Rùa

Anonymous asks:

So someone just said that Honglei said something about the public not trusting Yixing in an interview once. Is this true? Can you give a run down on the public opinion of Zhang Yixing in China so I can understand better? People are saying he isn't viewed well others are saying he is. I'm not sure what to believe...

elaysium:

I can’t guarantee that I’ve read every interview where sun honglei has mentioned yixing, but i’ve never see him say that about yixing. neither have i seen any translators translate that. in nearly every interview where honglei talks about yixing, he’s always praised yixing for being a role model for the younger generation and for having qualities that he thinks all young people should have (you can backtrack and read laymerence’s translations, i believe she translated a few of these interviews). as for the public’s trust in yixing, i think based on 8 episodes of go fighting, yixing has proven time and time again that he’s probably the most trustworthy cast member on the show. outside of the go fighting context, i can’t think of any reason why the public would not trust yixing.

if we’re talking about the general public sentiment towards yixing in China only: many people are just starting to notice yixing because of his appearances on variety shows and gigs, in particular go fighting. his weibo follower count has increased quite dramatically ever since GF. last year when he appeared on programs like celebrity chef or star escape room, many strangers left comments on weibo saying that they were turning into his fans after watching him. during episode 2 of GF, it’s true that several people criticised him for what they felt was rudeness towards sun honglei because he lectured a senior/sunbae on principles. but i think it’s also worth noting that during that time, not all the criticism and shade towards yixing was born out of disapproval towards his behaviour on GF. if you read many of the forum threads at that time, it was clear that there were people who were spreading hate with an agenda under the guise of legitimate criticism - these were 2 kinds of people: 1) people who have disliked him for a long time and were delighted to have a chance to bash him publicly and 2) people who disliked exo/kpop and their fans for being 脑残粉 (crazy fans who are obsessed with oppas) and were determined to shade on yixing to drive their fans mad (yes i actually saw a few people who admitted to this motive). 

fast forward 6 episodes of go fighting later and all the legitimate criticisms of yixing’s behaviour have mostly died down, with many non-fans either feeling neutral or turning into fans because they like yixing on the show. a few days ago i saw this weibo post that made me really happy (x): a media outlet had thrown shade on yixing in an article, but page after page the comments on the article were full of strangers/non-fans standing up for yixing. even if they’re not fans of him yet, many people view him favourably.

as i mentioned there are people who have disliked him for a while, just like there are people who have disliked the other chinese members too. the large majority of these are fans of chinaline/fans of other exo members themselves. regardless of what the members’ own relationships with each other may be, many fans of each member continue to dislike other members. the ex-members may still get a lot of hate from exo’s fans, but in the eyes of the public who know nothing about exo’s history they are up and coming fresh meats who are talented and pleasing and have done nothing to warrant negativity yet (especially yifan and luhan). the same goes for yixing.