<p>With more than 30 million YouTube views, the song 'Fragile' has done something previously unthinkable -- become a commercial success while sending up China's authoritarian leaders.</p>.<p>In the Mandopop industry, poking Beijing can end careers. But Malaysian rapper Namewee and Australian singer Kimberley Chen have bucked that trend.</p>.<p>Days after their tongue-in-cheek love song dropped last month, Beijing's censors scrubbed their online presence, ensuring their blacklisting in the world's largest Mandarin-speaking market.</p>.<p>But across much of Asia and the global Chinese diaspora, the song struck a chord.</p>.<p>Here are five ways the song mocks China.</p>.<p>To the uninitiated, 'Fragile' sounds like any other saccharine ballad. But even before the music starts the politics are made clear with a warning: "Please be cautious if you are fragile pink."</p>.<p>The phrase is a reference to "little pinks" -- a term for China's online army of nationalist commenters, who go in to bat against any perceived slight.</p>.<p>The music video's set is awash with pink, including the clothes Namewee and Chen wear as well as a giant panda -- a clear reference to China -- dancing in pink camouflage overalls.</p>.<p>The catchy chorus meanwhile centres around apologising to someone who is fragile and cannot take criticism.</p>.<p>At one point in the song, Namewee wrestles with the giant panda in an empty pink swimming pool while singing the line "You say NMSL to me when you get angry".</p>.<p>For anyone observing online tussles between China's nationalists and their latest target, the phrase NMSL is ubiquitous.</p>.<p>It stands for "ni ma si le" -- or in simple English "your mum is dead" -- and is often left in online comments.</p>.<p>Last year a flame war erupted between Chinese and Thai netizens over a Thai celebrity's comments about the coronavirus.</p>.<p>Thai internet users started to subvert the phrase, creating a host of viral memes that portrayed China's nationalists as automatons who instantly type "NMSL" whenever they spot something online they disagree with.</p>.<p>While the main target of the song is China's nationalist netizens, President Xi Jinping is not spared.</p>.<p>He has long been satirised as looking like the children's book character Winnie the Pooh -- China's censors often remove online references to the character.</p>.<p>Namewee sings how Winnie the Pooh might disappear people who breach China's internet restrictions, namechecks Xi's "common prosperity" drive and references forced labour camps for Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province.</p>.<p>At one point Namewee raps how the subject of his song 'swallows the apple, cuts off the pineapple'.</p>.<p>The first is seen as a reference to Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper, a pro-democracy tabloid that collapsed after its assets were frozen and multiple executives detained under a national security law.</p>.<p>The second fruit refers to China's recent decision to ban imports of pineapples from Taiwan, the self-ruled island which Beijing claims and has vowed to one day seize.</p>.<p>Taipei said the surprise decision, just as the harvest loomed, was a pressure tactic by China -- although the ban backfired as Taiwanese and Japanese consumers snapped up the surplus fruits.</p>.<p>Namewee and Chen are both currently based in Taiwan.</p>.<p>While the song mostly lampoons Beijing and its digital defenders, Namewee and Chen's lyrics also reference Chinese people's supposed "desiring for dogs, cats, bats and civets".</p>.<p>As that lyric is sung, the giant panda offers Namewee a steaming pot of soup with a cuddly bat stuffed toy inside, in clear reference to the idea -- widely debunked -- that bat soup started the coronavirus.</p>.<p>The origin of the coronavirus remains unclear and the World Health Organisation says it has been harder to pin down because of China's official opacity.</p>.<p>But the "bat soup" trope has also often been weaponised against both mainland Chinese and many Asian communities living overseas during this pandemic amid a surge of racist attacks and insults.</p>.<p>That element was one of many seized on by China's state media as it announced the blacklisting of Namewee and Chen.</p>.<p>"The malicious song was released to the displeasure of Chinese netizens and soon led to the delisting of the two artists," China's state-run tabloid the Global Times wrote three days after the song's release.</p>.<p><strong>Check out the latest videos from <i data-stringify-type="italic">DH</i>:</strong></p>
<p>With more than 30 million YouTube views, the song 'Fragile' has done something previously unthinkable -- become a commercial success while sending up China's authoritarian leaders.</p>.<p>In the Mandopop industry, poking Beijing can end careers. But Malaysian rapper Namewee and Australian singer Kimberley Chen have bucked that trend.</p>.<p>Days after their tongue-in-cheek love song dropped last month, Beijing's censors scrubbed their online presence, ensuring their blacklisting in the world's largest Mandarin-speaking market.</p>.<p>But across much of Asia and the global Chinese diaspora, the song struck a chord.</p>.<p>Here are five ways the song mocks China.</p>.<p>To the uninitiated, 'Fragile' sounds like any other saccharine ballad. But even before the music starts the politics are made clear with a warning: "Please be cautious if you are fragile pink."</p>.<p>The phrase is a reference to "little pinks" -- a term for China's online army of nationalist commenters, who go in to bat against any perceived slight.</p>.<p>The music video's set is awash with pink, including the clothes Namewee and Chen wear as well as a giant panda -- a clear reference to China -- dancing in pink camouflage overalls.</p>.<p>The catchy chorus meanwhile centres around apologising to someone who is fragile and cannot take criticism.</p>.<p>At one point in the song, Namewee wrestles with the giant panda in an empty pink swimming pool while singing the line "You say NMSL to me when you get angry".</p>.<p>For anyone observing online tussles between China's nationalists and their latest target, the phrase NMSL is ubiquitous.</p>.<p>It stands for "ni ma si le" -- or in simple English "your mum is dead" -- and is often left in online comments.</p>.<p>Last year a flame war erupted between Chinese and Thai netizens over a Thai celebrity's comments about the coronavirus.</p>.<p>Thai internet users started to subvert the phrase, creating a host of viral memes that portrayed China's nationalists as automatons who instantly type "NMSL" whenever they spot something online they disagree with.</p>.<p>While the main target of the song is China's nationalist netizens, President Xi Jinping is not spared.</p>.<p>He has long been satirised as looking like the children's book character Winnie the Pooh -- China's censors often remove online references to the character.</p>.<p>Namewee sings how Winnie the Pooh might disappear people who breach China's internet restrictions, namechecks Xi's "common prosperity" drive and references forced labour camps for Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province.</p>.<p>At one point Namewee raps how the subject of his song 'swallows the apple, cuts off the pineapple'.</p>.<p>The first is seen as a reference to Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper, a pro-democracy tabloid that collapsed after its assets were frozen and multiple executives detained under a national security law.</p>.<p>The second fruit refers to China's recent decision to ban imports of pineapples from Taiwan, the self-ruled island which Beijing claims and has vowed to one day seize.</p>.<p>Taipei said the surprise decision, just as the harvest loomed, was a pressure tactic by China -- although the ban backfired as Taiwanese and Japanese consumers snapped up the surplus fruits.</p>.<p>Namewee and Chen are both currently based in Taiwan.</p>.<p>While the song mostly lampoons Beijing and its digital defenders, Namewee and Chen's lyrics also reference Chinese people's supposed "desiring for dogs, cats, bats and civets".</p>.<p>As that lyric is sung, the giant panda offers Namewee a steaming pot of soup with a cuddly bat stuffed toy inside, in clear reference to the idea -- widely debunked -- that bat soup started the coronavirus.</p>.<p>The origin of the coronavirus remains unclear and the World Health Organisation says it has been harder to pin down because of China's official opacity.</p>.<p>But the "bat soup" trope has also often been weaponised against both mainland Chinese and many Asian communities living overseas during this pandemic amid a surge of racist attacks and insults.</p>.<p>That element was one of many seized on by China's state media as it announced the blacklisting of Namewee and Chen.</p>.<p>"The malicious song was released to the displeasure of Chinese netizens and soon led to the delisting of the two artists," China's state-run tabloid the Global Times wrote three days after the song's release.</p>.<p><strong>Check out the latest videos from <i data-stringify-type="italic">DH</i>:</strong></p>