An image of a beach with crowds of people was widely circulated online. The caption says it's happening in China. We decided to check whether this description corresponds to reality.
During the summer season on social networks (Twitter, Facebook*, "VKontakte", TikTok, Pinterest) this photograph has been appearing for several years now, often with an ironic caption: “If you lost a child on a beach in China, don’t look... Give birth to a new one!” (sometimes there are also variations about the loss of a husband or wife). Photos of this supposedly Chinese beach can also be seen on portals about travel and on entertaining resources. Users also post it blogging platforms And forums.
Nothing in the image indicates that the beach is located specifically in China: no flags of this country are visible, no signs or posters with hieroglyphs, or anything else that could indirectly indicate that this is happening in the PRC.
The original source of the viral image “Verified” could not be established, since it is distributed in low quality and, probably, in cropped form. Nevertheless, there are very similar photographs from the same angle in photobank Reuters agency. The caption says that the photos were taken in Brazil, on Copacabana beach on July 27, 2013, during the Pope's visit to the country. Similar photos, also taken by major agencies, can be found in articles about this event in other publications (for example, The New York Times And The Guardian). If you compare the viral image with materials from the photo banks of major agencies, you will notice the same white tents and blue awnings installed on the beach, as well as a similar curve of the coastline.
Reportedly Media, on that day about 3 million Catholics came to the beach in Rio de Janeiro to listen to a mass celebrated by Pope Francis during a visit to his home continent. That is, the caption on social networks is incorrect not only from the point of view of geography, but also from the point of view of context - the beach is not crowded with idle vacationers, but with Catholics from all over South America, who specially came to listen to the pontiff. Many of the people in the photo even held the previous night in Copacabana in order to be able to attend mass.
Nevertheless, the photo has been circulating on the Internet with ironic captions about China for several years. “Verified” was unable to find where the photograph was provided with such a description for the first time. Most likely, whoever first captioned the photo this way either saw it out of context and assumed it was China due to stereotypes about overpopulation, or deliberately decided to play on those prejudices.
*Russian authorities think the company Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: Twitter
Read on the topic:
- Are photos of trash left at Glastonbury after Greta Thunberg's performance true?
- Is it true that the popular photograph shows shacks 200 km from Moscow?
- Is it true that the photo shows a traffic jam on the Russian border with Kazakhstan or Mongolia?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
