One of the biggest topics on Chinese social media last week was the provocative dancing videos of former gymnast and world champion Wu Liufang on Douyin, China’s TikTok sister app.
Wu has been posting dance and other videos on the platform since April this year without much controversy until 23 November, when Guan Chenchen, Wu’s junior in the National team, who won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, openly criticised her for tarnishing the good name of the National Gymnastics Team. This caused a huge wave of discussion online.
Some netizens agree with Guan and think that Wu’s dancing while dressed provocatively is “vulgar” and that she shouldn’t have used “former national team member” as her account description. Others attacked Wu for supposed “ungratefulness” to leave her job as a teacher after retiring from the National Team and called for authorities and platforms to crack down on all “provocative” and “vulgar” dancing content. Meanwhile, others think it’s her freedom to do whatever she wants as long as it doesn’t violate the community rules of Douyin and that she is not wearing less than when competing as a gymnast.
On 24 November, it was reported that the number of videos on Wu’s account reduced from 57 to 7. Douyin also “shadow banned” her account, forbidding new following to the account for a week. However, public opinion shifted so much during the week of heated discussion that she returned almost triumphantly after the week-long penalty. Many sympathise with Wu as it is hard to find employment and women should be able to choose their careers, provided no laws or regulations are broken. Her post-National Team charitable activities have also been discovered and earned her more support.
Douyin unblocked Wu’s account for new followings on the evening of 1 December, and her following doubled and reached over 5 million by midday the next day. On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “Wu Liufang’s account has been unblocked” (#柳芳账号已解禁#) shot to number 4 on the Hot Search list with 82.02 million views and over 213,000 engagements.
Wu, born in 1994 was a member of China’s National Gymnastics Team between 2008 and 2013. She won four world championships in the 2010 Doha World Cup and Paris Bercy World Cup, as well as the 2011 Ghent World Cup. She retired from the National team in 2013 after missing the 2012 London Olympics due to injuries.
As the discussion around Wu’s content is still ongoing, what the controversy would mean for Wu Liufang and short-form video content as a whole is still unclear and warrants close following.
