Chinese New Year
About the CCTV Spring Festival Gala’s ‘Racist’ Africa Comedy Sketch
A CCTV Gala segment emphasizing good Sino-African relations has drawn criticism for being racist.
First published
The annual Spring Festival Gala, produced and broadcasted by the state-run CCTV, has come to an end. The show, that draws some 700 million viewers every year, is central to the evening leading up to the celebration of the Chinese New Year.
Every year, there is bound to be an act that draws controversy, and this year was no different. The comedy sketch titled “Share the Same Joy and Happiness” (“同喜同乐”) struck the wrong note with many social media users, who deemed it ‘inappropriate’, ‘offensive’, and ‘racist.’
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) 15 februari 2018
According to the official CCTV Gala Weibo account (@春晚), the skit was supposed to represent a scene in Kenya, where a Chinese host (played by Zheng Kai 郑恺), local people, and railway staff are celebrating the opening of the deluxe rail line between Nairobi and Mombasa, built by China.
As explained by SCMP, the scene opens with a performance by African dancers and then moves on to a conversation between the host and his African friend. She asks for his help to get out of a blind date arranged by her mother.
It is this ‘African mother’ that has caused consternation online. The role was played by the Chinese actress Lou Naiming (娄乃鸣), who was wearing a fruit basket on her head and was padded with a large bottom. She also arrived at the scene accompanied by an actor in a monkey costume.
The scene ends with Zheng Kai’s Chinese bride arriving, making it impossible for him to play his friend’s blind date anymore. The mother, as SCMP notes, then states she can’t be angry over the issue ‘because China has done so much for Africa.’ She says: “I love Chinese people! I love China!”
Image via Twitter user Kaisa Kantola (@kaisa_kantola)
Besides its Chinese actors, the skit was also performed by actors from Gabon, Kenya, and Ivory Coast.
Lou Naiming (1951), the woman wearing blackface, is a renowned actress, playwright and producer in the PRC.
The main idea of the comedy sketch fitted the narrative of the overall theme of the CCTV Gala, which stressed China’s (international) development and the One Belt, One Road initiative.
Although the segment was likely meant to emphasize good Sino-African relations, the performance seems to have backfired.
On Weibo, reactions to the performance were mixed. Although some people said they liked it, many also called it the most “awkward” segment of the night.
“I just think this is awkward, isn’t the Gala inspected thoroughly [before airing]?”, one person wondered. Other people also raised the topic of China’s strong censorship, asking why a performance such as this would have been accepted.
“I think it’s a bit racist (种族歧视),” another Weibo user said. “What do our African friends think of this?” others wondered.
“This is plain racism, the foreign media are going to explode,” another micro-blogger wrote.
While “awkward” was the key response to the skit on Weibo, “racism” was mostly mentioned on social media platforms Twitter and Reddit.
“OMFG anyone watching this racism right now in the gala?” was a topic that became top trending on the Reddit China page during the airing of the CCTV Gala (live blog of the Gala here).
But there were also other opinions on Wechat, where some Chinese commenters said that if it were not for the many Chinese lines the ‘mother’ role had, the CCTV Gala would have used an African actress to play this role – suggesting that it was more an issue of language practicality than racism.
The CCTV Gala controversy reminds of the 2016 Qiaobi commercial issue, when a Chinese washing powder ad drew much controversy outside of China for being “completely racist.” The commercial, that showed a black man being put in a laundry machine and coming out as Chinese, was later taken down by the company.
The Chinese Qiaobi commercial drew much controversy for being racist in 2016.
For the CCTV Gala, there is no way to ‘take down’ its controversial sketch. By now, more than 700 million people will have seen the event, which is the world’s biggest live televised show.
Some people on Weibo, however, are already placing bets that the controversial segment will not be included in the finalized online edition of the Gala.
We’ll keep you updated.
By Manya Koetse
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China Insight
“Chinese Spy Balloon” Versus “Chinese Civilian Airship” – The Chinese Words That Matter in the Balloon Incident
On Chinese social media, the Chinese balloon is seen as a weather device that ended up measuring the temperature of China-US relations.
A day after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese balloon off the Carolina coast, the ‘balloon incident’ is a hot topic on Chinese social media, as official media are publishing about the incident and social media users are discussing it.
At 8:17 in the morning on Feb. 5, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs published its response to the shooting down of the Chinese balloon on Weibo.
They expressed “strong discontent and protest” over the American use of force to attack the “civilian unmanned airship” (民用无人飞艇) after Chinese officials recurringly informed the U.S. side that the balloon – described as a weather device, – had accidentally entered the U.S. and did not pose any threat to the U.S. whatsoever (#外交部就美方宣称击落中国无人飞艇发表声明#).
On Chinese social media, as also described in our earlier article on the incident, the balloon has come to be referred to as the “Wandering Balloon” (流浪气球) in the context of the box-office hit The Wandering Earth II.
At the same time, China celebrated the Lantern Festival (元宵节) which marks the first full moon of the Chinese New Year. It is tradition to eat glutinous rice balls and enjoy lanterns floating in the sky.
The balloon incident set the Chinese social media meme machine in motion, in which the balloon, The Wandering Earth II, and the Lantern Festival all came together in various images that circulated on Weibo and beyond.
The balloon, featured in ‘The Wandering Balloon’ movie produced by ‘US Government’, wishes everyone a happy Lanern Festival.
Another meme titled “Wandering Balloon” drawing comparisons between the ballloon and rice balls traditionally eaten during Lantern Festival.
Seen on Weibo: "Breaking news, China launched thousands of balloons from Yunnan last night." pic.twitter.com/poPChGq6GA
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) February 5, 2023
The Weibo hashtags used to discuss the incident were mainly initiated by Chinese (state) media outlets, such as “The U.S. Side Claims to Have Shot Down Chinese Unmanned Airship” (#美方宣称击落中国无人飞艇#); “America Uses Military Force to Attack Civilian Unmanned Airship” (#美方宣称击落中国无人飞艇#); “The U.S. Side’s Insistence on Using Force Is Clearly an Overreaction” (#美方执意动用武力明显反应过度#).
“Is it a balloon or an airship? The American official and media side all claim it is a spying balloon; the Chinese side claims it is an civilian unmanned airship,” one blogger wrote, showing the different media contexts in which the incident is being discussed and emphasizing the importance of the vocabulary used.
Words matter, and at a time when there is a lot of speculation about the incident, the seemingly humorous way in which Chinese netizens have responded to the international dispute also relates to the language that is being used to describe the event.
On Chinese social media, the majority of commenters see the balloon as a weather device that went wandering and, unexpectedly, ended up measuring the temperature of Sino-American relations – which turned out to be icy cold.
Some examples of the kind of phrasing that matters in the Chinese media context:
Civilian Unmanned Airship
民用无人飞艇 Mínyòng Wúrén Fēitǐng
The balloon in question is described as a “civilian unmanned airship” in Chinese official and state media texts. The word ‘civilian’ (民用) is included in the clarification about the balloon being a civilian meteorological balloon, and thus not serving any military purposes (民用 ‘civilian’ versus 军用 ‘military’).
Attack [on] Civilian Unmanned Airship
袭击民用无人飞艇 Xíjí Mínyòng Wúrén Fēitǐng
The U.S. military shooting down the Chinese balloon is also phrased as an “attack” (袭击) in many Chinese media reports as well as in the official Foreign Ministry post.
Completely by Accident
完全是意外 Wánquán Shì Yìwài
The expressions “completely by accident” (完全是意外), “unexpected circumstances” (意外情况), and “force majeure” (不可抗力) are used in official Chinese media texts describing the balloon incident to underline that the circumstances in which the device floated into American skies was not only unrelated to military / government purposes, but that it was also unintentional.
Stay tuned for more updates.
By Manya Koetse
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Cepted
February 16, 2018 at 5:16 pm
oh man chill the fuck down this is china not fucking us with their diverse shit
Harvey
February 16, 2018 at 5:58 pm
Shut the fuck up.
Harvey
February 16, 2018 at 5:57 pm
Disgusting, racist. Do Africa a favor, China, and leave.
Wang Chu
February 17, 2018 at 6:32 am
Shut up, white American. This is our country, we don’t have your racist history. We never enslaved Africans, that’s your history not ours. We never mocked black people, that’s your history not ours. We never oppressed black people, your ancestors did and you do today. Go look in the mirror at your racist self and see how you keep blacks down on a daily basis without even realizing it.
Fu Xi
February 16, 2018 at 11:05 pm
Wow… someone on the internet said that?!? I don’t think I will sleep tonight. This is China lady, no-one cares and no-one ever will care about your sensitivities.
Media uproar, the journalist’s weapon of choice.
Floored
February 25, 2018 at 10:23 am
Oh, I get it. As long as Africans appear in a skit, it’s racist. Wow. Just wow.
Political correctness is killing modern society.