KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang has drawn brickbats from her fellow countrymen for saying on Chinese state-run television that she is Cantonese despite growing up in Taipei.
The 38-year-old, who is married to Chinese singer Li Ronghao, was instead told by social media users to tell Chinese propagandists that her June 4 birthday coincides with the anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre, Taiwan News reported.
The petite celebrity had appeared on Zhejiang TV's The Journey of Poetic Soul over the weekend where she joined others in feasting on fried seafood.
During the show, Yang claimed that she had never eaten seafood during her childhood in Taiwan due to her family's limited finances.
She also said eating seafood in Taiwan was a luxury when she was growing up.
An unnamed participant then chimed in that Yang started working when she was 16 to pay her family's debts.
Yang interjected that she grew up in Taipei, “but I am Cantonese.”
Taiwanese social media users expressed their suspicion with the Meteor Garden actress' comments that it was designed for propaganda purposes.
One social media user said it was puzzling for Yang to consider eating seafood in Taiwan to be a luxury when it is surrounded by the sea.
Another said she should just mention she is Cantonese but leave out Taiwan.
“Why don't you say you are African? After all, humans first came from Africa” another commented.
Others observed that there was no mention of Yang's June 4 birthday, which is seen to be politically sensitive as that was when the Tiananmen Massacre took place in 1989.
