With blackface and monkey suit, Chinese gala on Africa causes uproar



BEIJING — A lavish four-hour Lunar New Year show televised to millions across China on Thursday night set off a flood of indignation with its caricatures featuring blackface and African men in animal suits.

The gala, televised by China’s state broadcaster, featured a well-known Chinese actress as an African woman with exaggerated buttocks, a large chest, and a face painted black. Carrying a platter of fruit on her head, she was accompanied by an African man dressed as a monkey. [At about the 3 minute mark]

Many said the portrayals were offensive.

Hannah Getachew, 30, a law student at Peking University from Ethiopia, said that while an apology from CCTV would be welcome, the damage had already been done.

“For all of his faults, Bill Cosby hired a Harvard professor of psychiatry to consult on almost every episode of ‘The Cosby Show’ to ensure that there wasn’t a single stereotype of people,” Getachew said. “China should consider similar action. What we need now is a clear signal that this sort of event will never occur again.”

The show, designed to celebrate China as an economic and cultural powerhouse and rehearsed many times before senior propaganda officials, is one of the most watched in the world, with an audience estimated at 800 million. The skit was intended to highlight relations between Africa and China.

The skit was set in Kenya, home to a new Chinese-built railroad between the capital, Nairobi, and the coastal town of Mombasa, part of China’s Belt and Road development initiative.Dancers dressed as zebras, giraffes, lions and antelopes opened the sequence before actress Lou Naiming appeared with her outsize rear and voluminous dress.

Amid banter and confusion about a blind date for her daughter, the character expresses gratitude to Chinese doctors who once saved her life and says that “China has done so much for Africa.”

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I must say that I found it funny.  Very wicked of me, undoubtedlty -- JR