China State-Owned TV Deleted Jacky Cheung’s Message for the 25th Anniversary of Hong Kong’s Handover to China

They deleted his message because of one phrase: “Add oil, Hong Kong!”

Here’s why.

Message Included Phrase Associated with Protesters

Many Hong Kong artistes recorded a message for state broadcaster CCTV, celebrating the city’s 25th anniversary of its handover to mainland China.

The Canto-pop star Jacky Cheung also recorded a 21-second message, which said:

“Hong Kong has experienced a lot with ups and downs in the past 25 years. I grew up with this city. I was born and grew up here. I still believe in this city, still hoping that it will become a better one. Add oil, Hong Kong!”

However, many took offence to the phrase “Add oil, Hong Kong”, which means “keep it up”. This phrase of encouragement was actually widely used during the period of social unrest in Hong Kong back in 2019, and has since been associated with protesters.

After mainland Chinese netizens complained about the use of this phrase, as well as the supposed lack of patriotism in Cheung’s message, CCTV ended up deleting the clip.

Cheung Responds, Says Phrase Shouldn’t Be Taboo

On 3 July, Cheung responded, saying that he is a patriot.

He added that phrases like “Beijing add oil”, “Shanghai add oil” are accepted by the public, so he can’t understand why “Hong Kong add oil” is so controversial.

Additionally, he also pointed out how yellow and black colours have also been used to determine how patriotic a person is. (FYI, protestors back in 2019 wore black, and the opposition movement has always been associated with yellow.)

Cheung then added that such phrases and colours shouldn’t become taboo, just because they have been used by people who “made mistakes” or “criminals who had ulterior motives”.

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Proud to be Chinese

Displaying his patriotism, Cheung called it the “greatest miracle of the century” that China managed to bring hundreds of millions out of poverty.

He then said that he was proud to be Chinese, and hoped that the Chinese people will be rational when making judgements.

This was received with much support from his fans online, who pointed out that people who excessively mention their “motherland”, or China, may just be putting on a front.

However, others said that Cheung only mentioned Hong Kong and the 25th anniversary in the video, with no mention of China at all even though he’s celebrating Hong Kong’s return to it.

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Featured Image: CCTV