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On Monday (October 26) night, when French football star Kylian Mbappé (McBaby) attended the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony in London, he also became the focus of a huge controversy on Chinese social media.
Some fans found a video in which Mbappe jokingly talked about an Internet meme that made him "laugh the most": someone grafted his face onto a "Chinese dictator" who looked like Mao Zedong. During Mao Zedong's reign, China experienced one of the bloodiest periods in history.
The controversy quickly spread, with Chinese brands dissociating themselves from him one after another, and China Central Radio and Television, a subsidiary of China Central Television, suspending broadcasts of Spanish Serie A football matches. A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "Words and actions that emphasize hurting the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be boycotted by all sectors of Chinese society."
However, on the Chinese Internet, almost no one can say clearly what Mbappe said or did, and even Mao Zedong's name is rarely used. Mao Zedong remains a near-sacred figure in China.
China's strict Internet censorship system prevents 1.4 billion people from having free access to the global Internet, and also means that many people have no idea how the incident happened.
The accusation alone of "hurting the feelings of the Chinese people" seems to be enough to trigger an outpouring of anger. Social media algorithms further add fuel to the fire, and in a strictly controlled online environment, people are afraid to easily express opinions that are contrary to mainstream opinions.
Soon after, Mbappe, one of the world's most famous football stars, said he was "sincerely sorry" for his "ill-considered" remarks. His club Real Madrid and the Spanish Serie A also apologized. China is a huge market for the world's most popular sport.
Beijing later confirmed that it was "taking seriously" the player's apology. China Central Radio and Television has not yet announced whether it will resume broadcasting the event.
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But the furor online has not subsided.
A popular comment on Weibo read: "Apologizing is the least he should do, but I don't forgive him. I support banning him."
Mbappe did not directly mention Mao Zedong by name during the interview, but many believe that simply making fun of the founder of the People's Republic of China is crossing a line.
A Weibo message with more than 700 likes read: "Do you know who you are hurting? He is the spiritual pillar of the Chinese people."
Another person wrote: "He is the most important figure in our history. Do you think a simple apology can be enough to pretend nothing happened?"
image copyrightWeibo
Ironically, despite the strong backlash caused by the incident, many people on Chinese social media are still asking what the French striker actually said.
Some have tried to seek answers from artificial intelligence chatbots, but these tools, like the Chinese internet, are censored and unable to provide answers. Others tried to explain the incident but deliberately avoided mentioning Mao Zedong.
Some people refer to Mao Zedong as "the man on the 100 yuan note" or "teacher", the latter being the title Mao Zedong used to call himself.
In memes and interview screenshots circulating online, the word "dictator" and Mbappe's face are blurred.
Neither the statement from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the apology statements issued by Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga directly mentioned Mao Zedong.
Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist Party to win the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and established the People's Republic of China. He died in 1976.
Although Mao Zedong's rule was marked by turmoil such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which killed tens of millions of people in famine and triggered violent purges at all levels of Chinese society, he remains highly revered in China.
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Mao Zedong's portrait overlooks Beijing's Tiananmen Square, symbolizing his central place in the minds of contemporary Chinese.
Unlike other late Chinese leaders, Mao Zedong's embalmed body is still available for public viewing in Tiananmen Square, attracting tens of thousands of visitors every day.
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in Mao Zedong among young Chinese. They read Mao Zedong's works and watch videos about him on social media.
Chinese history textbooks downplay the disasters wrought during Mao Zedong's reign. The Chinese Communist Party's evaluation of Mao Zedong is that his achievements outweigh his faults. In the eyes of the CCP, he is a "great revolutionary" and "a great Marxist."
Outside China, however, history has judged Mao Zedong as both a revolutionary and a dictator. As a result, there has been a very different response from the overseas Chinese community, which includes dissidents and those whose families fled China decades ago under Mao Zedong.
Under Mbappe's statement on social platform X, a Chinese message that received a lot of likes read: "You don't need to apologize, you are not wrong."
Another Chinese user wrote: "It is the Chinese Communist Party that should apologize. They kidnapped the Chinese people and brainwashed them."
On the X and Threads platforms, which are not directly available in China, the controversy has spawned a large number of new meme images.
Some pictures have Mbappe's face grafted onto other photos of Mao Zedong, while others have gone a step further and placed his face on top of China's current leader, Xi Jinping.
As for other users on the internet, they were baffled by the whole thing.
Under Real Madrid's apology on Instagram, one popular comment read: "This is so incomprehensible... It seems that people are not allowed to criticize their own leaders. And they expect the whole world to think the same way as them? This is ridiculous."
Another X user quipped: "How dare you call a dictator a dictator? That's too much."
This article was originally written in English. We used artificial intelligence to assist in translation and was reviewed by BBC journalists before publication. Learn more about how we use artificial intelligence.
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