Chinese Singer Liu Yuxin Apologises For Saying She’s "Thankful For The Pandemic" In An Interview
That hasn't stopped netizens from wanting to cancel her.
Chinese singer Liu Yuxin, who’s part of girl group THE9, has been declared the “next Zhang Zhehan” by netizens, after an interview of the 24-year-old saying that she’s “thankful for the pandemic” was posted online.
For those who are out-of-the-loop, Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan was recently cancelled by Chinese netizens and the many brands he endorsed after pictures of him posing in front of the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo surfaced online. The shrine honours some of Japan’s worst war criminals.
Now, it appears to be Yuxin’s turn to face the wrath of the Internet.
In the now-viral video, Yuxin was asked for her thoughts on the past year. After a short pause, Yuxin replied: “I feel like I have to be thankful for the pandemic as well — yes— ‘cos of that, everyone was watching television shows at home”.
Although the host appeared to be visibly taken aback by Yuxin’s statement, the singer did not seem to notice anything amiss, and continued with the interview as per normal.
Netizens are now furious at Yuxin for framing the pandemic as something to be thankful for when it has claimed many lives and negatively impacted the world.
Some of Yuxin’s fans have since spoken up for their idol, claiming that the video was cut in a way that took Yuxin’s words out of context.
They shared the full recording of the interview, which showed that while the singer did say she was thankful for the pandemic because it led to everyone staying home to watch TV, thus giving her more opportunities to be seen by everyone, she also quickly realised her faux pas, and went on to thank all medical professionals for their many sacrifices.
Netizens, however, did not appear to be appeased by the clarification, with many saying that Yuxin simply backtracked on her words and that her initial statement of being thankful for the pandemic was “what she truly felt”.
Yuxin has since apologised for what she said.
In a Weibo post on August 23, she wrote: “[My] original intention was to thank all the medical staff for their sacrifices during this pandemic, as well as [to praise] everyone for working hard to fight against the pandemic together. As there were some areas where I did not manage to express myself clearly, I immediately made a clarification during the live broadcast. I’m extremely sorry to have caused a misunderstanding, and I will make sure to be more cautious in both my speech and actions in the future!”
The comments on her post appear to be largely positive.
The top comment, which had 49,000 likes as of press time, read: “Her wording was not perfect, but she realised [her error] on the spot, and clarified it twice. Fans don’t wish to see a situation where her words were taken out of context. Thank you to all the bystanders for understanding the truth”.
Photos: Liu Yuxin/Weibo, Sin Chew Daily
