The controversy against a Thai actor and his girlfriend turned against the Chinese nationalist netizens closest to the CCP while demonstrating the Chinese propaganda machine’s inability to interpret and fully understand the feelings of young people from neighboring countries.
On social networks, especially Twitter and Facebook, a war with no holds barred between Chinese trolls and Thai youth broke out after a Thai actor, Vachirawit Chivaaree, liked an image on Twitter that depicted Hong Kong as an independent “country”.
Many Chinese netizens had flooded his account on Instagram and other social networks, criticizing him and trying to correct him. The actor, therefore, posted an apologetic post for the “lack of attention in talking about Hong Kong”, which is in fact a semi-autonomous city, and not an independent nation.
The actor is not the first, and certainly will not be the last celebrity to unwittingly offend the hypersensitive Chinese public and then apologize for Taiwan and Hong Kong issues.
For years we have also witnessed ranks of Chinese trolls flooding with negative comments the pages on Facebook and Twitter, social networks banned in China of pro-Uigur groups, Taiwanese government, etc.
After the apology of the actor, some users of Weibo, the popular Chinese social network, have identified other posts of the actor and in particular of his girlfriend, Weeraya Sukaram, who is known on the network under the pseudonym of Nnevvy, where she sympathized for the independence of Taiwan.
Netizens have therefore started to boycott Vachirawit and his TV show “2gether” and some have gone further by starting to insult them both on Weibo and on Twitter using the hashtag #nnevvy.
Weeraya did not respond to requests for comment and none of the messages were visible on her accounts.
On Weibo, the hashtag has been used over 1.5 million times, totaling more than 4 billion views, according to the Global Times.
From this moment, however, the situation seems to have gotten out of hand to the Chinese defamation machine, so much so that some Chinese trolls have started to harass the actor’s Thai fans on Twitter and to openly insult Thailand and its government.
In this frantic search for a total confrontation with the Thais, rather than make indignant the local public, they were greeted with joy by the more liberal young Thais.
I hereby declare Thailand will be my first travel destination as soon as the epidemic is over!
— GrilledCorn (@CornGrilled) April 13, 2020
I think I’ll call this an Asia Bromance! 🇹🇭🇭🇰🇹🇼 #nnevvy pic.twitter.com/yXxaFDGKxj
They, therefore, invited the Chinese trolls to insult their government, already the object of their criticism, with even more ardor, and displacing the Chinese netizens not accustomed to contesting the authority of their country.
They, therefore, invited the Chinese trolls to insult their government, already the object of their criticism, with even more ardor, and displacing the Chinese netizens not accustomed to contesting the authority of their country.
In a very short time, young Thai people were also joined by users from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Former Hong Kong legislator Nathan Law commented: “so funny watching the pro-CCP online army trying to attack Bright. They think every Thai person must be like them, who love Emperor Xi. What they don’t understand is that Bright’s fans are young and progressive, and the pro-CCP army always make the wrong attacks.”
In a short time, #nnevvy turned into a hashtag dominated by anti-CCP sentiments, despite the collective effort to flood it with more positive posts towards the Asian giant (such as Chinese noodle dishes, landscapes or various recipes) and in an opportunity to discuss issues that often struggle to be addressed in Far Eastern countries.
Joshua Wong, the secretary of the Democratic Demosisto party (here, here and here you can find some of our interviews), urged the young people of Hong Kong to support Thai peers, to give life to a new type of pan-Asian solidarity that is opposed to all forms of authoritarianism.
[The statement by Chinese Embassy Bangkok is sheer arrogance and ignorance.]
— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) April 15, 2020
1/ It is indisputable that the #nnevvy saga was provoked by the Chinese nationalist trolls, by firstly doxing, insulting and demeaning the Thai celebrities and people in Thailand. pic.twitter.com/EvzjQz6sqZ
Filipino youth finally joined the protests against China for its actions in the South China Sea dispute.
Even on Weibo, commentary has begun on the failure of the punitive expedition of the Chinese nationalist trolls.
It is not the first time, and probably will not be the last, that Chinese nationalist efforts ultimately get out of hand with propaganda, eventually damaging the country’s reputation abroad and among neighboring countries.
I found this #nnevvy meme to explain why Thai netizens are winning the PR war on Twitter. I think it all comes down to one simple fact: while Thai people love Thailand, they don’t equate country with gov’t, which frees them from blind loyalty and the “glass heart” syndrome. 🇹🇭 pic.twitter.com/j8Eg04fTbM
— Jason Y. Ng (@jasonyng) April 13, 2020
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