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I've been tweeting about the NY celebrations in China, but the tweet I didn't send out was the drone show in Shanghai. There were no Chinese-language sources or evidence of the show anywhere, even though it went viral on X, Instagram, Tiktok. The 'show':

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Oli London

@OliLondonTV

Dec 31, 2024

Shanghai rings in the New Year with incredible drone display.

0:02 / 0:11

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1:09 PM · Jan 5, 2025

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Manya Koetse

@manyapan

Jan 5

Official Shanghai accounts on Weibo shared posts about a show that did take place, featuring a drone formation displaying the numbers '2025' and iconic Shanghai landmarks. No dragon, though! (Not as spectacular, but still pretty impressive.)

Now, as debunked by the drone expert ('I fly drones – lots of drones')

@fly_byguy

and reported by

@motherboard

(mothership.sg/2025/01/china-), it turns out the dragon video is FAKE. This is not where it stops being interesting though - it gets interesting here!

mothership.sg

China had many cool New Year celebrations, but this dragon drone show in Shanghai was not 1 of them

Your eyes can decieve you, don't trust them.

If the Shanghai NY drone dragon video is fake, the questions are: who made it, for what purpose? Who spread it? What helped it go viral? Beyond visual impact alone, it highlights the kind of China-related news that becomes so massive, even your aunt and nephew knows it.

Some things make it plausible that such a show could have taken place. After all, cities like Shenzhen have hosted some of the most impressive drone shows (youtu.be/LpaSXwpKzGk?si), including breathtaking dragon formations created with 1,500+ drones during the Dragon Beat

youtube.com

Incredible Drone Display is World’s Biggest Ever - Guinness World...

Subscribe || https://www.youtube.com/GuinnessWorldRecordsFavourites || http://gwr.co/YT-FavsCongratulations to Zhujian Planning Media (Jilin) Co., Ltd. for b...

The video appears to have been shared on January 1st by dozens of unofficial accounts in multiple languages across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X. Interestingly, it was also shared by some Chinese embassies on X. Unfortunately, I don't have the answer about the origins of

Either way (I do hope to update this thread), the main takeaway is that the viral nature of such a video highlights recurring patterns in the mechanisms surrounding China-related news on here. Whether about social credit, a supposed Xi Jinping chatbot, or cyberpunk Chongqing, the

Forgot to mention that one reason the video went extra viral is that Elon Musk commented on it, simply saying 'wow'.

The video has put together different shows. The top circle part is a firework+AI show that was held in Hunan's Liuyang on Dec 7 titled "Tears of the Gate of Heaven" (天空之门的眼泪). The lights dropping are meant to resemble tears from heaven, designed by a local firework company

The dragon scene in the video appears to be part of a pretty spectacular drone show held at midnight on October 1 in Shenzhen to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the PRC. The performance features a majestic dragon emerging from a cube shape.

0:22

The fake video showing the dragon and the fireworks + AI first started circulating on Xiaohongshu around December 10, shortly after the show in Liuyang. For example, the account "Aerial Photography Shenzhen" had it up by then, without the Shanghai scenery.

The 'Tears from Heaven' show in Liuyang made a big impression, raising the bar for China's fireworks displays. In response, netizens began creating various fake videos—not with malicious intent, but to give creative ideas for future shows or to imagine the iconic sky circle in

While some of these videos are fake, others are so well-crafted that they take on a life of their own online. The idea behind it: I couldn't be at the Liuyang show, so I'll bring the Liuyang to my town.

Knowing this context now - the trend of transferring the Liuyang show to all kinds of places and creating imaginary show videos - I believe the viral Shanghai fireworks and drone video, which even Elon Musk thought was real, resulted from a "Chinese whispers"-style dynamic that's

I’ll leave it at this: things are often not quite what they seem; Chinese fireworks and drone shows are incredible; today’s AI and editing tools allow everyone to make creative videos; Elon Musk shouldn’t take every viral tweet at face value; and let’s step into 2025 with a more

2.4K

@roboluvsunicorn

23h

The rings with the fireworks was its own separate thing without a dragon that was from like a couple months ago. I feel like footage from two videos got smashed together to make this one

That is correct, I would like to know who made that and posted it where.

It's a fake video. No show was there in Shanghai this year.

Did you even read the thread...?

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I almost thought pic 1 is from “Avengers” and Shanghai was waiting for her own version of Iron Man to throw a nuke into the big alien wormhole or whatsoever…

??? I saw a ton of videos on Xiao Hong Shu....

The government is incredibly strict about both fireworks and drones now. Fireworks are basically banned from major cities, and to fly drones in China needs local government approval. Yes there have been great drone shows, but those are government approved. Most stuff here from

738

Rational Pundit

@Amaz1ngly

What's so impressive about this dumb light show?

Simon Astbury

@monty1080

I knew right away that at least part of that video had to be fake, the main reason being fireworks are illegal in Shanghai inside the inner ring road. It's a not very well done mash up using rudimentary video compositing applied in an amateurish way. I'm amazed it took in so many

ふらっどれきま

@DelugeLekima

16h

yeah, like if it's real it's gotta be a huge hit. Then why does the video recording only have one angle -- thousands of others must have also filmed it

I think it’s fake, video editing two drone shows together. The clouds colours are different.

no reflection on water. and there was no celebration allowed on 01-01 in shanghai 外滩. it’s pretty clear this is computer generated. and this went viral on twitter. the generated visual content is really getting out of hands

1.6K

So.Gay

@SoDotGay

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Tis looks like a "mashed" up between 2 videos

Where’s

中国政府甚至都不给民众聚集倒数，怎么可能会有大型烟花表演。马一龙这谣棍也转发了。

It is AI generated

Because it is fake.

This is what really happened on NYE in Shanghai

Quote

李老师不是你老师

@whyyoutouzhele

Jan 1

市民们聚集在上海外滩欢庆新年，结果喊完倒计时后什么都没有发生，也没有烟火。拍摄者称“挑战全国最尴尬跨年”

Dex

@DexterLLL

Jan 5

Yeah! This is an AI video, it's a lie

Thought they were moving too fast

Could be from 2024?

The building with a round base is the Oriental Pearl Tower, a landmark of Shanghai.

Incredible!

Usually a red flag, when it’s *only* viral and you can’t find any good sources

@JJanegle

FAKE as the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Pathetic!!

Revolt Rock

@Revolt_Rock

This is a video clip of what happened on the New Year’s Eve at the Bund in Shanghai. No music, fireworks or drones. Nothing happened after the countdown. And the people were saying it was the most embarrassing new year countdown ever

Quote

李老师不是你老师

@whyyoutouzhele

Jan 1

市民们聚集在上海外滩欢庆新年，结果喊完倒计时后什么都没有发生，也没有烟火。拍摄者称“挑战全国最尴尬跨年”

litefarm

@skymsgfun

13h

I think the reason why so many right-wing on Twitter retweeting positive news about China is that they need to prove that the United States has declined because of the left and that the United States needs the right wing to expel immigrants and re-industrialize to contain China.

litefarm

@skymsgfun

13h

These MAGA right-wingers have been forwarding a large number of China's exaggerated and somewhat fake drones, robot dogs, high-speed trains, and fighter jets in an attempt to shock Americans through these videos.

robert waterman

@robertw84371371

16h

Bullshit, this is not Shanghai. There was no NY show in Shanghai by the river. Stupid idiot

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