Chinese Fans Want to Boycott Netflix’s Drama ‘Girl From Nowhere’ for Showing Taiwan Flag

By Ammar Haziq • 20 May 2021 in News

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From loving Netflix’s entertaining Thai-drama Girl From Nowhere and its capability for tackling societal issues, some fans in China are calling for a boycott for its social media post that “splits up China”.

The drama’s Facebook page posted a poster to thank audiences from countries based on ranking in their national languages, including Singapore and Malaysia.

Other countries were also listed such as the Philippines, but what sparked anger among fans from China were the Taiwanese and Hong Kong flags that were featured in the poster.

Screenshot from a post on Sina Weibo. The left poster shows the Taiwan and HK flags, while the right is the revised version. (source: Global Times)

The poster was deleted and soon replaced by a new one without any flags, and the Putonghua version of “thank you” was writing in traditional Chinese characters while the Cantonese words (多謝) were completely erased.

Users on China’s social media platform Sina Weibo pointed out that “splitting China” up is offensive. Some users say that Hong Kong and Taiwan should never be equated as countries and that it should be pointed out they belong to China.

Chinese vloggers who had previously recommended the drama even announce that they have deleted all content on their website that covered the Netflix series.

According to The Indian Express, Netflix’s Girl From Nowhere joins the list of growing foreign retailers, airlines, hotels, and other brands that have been attacked online in China over Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, human rights, and other politically charged issues.