The CCTV Spring Festival Gala, which aired on New Year’s Eve Thursday (Feb. 11), featured a “blackface” actor. The performance not only caused offense among some people, but also sparked controversy about racial discrimination.
In the Spring Festival Gala’s song and dance program “African Song and Dance,” many actors playing Africans sang and danced to bright African-style Music, dressed in traditional African costumes and painted their faces dark colors.
The show drew much criticism. Black Livity China, an organization that documents the African experience in China, tweeted, “Once again, blackface is on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala – not the first Time and it’s very disappointing. Very disappointing.”
The actors in the 2018 CCTV Spring Festival Gala skit also “painted black face,” which also sparked controversy at the time. China’s foreign ministry responded at the time, saying that “China has always opposed any form of racial discrimination.”
The Black China Caucus, which aims to strengthen the voices of black people in China, also tweeted about the use of “blackface” actors in the 2021 Spring Festival Gala, writing that it was difficult to reconcile such a performance with blackface comedy. The group tweeted that it was difficult to separate such a performance from the long history of blackface burlesque (minstrelsy).
Wikipedia explains “blackface burlesque” as: minstrelsy is a form of racist entertainment that developed in the United States in the early 19th century. Each show consists of comedy sketches, various acts, dance and music that specifically portray people of African descent, with a cast of mostly white people with blackened faces.
The group also hopes that the Spring Festival Gala directors will end this practice next year and instead hire black people who live in China.
Some other Chinese netizens accused the show of being racist. One Weibo user said, “The Spring Festival Gala crew is really stupid and bad, what’s the difference between getting a few Chinese people to paint their faces black to look black and a white person putting up eye corners to discriminate against Asians squinting?”
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment, and Reuters was unable to reach CCTV for comment.
In recent years, the practice of “blackface” has been considered offensive and discriminatory against blacks.
The Democratic governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, has caused a huge controversy over “blackface”. In an old photo from 1984, two men are shown, one in blackface posing as a black man and the other dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Northam had admitted he was one of the men in the photo and apologized for it.
Luxury brand Gucci has also been hit by the suspected “blackface”. A top from its fall/winter collection had a black neckline that covered the lower half of the face, while the mouth was cut out and surrounded by a bright red lip outline. The clothes sparked controversy on social media, causing Gucci to take them off the shelves and issue an apology.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also publicly apologized for painting his skin a dark color at a private school costume party years ago.
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