Opinion | Lionel Messi and the media depiction of 'angry Chinese nationalism'
By Tom Fowdy
At the weekend football superstar Lionel Messi was set to play in a friendly in Hong Kong for his Major League Soccer (MLS) side Inter Miami. However, due to what he claimed was a groin strain injury, he missed the much-hyped game and was not able to play. However, just days later he appeared and played in another game in Kobe, Japan. This development drew reactions of disdain and even anger on Chinese social media, who accused him of lying about his injury and snubbing the country. Of course, political issues with respect to Japan are sensitive in China. The mainstream media however, quickly moved to frame these reactions as a "nationalistic" backlash invoking the Global Times and emphasizing the threat of boycotts from some.
The media at large has a culture of deliberately cherry-picking content from Chinese social media, particularly Weibo, to depict a narrative of Chinese people as irrational, angry and hellbent nationalists spurred on by the party. Such a depiction is inherently orientalist, because it seeks to "other" Chinese people by depicting them as inferior to those in the civilized and superior west. In presenting this, usually the most offensive and provocative posts and comments are singled out, and there is never an attempt to depict a diversity of opinion on the platform even when users have aggressively opposed or criticised certain government policies on there (despite the limitations of the platform).
You might want to ask yourself, has in any instance the mainstream media deliberately emphasized the comments of trolls in Western countries and attempted to generalise it as representative of public opinion as a whole? Indeed, you might be forgiven when reading such reporting regarding China that angry trolls in western countries apparently do not exist, that there are not people online who dedicate themselves to abusing, harassing, threatening, and of course calling for boycotts of various products or individuals for whatever reason, or that there are not nationalistic trolls from other countries too. Anyone who discusses India, for example, will face the certain wrath of hardline Hindutva trolls, yet journalists seem to care little about them.
Yet despite this, the depth of public opinion in China seems to be measured by the press exclusively on the basis of a cohort of highly nationalist individuals, sometimes called "little pinks" (Xiaofenhongse) on Weibo who, like all online trolls, are vocal but have little presence in the actual real world. This would be the equivalent of using MAGA nationalists to tell us where public opinion stands in America; it is ludicrous and has no credibility. Of course, it is true that Chinese tend to be more patriotic than Westerners, but that doesn't mean every single one of them is a vocal troll, or on second thoughts, that this is an unusual phenomenon in Asia where nationalism has a stronger political standing than "universal values" and unlike Europe, many historical grievances remain ultimately unresolved (largely due to the way World War II ended).
In 2019, a similar event happened when Christiano Ronaldo was set to play at an exhibition match in South Korea. Crowds flocked to see the globally acclaimed superstar play in their country, something that as Koreans they have never had an opportunity to do because they are far from the centre of global football gravity in Europe. However, Ronaldo declined to play or come on as a substitute, claiming he was injured, and sat on the bench. Again, the result of this was outrage from Korean netizens and outright accusations that he had insulted their country and people who paid to see him had wasted their money. Resentment was held, boycotts were pushed (remember they boycotted Japan that same year) and people even spoke about suing Juventus to get their money back.
Yet no such articles or journalism reports or treats Korean online netizens in the same way they do Chinese for their nationalistic outbursts. Ultimately, the negative focus on Chinese netizens on Weibo, which whilst being far more numerous, is pushed as a net negative to demonize the country and ultimately frame its population in a terrifying way, thus accompanying the "all Chinese are brainwashed narrative". This complicates efforts to understand the long term origins of Chinese nationalism from the country's historical experience, increases incentivization to blame it on the party, and of course as stated above dismisses the obvious that trolls are a worldwide phenomenon and it is outright dishonest to try and portray such voices as representative of everyone.
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Tom Fowdy:
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