One of the most watched TV shows in the world has come under intense scrutiny for featuring a sketch that had Asian actors in blackface and black actors dressed as monkeys.

The annual Chinese Lunar New Year gala by CCTV is a four-hour event and is watched by some 700 million people each year. This year, one of the many comedy routines featured throughout the show was one intended to depict China’s relationship with Africa. The segment sees a young African woman ask a Chinese man to pose as her husband when they meet her mother.

Carrying fruit on her head and with an exaggerated backside, the mother – played by a Chinese actor in blackface – enters the stage accompanied by what is believed to be a black actor in a monkey costume. After the conversation she yells: “I love China!”

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Viewers expressed their fury at the display, with some commenters branding it “backward” and “completely racist at worst.”

ugh the sketch on Africa during the @CCTV Spring Festival Gala (possibly the most watched show in the world) was cringeworthy at best, completely racist at worst. It's Africa, so bring out tribal dancers & animals? And was that a Chinese woman in blackface with a fake posterior? — Parthepan (@KTParthepan) February 15, 2018

This spring festival gala show is wrong on so many levels... pic.twitter.com/BkQnybk6ho — Shirley Zhao (@shirleyZhaoXY) February 15, 2018

CCTV's Spring Festival Gala continues tradition of being backward and offensive with some insanely bad blackface: https://t.co/hEtsaZhKXipic.twitter.com/D9yWd47a0U — James Griffiths (@jgriffiths) February 16, 2018

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Netizens were left feeling “ashamed” by the production, which the TV network hasn’t commented on since it aired. Multiple articles on Chinese social media condemning the performance have been censored, according to the South China Morning Post.

This is #China portraying its relationship with Africa in its annual televised Spring Festival Gala - with every African actor speaking Chinese and a monkey following them around... pic.twitter.com/ExYTBrwh0y — Kane WU (@GeniusWu) February 16, 2018

CCTV’s racist show during Spring Gala shook me and made me so ashamed of China and my people. They literally had blackface on stage, had an African actor to play a monkey and a African actress yelling “I love China!” Racism is global y’all... — Huizit (@iamHuizit) February 16, 2018

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 pic.twitter.com/n3J1YsRhmy — Krish Raghav (@krishraghav) February 15, 2018

Imagine if the US state of the union event had a white guy with yellow face, a rice farmer’s hat, buck teeth, and speaking in stereotypical Chinese accent https://t.co/f593nfHcY0 — kevin. Wang (@kgafishy) February 16, 2018

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