Chinese Zhejiang TV Music Program Shown at Tsing Hua Cafeteria, Prompting Online Backlash

Images resembling a Chinese Zhejiang TV music program on a screen at Tsing Hua University’s Shuimu cafeteria triggered a heated online argument over what should be shown on campus.

A Threads post questioned why a Chinese television program appeared at the university and why Taiwanese programming was not being shown. Some commenters accused the university of allowing Chinese influence to enter the campus, while others said the reaction was excessive because the screen was simply playing music.

Tsing Hua University said the cafeteria’s general contractor normally plays sports channels or MOD news channels. In this case, a vendor asked to change the atmosphere during the afternoon and switched from the sports channel to a YouTube music channel. The video happened to show a performance stage captured from Zhejiang TV.

The university said it had instructed the contractor to focus on public-service and sports channels in the future and to prohibit other channels or news stations to prevent similar disputes. Online reactions remained divided, with some commenters describing the incident as an ordinary YouTube music video and others saying it showed the university had been compromised.