Online teen star鈥檚 jokes stir controversy
Print Edition
With 1.4 million followers on Kuaishou, a Chinese video sharing app, 13-year-old Zhong Meimei has gained fame and fans with his popular skits imitating school teachers. However, the young viral star鈥檚 videos were recently removed from his account, incurring suspicion that his jokes weren鈥檛 that funny to some.
Some independent social media accounts earlier reported that the education department in Baoquanling, in northeast China鈥檚 Heilongjiang Provnice where Zhong lives and studies had a talk with him and suggested that he should film videos with what they called positive energy and right value orientation.
His spot-on gestures, facial expressions and even the tones of typical middle school teachers have led to criticism that it may be too close to reality. Some have blamed him for putting teachers in a bad light.
On Monday, the teacher in charge of Zhong鈥檚 class, Tian Guangxiao said that he supported Zhong鈥檚 passion for performance and denied any negative repercussions for the school鈥檚 teachers, in an interview with China Central Television.
鈥淚t is a normal impersonation. There are a lot of styles of imitation on recreational platforms. Online performers could impersonate anyone from any industry,鈥 said Tian, adding that he also supports Zhong鈥檚 dream to study in famed Beijing Film Academy.
However, Tian encouraged the student to beef up cultural knowledge while performing.
Zhong鈥檚 mother, Wu Qiong clarified that it was her that made some of the videos private due to both positive and negative comments.
鈥淎s a parent, I hope the child could show his forte. I think it hard to point out a right direction for him at the time he is popular, like how to educate and give proper guidance to him,鈥 Wu told CCTV and hoped to have more communications with teachers about his child鈥檚 genius for acting.
Zhong鈥檚 account also has videos of him impersonating other professions such as railway ticket sellers, attendants and livestream hosts. Zhong, has denied rumors his videos were taken down after pressure from education authorities.
鈥淚mpersonating teachers is out of recreation. I did not mean to vilify teachers,鈥 he said.
On Chinese social media, impersonations have become popular. According to TikTok, China鈥檚 largest short video app, daily active users reached over 400 million as of January while another report on the growing trend of short videos recorded 6.7 views on a video per minute in China in 2019.
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