Chinese social media weighs in on Brangelina split
After making the cover stories of mainstream U.S. media, the break-up story of celebrated Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt bombarded Chinese social media platforms, climbing to the top of most searched-about news at one time on Sina Weibo, one of China's largest social media platforms, on Tuesday.
Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt on Monday morning - just a hair over two years since they married in 2014. Although little has been revealed concerning the reasons behind the split, her lawyer Robert Offer said on Tuesday she did it for "the health of the family."
While U.S. twitter users are lamenting the death of love and complaining that the news was "superseding President Obama's UN speech," according to a report from the New York Times, Chinese social media users are approaching it from a different direction.
An affair to remember
Probably the most influential U.S. star couple in the past decade, Jolie and Pitt's romance started when they worked together on the 2005 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith. At the time Pitt was still married to actress Jennifer Aniston, the blond American sweetheart loved by millions of Chinese for her portrayal of Rachel on the U.S. sitcom Friends, still the most watched U.S. TV series in China.
The show's popularity is probably one of the main reasons why voices expressing sadness and understanding about the split started taking a backseat after Rachel fans started voicing support for their idol on Weibo, calling the divorce "Aniston's revenge."
In many of the comments, Jolie is being called a xiaosan - literally a "little three," a term used for an individual who has had an affair with a married man - and Pitt a zhanan (a man who treats his lovers badly), as many view the couple's romance as more of an extramarital affair. Commenting on a post about the split on Sina Entertainment, Sina Weibo user Vicky said, "That's how a xiaosan and zhanan's marriage should end. They deserve it!" - a stance that received 1,191 likes.
Some tried to pour cold water on such views.
"Foreigners don't care that much about xiaosan as we do! They believe as long as two people are in love, they should be together!" netizen Xiaotianquan posted on the same article.
This triggered a separate discussion concerning the differences in marriage in Western and Eastern countries.
"You are wrong. Yes, foreigners support love between two free hearts, and also a peaceful break-up when love is gone. But betrayal to marriage, that's absolutely unacceptable for both Westerners and Eastern people,"another Weibo user Hello Christina responded.
Still, many Chinese netizens seem to feel bad for the couple, according to a survey held by Sina Weibo on Tuesday.
Forty percent of 8,146 users chose "What? Don't want to see them divorce" as their response to the news, the most-voted choice as of Wednesday morning. Other choices like "Don't care about it" and "Let it be, as long as they had good time together," came in second and third respectively with 20.2 percent and 18.7 percent.
Think of the children
Unlike the scandalous divorce of Chinese actor Wang Baoqiang, also a much-discussed piece of gossip among Chinese netizens in mid-August, this time the story is less dramatic. The split wasn't triggered by an affair nor any other reasons that could be controversial.
According to U.S. gossip magazine TMZ, a disagreement about parenting was probably the major reason that led to the couple's split.
"Sources connected with the couple tell us, Angelina's decision to file has to do with the way Brad was parenting the children; she was extremely upset with his methods."
For Chinese netizens, many have a hard time understanding how divergent values on child-raising alone could lead to the end of a marriage.
This aspect of the split has led to discussions on Chinese social media platforms about whether raising a child increases the risk of divorce, how divorce may hurt the feelings of children and how important sharing a similar child-education philosophy is to a happy and lasting marriage.
However, despite all the talk about parenting, the true reason behind the break-up is still unknown.
More cool-headed Weibo users have suggested ending the discussion, "Stop judging others. Even Aniston is probably already over it."
