{"id":43599,"date":"2026-06-19T06:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T06:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/43599\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T06:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T06:50:08","slug":"lululemon-apologises-for-china-event-with-actor-beating-japanese-drum-on-great-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/43599\/","title":{"rendered":"Lululemon apologises for China event with actor beating Japanese drum on Great Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The sportswear brand Lululemon has apologised and withdrawn its latest marketing video in China because of a controversy surrounding a big Japanese drum and the Great Wall.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The video was designed to promote a yoga-themed event the brand held on the world-renowned historic site in suburban Beijing on May 30.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The activity, which was supposed to salute Chinese culture, featured top-tier Chinese actor Zhu Yilong and the mainland\u2019s leading Fanxiang Drum Corp, who played the drums together during the performance, the Qilu Evening News reported.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Actor, Zhu Yilong, above, sits next to the drum in a meditative pose. Photo: Douyin\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/40ae269f-9872-4a09-a30a-32c63723633a_933e3bc3.jpg\" title=\"Actor, Zhu Yilong, above, sits next to the drum in a meditative pose. Photo: Douyin\"\/>Actor, Zhu Yilong, above, sits next to the drum in a meditative pose. Photo: Douyin<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As the clip went viral on social media, some percussion instrument experts pointed out that the big, double-sided drum played by Zhu is actually the Japanese wadaiko, rather than a traditional Chinese drum.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThe drum beaten by Zhu Yilong should be categorised as Japanese wadaiko based on its appearance, performing format and the core elements in its performance,\u201d said Xu Yang, a Beijing-based drum player who graduated from Central Conservatory of Music, on social media.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cOn the Great Wall, such a place with high cultural symbolism, presenting a Japanese drum as a Chinese traditional one, will not only mislead the public, especially the youth, it also touches the sorrowful memories of the public and hurts the feelings of the Chinese people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Two men, above, beat the drum as it sits atop the Great Wall. Photo: Douyin\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5d61c89c-b577-4b32-9cc4-ba8524279d69_68a5fa08.jpg\" title=\"Two men, above, beat the drum as it sits atop the Great Wall. Photo: Douyin\"\/>Two men, above, beat the drum as it sits atop the Great Wall. Photo: Douyin<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The bad memory Xu refers to is the Japanese invasion of China during World War II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sportswear brand Lululemon has apologised and withdrawn its latest marketing video in China because of a controversy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30916,30888,30923,30906,30909,30893,30929,30922,4823,30902,549,30921,12928,30882,30913,30927,12,3673,30889,30914,24618,30895,621,20009,30905,30896,15937,30907,30892,30917,30901,7116,3209,8230,30894,23627,30880,30924,30897,30926,30900,30891,30881,8,17,30910,30911,30394,814,10031,30908,30899,13553,2841,30918,30890,26077,30928,2554,30920,4235,22872,30884,30903,30886,30919,30925,1240,23284,30912,28195,30915,30885,30898,30904,225,30887,14498,58,3269,2144,30883,4709],"class_list":["post-43599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-accurate","tag-actor","tag-advertisement","tag-ancient","tag-apologised","tag-appearance","tag-armies","tag-award","tag-backlash","tag-bad","tag-beijing","tag-best-actor","tag-braid","tag-brand","tag-cautious","tag-century","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-clip","tag-considerate","tag-controversy","tag-core","tag-culture","tag-drum","tag-dynasty","tag-elements","tag-emperor","tag-ethnic","tag-experts","tag-expression","tag-feelings","tag-festivals","tag-film","tag-foreign","tag-format","tag-french","tag-gaffe","tag-gown","tag-graduated","tag-humiliate","tag-hurt","tag-instrument","tag-insult","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-knowledge","tag-limited","tag-lululemon","tag-marketing","tag-memory","tag-minority","tag-mislead","tag-mistakes","tag-music","tag-palce","tag-percussion","tag-performance","tag-period","tag-player","tag-popular","tag-preparation","tag-professional","tag-renoned","tag-replica","tag-salute","tag-scenario","tag-scissors","tag-social-media","tag-sportswear","tag-stage","tag-statement","tag-strict","tag-suburban","tag-symbolism","tag-tang","tag-time","tag-top-tier","tag-traditional","tag-video","tag-viral","tag-world-war-ii","tag-worls","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}