‘**where?’: Fans In China Freed From Censorship To Talk About Peng Shuai


Julien Chen was getting ready for bed when he learned that Peng Shuai, one of his favorite Chinese tennis players, was making #MeToo allegations against a powerful Chinese official.

A friend told her to check Ms. Peng’s social media account. “There is a ‘giant melon’ in the tennis circle,” the friend wrote, using the Chinese metaphor for the bomb.

Mr. Chen couldn’t find anything. She searched for the word “tennis”, but Ms. Peng, one of China’s most famous athletes, got almost no results. With dizzying efficiency, China’s censors began cleaning up references to his claims online.

“It has suddenly become a forbidden subject,” said Mr. Chen.

Ms. Peng is not the first celebrity to be almost completely wiped out by censorship in China. The nation’s online propaganda machine can obliterate just about any story – or person. Yet its international profile has made the task difficult, and China’s attempt to set aside its claims has been met with deep criticism around the world.

On Wednesday, the Women’s Tennis Association Tour suspended its future tournaments in the country, prompting China’s Foreign Ministry to reiterate that China is “against the politicization of sport.” But Chinese tennis fans are taking a step back, using thin, sometimes cheeky tongues to voice their frustration online as they try to beat the censors.

There has been little open discussion about Ms. Peng on Chinese social media. A popular online tennis fan club in China, a forum called Tennis Post BarIt has not been updated since November 2, when 3-time Olympian Ms. Peng made public her accusations against Zhang Gaoli, a former deputy prime minister.

To avoid censorship, Chinese tennis fans began using vague references to draw more attention to Ms. Peng’s silence. Some people used vague references such as “tennis player” and “spit” instead of specifying his Chinese name and details of his claims.

There was a seemingly unrelated post about art that used the phrase “hitting the egg against a rock”. This echoed a line in Ms. Peng’s original claim, in which she wrote that going up against someone as strong as Mr. Zhang was like “hitting a rock with an egg.”

Even state media figures found themselves in a difficult position about how to discuss Ms. Peng without sounding the alarm. Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the official state newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, commented on Twitter, which is banned in the country, describing Ms. Peng’s accusations as “what people are talking about.”

Two weeks into the media blackout, some of the biggest names in the tennis world are starting to wonder out loud about Ms. Peng’s safety. Chinese state media responded by releasing content for international audiences confirming that he was happy and unharmed. One of the stories managed to reach the domestic audience in China.

There were photos of Ms. Peng signing giant tennis balls for fans at a youth tennis tournament. A post from the verified account of the China Open, a professional tennis tournament held in Beijing, was shared nearly a thousand times and caught the attention of frustrated commenters.

“The most repeated youth tournament event post I’ve seen in my career,” wrote Zhang Bendou, a senior tennis expert in China, on Chinese social media platform Weibo. Others made more sarcastic remarks. “Almost everyone asks ‘where is **?’” someone wrote Ms. Peng’s name out of the comment. “He appeared.”

For Lucy Wang, a dentist and tennis fan in Beijing, who personally watched one of Ms. Peng’s singles matches at the 2017 China Open, the photos were comforting. “It is enough for me to know that he is back,” said 37-year-old Ms. Wang. “I have no idea why people outside of China are still dissatisfied.”

The International Olympic Committee then released a statement and photo of Ms. Peng smiling in a live video call with the head of the organization. China, which will host the Winter Olympics in February, took this moment to complain that most Western media and sports organizations were biased and dishonest about the case.

On Thursday, the IOC released another DeclarationThe organization said members of the organization held a second video conference with Ms. Peng this week, but gave no details about the conversation. He said he used “silent diplomacy” with Chinese sports organizations to address the issue.

Steve Simon, CEO of WTA Tour, has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Chinese authorities, demanding an investigation into the #MeToo allegations. News of the WTA Tour suspension circulated briefly on the Chinese internet Thursday morning.

Some users on Weibo expressed their support for the decision before their comments were removed. “I am with WTA this time,” one wrote. Another was surprised that Mr. Zhang had not yet been detained. “It has really strong support,” the post said. “Absurd.”

Although these anonymous online commentators tried to use the internet to push back censors, the seriousness of the allegations has caused many in China to hesitate to speak about Ms. Peng in public.

Ashley Tian did not learn of Ms. Peng’s accusation until November 3, the day after it was published. At that point, “online discussions were as clean as a blank sheet of paper,” he said. Ms. Tian, ​​a former sportswriter in Shanghai, heard from a former colleague who explained the details via a voicemail.

At dinner that evening, Ms. Tian shared the message with some friends who followed closely for discussion. “Can we talk about this here?” Ms. Tian remembered that a friend had asked nervously. They changed the subject.

“People don’t even dare to discuss it in public,” he said. “I guess what Peng really went through will forever remain a mystery.”

As an avid fan who has seen Ms. Peng play tennis at tournaments in Zhuhai and Shenzhen, Mr. Chen said that his experience of trying to find out what happened to her that evening was both frustrating and eye-opening. “I was shocked and didn’t know how fast these things were developing,” he said.

Mr. Chen is still uncomfortable with the whole experience and said he was disappointed with the WTA Tour’s announcement on Wednesday, saying that he prefers to watch female tennis players because he believes women have more diverse skills on the court than men.

He said he particularly likes to watch Ms. Peng’s strong serve, but questions whether her allegations will be investigated in China. “We know these kinds of things happen and we care about them,” he said. “But most of us choose to remain silent.”

“This is the reality in China,” he added.



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