These days, one’s social media account is pretty much a ticking time bomb. You never know when you might post something — or have already posted something — that might trigger the wrath of netizens eager to cancel people.

Recently, a lot of celebs have come under fire on the Chinese internet for supposedly displaying a pro-Hongkong or pro-Taiwan independence stance.

Sometimes, the ‘evidence’ is based on semantics: For example, Myolie Wu got into trouble for referring to China as “China” instead of “the Mainland”, and Dee Hsu lost multiple endorsement deals after calling the Taiwanese Olympians “our national athletes”.

Even Janine Chang’s 11-year-old master’s thesis, in which she mentioned Taiwan as “my country”, was not spared.

With all that’s been going on, Taiwanese model-actor Chris Lee, whom Singaporeans would recognise from Mediacorp productions such as Scrum!, Trapped Minds and Patisserie Fighting, can only be described as incredibly brave (or incredibly daft, depending on which side of the fence you are on) thanks to his crystal clear declaration of his beliefs.

On Wednesday (Sep 8), the 39-year-old uploaded a photo of himself proudly wearing a T-shirt with the word “Taiwanese” emblazoned on it in bold red capital letters (see below).

“I am Taiwanese,” he declared. “Picture paints a thousand words. T-shirt shows my dignity. (sic)”

He also added the hashtags: “Stand tall and go forward”, “You only have one life”, and the rather self-deprecating “I’m not popular anyway”.

“There are very few artistes who say they are Taiwanese. You are cool and brave, and you even took the Medigen COVID vaccine. You’re super cool and you have a brain,” gushed one netizen.

Another praised Chris for his “straightforwardness” and the fact that he basically didn’t sell his soul for the renminbi, adding, “We are all Taiwanese and we should be proud of it!”

As it turns out, this isn’t the first time Chris has been so outspoken when it comes to political matters.

A scroll through his Instagram page shows a message he directed at World Health Organization (WHO) chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in April 2020 that reads, “I’m from Taiwan. I’m not racist. SHAME ON YOU.”

Still, we think Chris can be good friends with Chapman To and Anthony Wong.

Photos: Chris Lee/Instagram