These are among the images that France, the organizer of the Paris 2024 Olympics, presented to the world during the opening ceremony last week. The clampdown has made it all the more striking when scenes of gay men and drag queens from the Paris Olympics opening ceremony made it onto Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. On social media site Weibo, the “#Paris opening ceremony is really cool# hashtag has generated more than 600 million views over the past four days. “Those who didn’t stay up late to watch the Olympic opening ceremony tonight missed out big time. #Paris opening ceremony is really cool#The ceremony remained the top trending topic on Weibo for more than 15 hours starting Saturday.

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Persons: Xi Jinping, Ken Huang, ”, Jeremy Goupille, Natacha, Leonardo da Vinci’s, Christian, French, Suen, Aritists, Athena de Martel, ” Suen, Netizens Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Paris, Weibo, Pride House, Paris Olympics, Communist Party, Chinese University of Hong, House, ” Locations: China, Hong Kong, France, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Weibo