I have some questions about the “funny memes” about President Xi as Winnie the Pooh or Chairman Mao as a cat (I’m sure there are many more, for example I heard some people call President Xi an “accelerator in chief”, a very narrow minded and rude term in my opinion).
I basically only know the western narrative about those memes, I want to learn about how they are regarded in China, if they are actually illegal and/or “censored” and why, what their origins are, what they mean (I know from my scarce knowledge of Hanyu that Mao also means cat for example), and who made them.
I am trying to “de-propagandize” my mind, since I grew up only being taught the opposing side’s narrative. I don’t want to be disrespectful, and if I am please tell me, it is not my goal to be rude.
I know the Winnie the Poo one was racism mixed with “communism is when government bans things” propaganda.
Winnie the Poo is not banned in China, nor was it ever (to my knowledge). The entire meme of it came from people (mostly white racists) claiming that Xi Jinping looked like the character on sites like Reddit and 4Chan, then on the same sites they claimed the meme was banned in China and was being suppressed by Reddit’s moderation (it wasn’t). Thus creating an urban myth that not only was the meme of Xi photoshopped next to Winnie banned, but Winnie the Poo as a character was also banned.
This whole thing comes down to Sinophobia, and the racist desire to believe anything that’s being said about China.