Ecommerce founder insults Jay Chou, pisses off basically everyone

Major Chinese ecommerce site Vancl’s founder Chen Nian made an appearance on a Chinese talk show recently. He should not have done that.

What he said

It all started innocently enough. Chen, who is middle-aged, was talking about his excitement at getting in touch with the son of famed 20th century poet Mu Dan. The show’s host, who is younger, compared that feeling to “us [younger people] seeing Jay Chou.”

Chen Nian took umbrage at the comparison. “Jay Chou is a thousand miles behind Mu Dan,” he said. “I think that in 100 years, everybody will still remember Mu Dan. Jay Chou will definitely just be garbage. So I think that comparison is incorrect.”

The host responded “You’re an entrepreneur, and you’re saying Jay Chou is simply garbage…”

Chen looked genuinely surprised at the push-back: “How can he [Jay Chou] be compared to Mu Dan?”

Oops

Depending on your perspective, Chen Nian’s point may seem entirely reasonable. It was not, however, a particularly wise thing to say as the founder of an ecommerce site that brands itself as being for hip young urbanites. Many of China’s hip young urbanites grew up listening to Jay Chou, and even those that don’t still love him feel a nostalgic connection to him – the way everyone everywhere in the world feels about the music of their youth.

Jay Chou isn’t garbage. Only Chen Nian is garbage.

The blowback was swift and incredibly harsh. A Sina Tech article about Chen’s comments has already racked up more than 20,000 comments, way above the site’s average. And the majority of them seem to be pretty angry at Chen.

“You’re trampling our youth,” wrote one commenter. “Even Yama, the king of hell, would avoid you,” wrote another. Over on Weibo, one commenter wrote: “Jay Chou isn’t garbage, and neither is Mu Dan. Only Chen Nian is garbage.” Numerous users called for boycotts of Vancl, or expressed the hope that it would go bankrupt. “It’s Vancl’s products that are the fucking garbage,” wrote a Weibo commenter. “Based on these comments, I’m not buying his shoes,” wrote another.

Comments on Sina Tech sometimes can get heated, but the comment thread about Chen Nian is unusual. It is the first time in my five years of working for Tech in Asia that I’ve ever seen what could be interpreted as death threats there. It’s clear that a lot of people are very pissed at Chen.

Some commenters did go for humor rather than anger, though: “In a hundred years, I’ll take my great-grandson to your grave and burn a Jay Chou poster for you,” wrote a commenter in Inner Mongolia.

One man’s misfortune…