Intro: Why I’m Writing About Public Communication in China

This Public Communication series started with a Chinese actor named Ziyu.

He was caught in a major public controversy. If his team hadn’t handled it well, his career could have ended on the spot. But their response was sharp, controlled, and unusually high-level for China’s entertainment industry.

I found his PR team more interesting than the celebrity himself.
And because I happened to be building my site at that time, I created this series and wrote several pieces analyzing their choices.

The incident has passed, and I no longer write about him.
But the logic behind celebrity communication and brand communication is the same. So the series naturally expanded—from one case, to how brands communicate under pressure.

From a content perspective, public communication is part of content strategy.
I continue this series because I’m interested in how people speak in difficult moments, and because it shows how I approach content strategy in real situations.

Posts in This Series

• Crisis Communication in China: Why Saying Nothing Is the Worst Option
• In a Crisis, What You Say Matters Less Than Who You Are When You Say It
• He Chose to Let Go of His Persona
• Why Not Talking About Success Is a Smarter Move in Crisis Communication
• He Didn’t Act Like a Charisma Demon—People Just Made Him One
• You Can’t Control the Narrative—But You Can Control What You Leave Out
• Crisis Communication: Protecting Image Assets
• Post-Crisis High Exposure: How It Shapes Public Opinion and Commercial Value
• In China, What You Do Is What You Say — Especially When Localizing

You can also find my latest thoughts on LinkedIn.

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