Chinese New Year's with its Lunar New Year celebrations brings almost more viewers to the screens than sports. As such, CCTV's New Year's Gala on Thursday (February 15) was going to be more than just festive with its variety of shows and performances. It is a shame, however, that one of those skits involved a controversial component that is insensitive to African culture.
An estimated 800 million people saw a Chinese actress, playwright, and producer Lou Naiming in blackface and prosthetics which were meant to be protruding buttocks and large breasts. In the skit, she is carrying a basket of fruit on her head and is accompanied by a monkey, played by a black actor, reports Quartz Africa. According to Chinese media, this was supposed to be a fitting tribute to Sino-African relations.
Apparently, the skit was meant to highlight China’s relationship with Africa and the success of China's so-called "One Belt One Road policy" including infrastructure programs and Chinese investments in Africa.
South China Morning Post wrote that "Awareness of blackface and its dubious connotations in the West are low in China and other Asian countries." Also, according to Quartz Africa, those defending the skit point to the fact that China never colonized Africa or that there were African performers on stage.
Source: qz.com
