The WeChat-Facebook conflict, a battle for hearts and minds that has simmered for months around hotpot tables where expats and exchange students boast about their respective weaponry, has turned hot.
A series of ads recently released on the Youtube channel WeChatSouthAfrica poke fun at Social Network Boy Mark Zuckerberg. The ads — currently three of them — are set in the study of a German psychiatrist who prescribes “ze WeChat” to a despondent Zuckerberg.
The psychiatrist’s German accent is horrendous (“Nein!”), and he uses a riding crop when angry. I’m amazed he’s not stroking a fluffy white cat. His assistant — “Frauke” — is endowed with long German bones and is so vertical that her head goes out of the shot, a good foot taller than Lady Brienne of Tarth.
Well, at least this shows that the Sino-African relationship goes beyond stadium-building and mineral plunder.
There are lots of other WeChat country-specific Youtube channels – WeChat India, WeChatThai, WeChatMalaysia — but the South African one seems to be the first to do comedy sketches.
“Censoring Gareth”… Seriously? Poking fun at the Chinese Govt now? Cute..