Bruno Mars thanks 'Taiwan, China' after Kaohsiung concerts, angers both sides

American singer Bruno Mars found himself in hot water after posting "Thank you, Taiwan, China ❤️" on mainland Chinese social media Weibo on Sep. 11.

In his post, Mars also attached a 43-second video, which showed him singing with his fans at his concerts held in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung on Sep. 7 and 8.

There were more than 150,000 attendees for the concerts.

Taiwanese fans enraged

Considering the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan, it is no surprise that some Taiwanese online users took issue with Mars' Weibo post after it began circulating online.

On the one hand, some called out Mars for categorising the island as Chinese territory, even though Taiwan's geopolitical status has been disputed for decades, reported Taiwan News.

On the other hand, fans also questioned whether Mars was really thanking Taiwanese fans, highlighting that he wrote his post in simplified Chinese instead of traditional Chinese, the written script used in Taiwan.

Even more enraged

In response to the online criticism, some Taiwanese fans of Mars came to his defence by pointing out that the singer had posted “Thank You Taiwan," along with the Republic of China (ROC) flag and a heart emoji, on his Instagram after his concerts.

However, the defence quickly fell apart after Mars changed his Instagram post caption to "Thank You Kaohsiung" and subsequently removed the ROC flag.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Bruno Mars (@brunomars)

In the post's comments section, many commenters posted ROC flag emojis and shared their frustration at Mars' amendment of his post.

Some even accused Mars' team of "kneeling down to certain political threats" and "too greedy to say goodbye" to money that they can make in mainland China.

Chinese fans also enraged

While some might think Mars' team was appeasing his fans in mainland China, it turned out that many Weibo users were equally enraged by Mars' post.

According to these users, Mars was being "two-faced" because he used a completely different caption in his Instagram post, which Chinese online users are generally unable to access due to the Great Firewall.

Translation:

User @JFMSL:

"[I am] disappointed."

User @Cynepmapno:

"Bro, you think I don't have Instagram [to see your post there]?"

User @yeyuwangyou:

"No guts."

User @polinjiaohuangbolin:

"Did you post this so that you can stage concerts in mainland China 😂?"

As of 12:40am on Sep. 13 (Singapore time), Mars has not responded to the backlash or made further changes to his Weibo and Instagram post caption.

Top images via Bruno Mars/Weibo