CHINAHOY

HOME

2016-November-29

Trump's Granddaughter is Winning the Hearts of Chinese Netizens

 

BY Lorraine Zhou

 

China has fallen in love with Trump's youngest and most adorable ambassador, his five-year-old granddaughter Arabella Kushner, after a video of her reciting Chinese poetry has gone viral on Chinese microblog Sina Weibo.

 

In the video, wearing a festive Chinese traditional qipao and standing in front of the Chinese-New-Year-themed home decorations, Arabella recites 2 well-known Chinese poems, "Goose" and "Sympathy for the Peasants", demonstrating her perfect command of Mandarin. The video was first uploaded by Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump on Instagram in February this year to celebrate the Year of the Monkey. It resurfaced and immediately became a trending topic on China's social media recently in the wake of Trump winning the U.S. presidential election, garnering about 8.7 million views and 20,000 likes.

 

The video has drawn lots of comments applauding the impressive performance of the little girl. Many Weibo users say they feel "shocked", commenting that Arabella is "surprisingly cute and impressive" renewing their knowledge on Trump.

 

"She is a lovely and smart girl."

 

"The little girl's Chinese is pretty good. At least we can understand what poem she is reciting. A lovely little girl."

 

"I don't like Trump, but I like the Trump family."

 

"Look at his children and family, each one is cuter and more adorable than one another. That's the result of family education. Trump is a man of achievement."

 

"Trump is misunderstood by many people. He's actually an unconventional American elite. Have a look at her daughter and granddaughter, you can see that it's an elite family."

 

 

The Trump family

 

Some interpret that the video implies the hidden affinity Trump has with China and his vision.

 

"Feel like Trump would be more friendly to China."

 

"At least the video shows that Trump places importance on education and did not shut the door on foreign culture."

 

"Looks like Trump realises the future belongs to China, so it's not impossible for her granddaughter to immigrate to China in the future."

And others think that the video fails to give any insight of Trump's relationship with China.

 

"It does not mean his granddaughter is friendly to China, although she has been speaking Chinese since she was young. Language is just a communication tool. Hope this lovely little girl will love Chinese culture."

 

"In order to figure out whether Chinese people are secretly insulting him, he actually urged his granddaughter to learn Chinese!"

 

"The little girl's language skill is a result of Ivanka's education, nothing to do with Trump himself."

 

"Those who fantasise about Trump's friendliness to China give me a break. Of course, his real attitude to China remains to be seen."

 

Although Trump ramped up his tough talk with China in his election campaign, the Trump family's investment of Chinese education on their young generation has won him some admirers in China. Arabella has been studying Mandarin Chinese since she was 18 months old from a Chinese nanny.

 

A video on Instagram uploaded by Ivanka four years ago shows that the little girl could recite Chinese nursery rhymes and was learning some simple Chinese characters when she was a little bit more than 2 years old. The video is captioned "Sunday morning Chinese lesson! Arabella's working hard!"

 

Ivanka Trump

 

Chinese people are particularly fond of Trump's daughter Ivanka, who gained her fame in China with reality series, The Apprentice in the mid-2010s and is described as "goddess" for her attractive appearance and business acumen. According to Foreign Policy, Ivanka had spent about two and a half years building her personal brand on China's Weibo, garnered over 19,000 followers, posted over 600 posts and abruptly stopped just a month before her father's declaration of his run for President. A Zhihu (Chinese question-and-answer website) user says Ivanka is "an advanced version of Donald Trump" capable of winning "adult men, feminists, Jews (such as her husband), housewives, elite intellectuals, fashion industry professionals, and liberals."