7/8/2016

Chinese Detergent Ad Draws Charges of Racism - The New York Times

http://nyti.ms/1WpDL5C

ASIAPACIFIC

Chinese Detergent Ad Draws Charges of

Racism

Read in Chinese

By JONAH BROMWICH MAY 27, 2016

A Chinese laundry detergent commercial has spurred outrage online, with many
social media users accusing it of blatant racism.
In the commercial for Qiaobi laundry detergent, an Asian woman shoves a
detergent pod into the mouth of a black worker and unceremoniously pushes him
headfirst into a washing machine.
After a quick cycle, the machine is opened and a pale Asian man emerges
with a wink, to the womans delight.
The advertisement, which has been airing in China at least since April, has
been met abroad with a combination of anger and disbelief.

Paul Henriques

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@PaulH

Why would the Black guy agree to be in this racist

advert? youtu.be/X27dvuBSyXE
7:09 PM - 26 May 2016
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961

Eric

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In the year of Trump, who would have thought that

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7/8/2016

Chinese Detergent Ad Draws Charges of Racism - The New York Times

the most racist thing I have seen all day would be a

laundry soap ad?
1:43 AM - 27 May 2016
7

11

But in China, where racial stereotypes in popular culture are rampant, the
commercial did not seem to provoke a great deal of reaction.
Xu Chunyan, an agent for Qiaobi based in the southeastern city of Suzhou,
brushed aside the criticism, saying the ad was meant to be provocative. We did
this for some sensational effect, she said. If we just show laundry like all the
other advertisements, ours will not stand out.
Still, there were some critical Chinese voices. On Weibo, Chinas equivalent
of Twitter, a user wrote, My God, do marketing people have no sense of racial
issues?
Amid the controversy over racism, another accusation was tossed into the
mix: plagiarism. As the website Shanghaiist pointed out, the advertisements
concept is nearly identical to that of an ad that was broadcast in Italy nearly a
decade ago except for one significant difference.
In that video, a skinny, pale white man is placed in a spin cycle, only to
emerge as a black man flexing his muscles with a hip-hop soundtrack while a
tagline proclaimed, Coloured is better.
Westerners who visit China are often troubled by the countrys attitudes
toward race, which are frequently manifested in a preoccupation with pale skin.
Elena Young, a mixed-race American who teaches kindergarten in Zhejiang
Province, in eastern China, said on Thursday that she had never been anywhere
Ive felt so discriminated against.
Their obsession with white skin is the most evident, she said. My first day
in China, my school assistant ran from shaded spot to shaded spot when we
walked to lunch together because she told me she didnt want to turn black.
Chinese racial biases have exploded into the broader global conversation
several times in the past. In 2009, online commenters assailed a mixed-race
contestant on a Chinese reality show, mocking her for having a black father,

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7/8/2016

Chinese Detergent Ad Draws Charges of Racism - The New York Times

leading to a string of international news stories.

The episode set off a bout of soul-searching for some in a country where race
is not often discussed in public. Raymond Zhou, a columnist for the English
newspaper China Daily, wrote an article in response to the episode, reflecting on
Chinas issues with skin color:
Much of Chinas simmering intolerance is color-based, he wrote. It is not
an exaggeration to say many of my countrymen have a subconscious adulation of
races paler than us. The flip side: We tend to be biased against those darker
skinned. Its outright racism, but on closer examination its not totally race based.
Many of us even look down on fellow Chinese who have darker skin, especially
women.
It is high time we introduced some sensitivity training on races and
ethnicities if we are going to latch on to the orbit of globalization, he added.
Javier Hernandez contributed reporting, and Owen Guo contributed research.

2016TheNewYorkTimesCompany

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