It was a Singaporean news report on the Winter Olympics opening ceremony, live from a Beijing bar filled with eager fans. Yet it was two men – who burst into the view of the camera, sharing a dramatic kiss – who stole the show.
The clip has since gone viral in Singapore, where broadcasting codes restrict content that promotes LGBT “lifestyles”, and where sexual relationships between men are outlawed. The kiss does not feature in a version of the report published by Channel News Asia (CNA) on its website. But on TikTok a clip of the kiss has been viewed more than 825,000 times. “This is actually an act of revolution,” one user wrote. It has also been shared widely on Weibo, a popular social media platform in China.