{"id":15082,"date":"2020-08-14T09:45:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T09:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/?p=15082"},"modified":"2020-09-01T12:12:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T12:12:02","slug":"criticism-against-cartier-gay-couple-censored-as-father-and-son-in-chinese-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/criticism-against-cartier-gay-couple-censored-as-father-and-son-in-chinese-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"Criticism against Cartier: Gay couple called &#8220;father and son&#8221; in worldwide advert  in Chinese version?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;How far would you go for love?&#8221; asks Cartier&#8217;s new commercial in China. The spot features people who are clearly romantically involved &#8211; including two men and two women. The nature of the persons&#8217; relationship with each other in the clip is deliberately left vague\u00a0 &#8211; but in the meantime the homosexual couples were called &#8220;girlfriends&#8221; or &#8220;father and son&#8221; in the advertisements. Activists are appalled.<\/p>\n<p>Two men riding bicycles and looking into each other&#8217;s eyes &#8211; a woman who lays her head on the shoulder of another woman while the latter dreamily closes her eyes&#8230; The 60-second clip by jeweler Cartier was released just in time for the Qixi festival, a kind of Chinese Valentine&#8217;s Day in a few weeks. The commercial features a ring &#8211; known to be one of the greatest symbols of eternal love.<\/p>\n<p>In this context, it seems very progressive that Cartier not only depicts heterosexual couples, but also same-sex couples. In the spot itself, the relationship between the couples is not dissolved, but the intention is clear &#8211; at least that&#8217;s what one might think. In the meantime, Cartier has backed off: In ads and banners on his Tmall site, Cartier has\u00a0 given the couples other labels by mean. Tmall is one of the world&#8217;s largest e-commerce sites and reaches around 500 million users per month.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15092 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/china9-1-615x346.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"615\" height=\"346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/china9-1-615x346.jpg 615w, https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/china9-1-215x122.jpg 215w, https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/china9-1-165x93.jpg 165w, https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/china9-1.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The ad of the two women reads:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mutual understanding beyond words. Witness our everlasting friendship&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The text on the picture of the two men reads:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Father and son are like brothers&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Thursday the company stuck to its presentation. The Trinity Collection would tell four stories of love, friendship and family ties. They said:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One of the stories shows the unique bond between a father and his son who enjoy a joyful and playful bicycle ride together, symbolising the path of life where there will be moments of separation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-wrap\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"zh\" dir=\"ltr\">Cartier \u5728\u4e2d\u570b\u7684\u5ee3\u544a\u70ba\u4e86\u7b26\u5408\u56fd\u60c5\uff0c\u786c\u751f\u751f\u628a\u5df2\u7d93\u62cd\u597d\u7684\u7537\u540c\u5fd7\u60c5\u4fb6\u8aaa\u6210\u662f\u7236\u5b50\uff0c\u628a\u5973\u540c\u5fd7\u60c5\u4fb6\u8aaa\u6210\u662f\u670b\u53cb<\/p>\n<p>\u5927\u6982\u56e0\u70ba\u7236\u5b50\u8cb7\u5c0d\u6212\u771f\u7684\u592a\u602a\u4e86\uff0c\u6240\u4ee5\u4ed6\u5011\u53c8\u52a0\u4e86\u4e00\u53e5\u300c\u7236\u5b50\u4ea6\u662f\u5144\u5f1f\u300d<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xcB8dmi3aI\">https:\/\/t.co\/xcB8dmi3aI<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Kx5UTBnm8y\">pic.twitter.com\/Kx5UTBnm8y<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Faiching\u27b0\u5ee2\u9752\ud83d\udc89 \ud835\udc00\ud835\udc02\ud835\udc00\ud835\udc01 (@tropicalvoid) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tropicalvoid\/status\/1293538715776606208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 12, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>You can watch the video<a href=\"http:\/\/players.brightcove.net\/6001673517001\/ENExWs4xJg_default\/index.html?videoId=6180885410001\"> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Clear criticism on social media<\/h2>\n<p>Criticism hailed on social media. On the Weibo platform, the Chinese response to Twitter, many users resented the company&#8217;s alleged &#8220;touch-up&#8221; of the campaign. They believed that the two men were obviously destined to be a couple &#8211; due to the almost non-existent age difference and the fact that father and son rarely wear rings as a symbol of their bond.<\/p>\n<p>One wrote, for example:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are not more than three years apart in age. Furthermore, I have never heard of fathers and sons wearing matching rings.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another pointed out the signal Cartier was sending with the retroactive attribute assignment:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The campaign was much better when it stayed in the ambiguity zone. Now I feel that being gay is something to be ashamed of.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-wrap\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u63a8\u88abguardian\u5f15\u7528\u4e86 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eSkmHHorxB\">https:\/\/t.co\/eSkmHHorxB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; \u65b0\u5efa\u6587\u6a94 (@flintthuang) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/flintthuang\/status\/1294132371516608513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<h2>Was Cartier trying to circumvent media censorship?<\/h2>\n<p>Did Cartier get scared of their own courage &#8211; or did they try to outwit the Chinese system? Although many queer activists* were disappointed, they also showed resignation. On social networks, too, many blamed the tightened regulatory requirements for companies and the media censorship prevailing in China &#8211; which in the end erases nothing less than the value of all cultures, a critic said on Weibo.<\/p>\n<p>Homosexuality is still considered taboo in China. Although homosexuality has no longer been officially listed as a psychological disorder since 2001, the reality is unfortunately different. Recently a courageous lesbian student sued a Chinese publishing house in whose publications homosexuality was still called a &#8220;psychosexual disorder&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/psychosexual-disorder-courageous-student-sues-publisher-in-china\/\">we reported<\/a>). Since 2016 there is a nationwide ban on the depiction of &#8220;abnormal sexual behaviour&#8221; in online video and audio content. This includes homosexuality.<\/p>\n<p>Yanzi Peng, the director of the China Rainbow Media Awards, told CNN that companies need to be bolder. However, she also argued that Cartier&#8217;s advertising and the obvious &#8220;circumvention&#8221; of the taboo has increased the visibility of queer life forms.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Some people may think that [Cartier] is just trying to make a few &#8216;pink dollars&#8217;, but I tend to think more positively that they support gay rights in a way that&#8217;s not so different from the way we do &#8211; by increasing our visibility through these kinds of ads.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The China Rainbow Media Awards is a prize-giving ceremony that, since 2011, has been honouring publishing houses and media companies that are committed to the queer community in a variety of ways and increase the visibility of non-heteronormative lifestyles in China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;How far would you go for love?&#8221; asks Cartier&#8217;s new commercial in China. The spot features people who are clearly romantically involved &#8211; including two men and two women. The nature of the persons&#8217; relationship with each other in the clip is deliberately left vague\u00a0 &#8211; but in the meantime the homosexual couples were called &#8220;girlfriends&#8221; or &#8220;father and son&#8221; in the advertisements. Activists are appalled. <a href=\"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/criticism-against-cartier-gay-couple-censored-as-father-and-son-in-chinese-advertising\/\"><\/p>\n<p><i class=\"showAllLink\">more&#8230;<\/i><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":15091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[10,70,1,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15082"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15082"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15295,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15082\/revisions\/15295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}