China Sina Weibo blocked
Namewee and
Kimberley Chen's accounts, while other Chinese platforms such as
Douyin and
Baidu Tieba have also hidden the song after its release. State-owned tabloid
Global Times described the song as "malicious" and said, with no ironic undertone, that it had "
insulted the Chinese people".
Kimberley Chen In a social media post attaching an adapted version of "Fragile",
Kimberley Chen mentioned that she does not care about being blocked by Weibo because she has accounts on
Facebook and
Instagram.
Namewee As a response to getting banned in China,
Namewee states in a post that he does not think that he is banned, as the ones who are truly banned are those who have been denied the right to listen to songs freely.
Scholarly views Jeroen de Kloet, a professor of
media studies at the
University of Amsterdam, said that the song was about censorship and that its censorship in China only amplified its impact.
Geremie Barmé, a
sinologist at the
Australian National University, praised the song for its "celebration of joyfulness while also being politically pointed", saying also that it "offers a valuable lesson for the world about China and its increasingly complex cultural reach". Kwei-Bo Huang from the department of diplomacy at
National Chengchi University expressed his belief that the song would intensify the disputes across the Taiwan Strait, but that nothing could be done about this in a short timeframe; he expected that people with insight on both sides of the strait would eventually reverse this.
NFT On 7 November 2021,
non-fungible tokens of "Fragile" were sold for 209
ETH, netting the singers around 27 million
NTD within three hours of launch.
International Media In November 2021, NBC News reported that international media framed the song as a rare example of Mandopop directly satirizing Chinese nationalist sentiment, noting its unusual success outside China despite censorship on Chinese platforms. The Sydney Morning Herald highlighted that Kimberley Chen’s participation gave the controversy resonance in both Taiwan and Australia, where Chen is based, and described the song as having “infuriated Beijing while cementing her popularity abroad.” ==Charts==