Influencer banned for behavior while cosplaying local god in Fujian

In East China's Fujian Province, the custom of Youshen, which literally means "Wandering Gods," remains popular today. The annual event is usually held to celebrate important festivals such as the Chinese New Year. Yet this year, a social media influencer who cosplayed Zhao Shizi, one of the Youshen deities, sparked dissatisfaction among local netizens, leading to his Douyin account being banned.

Youshen is a series of deeply rooted cultural and religious local traditional activities in Fujian Province and is recognized as an intangible cultural heritage. Among the various activities such as playing gongs, drum performances and firework displays, the parade of large brightly-colored effigies of local gods is one of the most celebrated. The gods are paraded through the streets, symbolizing the gods visiting the mortal world to bring blessings, prosperity and protection to the people.

A video circulated online shows Xiaozhu'a, the social media influencer, dressed in attire resembling Zhao Shizi, walking alongside the god during the parade held on Monday in the Changle district of Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province.

Netizens pointed out that several times, the cosplayer walked in front of the god to receive believers' worship. While the god and the cosplayer were both wearing similar python ceremonial robes, the latter's robe was for dressers of higher-rank. Believers therefore, found the cosplayer's attire to be offensive to the god as well.

During these parades there is usually a "groom" who acts as a subordinate guard for the god. As shown in the videos circulating online, at one point, a groom was seen using a whip, which was part of his costume, to pretend to whip the cosplayer in order to make him leave the parade, but failed.

Many netizens expressed their discontent in comments, viewing this act of the cosplayer as offensive and disrespectful.

"Zhao Shizi didn't like to come out for the parade in the past. It has been years since he last came out. With such offensive acts, he probably won't want to come to the parade even more," commented netizens.

The effigies of the gods are usually enshrined at their respective temples. To invite the gods to come to the parade, people have to throw jiaobei, a traditional divination tool, on the ground to discover if a particular god is willing or not.

Xiaozhu'a has 268,000 followers on Douyin, China's version of TikTok. Following the backlash, MCN, the entertainment company that Xiaozhu'a works with, argued that he was invited to the parade by the local tourism department, but this later was refuted by local authorities.

On Tuesday, the influencer posted an apology video on his social media account, acknowledging the negative feelings his actions may have caused due to his ignorance. In the video he also mentioned that he had gone to Yingwu Temple to throw jiaobei and was forgiven by Zhao Shizi.

However, some netizens claimed that he went to the wrong temple, and he was standing instead of kneeling down to throw jiaobei, which some considered disrespectful.