Overview
- Lululemon staged a yoga festival at the Huanghuacheng section of the Great Wall on May 30 that drew about 2,000 attendees and featured actor Zhu Yilong taking part in a drumming segment.
- Percussionists and netizens, led by Beijing-based musician Xu Yang, said the instrument and performance more closely resembled a Japanese taiko or wadaiko drum, a distinction that prompted a wave of online criticism.
- Conversation about the drum exploded on Weibo and other platforms, attracting tens of millions of views, which pushed Lululemon to issue a public apology, remove event content from its channels, and admit it had not fully foreseen the issue.
- The HiiKo Drum Group and Zhu Yilong’s studio also apologised and said they would suspend use or promotion of the disputed drums while Lululemon pledged to improve its planning and review processes.
- The incident matters commercially because China is a key growth market for Lululemon and the controversy highlights how symbolic mistakes at national sites can trigger nationalist backlash, hurt reputation, and raise the risk to future marketing and store expansion there.