Epic eye-roll
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Everybody's talking about the eye-roll of the century, the eye-roll that has gone wildly viral in China. It's undoubtedly the most exciting thing that happened at the Two Sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) that began on March 5 and will most likely end soon. It was a foregone conclusion that President Xi Jinping would be crowned de facto Emperor for Life and that his "thought" would be enshrined in the constitution. What was not expected was a brief but epochal roll of the eyes on the part of one female reporter, Liang Xiangyi 梁相宜 (dressed in blue — I'll call her Ms. Blue or [Ms.] Liang), when another female reporter, Zhang Huijun 张慧君 (dressed in red — I'll call her Ms. Red or [Ms.] Zhang), went on too long and too effusively with her fawning question to a high-ranking CCP official.
You see, everything at the NPC is supposed to be scripted and orchestrated. There aren't supposed to be any surprises. Yet, as you can see for yourself, Ms. Liang could not hide her true emotions, which are painfully evident at 0:36 in the following 0:44 video — with an increasingly dramatic buildup to the moment of her monumental recoil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHsH0WtyFMA
So what was Zhang Huijun saying that caused Liang Xiangyi to roll her eyes with revulsion? Here's a transcription and translation of Zhang's logorrheic question (I've bolded the crucial part):
Wǒ shì Měiguó quánměi diànshì[tái] zhíxíng tái zhǎng Zhāng Huìjūn. Wǒ de wèntí shì: yǐ guǎn zīběn wéi zhǔ zhuǎnbiàn, guózī jiānguǎn zhínéng shì dāngxià dàjiā dōu pǔbiàn guānzhù de yīgè huàtí. Nàme zuòwéi guózī wěi zhǔrèn, 2018 nián zài zhè yī lǐngyù nín jiāng huì tuīchū nǎxiē xīn de jǔcuò? Jīnnián zhèng zhí gǎigé kāifàng 40 zhōunián, wǒmen guójiā yào jìnyībù kuòdà duìwài kāifàng. Xí zǒng shūjì chàngdǎo 'Yīdài Yīlù' de chàngyì, guóqǐ duì 'Yīdài Yīlù' yánxiàn guójiā de tóuzī lìdù jiā dà. Nàme guóyǒu qǐyè dì hǎiwài zīchǎn jiàng rúhé dédào yǒuxiào de jiānguǎn yǐ fángzhǐ guóyǒu qǐyè zīběn de liúshī? Wǒmen tuīchūle nǎxiē jiānguǎn jīzhì? Jiānguǎn de xiàoguǒ yòu rúhé? Qǐng nín wèi dàjiā zuò yīxià jièshào. Xièxiè.
我是美国全美电视[台]执行台长张慧君。我的问题是:以管资本为主转变，国资监管职能是当下大家都普遍关注的一个话题。那么作为国资委主任，2018年在这一领域您将会推出哪些新的举措？今年正值改革开放40周年，我们国家要进一步扩大对外开放。习总书记倡导一带一路的倡议，国企对一带一路沿线国家的投资力度加大。那么国有企业的海外资产将如何的[sic]得到有效的监管以防止国有企业资本的流失？我们推出了哪些监管机制？监管的效果又如何？请您为大家做一下介绍。谢谢。
I am Zhang Huijun, executive director of American Multimedia Television USA (AMTV). My question is this: in the changeover where control of assets / capital is the priority, the supervision of state-owned assets function is immediately a topic that everyone is generally concerned about. So, as the Director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), what new measures will you introduce in this sphere during 2018? This year coincides with the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up. Our country must further expand its opening to the outside world. General Secretary Xi advocated the One Belt One Road initiative, and state-owned enterprises invested more heavily in countries along the Belt and Road. So, how can the overseas assets of state-owned enterprises be effectively supervised to prevent the loss of state-owned enterprise capital? What regulatory mechanisms have we introduced? What about the effect of supervision? Please give us a brief introduction. Thank you.
The phrase that triggered Ms. Blue's sensational eye-roll leading to a head-roll is marked in bold. Is it a particularly cringe-worthy phrase, or was Ms. Blue's double roll simply a response to the overall length and banality of Ms. Red's question?
Here's my analysis. I don't think that "the loss of state-owned enterprise capital" was particularly egregious in and of itself. The immediate trigger that set off Ms. Blue's explosive eye-roll cum head-roll was the sheer ostentatiousness and repetitiousness of "the loss of state-owned enterprise capital" coupled with "how can the overseas assets of state-owned enterprises be effectively supervised" in the first half of the same sentence. More than that, though, what primed Ms. Blue for her spectacular eye-cum-head-roll was the cumulative effect of so much pretentious, yet somehow empty, verbiage on the part of Ms. Red right from the start.
You can see that Ms. Blue was uncomfortable almost from the very beginning of Ms. Red's long question. Ms. Red was a known, and not well-liked, quantity before this incendiary encounter at the NPC. Indeed, she used to work for China Central Television (CCTV) and was fond of boasting of her stellar appearance and overall quality. She calls herself "Liǎnghuì qìzhí jiě 两会气质姐" ("Miss Elegant of the Two Sessions").
Ms. Blue works (probably "worked" as of two days ago) for Shànghǎi dì yī cáijīng 上海第一财经 (China Business Network). In the Chinese Wikipedia article about CBN, Ms. Liang is listed as a famous reporter for the network. Ms. Liang was fully aware that Ms. Red was a fake foreigner in the employ of the Chinese government and that her softball questions were worthless for stimulating useful discussion with the official to whom they were addressed. Ms. Zhang's allegiance is obvious from her reference to "our country". Moreover, Ms. Liang clearly felt extremely uncomfortable with the unprofessional, zuòzuo 做作 ("affected") manner of Ms. Zhang.
Here are some observations about Ms. Red's long-winded question from mainland graduate students:
I cannot understand it if I only listen to it once.
The first sentence she said was hard to hear clearly since she paused at a weird place. I had to listen to it several times. [VHM: I also had to listen to that sentence many times before I could begin to make any sense of it, and I'm still not sure that I fully grasp what she was trying to say. Not to mention that most of the time she speaks quickly, as though rattling off a prepared, mostly memorized statement.]
I can understand, but she seems quite verbose. The punctuation is a little strange because she often stops in the middle of a sentence.
Zhang's over-articulation and over-composure may well have betrayed the possibility that she is reciting a prepared text. Given her fake position, I think she is in fact a “tuōr 托儿" ("shill; plant; stooge; tool" — one syllable Pekingese word) of the Chinese government.
I have watched this video before. To be honest, I have no idea what Miss Red wants to say in the first and second time.
Incidentally, Ms. Blue and the students from the mainland who find Ms. Red's obsequious babbling to be less than readily comprehensible are not alone. The gentleman whose head is sandwiched between Red and Blue seems to be concentrating very hard to make sense of what Ms. Red is saying, though some wags say he is squinting at her cleavage.
This (Liang Xiangyi's unforgettable demonstration of reflexive disgust) may not be "the face that launched a thousand ships", but it might just be "the eye-roll that toppled a communist state".
Media reports
"A Reporter Rolled Her Eyes, and China’s Internet Broke", by Paul Mozur, NYT (3/13/18)
"In China, a reporter’s dramatic eye-roll went viral. Then searches of it were censored.", WaPo (3/13/18)
"One Woman Rolls Her Eyes and Captivates a Nation: The big take-away from the National People’s Congress in China: a disdainful look that flashed through the internet", formerly titled: "As far as eye-rolls go, this one may be a ‘10’", by Te-Ping Chen and Chun Han Wong, WSJ (3/14/18), by Tom Phillips (3/14/18)
"The Eye Roll That Upstaged Xi Jinping", by Rob Schmitz, CNN (3/14/18)
"Chinese reporter's spectacular eye-roll sparks viral memes and censorship: Liang Xiangyi showed theatrical disdain for a colleague’s soft-ball question to a minister at a press conference", by Tom Phillips, The Guardian (3/14/18)
"Reporter's viral eye roll causes trouble with Chinese censors ", by Steven Jiang, CNN (3/15/18)
Urgent notice: all media personnel are prohibited from discussing the Two Sessions blue-clothed reporter incident on social media. Anything already posted must be deleted. Without exception, websites must not hype the episode. (March 13) [Chinese]
[h.t. Ben Zimmer and John Lagerwey; thanks to Mark Liberman, Jinyi Cai, Zeyao Wu, Fangyi Cheng, and Jing Wen]
Update:
Jenny Chu said,
March 15, 2018 @ 11:53 pm
This is interesting to me: "Ms. Liang was fully aware that Ms. Red was a fake foreigner in the employ of the Chinese government" – in what sense was Ms. Red a "fake foreigner"?
Well, American Multimedia Television USA (AMTV) might be fakely foreign (its claim to internationalism seems just about as legit as the cloth I once, found in a Vietnamese market, which was boldly imprinted with the text "MADE OF ENGLAND"), but would anyone seriously think Ms. Red herself was pretending to be a foreigner?
Victor Mair said,
March 16, 2018 @ 12:46 am
Here's Ms. Red asking another question at a previous NPC:
https://twitter.com/rhokilpatrick/status/974178092582236161
Read Ryan Ho Kilpatrick's valuable tweet on Zhang Huijun as a "foreign journalist" at previous NPCs and watch the priceless 1:08 video of her rattling off more incomprehensible fatuities.
John Rohsenow said,
March 16, 2018 @ 1:10 am
At the risk of getting myself in trouble here, we have probably all heard of the stereotype of the "inscrutable Oriental", and at the same time, those of us who have lived and worked with Chinese people for many years know that in a relaxed personal situation, they can be as expressive an any of us 'foreigners'. But also, during my first years in China (1979-81), right after the end of the Cultural Revolution, when we had lots of required political study sessions in the university where I was working, as well as generally in public situations, people DID generally mask their expressions and reactions in public. It is interesting to me to see Ms. Blue relax herself in this manner in public, and probably an object lesson to many others on exactly why NOT to do so.
Andrew D. said,
March 16, 2018 @ 1:13 am
TBH "scripted and orchestrated" sounds very much like both of the American political conventions, and even the softball question would feel right at home. But of course, this in China and it involves the CPC so it's…nefarious I guess? I continue to be fascinated by the cognitive dissonance of loving "China" but constantly expressing disapproval of, or even outright hostility to, many of the very things that make China what is is today.
As for Xi, it was that not long ago Deng Xiaoping exercised de facto control until his death despite having no title designating him as such. Xi was likely to maintain a similar degree of control even after relinquishing his offices, and so the change is more plausibly read as a move towards greater transparency, and not some nefarious power grab as if it only was the term limit that stood between Xi and total power.
Quim said,
March 16, 2018 @ 3:08 am
Maybe Andrew D is just trolling, but I find it linguistically remarkable that he was able to tweak the meaning of "transparency" enough to apply it to the PRC, especially in the context of this post…
Su Ya-po said,
March 16, 2018 @ 3:28 am
@Jenny Chu: At the risk of stating the obvious, such people as Chinese Americans do exist. While it is probably painfully obvious to all of us here (and probably most of those who cared to watch this video from China) that Ms. Red is not one, the point of propaganda has never really been to be convincing, but rather to, as the popular Chinese saying goes, 自欺欺人.
Philip Taylor said,
March 16, 2018 @ 3:56 am
I don't think that Andrew D. is "trolling" at all — like him, I am occasionally suprised at "the cognitive dissonance of loving 'China' but constantly expressing disapproval of, or even outright hostility to, many of the very things that make China what is is today".
Victor Mair said,
March 16, 2018 @ 6:55 am
I'm deeply concerned about Ms. Blue's safety. She may well have to make a public apology for hurting the feelings of 1.3 billion Chinese people. So far as I know, she has lost her press credentials, her name and all references to her are blocked on the Chinese internet, and other measures have been taken against her. I would appreciate very much any news about her current situation.
I have many things to do today, including the doctoral defense of an advisee from the PRC, but will try to follow up on this later in the evening or tomorrow sometime.
Philip Taylor said,
March 16, 2018 @ 7:06 am
Deeply disturbing news. I join you very sincerely in your concern for her safety.
Andrew D. said,
March 16, 2018 @ 7:11 am
The transparency comment was of course a bit of a troll but the rest was serious. In fact Mair often writes about China using the tone and language that American media employ to cover events in other countries – a kind of condescending breeziness that implicitly invites the reader to laugh at these idiots and their kitschy political pageant. It's like being an Anglophile while despising the monarchy.
Philip Taylor said,
March 16, 2018 @ 7:11 am
P.S. I see that she has made it into French Wikipedia; let us hope that there will be sufficient international interest in the story that she cannot just disappear …
Andrew D. said,
March 16, 2018 @ 7:18 am
So in that way she's much like the people who were arrested for protesting on Inauguration Day? True, nobody asked them to apologize for hurting anyone's feelings, but they were looking at decades behind bars.
But thank you for sharing the update. Of course it goes without saying that no one should be punished for expressing an opinion. My point was simply that, compared to the US, China isn't as much of an outlier when it comes to this stuff as we like to think.
Victor Mair said,
March 16, 2018 @ 8:17 am
Good coverage of the reaction in China here:
"In Pictures: An eye-roll goes viral in China, as censors put a lid on it"
15 March 2018 08:10
AFP
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2018/03/15/pictures-eye-roll-goes-viral-china-censors-put-lid/
The sympathy is overwhelmingly in favor of Ms. Blue.
Vanya said,
March 16, 2018 @ 8:46 am
„In fact Mair often writes about China using the tone and language that American media employ to cover events in other countries”
These days the American and foreign media I read tend to cover the US with the same tone, Professor Mair uses toward China. Maybe you shouldn’t rely on Fox News. I find it easy to understand how someone could love China and find Xi and the Communist Party worthy of derision, much as it is easy to love Russia and find Putin a disgrace or love America and be horrified by Trump and American politics in general. For that matter I find it pretty easy to be an Anglophile while despising the Monarchy, as do many English people I know.
Rose Eneri said,
March 16, 2018 @ 9:36 am
I suppose Ms Blue assumed the news camera was tight on Ms Red's face, and so felt free to express her disdain. What I find most interesting is that regardless of language or culture, Ms Blue's feelings are clear. Is eye-roll a universal gesture of disdain? What is the Chinese expression that would accompany this gesture? In AE I believe it would be, "Oh, brother" or "Give me a break."
Victor Mair said,
March 16, 2018 @ 2:59 pm
What's on Weibo? [VHM: Weibo is a Twitter-like microblogging website with nearly 400 million monthly active users. When the Chinese government wants to censor terms on the internet, this is one of the first places they go to.]
https://www.whatsonweibo.com/
Blocking of all references to the eye-rolling mega-incident and the participants in it.
"China’s Eye-Rolling Journalist Incident – the Aftermath
An update to the biggest topic of the week: a remarkable live-broadcasted eye-roll."
Published on March 15, 2018 By Manya Koetse
https://www.whatsonweibo.com/chinas-eye-rolling-journalist-incident-the-aftermath/
Victor Mair said,
March 16, 2018 @ 3:25 pm
I neglected to mention in the o.p. that the Chinese term for rolling the eyes is fān báiyǎn 翻白眼 (lit., "turn [over] white eye"). It's been in the language for at least half a millennium.
Chris C. said,
March 16, 2018 @ 4:45 pm
I don't suppose there's any chance a defense could be raised for her that she was expressing disdain for the mode of expression and general incomprehensibility of the question, and not for the sentiment itself?
Victor Mair said,
March 16, 2018 @ 11:56 pm
From sources in China, I have collected a tremendous amount of materials about the "epic eye-roll" incident at the 13th NPC (Two Sessions). Much of it is in Chinese, which I don't have time to translate, and there is an abundance of visual materials, which I shall have to send separately to those who may have a particular interest in this matter, because they are difficult to post in circulars and on blogs.
Needless to say, most of the sentiments are strongly pro-Blue and anti-Red. I will not quote them here, but many of the comments about Ms. Zhang are devastating. I will list some of them in a separate post.
Ms. Zhang has a strange way of speaking. I base this not just on the 44 second video clip above, but on other recordings of her speech as well. Sometimes she halts and stops at odd places, and then she dashes along at lightning speed for a phrase or two (probably the bits she has memorized beforehand). Also, the way she moves her head and smiles is very sājiāo 撒娇ish / coquettish / flirtatious — unprofessional for a journalist.
The rolling of the eyes incident is not a simple matter. I think that it will have long and lasting implications for the CCP and the PRC. In my estimation, ultimately it will be one of the most celebrated events of the Xi reign.
KSF said,
March 17, 2018 @ 1:09 pm
My wife and her Shanghai No 3 Girl's School and Fudan classmate chat groups' take focuses less on the political aspect and more on it being a woman's instinctual reaction ('bitchy') at another woman she feels is beneath her.
One of the great punchlines was, referring to the man in the background in the middle of them, "It would be better for everyone, and gentlemanly, if he just told everyone he farted [that caused her reaction]."
Jichang Lulu said,
March 17, 2018 @ 4:57 pm
These 'foreign shills' (journalists pretending to represent foreign media organisations) are a feature of Two Sessions press conferences and other important events. It's not the first time they generate the wrong kind of virality: many will remember Question Sister (Tíwèn jiě 提问姐) from 2012 (memorably interviewed here). It keeps happening again and again. Another aspect are positive comments from foreigners, harvested or concocted by state media and their affiliates.
One major purveyor of shills and faux-foreign 'positive energy' is CRI (China Radio International), through a network of affiliates affectionately known as the Borrowed Boats.
The cost-effectiveness of this aspect of the exoprop system (wáixuān 外宣, short for duìwài xuānchuán 对外宣传 or 'propaganda for foreigners/foreign countries') is questionable, but it does create jobs and junkets. For Ms Red's organisation AMTV and Chinese state-media, it was a win-win situation: AMTV could use the prestige for business purposes, and the Two Sessions circus could earn legitimacy through 'foreign'-media participation. That has failed once again, and now resources need to be spent on censoring references to a person rolling their eyes. Unlike in domestic propaganda, and in PR/advertising by other organisations in China and abroad, not much feedback about the actual effects of propaganda work reaches those with the power to redesign it. Change does happen, and the exoprop system does learn from its mistakes, but rather slowly compared to some similar entities.
A recent post by Victor ("The language impact of the Confucius Institutes") showed another aspect of the same phenomenon. Victor enigmatically proposed a list of pinyin words and phrases from a China Daily article. These had supposedly become known among foreigners, but the list included some Xiist Newspeak items that even people with some exposure to Chinese couldn't recognise. As it emerged in the comments, the whole exercise was a manifestation of internal processes of the exoprop bureaucracy: a rather peculiar 'survey' had been produced to prove the success of "people-to-people exchanges" mandated by Central Committee injunction; the 'survey' was in turn used to produce positive-energy news stories that eventually reached the China Daily. This involved writing that a term translatable as 'Sincerity, Practical Results, Affinity and Good Faith' enjoys 10.3% awareness in the Anglosphere, and is in fact better known among English speakers that the word for 'dumpling'. The theoretical framework for the report invoked no less an authority than the Global Language Monitor. Quite likely, no one involved in the process believes these claims, but incentives are such that concocting the mock survey and attendant articles is easier and more fun than asserting this exoprop task has failed.
In other words, and in the flatulent spirit of the previous comment, the exoprop system farts in Beijing, and winds of positive energy sweep across the world. Or something.
Nick Kaldis said,
March 17, 2018 @ 6:50 pm
Thanks for this post Victor,
I'd add that Liang Xiangyi, under her hair at the end of the clip, also almost seems to be subtly flipping the bird at Zhang Huijun. Probably not intentional, but certainly in the spirit of her other expressions.
Nick
Jenny Chu said,
March 17, 2018 @ 11:38 pm
@Su Ya-po, :) You are absolutely correct; Chinese-Americans do exist in a perplexingly wide variety of types (here in Hong Kong we like to answer "Where are you from?" with "It's complicated!") but I'm more interested in the use of "[fake] foreigner" – which, when I wrote the comment above, I had assumed was being quoted from the Chinese Wikipedia article, but now I'm realizing is possibly a term chosen by Prof. Mair (reflecting his assumption of what Ms. Blue thought of her).
Anyway – Ms. Red doesn't look or sound like an overseas Chinese / ABC; she looks and sounds born-and-raised Chinese, and refers to China as "我们国家". So, is this a case of (assumed) semantic broadening of "foreigner" to include people who work for overseas organizations?
Harry said,
March 18, 2018 @ 3:45 am
What I find interesting, in this and many other examples, is the failure in totalitarian countries to eradicate people's essential decency and their hatred of toadyism. Is there hope for the world?
AntC said,
March 18, 2018 @ 5:40 am
… hatred of toadyism. Is there hope for the world?
Ms Blue seems to have disappeared. That doesn't look like "failure to eradicate". Ms Red hasn't disappeared.
KellyAnne Conway still appears regularly on Fox News. There's plenty of non-censored commentary on her toadyism. It's not clear that (many people's) hatred thereof is promoting decency.
Not currently.
Victor Mair said,
March 18, 2018 @ 12:09 pm
It's not often that a troll admits to being one. That happened in the comments above. We'll remember next time.
For anyone who still doubts that Ms. Zhang (Red) was presenting herself as a foreign journalist — despite her telltale slip of "wǒmen guójiā 我们国家 (our country)" — please read carefully the first sentence of her self-introduction, the second comment in this thread, and the lengthy comment by Jichang Lulu, paying particular attention to the embedded links in both comments.
I am preparing a lengthy post on Ms. Zhang's background and her labyrinthine connections with powerful, wealthy individuals and organizations in China. Among many other aspects of the Red-Blue contretemps, I will show beyond any doubt whatsoever that this is not the first time Ms. Zhang tried to pass herself off as a foreign journalist.
I'm also trying to find out what has happened to Ms. Liang. I remain deeply concerned about her safety. She remains in grave danger for having involuntarily revealed her true emotions about Ms. Zhang and what she was saying. Her reaction was brief, nonverbal, and not meant for anyone else to witness. See the first sentence of Rose Eneri's perceptive comment above.
Because the follow-up post I am preparing is extremely lengthy, full of illustrations and documentation, and touches on many aspects of the case that are not closely tied to language and linguistics, I will post it on another blog. When I do so, I will provide a link here.
stephen said,
March 18, 2018 @ 5:33 pm
At one point Ms. Blue is looking behind and downward. I wonder why? Did a person behind her say something?
David said,
March 20, 2018 @ 4:49 am
Well, Ms. "Red" that just about sums it up?…
BZ said,
March 20, 2018 @ 10:13 am
@Rose Enri,
I was wondering about that as well. I don't believe eye-rolling is (was?) known in Russia. I know my late grandmother was worried my brother was sick when he performed one.
Victor Mair said,
March 20, 2018 @ 12:25 pm
As promised, I have posted a follow-up to my Language Log account of the epic encounter between Ms. Red and Ms. Blue, which is now being called "Eye-rollgate" (Báiyǎnmén 白眼门).
It's on the jichang lulu blog:
"Victor Mair: Eye-roll of the century"
https://jichanglulu.wordpress.com/2018/03/20/victor-mair-eye-roll-of-the-century/#more-1091
Includes an amazing cheesecake photo of Ms. Red. If you are directed to that photograph when you click on the link, make sure to go up to the beginning of the post which includes a full narrative of this celebrated event: details about the backgrounds of the two women, especially Ms. Red, who is a very high-flying figure in PRC CCP circles; evidence of and documentation for her activity as a "wěi wàiméi 伪外媒" / jià wàiméi 假外媒" ("fake foreign media") personality; netizen comments on the encounter; assessments by informants from China; illustrative materials — emoticons / memes, online chat screenshots; references; etc.
See, in addition to all the links in the post, these recent articles:
"专家视点(李佳佳)：'假外媒'与软实力" VOA Chinese (3/20/18)
https://www.voachinese.com/a/voaweishi-lijiajia-20180319/4305874.html
"袁斌：我为'气质姐'张慧君鸣不平" 大纪元 (3/20/18)
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/18/3/20/n10232315.htm
"袁斌：白眼门'凸显了什么？" 大纪元 (3/19/18), which shows photos of Ms. Red in military uniform (three stars on her epaulettes, no less!)
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/18/3/19/n10229290.htm
If anyone has any gifs of the Blue-Red Encounter, please send them along to me.
Victor Mair said,
March 20, 2018 @ 4:26 pm
From dako-xiaweiyi:
That's two stars and two stripes on the epaulette. The stripes run lengthwise. The gold thingy at the top of the epaulette is a button, like on Western naval epaulettes.
She is an O-5, Zhongxiao (Commander, Lt. Colonel), in the PLA, who was posing as a civilian reporter for a faux Los Angeles media company.
Next questions: Did she ever actually work in LA? What was on her visa? What about the rest of her company in LA; who are they, what do they do, and what is on their visas?
Victor Mair said,
March 20, 2018 @ 4:26 pm
Thanks for the precise and important information, dako. I will add it as a comment to the thread. Hopefully we will find out more about her and her associates, including the answers to your pertinent questions.
As I said in my post, she is not just a pretty face, and she is not merely a simple fake foreign reporter.
Victor Mair said,
March 21, 2018 @ 8:50 am
"China’s Viral Eye-Rolling Reporter Incident Reveals a Darker Secret"
By Sunny Chao, Epoch Times
March 20, 2018 9:17 am Last Updated: March 20, 2018 8:38 pm
https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinas-viral-eye-rolling-reporter-incident-reveals-a-darker-secret_2470111.html
VHM: New and vital information. Important illustrations.
Victor Mair said,
March 24, 2018 @ 9:48 pm
From Jichang Lulu:
Samuel Wade has covered Eye-Roll Gate in a new article for CDT, including additional comments and reference to this post.
Victor Mair said,
March 26, 2018 @ 6:19 pm
"The real reason a journalist’s eye-roll captivated China
She might not have known it, but the Chinese news reporter who became the toast of the internet by rolling her eyes at a rival was channelling hundreds, if not thousands, of years of drama and performance"
By Edouard Morton
SCMP 25 Mar 2018
http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2138571/real-reason-journalists-eye-roll-captivated-china