Photo credit: @StanIsAGoodName | Twitter

Chinese New Year (it is now ‘The Year Of The Dog’ if you are following) kicked off with a show for some 800 million viewers (by some estimates the most watched show on earth), called the “Lunar New Year TV show” in which some were surprised to still see a ‘blackface’ sketch complete with fake buttocks.

Using make-up to lampoon black people, which is what the state media tv show did, is seen by many around the world as deeply offensive. Just two months ago, Japanese TV did the same for their New Year show.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">on the cctv spring gala: this is 2018 how is there still blackface on national tv in china gdi 🤦🤦🤦</p>— s (@duckchael) <a href="https://twitter.com/duckchael/status/964152487199387650?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The show, known as the Spring Festival Gala, featured a comedy sketch that begins with a routine by a group of African dancers in "tribal" attire and people dressed up as zebras, giraffes, lions, and antelopes. No harm there.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">My first Chinese New Year watching the annual CCTV spring gala and they trot out a Chinese lady in blackface, exaggerated proportions and everything, with a pet "monkey" (played by a man from Cote D'Ivoire), shouting "I love China!" - I can't even <a href="https://t.co/n3J1YsRhmy">pic.twitter.com/n3J1YsRhmy</a></p>— Krish Raghav (@krishraghav) <a href="https://twitter.com/krishraghav/status/964166236618727425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2018</a></blockquote>

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But then it is followed by a comedy skit where a young black woman asks a Chinese man to pose as her husband when meeting her mother. The mother is played by a famous Chinese actress in blackface with ‘fake buttocks’.

The skit backfired on Chinese authorities as it was supposed to praise Chinese-African cooperation by showing how much Africans benefit from Chinese investment. In return, the Chinese wanted to show how grateful Africans are to Beijing.

It would appear that Chinese authorities realized their mistake afterward as all discussions on the subject were banned from the internet.

Source:

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2133558/racist-chinese-spring-festival-gala-tv-show-causes-consternation