A video from a Chinese broadcaster produced to celebrate 50 years of Sino-Malaysian relations has been recirculated online, along with a misleading claim that it was a Malaysian government promotion to attract tourists to the coastal state of Malacca. However, the footage from the official state tourism department featured different scenes from those in the misleading reports.
“Promotional video for Malacca tourism, but it looks like a video about visiting Guangzhou,” said one X-message on July 31, 2024, which has been reposted 1,000 times.
The accompanying two-minute, twenty-second video features subtitles in simplified Chinese and the logo of Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu in the upper left corner.
It shows dancers in traditional dress singing and dancing at various landmarks in the historic Malaysian state of Malacca, many of whom appear to be of Chinese descent.
The current Malaysian government is seen as a country that is moving closer to reality. Chinaespecially after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced in June that Malaysia wants to join the BRICS group of developing countries (archived link).
But the warming tires have also led to fears among Malay nationalists about the revival of Chinese identity in the country (archived link).
Similar misleading messages on X here, here, here And here shared the same video, but also expressed concern that Malaysians could lose their rights in the Southeast Asian country.
However, the clip was shared in a misleading context: it was produced by a Chinese state broadcaster to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and China.
Chinese broadcast clip
A keyword search on Xiaohongshu found the same clamp shared by Malaysian travel agency, Golden Point Leisure & MICE Holiday on July 19, 2024 (archived link).
The simplified Chinese caption states that the song was a collaboration between Malaysian singer Ah Niu and Chinese singer Huang Ying, who sang a mash-up of the Malaysian folk song “Rasa Sayang” and the Chinese folk song “Jasmine Flower” to celebrate 50 years of ties between the two countries.
The source of the video, “New Folk Song Congress”, was also mentioned.
Further keyword searches on Google revealed that the program was published by Chinese state broadcaster Guangxi TV as part of an hour-long show on July 6, 2024 to celebrate China-Malaysia relations (archived link).
The clip can be seen at 38 minutes and 53 seconds into the full broadcast, which also shows the two singers exploring the historic state of Malacca.
Below is a screenshot of the video used in the misleading messages (left) and the footage from Guangxi TV (right):
The official state tourism department, Tourism Malacca, also shared a longer version of the music track on its official website. Facebook page on July 6, stating that the official recording was released on Guangxi TV in the hope of increasing the number of tourists from China, especially from Guangxi Province (archived link).
The official “Visit Malacca“promotional video was released on YouTube by the tourism department on July 20, 2023, showing various cultural influences in the state (archived link):
