Pooh Gets Chinese Takeaway

Poor old Pooh has been ‘blacklisted’ by internet censors in China after posts online comparing the self-confessed “bear of very little brain” to the President circulated on some social media sites.

Authorities have deleted online posts likening “Little Bear Winnie” (Pooh’s Chinese name) to President Xi Jinping (which is a longstanding joke in China) leaving social media users with error messages telling them: “This content is illegal.”

 

Video images and stickers featuring Pooh have also been removed from WeChat, a messaging app used by 889 million people in the country.

Comparisons between Xi and Pooh first emerged in 2013, after pictures of Pooh and Tigger alongside a photograph of Xi walking with Barack Obama, the US president at the time, surfaced online.

The following year a photographed handshake between President Xi and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was likened to Pooh and gloomy Eeyore together.

It seems that the ruling Communist Party is highly sensitive to mocking depictions of its leader .

But many Chinese social media users are already mocking the country’s censorship and media restrictions, with many users typically remarking : “Poor little Winnie what did this adorable honey-loving bear ever do to provoke anyone?” or  ” Now who has  “very little brain” ?

And so say all of us!