China completely erased actress from the web

[milotic2]

China’s Crackdown on Celebrities Like Zhao Wei Is Growing Increasingly Far-Reaching https://t.co/ArX4uUxlNT
- Variety (@Variety) September 23, 2021
Chinese government’s campaign to tear down fandom and celebrities has resulted in the complete disappearance of beloved actress Zhao Wei from the web

Comments

[georgeslymaniv]

In Chinese people's minds, it's going to be strongly connected to allegations against her, not just that the government is trying to reassert cultural control over the mainland. Yes, there's this "return to traditional values" of the communist party and that's fucking scary, but some people might even think that she deserved to be erased due to certain news stories. Zhao Wei and her husband have been the target of investigations since before 2017 of their money laundering through their movie company / suddenly having a ton of money to buy up shares of Ali Baba and conveniently become billionaires in a short amount of time, there's a long ass video explaining it here:
https://youtu.be/j0--Hi4y2qE

So people probably knew it was coming, she's been getting the crack down for a long time, and their connections were already either executed (the former mayor of Shen Zhen allegedly embezzled millions but his money disappeared presumably into an account her husband took over), or banned from China, arrested, etc. She escaped to France to be with her husband so she's probably okay.

Everyone in China from my age (30s) will definitely remember Zhao Wei, she was the star of one of the most popular dramas at the time. It's basically like trying to erase Fresh Prince from everyone's minds, it's impossible. People can still remain fans in their minds but in public, even her BFFs on social media deleted all their photos together.

[purpleflwr]

damn ok. is it basically the same way with pop music and such? listen in private but in public say you like whatever they want popular? that's so depressing and terrifying.

[georgeslymaniv]

All of her movies, shows and songs were removed so nobody can watch her shows without a VPN. having a VPN is basically illegal except if you're working for a foreign corp and on their network, so there's no way to legally see anything she was in.

[labelledcaustic]

this must really suck for the people in the cast and crew of those productions as well no? basically one chunk of your CV is gone?

[3ris352]

Ah damn:( thanks for this break down