Homogeneous society, lack of racial conflicts lead to insensitivity
The Chinese detergent manufacturer, whose commercial stirred an outcry in the West for being outright racist, has apologized for the inappropriate content, as the entire event spurred a rare nationwide discussion over racism in China.
Qiaobi, the detergent brand, on Saturday apologized on its official Sina Weibo account for its controversial commercial, in which a black man was stuffed into a washing machine by a young Chinese woman and turned into a young Asian man after a detergent packet was put into his month.
"We have no intention to discriminate against people of color. The color of one's skin should never be a factor in value judgment," Qiaobi said, "We strongly condemn [any act of] racism."
The company has pulled out the ad and deleted relevant videos online, it revealed.
"Due to the spread of the commercial and overreaction of the media, the [feelings] of those who are of African descent have been hurt, for which we offer our sincere apology," Qiaobi said in a statement.
A representative, surnamed Wang, from Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Co Ltd, the manufacturer of Qiaobi, told the Global Times on Friday that the official advertisement did not involve a black man and was a five-second version abridged from the circulating video. Wang said he had no idea how the unabridged version was leaked.
The commercial went viral on the Internet among Western media outlets in the past few days, including more than 7 million views on YouTube in three days, and was criticized for being racist.
"This case shows that education on racism is very much overlooked in China, and therefore most people have a very superficial understanding of it," Zhang Beichuan, a professor at Qingdao University, told the Global Times.
"Chinese people are not sensitive toward racism. Historically, China has had far fewer racial conflicts compared to other countries, because the Han people have always been the majority, and the mainstream Chinese culture, represented by Confucianism, has maintained a dominant position for thousands of years, which has led to relatively stable racial relations," Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology and expert on China's social problems, told the Global Times on Sunday.
"Meanwhile, China was also colonized and discriminated against by other countries from 1840 to 1945 as an undeveloped country. For many people, it is hard to imagine that a commercial in China could be discriminatory," Hu said.
"In Mao's time, with the policy of establishing friendly relations with developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the Chinese developed cordial feelings toward the people of these countries," Hu said, adding that with China's shift in focus from politics to economy, some people may have gradually developed prejudices.
China should be aware about the problem of racial discrimination, since we are embracing globalization which is bringing people of all different nationalities and backgrounds to China, according to Hu.
"Chinese people should try to know more about other countries and learn from cultural pluralism," Hu added.
Changing attitudes
According to Hu, many Chinese hold a favorable opinion of white people as the latter are associated with the developed West.
"The mindset reflects Chinese people's pursuit of wealth, which has been a feature of thousands of years of secular culture, and is also a result of the recent social transformation," Hu said.
"Meanwhile, white skin is considered a sign of beauty by Chinese people, an aesthetic judgment which has evolved over thousands of years," Zhang said.
In 2012, the appearance of facekini in Qingdao, Shandong Province made global headlines. Facekini is a mask designed for beachgoers to cover their heads and prevent any possible sun tan, which analysts say shows the amount of effort Chinese women are willing to put into maintaining a fair skin.
