Actress Gong Li was born in China and she is a Singaporean citizen. She is one of the latest celebrities who have irked Chinese netizens after she wore a white top from Adidas in a photoshoot with Vogue magazine’s Chinese edition.
Gong Li had been called to be boycotted in China by netizens on social media site Weibo. They accused the actress of insulting the country, saying that she was no longer a “Chinese citizen”.
It has been reported by Sydney Morning Herald that in 2008, Gong Li gave up her Chinese citizenship to become a Singaporean citizen, a move that was criticised by Chinese netizens at that time. Gong Li’s outfit did not feature any Adidas logo but netizens noticed that the brand was included in the actress’ outfit credits on Weibo. The sportswear brand was one of the brands that faced backlash from Chinese netizens after their refusal to use Xinjiang cotton due to concerns of alleged forced labour came to light.
Over 30 celebrities issued public statements to denounce the brand in the wake of the controversy, including K-pop boy group GOT7’s Jackson Wang and popular Uyghur actress Dilraba Dilmurat. Subsequently, Dilmurat and Hong Kong singer Eason Chan both terminated their collaboration with Adidas. Vogue wrote on their Weibo that the project with Gong Li took 150 “days and nights”, with the concept undergoing several rounds of change.
The publication’s post mentioned that there were three sessions of costume testing, featuring 200 “high-quality and customised” dresses and accessories. Based on a netizen’s screenshots of the Vogue’s article, Gong Li had set aside a day to decide on all the details of her outfits for the photoshoot. According to entertainment news site Lujuba, Weibo users concluded that Gong Li had deliberately chosen to wear Adidas despite the brand being perceived to be “insulting China”.
According to Mothership.sg, Chinese netizens took offence, saying that the actress “went too far” for choosing to wear an Adidas outfit. A netizen dubbed Gong Li a “Singaporean banana” and called for her to be banned from doing business in China. Negative comments under Vogue’s post could no longer be found and searches on the topic on Weibo did not yield any results at the time of writing. Chinese state-controlled media Global Times (GT) and news aggregator Sina had covered Gong Li’s Vogue photoshoot without mentioning the controversy.
On the other hand, on Sept 14, GT published an article praising Gong Li’s “red velvet cheongsam” outfit at the Met Gala, designed by Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli.
In the article, GT added that Chinese netizens “roasted” Kim Kardashian’s outfit at the Met Gala, which saw her covered from “head to toe”.
Meanwhile, Weibo users did not seem to take offence at other posts about Adidas on the social media site, with an influencer lauding Adidas’ latest launch and calling for her 340,000 followers to go visit Adidas’ concept store.
The influencer’s post appeared to be well-received, with netizens praising Adidas’ concept store and the design of their new releases./TISG