Huawei mocked over a child's toy

A viral bamboo cicada joke exposed the tensions between Huawei’s status as a symbol of China’s technological rise and its role as a consumer brand.

Huawei has responded to one of China’s most talked-about online controversies in recent days, after a traditional bamboo toy unexpectedly sparked a public debate over how a company that has become China’s national symbol of technology against U.S. persecution should respond when its consumer products and marketing face criticism at home.

Huawei’s consumer-facing device business, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops, had been one of the company’s most important growth drivers. But that has come under severe pressure after U.S. restrictions in 2019 limited its access to key technologies, including advanced chips and Google’s mobile ecosystem for Android. The restrictions accelerated Huawei’s efforts to build a technology ecosystem of its own.

Huawei now brings its technologies into vehicles, working with carmakers on design, software, intelligent cockpits, assisted-driving systems, marketing, and retail while leaving manufacturing to its partners. The Aito M9, launched on 26 December 2023, was a flagship example of this strategy.

At the product launch, Richard Chengdong Yu, head and face of Huawei’s smart car business, described the vehicle, priced at beginning around 500,000 yuan, as “the best SUV under 10 million yuan”, generating enthusiastic response from a live audience.

Yu at the launch of Aito M9

Yu has long been known for a presentation style that inspires both admiration and parody. His rapid-fire delivery, repeated catchphrases, and theatrical product claims have become familiar ingredients in Chinese internet memes and short videos.

An online meme featuring Richard Chengdong Yu. The caption roughly translates as “Buy the P30 Pro — or else,” a humorous exaggeration of Yu’s forceful and theatrical product-promotion style.

Last month, the online meme took another form in a traditional bamboo toy. Known as a “bamboo cicada” in China, the handmade toy is made from bamboo pieces and strings that produce a distinctive “wa-wa” sound when spun, which users noticed bore an uncanny resemblance to the audience’s reactions at the Aito M9’s unveiling in 2023.

Soon enough, content that Huawei considered defamatory — including edited videos, manipulated audio, AI-generated images, and personal attacks against Yu — also emerged on social media platforms, prompting the company to file complaints with the platforms.

Chinese media reported one case cited by Huawei as crossing the line: a website called “Bamboo Cicada: Spin It and It Goes Wa-Wa” that transformed Yu’s image into a bamboo cicada character.

Then, in the first days of August, claims that Huawei was seeking across-the-board removal of bamboo-cicada content on social-media platforms spread wildly, intensifying criticism that the company had overreacted to a joke.

The parody also took on a commercial life of its own. Online sellers quickly capitalised on the attention, promoting bamboo cicada toys with slogans such as “Same model as Mr. Yu’s” and “the best cicada toy under 1,000 yuan”. Some promotional videos urge viewers to “buy now before it gets taken down”.

Taobao sellers capitalised on the viral meme by marketing bamboo cicada toys with slogans such as “Same model as Mr. Yu” and “the best cicada toy under 1,000 yuan” after the controversy gained widespread attention.

On 4 August, Huawei issued its first public statement in response to the controversy. It denied targeting bamboo-cicada toys or carrying out a sweeping removal campaign. It said it had filed complaints against only 171 pieces of content, of which 144 were removed by platforms, and stressed that these cases involved specific videos containing what it considered serious violations rather than ordinary discussion, parody, or sales of the toy.

Huawei said the complaints were part of its long-running effort to address recurring online violations of executives’ personal rights. Chinese companies broadly harbour suspicions that sustained online criticism could originate from or are amplified by commercial rivals.

However, the statement did not settle the controversy. On 5 August, Zhejiang Publicity, an influential WeChat account run by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party’s Zhejiang provincial committee, intervened with a commentary on the affair.

The commentary acknowledged Huawei’s right to defend itself against malicious rumours and commercial defamation. But it also raised a critical question: where should the line be drawn between protecting a brand’s reputation and allowing public scrutiny? Much of the bamboo-cicada debate, it noted, was not about rejecting Huawei’s technological achievements, but about questioning its public image and relationship with consumers. Treating every joke or imitation as an attack, it warned, could blur that line.

It further highlighted how Huawei’s extravagant product messaging can create its own challenges. Categorical claims such as “the best” can make product launches memorable, but they can also invite scrutiny and become targets of satire when they appear disconnected from consumers’ experiences.

But the debate was about more than a bamboo toy or a single marketing dispute. Influential Chinese commentator Ming Jinwei, a former Huawei employee and longtime supporter of the company, explored this tension in a commentary published on 5 August, describing the existence of “two Huaweis”.

One Huawei, he wrote, is a strategically important technology company that has come to represent China’s efforts to strengthen capabilities in areas such as semiconductors and operating systems against U.S. restrictions. The other is a consumer brand selling smartphones, laptops, smart cars, and other products. In that capacity, Huawei should face the same questions as any other company: whether its products perform well, offer good value, and provide satisfactory user experiences. Criticism of those issues should not be mistaken for hostility towards a national champion.

The bamboo-cicada controversy, in this sense, was ultimately about this second Huawei.