2018-02-16 Kiina: Blackface-kohu

[guest15036]

BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43081218

Lunar New Year: Chinese TV gala includes 'racist blackface' sketch

A skit on China's biggest Lunar New Year TV show has sparked widespread criticism and accusations of racism.

In a comedy routine celebrating Chinese-African ties an Asian actress appears in blackface and with exaggerated buttocks.

Using make-up to lampoon black people - a practice known as blackface - is seen by many as deeply offensive.

The annual state media variety show is hugely popular, and has up to 800 million viewers.

(...)

The skit begins with a routine by a group of African dancers in "tribal" attire and people dressed up as zebras, giraffes, lions and antelopes. This is followed by a comedy skit where a young black woman asks a Chinese man to pose as her husband when meeting her mother.

While the young woman is played by a black actor, her mother appears to be an Asian actor in blackface make-up, donning a traditional outfit complete with huge fake buttocks.

She walks on stage carrying a fruit plate on her head and is accompanied by what is thought to be have been a black actor in a monkey suit, carrying a basket on his back.

The skit praises Chinese-African cooperation, showing how much Africans benefit from Chinese investment and how grateful they are to Beijing. At one stage, the character of the African mother exclaims how much she loves China.

China has over the past years stepped up investment into many African countries. The sketch was set around people working on the Nairobi-Mombasa railway project.

(...)

Nonetheless, Chinese users on the country's biggest social media website Weibo have condemned the programme.

Comments included "it's full of racism," that "it makes me feel like I'm living in the last century," and that "we are going to lose face internationally".

Putting it into a larger context beyond the specific history of blackface, one user asks "if an American white person painted yellow, says I love the USA and recites some Trump quotes while pulling his eyes, how would you feel?"

(...)

[Vaniljaihminen]

Syylliset luultavasti ovat hongkongilaisia, jotka vaan apinoivat viimeisimpiä trendejä. Muuten Kiinan pitäisi olla jättiläinen, joka littaa kartallaan olevat kärpäsenpaskat ja näiden kulloiset humpuukit omalla monituhatvuotisella kulttuurillaan.

Niin, kulttuurihan on rasismia, mutta kulttuurin ja meemin sekoittaminen lienee puhtaasti moderni ilmiö.

[RP]

Syylliset luultavasti ovat hongkongilaisia

BBC:n lainaamat twiittajaat näyttävät oleman molemmat amerikkalaisia. Toinen afro, toinen aasialaistaustainen. Jotenkin sitä lasketa kulttuurisen eksploitaation muodoksi, että muualla maailmassa ihmisten pitäisi muka jotenkin välittää heidän mielipiteestään?

(kiinalaiset tuskin niin tekevät)