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<\/a>The television host Bi Fujian\u2019s performance of a song from the Mao-era opera \u201cTaking Tiger Mountain by Strategy,\u201d with irreverent asides, was captured on video.<\/p>\nHONG KONG \u2014 Mao Zedong famously said a revolution is not a dinner party. Nor, it seems, is a dinner party in China an occasion to mock Mao\u2019s revolution.<\/p>\n
In the past few days, some tipsy gibes by a Chinese television celebrity, Bi Fujian, have been enough to inspire tirades from the state media and imperil Mr. Bi\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
A crooning, avuncular regular on state-run China Central Television, including as the host of the long-running talent show \u201cAvenue of Stars,\u201d Mr. Bi apparently thought he was amusing just a few guests around a banquet table when he sang some lines from a Mao-era opera and peppered the lyrics with sarcastic asides. But shaky video of the brief performance lasting a minute or so leaked onto the web, and now Mr. Bi stands accused of political sacrilege.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis comments in this Internet video have serious social consequences,\u201d the state broadcaster said in a statement Wednesday night. \u201cWe will conscientiously investigate this and sternly deal with it according to the relevant regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
News reports said on Thursday that Mr. Bi had already been suspended from appearances on China Central Television for the remainder of the week.<\/p>\n
Later in the day, Mr. Bi broke his silence with an apology that amounted to a plea for clemency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel extremely remorseful and pained,\u201d Mr. Bi said on his page on Sina.com\u2019s Weibo, a popular microblog site. \u201cI sincerely offer my deepest apologies to the public. As a public figure, I will certainly heed the lessons and exercise strict demands and discipline over myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Bi\u2019s public mortification is a symptom of the times, Zhang Ming, a historian at Renmin University in Beijing, said by phone.<\/p>\n
Since Xi Jinping, the Communist Party leader, took power two years ago, he has demanded that citizens, especially artists and writers, uphold party orthodoxy, and has warned against \u201chistorical nihilism,\u201d or bleak depictions of the past that undermine the party\u2019s stature. Mr. Xi has taken particular umbrage at critics of the party who live off the party\u2019s largess.<\/p>\n
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By CHRIS BUCKLEY APRIL 9, 2015 4:53 AM A … Continue reading
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