Winnie-the Pooh has found himself engulfed in controversy far beyond the confines of the Hundred Acre Wood, this time seemingly due to his resemblance to Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Pooh’s ability to find political scuffles remains uncanny.
China’s censors reportedly blacklisted Pooh from Sina Weibo, the country’s Twitter equivalent, without providing an explanation for such measures. Speculation suggests that the numerous physical comparisons between Xi and Pooh that have surfaced over the last few years finally precipitated this recent development.
Recognition of Xi’s likeness to Pooh first arose in 2013, when a meme of President Barack Obama strolling alongside the Communist leader sparked viral attention.
Di Cina tokoh kartun Winnie The Pooh di sensor karena mirip presiden Xi Jinping. pic.twitter.com/T66bEE36H3
— Cah Ndeso Milennial✌ (@GaMalikNM48) December 7, 2016
Follow-up comparisons featured Xi shaking hands with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the latter matched with a weathered and vaguely reticent Eeyore.
The “most censored picture of 2015,” according to Financial Times, was a juxtaposition of Xi, his upper-body projected through the sunroof of a black SUV, and a Winnie-the-Pooh infant’s toy featuring the bear.
Weibo users report that attempts to make posts including the Chinese name of Winnie-the-Pooh are flagged with a message: “Content is illegal.”
This is not the first controversy surrounding Pooh, as he came under fierce scrutiny in Poland in 2014 for being “half-naked” and “wholly inappropriate for children.” In Russia, an image of Pooh was found displaying a hand-drawn swastika, resulting in their Justice Ministry disallowing any materials depicting Milne’s famous character in order to reduce the chances are further extremist acts. TMT, the state-run television station in Turkey, considered removing Piglet from Pooh films altogether in consideration of Muslim and Jewish viewers.
Removing undesirable depictions of a leader is not unique to China.
Just as Xi rejected his comparison with a portly bear, Winston Churchill, upon unveiling a commissioned portrait, infamously found the artist’s “half-witted” and portly depiction of himself unbearable. Churchill, infinitely aware of his long-term legacy, had the picture sent to his private residence, where his wife eventually ordered it destroyed. Most recently, a Turkish man was found guilty in 2016 for comparing President Recip Tyyip Erdogan to Lord of the Rings character Gollum in a meme; the man received a year in prison and lost parental custody rights.
