‘Emotional kidnapping’: celebrity couple’s Shanghai Disneyland promotion telling parents to buy tickets or kids ‘feel inferior’ backfires
- Influencer couple have been attacked as rich, arrogant and completely out of touch with ordinary Chinese but have yet to respond to backlash
- Shanghai Disneyland, opened in 2016, is frequently criticised by mainland public for overpriced tickets, constant price rises and catering problems
A celebrity couple in China is facing a backlash online from the mainland public after promoting the claim that if parents do not take their children to Disneyland, it will make them feel inferior.
The claim was made in a live-streaming session on the video platform Douyin last month by Chinese actress Huang Shengyi and her actor-turned-businessman husband Yang Zi during a paid promotion for tickets to Shanghai Disneyland, reported video news site Daxiang News.
“If your kids hear other kids flaunting their experience of going to Disneyland with their parents, but you’ve never taken yours to the theme park, they will naturally feel inferior,” Yang said during the live-stream.
“We often tell our kids not to feel inferior but to have a positive spirit. But I’d like to ask you: what have you done for your kids?
“Won’t you feel heartache when your kids are shamed [for missing out on going to Disneyland]? Won’t you feel ashamed for not taking your kids to Disneyland? Act quickly and buy the tickets now.”
At this point in the live-stream, Huang exclaims: “Someone has made an order for tickets.”
Shanghai Disneyland is one of a few internationally branded amusement parks on the mainland, but since opening in 2016, it has been frequently criticised for overpriced tickets and catering and other service problems in the park.
In the past few years, Shanghai Disneyland has raised ticket prices several times, with the price now at 475 yuan (US$66) on regular days and almost double that at 799 yuan on public holidays.
The park had not responded to a request for comment by the Post at the time of writing.
The 40-year-old Huang is a famous Chinese actress who starred in Hong Kong director Stephen Chow Sing-chi’s 2004 movie Kung Fu Hustle. Yang was previously an actor but is now better known as a businessman based in northern China’s Hebei province.
The couple have built a large following on mainland social media as influencers, with both having more than 30 million followers on Weibo.
The couple’s clumsy promotion has been met with shock and anger in China, with many accusing them of arrogance and displaying ignorance about the tough conditions ordinary people face.
“What logic is this? It’s totally emotional kidnapping! There are too many places we haven’t been to and too many things we haven’t done. So every one of us should feel sad for not going into space?” one person said.
“This kind of despicable and shameless promotion should be strictly regulated,” another person said.
A third person agreed: “Mr Yang, your children will feel inferior and ashamed when they get to read about this story.”
But one commenter pointed out that it’s reasonable to say children would develop feelings of inferiority if they feel left behind by their peers.
“Young kids can not do a psychological adjustment on themselves, so parents should carefully guide them to develop a correct mindset,” the person suggested.
It’s not the first time that rich mainland celebrities have faced public wrath for flaunting wealth and being out of touch.
Last month, actress Zhang Yuqi was panned after she said during an online sale live-streaming that 699 yuan (US$97), a substantial sum for an ordinary mainland Chinese worker, would not even buy her a pair of socks.
