Chinese internet censors have deleted a social media post about egg fried rice that could have been read as a reference to the death of late supreme leader Mao Zedong’s son in the 1950-1953 Korean War, the anniversary of which is jokingly referred to as “China’s Thanksgiving.”
Fried rice in China is often seen as a reference to an apocryphal story told in China that Mao Anying, a Korean War military officer, was trying to cook egg fried rice instead of taking shelter when he was killed by U.S. bombers on Nov. 25, 1950.
Mao Anying supposedly died after his location was discovered by the U.S. military because he broke blackout rules by kindling a cooking fire to make the dish.
Censors removed a Weibo post from the official account of MTR Shenzhen, a subsidiary of Hong Kong people-mover MTR Corp that runs Line 4 of the Shenzhen Metro, that read: “Which would you pick — curry fried rice or egg fried rice?”
The account typically focuses on developments on its trains and stations and local culture, food and drink, and the post was ostensibly intended to highlight some of the food options available in and around Guanlan Metro Station.
“Today’s a good day for egg fried rice,” commented a Weibo user from the southeastern province of Fujian.
“You must use firewood, otherwise there won’t be enough smoke,” quipped another from the southern province of Guangdong, in comments posted by the X citizen journalist account “Mr Li is not your teacher.”
MTR Shenzhen wasn’t the only account to reference the popular dish, with food blogger Wang Gang being slammed by nationalists as a “traitor” after a recent post.
Wang eventually issued a public apology, pledging: “I won’t make any more egg fried rice posts from now on.”
Accusations
Wang’s fried rice posts have become a regular feature of social media over the past five years, sparking accusations that he insulted the memory of Mao Zedong’s son with his online video tutorials.
Wang, who has several million followers, released similar videos in late November of 2023, 2018 and 2020, sparking a backlash on social media.
The anniversary of Mao Anying’s death, falling as it does in late November, has been jokingly referred to in China as “China’s Thanksgiving.”
The joke runs that the death of Mao’s son saved China from following a hereditary leadership model similar to the Kim dynasty in North Korea, something for which all Chinese nationals should remain thankful to this day.
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In 2021, Chinese internet censors shut down the social media account of a branch of the telecommunications giant China Unicom after it posted a recipe for egg fried rice to mark the Oct. 24 birthday of Mao Anying.
The official Weibo account of the Jiangsu division of China Unicom was shut down after complaints that it had “insulted the People’s Volunteers” who fought on the side of the North Korean communists against the United States.
“Little Pink” supporters of the ruling Chinese Communist Party called on each other to file complaints with the ministry of industry and information technology over the matter.
Earlier in the same month, authorities in the eastern province of Jiangxi have detained a man for allegedly “impeaching the reputation of heroes and martyrs” after he made comments about the Chinese Communist Party-backed Korean War propaganda blockbuster “The Battle of Changjin Lake.”
The man, who was identified only his surname Zuo, was jailed for a 10-day administrative sentence by police in Nanchang city after he posted an irreverent comment on the Sina Weibo social media platform under the username @yuediyouyou.
“That fried rice was the best thing to come out of the whole Korean War,” the user quipped in a post dated Oct. 8, 2021.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.