China's consul at its embassy in Lebanon, Cao Yi, has lashed out at a decision by the Space Foundation non-profit to rename its annual fundraiser evening called "Yuri’s Night", named after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, to "A Celebration of Space: Discover What’s Next".
Cao Yi suggested that if the Soviet cosmonaut's name could be "cancelled" over Russia's activities in Ukraine, then maybe people should cancel Neil Armstrong, the US astronaut who first walked on the Moon, over the US war in Iraq in 2003.
Gagarin became one of the latest names to suffer from the cancel culture trend aimed at everything Russia-related. Following the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, which Western media and governments have labelled as an "invasion", Russian athletes and artists have been ostracised, removed from events, championships, or "cancelled" for simply being Russian. Some of them have been outright asked to make political statements denouncing the special operation as a precondition to take part in certain events.
In the case of Yuri Gagarin, the Space Foundation explained that it received "a number of negative posts about Russia" after announcing the annual "Yuri’s Night" fundraiser. In light of this, they decided to rename the event, but assured the public that the gathering will still highlight Gagarin's flight to space – the first manned one in human history.
"Nothing can erase the facts and history of Yuri Gagarin’s accomplishment as the first of humanity to go to space which Space Foundation has long recognized and celebrated throughout our organization’s history", the Space Foundation said.
The non-profit did not elaborate on the reasons why it decided to bend to the pressure of a "number of negative posts" and voluntarily changed the name of its own event.
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