Racist French nursery rhyme infuriates the Chinese internet

Paris kindergarten called out for teaching song about a Chinese boy with “tiny eyes” and flip-flops

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Internet users across China reacted with outrage this week when the Global Times posted images and a video of a French children’s song featuring a little boy named Chang who wears flip flops, eats lychees and rice, and has “teeny-tiny eyes.”

The song was discovered in a kindergarten in Aubervilliers, a suburb of Paris, where it had been taught for over a decade. The images online first surfaced when a concerned parent sent the song to Sacha Lin-Jung, president of the Association of Chinese Residents in France, who posted it to social media. It was soon re-posted by an activist working with a group called SOS Racisme, who called for its immediate removal from the curriculum.

The song has been widely condemned across France, and the French Ministry of Education has promised to remove the song immediately.

Chinese internet users have reacted with harsh words for the French, and for Westerners in general. But just as one commenter claimed that “the French love to create art that ridicules others,” others were quick to point out that many Chinese are just as prone to making racist comments about other countries.

French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to visit China next week. Hopefully by then he can convince Chinese netizens that this was all just a “teeny-tiny” mistake.