vicki Zhao, Ruby Lin and Fan Bingbing at Ruby's wedding in 2016 When contacted by the media, Ruby’s agent revealed that they had applied to cancel the studio’s business registration license “long ago”, as they wanted to “integrate their resources”. However, one netizen claimed that Ruby’s business partner, Liu Caihong, recently lost a lawsuit, and had to cough up 36mil yuan (S$7.5mil) in damages and that Ruby had likely applied to deregister her studio in order to protect her assets. #girlboss no more? Other netizens are also speculating that Ruby intends to withdraw completely from the Chinese market. After all, the actress has been focusing more on producing Taiwanese dramas in recent months. Also, in December last year, Ruby’s husband, Taiwanese actor Wallace Huo also shuttered his Chinese studio. However, despite all those possible reasons, netizens still think that there's something fishy going. Judging from how the Chinese showbiz scene is bubbling over with scandals right now, we don't blame them.
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From Youth with You 3 on iQIYI Youtube by CHASE SHÊ https://dramapanda.com/2021/08/iqiyi-announces-survival-reality-shows-no-longer-have-a-place-in-their-line-up.html Survival shows will soon be a thing of the past now that iQiyi and other platforms have announced they will be cancelling its upcoming lineup of survival reality shows. With the industry trying to clean up its act after so many scandals as of late and with the platform’s very own milk pouring incident fresh on people’s minds, iQiyi – producer of the popular Youth With You series, has already declared its own plans to move away from its survival show voting model. In a recent symposium held by the China Television Artists Association to discuss illegal and unethical actions pervading the industry with regards to fandom culture, flow stars, yin yang contracts and pay gaps, iQIYI CEO Gong Yu who is also the director of the China Television Artists Association declared that “iQiyi and other platforms have always insisted on drawing a clear line against unhealthy industry trends, unfair pay gaps and tax evasion. Idol talent shows and off-site voting will also be cancelled.” The move goes hand in hand with the government’s own efforts to clean up fandom culture which has increasingly grown toxic as evidenced in the recent fan wars that saw Weibo imposing a large scale ban on several fan accounts this week. You may remember that the third season of iQiyi’s Youth With You ended on a sour note after the show was unceremoniously pulled off air. Turns out it was the now infamous clip that caught fans dumping perfectly good but unwanted milk they’ve purchased for the sole purpose of getting the QR codes to vote for their favourite idols which ultimately caused the show’s demise. It’s behaviour like this that the move hopes to address. Likewise, building a voting model that’s highly dependent on “high traffic” popularity also poses a risk on developing “real” talent, particularly for trainees who are highly capable and train hard, but whose opportunities are cut short because they’re not popular enough. iQiyi’s Youth With You and Tencent’s Chuang 2021 series served as a great venue in providing young rookies a stage to shine that cancelling it seems to be a bit counterproductive and sad really. However, an overhaul of the process does sound necessary. With the industry still a long way from fixing any of its problems soon, the question remains whether this spells the end of talent shows. It’ll definitely be interesting to see its evolution though if they do decide to bring it back.
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T/N: There have been rumors of Lucas Wong badmouthing fans and mooching off a girl that he was dating. Resignation Announcement Hello everyone, today the entire team of Lucas Wong's first Chinese fansite is resigning. If you are willing to take over the fansite, you can contact us by private message. Regarding the previous birthday event, the has been shut down and the money will be returned to everyone within 48 hours, please pay attention and remember to check it. Finally, we wish you all the best. [8514 shares] [9793 comments] [380000 likes] source https://weibo-talk.blogspot.com/2021/08/lucas-wongs-top-fansite-shuts-down.html 1. [+60,000] This is what star chasing should be like, ok? What is the purpose of chasing stars? Personally I am quite selfish and egoist. If I can't get happiness from star chasing, why shouldn't I give up and run away, should I keep my anger? The things in real life are enough for me to put up with, so shouldn't I control my own happiness? 2. [+41,000] Live your current life well, everyone! 3. [+33,000] It feels like the fansite has always been trying to make ends meet while supporting him, yet he privately contacts this and that pretty girl, saying that he doesn't care about the fans. How ridiculous, without your fans who have given you your achievements and your fan support where would you get the confidence to stand in front of your teammates? 4. [+21,000] You guys have worked hard, I support you in running away 5. [+8,845] Since he hates his fans so much, he shouldn't need fans to help him do anything anymore 6. [+9,011] Think about it everyone, what does it mean if even his top fans ran away? They must know more than you...
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You Are My Glory is one of the hottest Chinese dramas right now. BY LEE WEI LIN https://www.8days.sg/sceneandheard/entertainment/you-are-my-glory-wedding-scene-tencent-crash-yang-yang-dilireba-15391250 Starring Yang Yang and Dilraba Dilmurat (also known as Dilireba), the series, which is adapted from the web novel of the same name, is about two former schoolmates who meet again as adults. Viewers have praised the leads for their stellar acting and sizzling chemistry and the story has also received rave reviews for being realistic and inspirational. The final six episodes of You Are My Glory were added to streaming platform Tencent’s paid service on yesterday (Aug 16) at 8pm, and netizens rushed to watch the wedding scene between the two leads that had been teased by the drama's production team. As a result, Tencent became overloaded and users encountered error messages when trying to access the videos. Oops Frustrated, they went on Weibo to vent about the technical glitch and the search term ‘Tencent Video crashed’ ended up soaring to the top of Weibo's hot searches with close to 20 million mentions. Tencent eventually addressed the problem with this Weibo message: “The wedding was crashed by everyone. We’re fixing the problem at full speed right now.” The glitch would take over an hour to resolve, and conspiracy theories about how the crash was caused by Tencent expunging all videos related to Kris Wu started emerging. A peek at what was supposedly happening behind-the-scenes Tencent later explained that the error was caused by “the overwhelming response to our videos”. A netizen, who claims that her husband is working at Tencent, added that the crash was due to the sheer number of people trying to pay for the premium service in order to watch the drama's final episodes. It has been reported that You Are My Glory raked in 116 million views on August 16 alone, and that the series has accumulated a whopping 2.52 billion views since it was released on July 26.
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During a livestream Zhang Xiaohan (T/N: An entertainment news reporter) said Zhou Ye and Lai Guanlin were photographed secretly meeting each other over 4 days. Their staff members seemed to help them cover up things. [5006 shares] [13534 comments] [366000 likes] source http://weibo-talk.blogspot.com/2021/08/zhou-ye-and-lai-guanlin-caught-up-in.html 1. [+52,000] Lai Guanlin doesn't have any works, yet he has a bunch of rumors...... 2. [+49,000] Pretty meimei, wake up! 3. [+20,000] The f*ck??? No way no way no way 4. [+21,000] Zhou Ye run away quick, your career is more important. This person has a lot of rumors 5. [+6,097] How do they know each other? 6. [+4,890] Zhang Xiaohan again...I don’t even bother to read her news...80% of them end up being dinner parties 7. [+4,068] If this was from Zhang Xiaohan, then the melon's credibility is greatly reduced 8. [+2,013] Lai Guanlin broke up with the last one?
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by Laura Zhou https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3145113/chinese-actor-zhang-zhehan-faces-domestic-boycott-over-2018?module=perpetual_scroll&pgtype=article&campaign=3145113 The China Association of Performing Arts, a semi-official organisation, on Sunday proposed to boycott the 30-year-old actor, who co-stars in Word of Honour, a hit television series in China. Zhang had already lost his endorsements after being dropped by more than 25 companies. “The Yasukuni Shrine is a spiritual tool and symbol of Japanese militarism for waging foreign wars of aggression, and a place for Japan’s right-wing forces to deny history and glorify wars of aggression,” the association said in a statement. The shrine is a site where convicted war criminals are interred and is viewed by Japan’s neighbours as a potent symbol of its wartime legacy. Sunday marks the 76th anniversary of Japan’s defeat. The association said it had asked its members to boycott Zhang because his “behaviour was seriously inappropriate and not only hurt national feelings but also had a negative impact on the young audience”. It said that there was no excuse for ignorance from a public figure. Social media platform Weibo on Sunday announced that Zhang’s account had been suspended. It follows days of criticism of Zhang, with Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily accusing him of “challenging national dignity” after his photos, taken at the Yasukuni Shrine in 2018, began circulating on Chinese social media. In a commentary on Friday, the newspaper said Zhang should “pay a heavy price for his ignorance”, hours after Zhang made an apology to his 18.7 million fans on Weibo in which he attributed his actions to a lack of knowledge. “I am not pro-Japan, and I am Chinese,” he said, “I deeply love my motherland.” The apology apparently failed to appease his critics online and the Chinese media, and more than two dozen Chinese and international companies, including luxury watchmaker Longines and high fashion house Lanvin, have dropped Zhang as brand ambassador. The storm surrounding Zhang has been a top search item on Weibo since Wednesday, when a user reposted a video filmed in 2019 at a wedding ceremony at Nogi Shrine, at which Zhang was among the guests. Nogi Shrine was dedicated to Nogi Maresuke, a commander in the battle of Lushunkou in 1894, when victorious Japanese troops massacred Chinese inhabitants of the port city, now part of the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning. Hours later, Zhang’s photos, first posted in 2018, began circulating online. They showed him making a V-sign in front of a Japanese shrine that was quickly identified as Yasukuni. “For the Japanese side, it is a denial of history to worship an executioner whose hands are stained with the blood of people in the world and a historical sinner who committed a heinous crime,” Chinese military newspaper PLA Daily said on Friday. “For the public entertainer, can a claim of ignorance cover up what he has done?” China Central Television said in another commentary that Zhang had “touched the scars of history”. “As Chinese, we should remember history and build on it,” it said. “We must not lose sight of right and wrong, or mislead our youth. Remember: Yasukuni Shrine is full of ghosts, so don’t forget history, and be strong.”
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BY TAMMI TAN https://www.8days.sg/sceneandheard/entertainment/chinese-brewery-estimated-21mil-loss-zhang-zhehan-beer-cans-15392826 Word of Honor actor Zhang Zhehan, 30, went from being one of China’s hottest stars to persona non grata overnight when old photos of him visiting controversial war shrines in Japan were dug up and circulated online. This led to the termination of all his endorsement contracts — resulting in an estimated 50mil yuan (USD$7.7mil) financial loss — and upcoming projects. Even his past shows, music, and social media platforms have been taken down or removed without any mention of his name. It’s almost as if Zhang Zhehan never existed Zhehan’s scandal has certainly put the companies he used to work with in a tight spot. Recently, Weibo users shared pictures of a warehouse packed to the ceiling with cartons of Yanjing Beer, which used to have Zhehan as their celeb ambassador. The problem is, all those beer cans have his face printed on them, and now that pretty much every brand in the country clearly won’t touch him with a ten-foot pole, it’s highly unlikely that those products will ever be found on shelves and may just be discarded. And because of that, it has been estimated that Yanjing Beer may lose at least 100mil yuan (S$21mil). Wait… so just how many cans of that stuff did they make!? From beer can to beer can’t Netizens certainly had a lot to say about the matter. Many applauded Yanjing Beer for their decision (despite, you know, their massive losses and the insane wastage of perfectly good booze), while others took pity on them. Comments include: “Who would’ve thought you could still meet a demon after choosing someone from China as your spokesperson”, “They are really too unlucky”, “The beer has done nothing wrong”, “What a pity, find a way to remove his picture”, “Don’t waste it”, and “Just squash the can after you’ve finished drinking it”.
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1. Jackson Yee 2. Wang Yibo 3. Jia Ling 4. Yang Mi 5. Jay Chou 6. Lay Zhang 7. Zhao Liying 8. Yang Zi 9. Karry Wang 10. Jackson Wang