Tens of thousands of web users are participating in a Facebook contest and posting strange apologies to China.
The “The First Annual Apologize to China Contest,” initiated on July 16 by Taiwanese civil activist Wang Yikai, had attracted over 14,000 members at the time of writing. The contest saw an outpouring support from Facebook users in Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, many of whom formulated their own creative “apologies” to poke a fun at China’s special brand of nationalism.
To kick off the competition, Wang posted a picture of himself looking up at a blue sky, with the Chinese characters reading “The sky is so blue, I am sorry.”
Facebook user Remy Kwong, posted an “apology” that took a jab at China’s pollution from heavy metals.
“Sorry that I haven’t consumed most of the elements on the periodic table, guess I’m not qualified to be Chinese.”
The contest was triggered by a recent spate of celebrities issuing public, often scripted, apologies to China for having expressed their personal views.
Tensions between China and Taiwan garnered international attention after Chou Tzu-yu, a Taiwanese teenage pop singer in a Korean band, was forced to bow and read out a scripted apology for waving Taiwan’s national flag during one of her performances.
