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What is the trend?
14 years after a court ruled that famous writer and celebrity Guo Jingming plagiarized the plot of the novel “Inside and Outside (圈里圈外)”, Guo finally apologized to author Zhuang Yu on Weibo on the last day of 2020. The hashtag # Guo-Jingming-excuses-to-Zhuang-Yu # has been viewed over 370 million times.
What is the story?
In 2006, Guo was convicted of plagiarism by a Beijing court, which ordered him and the publisher of his book “Never-Flowers in Never-Dream (梦里 花落 知多少)”, to ‘jointly compensate Zhuang 200,000 yuan ($ 30,655) for losses and 10,000 yuan for moral injury. Guo was also asked to apologize publicly to Zhuang, which he did not do until nearly 15 years later, on December 31, 2020.
Guo used to say that he would compensate Zhuang financially but would never apologize. But earlier this month, it became the subject of controversy when it was boycotted by more than a hundred film and television professionals over its history of plagiarism.
In his apology message to Weibo, Guo said he was “too arrogant and young” and hadn’t dared to face his mistakes sooner. He also said that he would give all of his profits from the plagiarized book to Zhuang.
Zhuang responded on Weibo, saying that she accepted Guo’s apology and would add her own money to Guo’s to set up a plagiarism fund. Guo agreed to the arrangement on Weibo.
What are people saying online?
Some people on the Internet found Guo dishonest because of the timing of his apologies. A film directed by Guo is currently being screened in Chinese cinemas. They said that Guo had chosen to apologize now for people to watch his movie. “This is all film marketing. Where was he earlier? It’s trying to stay relevant, an ugly way of thinking, ”read a popular Weibo comment.
Others praised Zhuang for handling the apology. A Weibo user said, “Go get it, my girl! Make plagiarism part of the anti-plagiarism movement. Another social media user commented, “I feel so embarrassed for Guo.”
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