Guo Degang is a famous Chinese xiangsheng actor. Recently, a controversy has surrounded him when a Beijing Television reporter claimed that Guo Degang’s student [in the arts] had attacked him [the reporter] and produced an edited video to prove it. Later, it was shown that the reporter had repeatedly entered Guo Degang’s home without permission and lied about secretly filming. The translated post below is from the popular Chinese Mop BBS discussion forum calling for the Chinese media to blacklist/ban Guo Degang to punish him for what happened and the comments he has made about the media afterward. It received many responses from Chinese netizens, some in support but also some in opposition.
See also:
- How The Reporter Got His Arm Broken (EastSouthWestNorth)
- Guo Degang and China’s Weird Celebrity Standards (ChinaGeeks)
- Launching a people’s war against crosstalker Guo Degang (Danwei)
From Mop:
Blacklist! Is it the best way to deal with Guo Degang?
When facing unscrupulous performers, there is only one thing to do, that is to blacklist [ban] them.
This comment is aimed at the new unscrupulous deeds of an unscrupulous actor. His name is Guo Degang. Several years ago, I read on newspapers that he was the spokesman for some fat-eliminating so-called Tibetan phony/counterfeit medicine. After being exposed, he refused to admit his wrongdoing and even tried to challenge and debate with the public, even saying things like “please come someone eloquent”, as if he was so volubly and righteous that he had no rival. From this issue, I have recognized that this person has low taste and needs some moral lessons. Since then whenever I saw him on television I would change channels quickly, like getting rid of wasps. I do not want to hear him chattering. In this aspect, I’ve got cleanliness that I cannot bear someone like him standing in front of me. I do not understand why public media can tolerate him swaggering through the street. Facts have proven that my sense of justice is not bad. This person has caused some new scandals recently. According to some media reports, his villa has occupied some greenbelts illegally which irritated his neighbors [He had expanded his personal property to include public land]. And reporters, from the Beijing Television Station, got beaten up by his pupils when they went for interviews. And what’s more, Guo himself then actually said “so what? It’s not a big deal!” Things did not stop there, he even laughed at his neighbors and Beijing TV Station in his shows. He called his neighbors “poor people”, “bastards”, and BTV “worse than prostitutes”, “a filthy organization”. He has already forgotten that he himself first became famous through BTV.
To think back then, that the media, even after the “Tibetan medicine issue”, still treated him like a treasure, giving him enough exposure and from time to time, newspaper reporters would conduct interviews with him, and write up long pieces of articles flattering him. Isn’t it cheap? I think it’s too cheap. As the media being so cheap, he then forgot how big the world was. And now, they are called “worse than prostitutes”.
Common people may have got an impression that nowadays, virtues are being forgotten, and money and power talk loud. Look at Guo Degang, how niu he is! They may even educate their children in this way: “son, never mind what teachers talk about virtues, those are all illusive, and money is everything, Guo Degang is a good example!” If this really happens, our society will be truly fearful, deplorable, and dangerous!
For people like this, a blanket of critics and public voices is useless. Critics work only on people who have the sense of shame, and for those who don’t, critics are like tickles. As for him, it’s like “it’s your choice to laugh or curse, being a star I can do whatever I want, so what can you do to me?” In such circumstances, blacklisting from the media is the only way out. Do not provide stages for him, deprive him of the opportunities to show off, bury him, freeze him, cut off his ability to make money, and only then will he feel pain, and after that pain, only then will he be able to reflect: I’m wrong, I have done something unscrupulous so the media has blacklisted me, my ability to make money has been cut, what shall I do? I’d better to lower my head [admit wrongs, make amends]. But, the media must be hard/tough, because at this point, self-criticism is meaningless, the punishment should be life imprisonment. If there is anything China has it is plenty of talent in entertainment, so losing you is no big deal, and you will never be able to make a comeback. Saying this, however, doesn’t seem very right, for you should always give those who want to correct their mistakes a chance, right?
Don’t give it. Because only by being this hard/tough, can we teach the whole society a good lesson. If not, there will be admirers and applause for these dirty deeds and the society will lose its rules or standards for beauty and evil, or fragrant and stink, and the society will get rotten gradually.
So now, can BTV gain some strength and no longer coddle him, able to join with CCTV, domestic television channels, newspapers, and magazines to blacklist this unscrupulous performer together? This is not willful, but a great project to save the society from corruption. The media should use such a righteous movement to show the world: ugly and filthy things, shall not have a market in China, and even less become popular.
Comments from Mop:
Whungbin:
I have never heard one full episode of his crosstalk, but I personally think it is wrong to beat people and one should admit his fault and apologize.
我是苏小恶:
Er, you don’t even know Guo Degang well, how dare you come here and speak such nonsense! Piss off.
小小是只狗:
Fuck, reporters also lack virtue.
霉菌大饼:
Deserves to be blacklisted=–
爱在OT:
Maybe at this moment Guo Degang is scolding his pupil~~~
冷风穿入袖:
How come you even support those who beat people… You are good. I never watch your cross-talk.
dyyx128:
To be honest, I am from Sichuan Province. I like art performances like cross-talks and storytelling very much, but I only got to know Guo Degang at the beginning of this year. I have never heard his shows till now. I only listen to Li Boqing, Master. Li’s storytelling, the Chongqing-originated Wu Wen’s storytelling in Sichuan. I also listen to other famous artists’ sessions like Master Ma Ji. But I have never listened to Guo Degang. I personally don’t like this person since I don’t like people with fat face and big ears. As Guo Degang has asked: “Please come someone eloquent”, I recommend Master Li Boqing to PK him! He will give him an exciting scold.
魔灯大师:
It is not that Guo Degang did no wrong but that reporter indeed deserved a beating.
干部打人:
Do you really take yourself as special commentators? What the hell are you? How much do you know about Guo Degang? Guo Degang gained his fame in theatres, what the fuck do you know? Did you know that it was BTV who approached him later to work together? How much do you really know? …not knowing anything but following other people’s butts making waves, how dare you write up so much shit!
Nightmareliu:
The reporter deserved getting beaten up, running into people’s houses in the middle of the day, banging on doors, carrying cameras on his shoulder charging in. He was obviously looking for a beating. If this kind of person came to your home, wouldn’t you beat him up?
Ddttff:
Mop is quite clever. It puts a question mark on the title so it will neither offend netizens, nor will it displease the upper class!
雪翊星辰:
You may not like Guo Degang but you still shouldn’t be exploiting this incident to talk shit! Do you know the facts? I don’t believe that someday when someone like that breaks into your house…displaying no identification at all, would you be willing? You wouldn’t be angry?
天赐龙:
Ding the 7th floor [7th commenter/response]. Why don’t you go back and watch the video clip again? Was that a beating? It was just a bump. And [claiming to have] a concussion? Truly ridiculous. Guo Degang dares to speak about the ills of modern society. What does BTV do? Qie!
螳螂1989:
Fully support Brother Gang.
马维拉:
Whatever, I think the problem comes from the reporter. Abroad, it is illegal to break into someone’s house. They even have have the right to shoot and kill you. Why can’t we enjoy the right to kick people out?
Yuleijoker:
I only know that a majority of the women in the media/journalism industry are indeed no better than prostitutes. You are not in this industry so you do not know, the journalism profession has the highest rates of inappropriate behavior in all professions nationwide.
Wodeneikua:
There is no rival to Old Guo on speaking ill of others! He can tell someone off without using a dirty word. It is him who changed the boring style of crosstalk performance. He makes good money in the crosstalk industry and this shows he has been recognized by a large audience! You should not always compare him with artists from older generations. Times are different and we need innovation. Do you understand? I personally really like Old Guo’s crosstalks, they’re very realistic, not like certain crosstalk performers who are too divorced from reality and [whose crosstalks] are too idealized.
7ミ.ven:
This young, Shandong-dialect-speaking reporter has defamed Guo Degang quite deep.
