

Chinese netizens were pleasantly surprised this week when the Ministry of Culture joined Weibo. Some of the comments they have posted to welcome the ministry to the social networking site are totally rebellious and utterly hilarious.

The Ministry of Culture has made an official response to the commenters, (sarcastically?) thanking them for their remarks while also calling the comments ill-conceived. In the response, the ministry also sincerely thanks netizens for praising the Weibo page as a move toward greater transparency. Many of the initial comments criticizing the ministry were disappeared, leading to further backlash.



Here are translations of a few of the comments on the Ministry of Culture’s brand-new Weibo page, which have all received thousands of likes from fellow netizens:

“‘Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf‘ [a popular children’s cartoon in the PRC] has already been banned in Germany because they’re worried it will make their children stupid, but we’re still watching it.”

“I hope in the future there will be less copied dramas, less anti-Japanese drama, less dramas that make you stupid, less ‘dog-blood’ [cheesy] dramas, more dramas like ‘All Quiet in Peking,’ more honest dramas [without political agendas] and that TV will be given back to the producers.”

“Why can’t ghost-themed TV shows be aired? Why do you label our ancient belief in spirits as ‘superstition?’ Why aren’t we allowed to believe in it? The existence of spirits and gods is just to make us afraid of doing bad things and to love one another more, it’s not superstition. Are we still in the Cultural Revolution era? Why don’t you just cancel the mid-July Ghost Festival? Who are these guys saying we can’t be superstitious, then the next moment talking in ghost language [bullshitting]?”

“Hey Ministry of Culture, what’s your relationship with the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT)? Please make it clear.”

“Instead of just deleting our posts on your Weibo account, why don’t you just ask SARFT to get a Weibo account too? Then they can just delete the posts for you.”

Take that Ministry of Culture!

By Daniel Cunningham

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