Despite making several errors in her article, a Chinese reporter was forgiven by netizens after they saw what she looked like.

Mispelled names of 15 athletes

In an article published by Ban Dao Du Shi News on Monday, Dec. 9, reporter Xing Chengbo spelled wrongly the names of 15 out of 23 Chinese national footballers.

For instance, she wrote Zhang Xi Zhe's (张稀哲) name as "Zhang Xian Zhe" (张贤哲), and used the wrong Chinese character for Wei Shi Hao's surname (魏, when it was supposed to be 韦).

The article was intended to cheer the Chinese team on in their match against Japan in the EAFF E-1 Football Championship set to be held the next day on Tuesday, Dec. 10.

Japan eventually won 2-1 against China, continuing China's 21-year losing streak against Japan.

Experienced reporter

After the erroneous article was published, netizens swarmed Xing's Weibo page with negative feedback and criticisms.

"She was assigned a job even with such a (low) calibre? The criteria is too low."

"Did you graduate from Ocean University (an elite Chinese university)? Do you watch soccer? Have you really not seen those footballers' names before? If you don't love soccer, you can very well not do this job..."

"Why aren't the editors dealt with? Are they simply responsible for eating (and not doing anything)?"

In addition, they found that the mistakes were made despite Xing being an experienced reporter who covered many international sports meets, such as the 2014 Asian Games and 2018 Fifa World Cup.

According to her Weibo profile, she has also been working for Ban Dao Du Shi News since 2010.

Demoted to "trainee reporter"

Later during the night, Ban Dao Du Shi News apologised to its readers on its official Weibo page, saying that the reporter who wrote the article had not verified the names of the athletes.

In addition, they announced that Xing has been demoted to a "trainee reporter".

Xing herself has yet to personally respond to the backlash.

Living in a society that values appearances

However, after Xing's photos surfaced on the Chinese Intranet, she started receiving positive feedback from commenters purely based on her looks.

In particular, netizens took notice of the pictures from the time when she covered the 2014 Asian Games.

The pictures sparked several comments that voiced support for her, disregarding the mistakes she had made.

"After looking at your Weibo, I believe you've made the mistakes on purpose. I stan you!"

"Lady, you've only insulted slightly more than 10 people, but the national football team insulted more than a billion people."

"With that butt alone, what a shame to be a sports reporter!"

"I feel that (the mistakes) were done on purpose, someone might also be trying to sabotage her."

Still, not all were impressed, even using her outward appearance against her.

"How did you become a reporter? With your body?"

More pictures

Here are more photos of her that she posted on her Weibo page.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="458"] GIF via Xing Chengbo/Weibo[/caption]

Top image via Tencent News

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