Just when it seemed that promoting a movie wasn’t a difficult thing to do, John Cena proved otherwise.
The professional wrestler turned actor recently joined the Fast & Furious franchise in the ninth installment and cut a promotional video for F9.
On the television station TVBS based in Taipei, he reportedly said in Mandarin, “Taiwan is the first country that can watch F9.”
This didn’t go over well as Taiwan and China are a delicate conversation internationally with Taiwan itself and many other countries considering them separate, while China views them as breakaway province in 1949.
Backlash and apology on the way
The people of China were quick to voice their displeasure with Cena’s comment and they took to Chinese social media site Weibo where he has a reported 600,000 followers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zre2p7mg64g
On Weibo, John Cena posted a video (transcript from dailymail.co.uk where he said:
“Hi China, I’m John Cena.
“I’m in the middle of Fast and Furious 9 promotions.
“I’m doing a lot of interviews. I made a mistake in one of my interviews.
“Everyone was asking me if I could use Chinese – [movie] staff gave me a lot of information, so there was a lot of interviews and information.
“I made one mistake. I have to say something very, very, very important now.
“I love and respect China and Chinese people. I’m very, very sorry about my mistake.
“I apologize, I apologize, I’m very sorry.
“You must understand that I really love, really respect China and the Chinese people.
“My apologies. See you.”
On Twitter, he didn’t mention anything about the controversy, choosing to post a inspirational type of statement rather than broach the subject.
Being discouraged by failure is normal, being detained by failure can be toxic. Learn, rise, grow. Never give up.
— John Cena (@JohnCena) May 25, 2021
“Being discouraged by failure is normal, being detained by failure can be toxic. Learn, rise, grow. Never give up.”
This has put Cena at the center of attention in the United States for “cow towing” to a foreign power, but when we consider the amount of money movie studios make from China it’s not surprising.
The entertainment industry has a lot of money invested in China, and they can’t afford or want to lose that money.
There is a pretty cool fact amidst all of this, and that’s John Cena is fluent in Mandarin after he studied it to reportedly help promote his wrestling career in China.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments below.
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