Another Livestreamer Detained in China for Mocking Nat'l Anthem
By Matthew Bossons
Another livestreamer has been detained in China for mocking the nation’s anthem during an online broadcast, according to Technode.
The netizen’s situation was outlined in a Weibo post by the public security bureau of Ningcheng county in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In the post, it’s stated that the livestreamer, whose surname is Wang, was a user of the Kuaishou livestreaming platform and that he has been detained for 15 days for performing ‘March of the Volunteers’ in a disrespectful manner.
The bureau’s Weibo announcement can be found in full below:
“On October 18, the Xiaochengzi police station under the Ningcheng County Public Security Bureau received a tip that Wang used the Kuaishou live broadcast platform on November 14, 2017 to sing the national anthem of the People's Republic of China, ‘The March of the Volunteers.’ The Xiaochengzi police station immediately secured evidence and summoned Wang to answer for his online behavior. Wang confessed that in order to increase his fans, he sung the national anthem in a funny manner during the broadcast. At present, Wang is being punished with 15 days administrative detention.”
Wang’s case comes shortly after Internet celebrity Yang Kaili was given five days detention for singing a segment of the ‘March of the Volunteers,’ China’s national anthem, in a disrespectful manner during a livestream on October 7.
Yang’s controversial livestream saw the 21-year-old flailing her arms around while mockingly singing the beginning of the anthem, according to China Daily. The performance was reportedly part of an introduction for an ‘online music festival.’
Yang Kaili. Image via @莉哥/Weibo
The song was broadcast on a livestreaming website called Huya, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year. Yang had two million followers on the platform, before being suspended in the aftermath of her performance. All her videos were also removed from Huya. Another livestreaming platform, TikTok, also removed all Yang’s videos from their service. She has 44 million followers on the site.
Wang and Yang are the latest people to violate a Chinese law passed in October of last year that aims to stop the deliberate mockery of the national anthem. Anyone deemed to have disrespectfully reproduced the ‘March of the Volunteers’ will be subject to a criminal investigation and up to 15 days in the slammer.
[Cover image via @赤峰市宁城县公安局/Weibo]
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