“Most Racist Chinese Laundry Detergent Commercial”

Watching this video titled "most racist" Chinese commercial, it’s hard not to laugh at the commercial itself, but I do see why this commercial is so controversial.

Having a “dirty” black man (stains on his shirt and the contrasting white paint on his dark skin) be seduced by the female. That first few seconds of the commercial already shows a stereotype of Black men being of the working class. If not for knowing Chinese, the next seconds of the commercial where the women ‘pops’ something into the man’s mouth (which is laundry tablets- what the commercial is advertising), I would have seen it as drugs; another bad combination with Black people and consumed “substances” that leads to a bad connotation. The next scene is (I think) the most disturbing part of the commercial; a violent shove from the women, forcing the Black man into the washing machine- screaming and kicking as he is being “washed”; first comes the question: why it is Black man that is tortured? And the idea of actually throwing a live human into a washing machine, does not send a nice message to children watching the commercial. The ending and the most controversial/ racist scene, with the Black man emerging out of the washing machine “cleaned” and Asian... The whitfication of the Black man is the main fuel that is growing the “racist flame”; the implication that lighter skin is more “refined”/ clean and attractive than the previous dark-skinned “self”, reiterating the old rule “white is more beautiful”.

As a Chinese-born-Raised-in-NZ-der, I see both sides of the coin. I understand how some people see it as offensive, the throwing of a live human being into a washing machine and the nonchalant/ cutesy atmosphere along with that scene is so wrong and evil. But from a Chinese perspective this commercial is not “racist”, racism is not really a word or ‘problem’ in China, instead China has more stereotypes of foreigners than racist discrimination of a race; thus is why such a commercial was allowed to be screened to people in China. A historical view as to (maybe) why China is less aware of racism: 1. China was not fully colonised by a Western country (Japan, Britian, and France occupied Shanghai for some time, but that was only one city), 2. China was very secluded, blocking much import and travellers that carried knowledge of the outside world, 3. The late 1970s, TV became popular in households that allowed knowledge of the “outside world” to be available in the comfort of their homes. I think these 3 elements reason for China being less aware of racism: Not colonised, (was a) closed off country, and secondary sources of knowledge leads to Chinese creating stereotypes of others because of these lack of interaction with foreigners.

Reading the comments below the video, surprisingly majority of people don’t find it “very” racist, one comment (which I cannot re-find) wrote how ‘American’s are too overdramatic when it comes to the issue of race and racism’, which got me thinking… there is some truth in that comment; countries like America and New Zealand who have been colonised and how Africa was forced into slavery; these countries have suffered major social, cultural and historical damage due to colonisation (and to some extent, still suffer today)… what do others think of this comment?