Taylor Swift‘s debut apparel line, which is to be sold exclusively on Chinese e-tailers Alibaba and JD.com tomorrow, may be pulling a particular piece of merchandise from the site, Reuters reports.
According to the outlet, a tee reading “T.S. 1989,” a reference to the pop star’s initials and birth year as well as her latest album,1989, could be seen as an offensive reference to the violence that occurred in Tiananmen Square in — you guessed it — 1989.
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The Chinese Communist Party has done its best to gloss over the glaring blemish on their record by banning references to the event in media, Internet and books, and members of Swift’s camp are allegedly worried that the shirt might be misinterpreted by those at the top. Especially considering China’s recent economic troubles, the brand is looking to avoid any bad blood that could arise over the 1989 logo.
It’s unclear at the moment whether Swift’s team will take action to remove the logo tees from the collection (two of the 26-year-old’s reps have denied to Reuters that the merchandise will be pulled) or if they’ll just shake it off. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see how the unfortunate coincidence plays out.
