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This is part of a weekly series collecting updates from and relating to Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan.
This post is not wholly comprehensive and is intended as an overview, links provided lead to further details. Dates are in accordance with China Standard Time, the organization is chronological. My own biases on some things are reflected here. Anything I include that is not concretely known is indicated as such, and you’re welcome to do your own research and draw your own conclusions as you see fit. A glossary of names and terms often used can be found [here]. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or additions. :)
05-01
→ First day of Labour Day holidays in China, 05-01 to 05-04.
→ A new Anti-Organized Crime Act came into effect in China. A summary of what this entails can be found [here].
→ Fans in Taiwan paid for more public screens to display birthday celebration videos of Zhang Zhehan, as would continue throughout the week. [here] [here] and [here] are some of them, and [here] and [here] are some photo displays.
→ Gong Jun’s studio posted his schedule for May: No public schedule. Caption: “Continuing to load the holiday, wishing everyone a happy Labour Day, to reap the gains and grow in work. 🎈”
Fan Observation: The post was made at 10:00 but was only made public at 10:01:19, a 51129 kadian with the date. Sir.
→ Sophie’s Weibo account was muted.
→ Master Kong Green Tea posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.
→ Roving Inspection Team’s Weibo account was banned for “violating the community guidelines.”
→ Fans put together an irl photo gallery to celebrate the anniversary of the Word of Honor concert. [video here] [backup link]
→ Gong Jun posted three bts photos to his Xiao Hong Shu. Caption: “Cleaning up inventory, happy holidays everyone!”
→ Safeguard posted a handwashing PSA spoken by Gong Jun.
05-02
→ Xie Yihua shared yet another picture from the same photoshoot.
→ Celebrations for the Word of Honor concert’s anniversary started on Twitter, getting #GongJun trending.
→ Louis Vuitton posted a photo of Gong Jun modeling their products; he shared it and another photo on his own Weibo, Instagram, and Xiao Hong Shu. Two more photos of him in another outfit were later used on Louis Vuitton’s sneaker store.
→ MUJOSH posted a douyin showing the pop-up shop annouced last week for their ad campaign with Gong Jun. (1129 kadian)
05-03
→ Nothing of note.
05-04
→ Gong Jun reposted a CCTV post about Youth Day with the caption: “Live up to your youth, strengthen your beliefs, and move forward bravely.”
→ A six minute video of Zhang Zhehan speaking was posted on the Instagram a little after midnight. [subbed video] I made a full separate post [here] collecting discussions about it and evidence for why it’s most likely a deepfake.
→ #GongJun trended on Twitter.
→ Addition 05-18: Warrior released a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.
→ Gong Jun released a new song for Youth Day, 青年说.
→ Both Legend of Yunxi and The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion, recent past dramas of Zhang Zhehan’s, were found to be trending on iQiyi’s international site.
05-05
→ Xie Yihua released three more photos from the same photoshoot, you can find them [here] and [here].
→ Gong Jun reposted a post by the Youth Communist League celebrating their centennial anniversary. His caption: “Born in a prosperous world, youthfulness is good, live up to youthfulness!” The same was posted to his studio Weibo with the addition: “Set off in the new era and build a dream for the future!”
→ #GongJun and #ZhangZhehan both trended on Twitter.
→ The Instagram was deleted.
Fan Observation: Two possibilities exist: either Zhang Zhehan reported it himself, as Instagram requires impersonation to be reported by the person themself with photo ID, or Xie Yihua (or Zhang Zhehan, if you still want to believe it’s really him) chose to delete it for some reason. At the time of this post, the former looks more likely due to Xie Yihua’s supporters panicking and the fact that it wasn’t reactivated after 24 hours, as some of Xie Yihua’s followers claimed it would be.
Addition 05-09: [here] is a post breaking down the logic of reasons given about the deletion.
→ A MUJOSH livestream (which did not feature Gong Jun himself, from what I’ve been able to find) was disrupted by antis slandering Gong Jun and demanding their money back.
→ A Zhang Sanjian Weibo account was discovered that had been registered on 21-07-28. It was scrubbed less than 24 hours later. It’s not to my knowledge known if there is any significance to this, or if someone was just making a quick grab for attention.
→ Fans in Berlin paid for a birthday video of Zhang Zhehan to play on a public screen.
05-06
→ An audio livestream between Naan, Flora, Qilin, and Bluebird was held on Twitter discussing the Instagram account, speculation about Zhang Zhehan’s legal situation, and the current fan culture; QuelleVous was meant to speak as well but had technical difficulties, so she interacted through text chat which was read out by the others. Almost 500 people tuned in live. [here] is the recording, it is very informative and highly recommended listening. It’s also just very fun, there’s jokes and some discussion about candy; this was probably the most I’ve laughed this week.
→ Master Kong Green Tea posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.
→ YA-MAN posted a commercial featuring Gong Jun. (1129 kadian)
→ CCTV ~coincidentally~ put out a news story explaining deepfakes and how easy it is to make one nowadays.
→ ELLEMEN posted the full article about Gong Jun from their recent issue. [translation]
Fan Observation: There’s mention in it about advice Gong Jun recieved from “a laoshi”. 🥺🥺🥺
→ QuelleVous shared a summary of a series of posts made by Tantan (a well known supporter of Zhang Zhehan’s who initially believed the Zhang Sanjian account) about the tactics Xie Yihua used to try to coerce him onto her side, as well as some other discussion relating to Xie Yihua.
→ Gong Jun sued Weibo for user information for the purpose of suing antis, with the case due to start on 06-21.
→ Guo Xingqi (Word of Honor’s casting director and the actor of Duan Pengju) made a post on his Weibo with a photo of himself making the LLD handsign, which he helped coin last year. His caption includes, “I hope the ‘waves’ (浪花, langhua) like it. I know what happened recently, but what can I say or do? ... I hope everyone can be sincere and kind, have a safe future, and live up to your friendship.” [full translation]
05-07
→ A song sung by the AI Gong Jun was released, [here] is a sample clip.
→ An impromptu livestream was held by QuelleVous, joined by Flora, followerno65, Bluebird, teddyfoxfluff, and Kitty, talking about Hao Jingfang, the Instagram’s deletion, deepfakes, and Tantan. Over 400 people tuned in. This one was unfortunately not recorded, [here] is a summary.
→ YA-MAN posted three photos of Gong Jun to their Xiao Hong Shu.
→ 361° posted two photo ads of Gong Jun to their Weibo.
Additional Reading:
→ Flora’s Justice of the People daily timeline
→ Flora has started a daily fan news thread
→ There’s reason to believe that Xie Yihua’s group is trying to utilize Zhang Mama’s name / accounts. Remember that she is Zhang Zhehan’s bottom line—no matter what is said or done, we as fans say nothing against her.
→ There’s a rumor that a livestream will happen on 05-11. Remember that deepfakes can be used in livestreams. As was said by QuelleVous et al., consider disconnecting for the day if your own mental wellbeing may be affected by this, I plan to do so myself. Nothing will be changed by you not being immediately aware of what’s happened.
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To end Crazy Week, I thought, instead of describing the chaotic and stressful day-to-day we all experience, I’d rather listen to music that emphasizes stillness and being ‘unrushed’. There are plenty of things that come to mind, maybe more traditionally I would think of some music by Schubert. More modern, I wanted to listen to Morton Feldman’s 1986 piano piece Palais de Mari. It was his last solo piano piece. The music Feldman is most known for can span Wagnarian lengths, but is mostly slower and thinner textures. This piece is more reasonable in length (the recording shared here by Aleck Karis is about 20 minutes) but has the same atmosphere he created in his larger works: stillness, focus on intervals, and the colors and resonances of the instrument. On the piano it sounds like soft bells. If you are feeling rushed, stressed, and “crazy”, this is the kind of music you can put on to help feel focused on the present, and let go of worry, expectation, and doubt.
thank you for being with us here on musicainextenso. - Nick O, guest editor @mikrokosmos
not nanowrimo starting the week I get flights/scramble to assemble the required paperwork/apply for a new job/interview for said job/GET said job/get tested/fly home to my country (that I haven’t been to for over two years)/get tested AGAIN/start job/start studying (a full-time course as part of the job)/see my family for the first time in over two years.
