Fans are furious after Jackson Wang was “ridden like a horse” on a variety show

Nobody would have figured that a seemingly innocent cooking show like Go Fridge, (the Chinese version of South Korean variety show Please Take Care of My Refrigerator) could cause controversy.

In the latest episode, the cast members had to attempt to make Chinese comedian Li Xueqin laugh while wearing a rubber horse head mask. GOT7’s Jackson Wang seemed to be very keen on winning because he went all out by getting down on all fours.

Chinese actor Vin Zhang Bin Bin then joined in the fun by climbing on the Hong Kong star’s back to ‘ride’ him. Zhang then grabbed a piece of red cloth and started whipping Wang’s butt to make him go faster as the latter sportingly ‘galloped’ across the floor. Zhang then tossed the red cloth to one side and ordered Wang to pick it up, after horsing around for a while. Unfortunately, Wang could not see properly through the mask and could only look around helplessly.

According to 8days.sg, despite it all being fun and games, many viewers, especially fans of Jackson did not see it that way. They complained about the “disrespectful and degrading” treatment of the 27-year-old, saying that this display has “severely damaged Jackson’s image”.

“The design of the show is inherently problematic. The fact that they prepared a horse head mask shows that they originally intended for a person to be ridden like a horse,” a netizen remarked, while another sighed, “Why has this show become like this?”

Angry fans also called the production team of Go Fridge “sick” and demanded that they delete the clip and apologise immediately. The phrase “Jackson Wang was ridden like a horse on a show” even became a trending topic on social media.

Nevertheless, there were some that noted that it was all Wang’s idea to begin with and that it had nothing to do with the production team.

Sure enough, the episode shows Wang proposing the game after stumbling across the horse head mask. When another guest, Chinese host Chen Ziming, suggested that Wang ride him instead, Wang just laughed and said, “It’s okay, it’s just for fun.”

While the clip has since been taken down, the Go Fridge production team has yet to issue an apology or release a statement about the matter./TISG