In late 2016, just before Donald Trump started his term as 45th president of the United States, an angry passenger in New York shouted at Ivanka Trump, “Your father is ruining the country!” After just a few months, many Americans still dislike the Trumps, but in China, the first daughter is well loved.
New York Post reported that an online fan club was established in Sina Weibo named “Goddess Ivanka.” The second child of Donald Trump is tapping her fast-rising popularity in China by registering her name. So far, her lawyers had secured 16 registered trademarks and had over 30 more applications pending.
Bootleg products
The trademarking of “Ivanka Trump” would protect her name from being used by the manufacturers of fake products which are rampant in China. When her father unexpectedly won the presidential election in November, businesses in China did not lose any time in using the name of the president’s daughter on Made-in-China products such as underwear, mattresses, jewelry, and powdered milk.
Chinese media questioned China's swiftness in granting Ivanka's trademark application on Wednesday. The reporters noted that three of five trademark applications were approved on April 6 when Chinese President Xi Jinping was on a state visit to the U.S. at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Lu Kang, the spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, defended the grant of Ivanka’s trademark application. He said China follows and abides by the law and “the principle of giving equal protection to foreign trademark holders,” Fortune reported. On the timing of the approval, Lu accused some media of “hyping particular gossip to hint at something undisclosed.”
Boost to Chinese cultural nationalism
If Chinese media are wary of an apparent special treatment Ivanka is getting, a growing number of netizens in China like the first daughter a lot.
The “Ivanka Goddess” fan club has over 12,700 members. It is not the only one on Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter. There are also an “Ivanka Trump Fan Page” and “Ivanka Trump China.”
The secret weapon of the Trumps is the president’s granddaughter and Ivanka’s first born. Five-year-old Arabella has become viral in China even during the campaign period when her video reciting Chinese poem in Mandarin spread.
A second video emerged showing Arabella singing a traditional Chinese song to President Xi while he was in Florida also became viral on the Internet.
Hu Xingdou, a blogger and an economics professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, explained that Chinese netizens love Ivanka because of her friendly gestures toward Chinese people.
Besides the first daughter teaching her children Chinese culture, Hu also cited Ivanka’s visit to the Chinese embassy to celebrate the Lunar New Year. He said Arabella’s singing a traditional song to Xi boosted Chinese cultural nationalism “because it shows that Chinese culture has an important place in international society.”
