Zhang Zhehan, Who Got Cancelled For Taking Pics At Japanese War Shrine, Allegedly Made A Weibo Comeback... Which Lasted For Just 1 Day
Chinese netizens are apparently still very angry with him.
Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan, 30, got blacklisted in August after three-year-old photos of him posing in front of the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Japan resurfaced.
The shrine, which is located in Tokyo, is notorious for honouring some of the country’s worst war criminals and is seen as a glorification of Japan’s past military actions.
This pic Zhehan posted practically destroyed his career
Despite apologising for his "lack of knowledge", Zhehan, who was slammed for being “completely unaware of the nation’s suffering”, was mercilessly deplatformed overnight.
At the same time, his fans have claimed that he never visited the shrine — they say he visited an "administrative building in the vicinity of the Yasukuni Shrine" instead — and that him becoming persona non grata is part of a coordinated smear campaign against him.
Earlier this month, his fans were all abuzz about a “comeback”, but made no mention of how the actor would be making his return or how they caught wind of the news.
On Nov 14, an Weibo account named ‘511 cups of succulent grapes’ posted a photo of a black French Bulldog with the hashtag ‘Luffy’s growth diary’.
Netizens speculated that this was Zhehan’s new account because a) his birthday is on May 11 (thus '511'), and b) he has a dog named Luffy that looks identical to the one on that account.
Netizens are convinced that the dog featured on the new Weibo account is Zhehan's
Zhehan's haters were outraged to find out that the actor — whether it was really him is still up for debate — was back on Weibo so soon after the scandal, calling him “shameless for trying to crawl back to relevancy so soon”.
The backlash seems to have had an effect on the account, which suddenly ceased to exist on Nov 15.
According to the error message, the account was made “unavailable after being reported for breaking the rules and violating the Weibo community rules.”
Well, it was fun while it lasted
Fans seem to be convinced
Now, like we mentioned earlier, not everyone believes that the account belongs to Zhehan. Some of the actor's fans claim it was started by a troll, while others insist that the dog in the pic isn't Luffy.
On the other hand, Zhehan's fans on Weibo are making full use of the 'Luffy growth diary' hashtag by flooding it with pics of the actor and his dog. They have also added the hashtag '511 cups of succulent grapes' to their posts to show their support for him.
What is the truth? We guess only Zhang Zhehan knows.
Photos: PBE Media
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