As China prepares to celebrate the annual lunar new year, that country’s most important holiday, a controversy has erupted over an emblem or a logo that CCTV got designed for its 2026 Spring Festival Gala television event.
The emblem on a red background shows four gold-coloured galloping horses (2026 being the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac) rendered in a traditional decorative style.
The hitch is a US-based video and social media platform operated by Ganjingworld Corporation, says the logo resembles the four tanks in Beijing’s Tiananman Square during the horrific crackdown in 1989.
Controversial Comparisons Emerge
In a programme it runs called Old Beijing Teahouse, the anchors claimed the logo looked less like galloping horses and more like tanks moving forward. That the channel is US-based enabled it to touch on a part of history that is banned altogether in China.
Even to this day, Tiananman Square remains a tightly controlled and surveilled place and every year as the anniversary of the crackdown approaches, authorities ensure nobody is allowed inside the square.
The anchors said the logo also conveyed the Chinese Communist Party’s habit of covering up sensitive images with mosaics, much like the photos of individuals who suddenly and inexplicably, fall out of favour.
Others invited for comment said the logo feels “unfinished”, like the sense of incompleteness that mirrors the current style of China’s leadership.
To be sure, these comments are circulating only overseas among Chinese living abroad. There is nothing to suggest this it is making waves on China’s tightly controlled social media platforms.
The attempt to stoke a controversy also appears deliberate, as this is bound to find its way into China. For now, there’s no indication CCTV will throw out the logo or modify it.
But for the authorities always on the lookout for any potential mass movement that could get out of control, it will mean all hands on deck at least until the holiday season gets over.
Research Associate at StratNewsGlobal, A keen observer of #China and Foreign Affairs. Writer, Weibo Trends, Analyst.
Twitter: @resham_sng
