Taylor Swift's initials, and the album's title, evoke the massacre. But T.S. Taylor Swift Shake It Off Music video Song, taylor swift PNG size: 1600x900px filesize: 850.29KB Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 u8499u897fu93ae Zhejiang University 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China Bozhou District, Tiananmen Gate PNG size: 2362x1181px filesize: 2.63MB The singer is launching her own Taylor Swift-branded clothing line next month, on the platforms of local e-commerce giants JD.com and the Alibaba group, with t-shirts, dresses and sweatshirts featuring the politically charged date 1989. Tiananmen Square incident, a series of protests and demonstrations in China in spring 1989 that culminated on June 3–4 with a government crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Taylor Swift China Tiananmen Square Your best friend Taylor Swift is going to China. Be sure to check out my new authentic merchy [merchandise], now available in China,â she says. So sensitive is the date that censors have blacklisted any consecutive combinations of the numbers 6, 4 and 89 on Chinese social media sites. posted to Chinaâs microblogging site Weibo by Heritage66Company. (ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty). Those same letters and numbers are on Swift's album cover, which has been out since October and has not been subject to censorship. It is certainly true that China's government is among the most repressive on earth, and that memory of the Tiananmen Square massacre remains traumatic and sensitive. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. On Tuesday, shortly after Taylor Swift revealed plans to sell new merchandise in China, people began noticing something uncomfortable about the Swift-themed clothing: Much of it bore the initials "T.S." could also stand for Tiananmen Square, and 1989 is the year of the infamous Tiananmen Square massacre of students and democracy activists. Taylor Swift’s soon-to-be released clothing line and merchandise is offending a whole lot of people in China. A promotional video posted to Chinaâs microblogging site Weibo by Heritage66Company, the Nashville-based branding company that is representing her in China, features Swift introducing the clothing line to her fans and greeting them in Chinese. Taylor Swift on her 1989 world tour in Bossier City, Louisiana, in May 2015. It’s also a term that most Chinese use to discreetly reference the events on June 4, 1989, when the Chinese government fired tanks against protesters in Tiananmen Square. Figure skating is on thin ice. Even the date, June 4, 1989, is considered politically sensitive. As you maybe have noticed, Taylor Swift and Tiananmen Square, share the same initials: T & S. ian bremmer @ianbremmer . @taylorswift13 trying to sell her TS 1989 clothing line in China. 1989 Tiananmen Square protests: A crackdown takes place in Beijing on the army's approach to the square, and the final stand-off in the square is covered live on television. "I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy": Doctors describe what their sickest coronavirus patients endure. But any political significance of Swift's album is entirely coincidental. It appears to have taken on no political significance in China since October, so it's odd to think that T-shirts with the same letters would be controversial now. 不過，其中一件印有泰勒絲英文名字縮寫及她出生年份的「T.S. Those are the artist's initials and the title of her most recent album, 1989. Get our newsletter in your inbox twice a week. and the year 1989. It is also the case that China is filled with many millions of young people, a lot of whom are more concerned with listening to and enjoying pop music than they are with rehashing sensitive political memories — just like here in the United States. The sport that peaked in the 1990s in the US could desperately use a makeover — and not just at the Olympic level. Taylor Swift's clothing line, 'TS 1989', has touched a nerve in China, as the date, and the initials 'TS', also stand for the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Tabloid media revealed that the 25-year-old Taylor Swift’s merchandise was getting surrounded by controversies as the people think that it promotes the Tiananmen Square … A sign urging environmental responsibility in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Lyrics to 'The Tiananmen Man' by Nevermore. A promotional video featuring Swift posted to Weibo. On june fifth in the year of eighty-nine he was unarmed with focused mind Deflance glared down the barrel of the gun pointed from a tank in tiananmen square NEW ALBUM: XXXTENTACION - 'Bad Vibes Forever' - Track newsletter. âNi hao, itâs Taylor Swift. A CNN crew covering the June 5, 1989, protests in Beijing recorded a man stopping a Chinese tank in Tiananmen Square. There's nothing subversive about it. The Taylor Swift Tiananmen Square fake controversy, explained. students protested and died on Tiananmen Square and the Internet was launched. Given China's severe censorship of anything related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre — so severe that many Chinese college kids have never heard of it — you can imagine how people could worry that a giant sweatshirt emblazoned with "T.S. The Nicki Minaj debate is bigger than Taylor Swift's ego, Taylor Swift's response to Nicki Minaj was faux-feminist and tone deaf, Taylor Swift's 'this sick beat' may be the world's first trademarked lyric. Could she be shut out of the giant Chinese market, as American musicians have been in the past for, say, associating with the Dalai Lama? Our tendency to reduce China to the ways in which it is different from us helps explain how the Western press got jumpier about this than China's famously hair-triggered censors did. Facebook’s news ban in Australia is draconian. t's easy, as Americans, to look at China just through the lens of how it's different. The Taylor Swift Tiananmen Square fake controversy, explained By Max Fisher Jul 22, 2015, 5:26pm EDT Share this story Share this on Facebook Share … To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Chinese internet users have proved adept at using coded language to refer to the politically sensitive event, often referring to it as âMay 35â instead of âJune 4â to avoid the censorsâ attention. Would Taylor Swift's name be censored on Chinese social media? While Swift has been selling her merchandise in the US The video also features a number of models, and Swift herself, wearing official merchandise emblazoned with 1989. Chip in as little as $3 to help keep Vox free for all. 1989â. “T.S.” could be interpreted as a reference to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the center for pro-democracy protests that were violently suppressed on June 4, 1989, with hundreds killed. For Chinese consumers, the initials could stand for Taylor Swift or Tiananmen Square. But those two facts do not explain everything about China. 1989" could cause problems. None of that has actually happened. Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian makes a great point, March Madness is back for 2021 — and so are the fans, Much of Texas has power back — but it still faces water and food shortages, Biden approves a major disaster declaration for Texas, Asian American lawmakers call for a hearing on anti-Asian racism. So we are very ready to see its authoritarianism and its censorship playing out, or threatening to play out. At this point this is still a non-controversy. So far, the answer to all of those questions is no. It's easy, as Americans, to look at China just through the lens of how it's different. Nor are there indications that Chinese social media users have adopted the album or Swift as a symbol of subtle resistance to the censorship regime or anything like that. Taylor Swift China Tiananmen Square protests 1989 Asia Pacific Reuse this content comments (0) Sign in or create your Guardian account to join … So far Swift has managed to shake off China’s censors – JD.com already sells the1989 album on its online store. Coordinates Tank Man (also known as the Unknown Protester or Unknown Rebel) is the nickname of an unidentified Chinese man who stood in front of a column of tanks leaving Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989, the day after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests..